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International House Frankfurt

Why choose International House Frankfurt?

When you learn or teach at International House Frankfurt, you benefit from the resources of a worldwide and experienced network of language schools and you will enjoy individual care and support. At our teacher training centre we train English teachers (Cambridge CELTA) and Spanish teachers (FIPELE). At the language school our students are mainly highly qualified professionals who study English, German, Spanish and other languages. You will find our school in Frankfurt, the business metropole of Germany.

Website
www.suarez.de
Founded
1997

Reviews

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rannman
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Beneficial

My CELTA experience was a good one! I enjoyed the teachers and fellow trainees. The teachers were extremely professional and helpful toward us trainees. All in all it was a great experience. Prepare to work hard though and to be stressed at times.
Something which was critically important was that the trainees work well together and enjoy being around each other. I would highly recommend IH Frankfurt to anyone who is thinking about doing a CELTA course.

What would you improve about this program?
The facilities were excellent except for the library. I thought there could have been more books than there were.
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Frankfuterka
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Worth doing!

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What would you improve about this program?
I'd have been happier to have the possibility to print my writings, sheets, lesson plans, etc. directly from my laptop. I had to copy my materials to the USB memory stick and paste them into a school's computer. That was probably because of my operating system (Windows, not Mac) which was incompatible with the copy machine at school. (To make things clear, the copy machine at school is great and works very well!)
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CELTA_participant1012
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

CELTA at IH Frankfurt

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What would you improve about this program?
There were some problems with transferring files because the school uses (used to have?) old apple computers. This problem might have been fixed by now.
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Learner
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Intensive training

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What would you improve about this program?
I would have liked to have a better library at my disposal and to have been introduced to more different textbooks.
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Magic
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Stressful but good

The CELTA course was very stressful but very helpful as well. I was at a four week course that was jammed with so much information you can't process it all at once. You take what you need at the time to complete the course and the assignments, then take time afterwards to review the material again.
The instructors were very knowledgable and supportive. What I liked most about the course was the bonds I made with my fellow students during this time.
If you take the 4 week course, be prepared to do nothing else but CELTA training.

What would you improve about this program?
During the course you are required to teach real students at both intermediate and elementary levels. For your teaching hours to count you need at least five students. We sometimes had difficulty finding enough students, which is stressful for the teacher. I would like to see them do a better job recruiting students.

Programs

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Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Guus van der Made

Job Title
Head of Teacher Training
Guus van der Made was born in the Netherlands and up till 2000 he worked as an actor and TV producer. In 2000, him and his wife decided to go to Asia for a couple of years and traveled through a wide variety of countries. He did his CELTA in 2004, taught in Thailand, Georgia and the Czech Republic and has been a CELTA tutor since 2010. After living in Asia for many years, Guus now works at IH Frankfurt. He lives in a tiny village in the Auetal near Hannover, where his wife works at an international school.
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What position do you hold at International House Frankfurt? What has your career path been like so far?

I’m the head of teacher training at IH Frankfurt. I’m responsible for organizing and running our CELTA courses. I started teaching in 2004. I was trained up at a CELTA centre in Thailand and worked in Thailand for about 3 years. I also taught in Georgia and the Czech Republic, and I used to work in England in the summer. As I worked in different countries and with different age groups, I’ve taught all levels and all sorts of English, from general English to teenagers at summer camps in England to Business English to entrepreneurs in Bangkok and TOEFL courses to students in Georgia.

In 2009, I did my Delta in Prague and in 2010 I was trained up as CELTA tutor in Thailand again because I was still in contact with the director of the school in Bangkok. I lived in Bangkok during the riots there in 2010. Not exactly the best time of my life, and I jumped at the chance to work on the island of Phuket. I ran CELTAs there for 2 years and then started working freelance. Last year I ran CELTAs in Vietnam, Iran and Frankfurt, and was appointed as head of teacher training here in January 2013.

What separates International House Frankfurt from other TEFL/CELTA Course providers?

First and foremost, the staff. Everyone here at IH Frankfurt is willing to go the extra mile to make a CELTA course successful. Moreover, the CELTA takes place in the regular language school of Academia Suárez/IH Frankfurt and this means that our trainees get to see the day to day reality of teaching right from the start. I think this is important because it’s the daily contact with the students that makes teaching fun and interesting, and there are too many centres where trainees are only amongst themselves.

Another big advantage is the city of Frankfurt. Due to the presence of the ECB, Frankfurt is a very international city with a wide variety of nationalities and this shows in the composition of our teaching practice groups. Our CELTA candidates work with practice students from all over Europe.

How can taking the CELTA Course with International House Frankfurt help the career of an ESL teacher abroad?

Due to the fact that Frankfurt is such a multi-cultural city, our candidates have worked with a variety of nationalities. For candidates who want to go to other countries than Germany, this alone already makes it easier to work abroad. And for the candidates who want to stay in Germany, Frankfurt is THE place to be. There’s really a lot of work here and after completing a CELTA at a centre with the reputation of International House, it’s always possible to find work.

Do you offer any job placement services after course completion?

Yes, we do. First of all, if possible we’ll always try to find a position for the best CELTA candidates. It’s not always possible, of course, but we do our best. We also give a lot of information about the situation on the German market. With the current economic problems, the situation changes regularly and we know exactly what is going on. And finally, we make use of the immense network of the International House World Organization, which has around 150 schools in over 50 countries around the world.

Famous last words?

When you’ve done your CELTA, you’ve got a certificate that will open doors everywhere in the world for the rest of your life.