Program Reviews

I had high hopes for this program, as I was dropping over $3,000 for the course, flight, immunizations, etc. I signed up for the TESOL Plus program for June of 2013, which meant I was supposed to receive extras besides the basic program, like a host family, spanish classes, and culture classes (it was also $700 more). However, I didn't even get some things that I initially paid for in the basic package.

LanguageCorps says that assistance with a cultural exchange visa is included in the basic program, however- you actually have to pay the partner institute (EIL) if you want them to sponsor you and assist you with the cultural exchange visa. In addition, they will only do this for you if you end up working for a school in which they partner with (It's confusing, I know). I ended up going with this option, and very much so regretted it. EIL was very disorganized, the staff didn't really know what they were doing, and we had to make numerous additional and unnecessary trips to the bank for our bank account, ministry of foreign affairs, SRI office, etc. due to the disorganizion and lack of communication. We even got deducted pay from the private school we worked at for all of these trips. Not only that, but because of the type of visa, we had to pay about $100 monthly and taxes and health insurance (which was already provided by the school that we were working for). Unless you stay in Ecuador teaching English until April, you lose all the money that was taken from you for taxes.

The Plus program also claims to include Cultural Awareness classes, but that literally consisted of a one hour lecture on culture. There are no excursions, tours, or anything like that included. They literally talked to us about living with our host families and gave us a map of Quito. We only had Saturdays and Sundays to explore the city and that was very difficult considering the courseload. They have many assignments due on Saturday afternoons which makes it hard to fully enjoy your weekend. Do not anticipate having time to take any trips as well while you're doing the TESOL course. The spanish classes the week before the course were great however, and I enjoyed them. The funny thing is they make it seem like they are going to put you in a class based on your level. However EIL stuck everyone in the same spanish class regardless of level.

The Plus program claims to include a re-entry package upon return to the United States. This was never provided, and it's still unclear to me what it even entails.

Besides relying on EIL for our cultural exchange visa, there were other issues we faced with them. While I was lucky and had a great experience with them for my host family, my best friend did not have such luck. Her "host family" consisted of two 23 year olds with a one year old baby, and no internet in the apartment. They would also make her late to classes, wouldn't come home until after 10 p.m. some nights, and yelled at her in front of their entire family for accidentally letting a towel fall on the bathroom floor. We even confronted the director of host familes at EIL and she said, "These things happen. Maybe buy them some chocolate". I kid you not.

The information on LanguagCorps' website is also very outdated. I know for a fact it hasn't been updated since 2012 (that is when I first started looking at their programs) Also- If you can live somewhere in Ecuador for $100 a month, it must be the jungle or some remote mountain town. Expect to pay minimum $200/300 in a small town, and $400/500 in cuenca or Quito. The beach is even more expensive. The pay can range from $800-$1000+ depending on where you work. Universities are where you really make money.

Overall, don't believe everything LanguageCorps has to say. Do your own research about Ecuador - however know that there still is very little online when it comes to resources. My friends and I found out the hard way that it's very much who you know. So if you can get to Ecuador through a program, it makes it a lot easier to adapt and get to know the country before having to just live on your own. However, I wouldn't do it through this program. It's misleading, outdated, and their partner school- EIL- isn't very dependable either.

LanguageCorps was a great buffer into SE Asia. It made the transition from the states much easier and comfortable. You are surrounded with other people just like you that are interested in the sam journey. Everyone in our program was awesome and really had fun together. That was a great part of the experience. Our instructor, Nick, was completely amazing. He knew everything to a T and was so helpful and really cared about the material. The cost of the program was a little overpriced, especially for the accommodations that we got. The accommodations could of been nicer... but, you are in Cambodia. The weekend trips that LanguagCorps arranged for us were so much fun. They were one of my favorite things about the program. You won't be disappointed with Spiderville and Ankor Wat. Over to Pattaya, Jam, the instructor for this portion of the course was equally as awesome. My teaching practice was with a group of Korean Moms. They were so sweet and I am so lucky I got to teach them. I was proactive and applied for jobs while still in the program, so before I even arrived at the destination I wanted to settle at in Thailand I had an interview. Jam will tell you who's hiring through Ajarn.com and other sites that look for foreign teachers but its up to you to find the job. Overall the program was great and I am so glad I chose LanguageCorps. Sure there are easier, cheaper routes but for me it was a great introduction into SE Asia and I met some awesome people!

Taking this course was a great way to transition to spending an extensive period abroad. From the friends made to a great resource of people of any and all questions that arise abroad. It quickly became family!

LanguageCorps was such a great resource from the beginning in helping ease the transition abroad. A credible certificate. Great and passionate teachers. And such a great way to make friends abroad!

If you're looking for a way to work and travel, starting with and getting certified through LangaugeCorps is the best way to go. They make sure you're well prepared for the next steps.

I joined Language Corps with the desire to teach English in Spain. Language Corps did an absolutely amazing job with setting me up with the best TEFL training course. I could not be happier about all the support Language Corps provided with the training course and anything related to that. My training course was intense, the staff in Spain and America were always so supportive and willing to do anything to help, and it was incredibly enjoyable. I met so many people during this training course.

As for things that I wish I would have known before moving abroad. Language Corps briefly touched on this topic but they did not talk in depth about it. If you do not go over to Spain (or most of Europe) with a visa from the states it is more difficult than made known to find legal work. You can find work illegally but then you deal with all of the problems that can come along with working and living illegally in a foreign country. I now understand much more about all of this and if you want to email me, please feel free to do so. Part of this was my fault, but I do wish Language Corps had made this issue a little more known to me. All in all, it worked out but there were a handful of people in my course who were dealing with this similar issue.

There was not much job assistance once I got over to Spain. I am a very independent person so this did not affect me whatsoever, but if you are not incredibly independent be aware that most of your applying for jobs and getting job interviews will be done by yourself.

Once I decided on a job and packed my bags to move to Thailand, for various reasons, I one day randomly received an email from the staff at Language Corps and they were checking in with me. They were so interested to see where this adventure had taken me and what I was up to now with teaching. I really appreciated that they reached out to see where I was after my TEFL course; that was so sweet. Overall, I would recommend the program. They provided me with guidance in starting this whole process. The start is the hardest part and that is the part Language Corps provides the most assistance. I love being abroad and Language Corps started me off on the right foot!

My title sums it well. Many things are covered I never would have thought of when teaching. You are consequently kept busy ... bordering on too busy ... and come away from a well taught course.
Instructors were good and impressively knowledgable. Accommodations were nice and the support staff in Cambodia is always there. A good country worth visiting and a people worth knowing.

I recently completed LanguageCorps' Vietnam TESOL program and overall it was a great experience. To give some background, LC owns a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the first two weeks of all of LC's Southeast Asia TESOL courses are spent there. After those two weeks, you are shipped to the country you want to teach in and you spend the next two weeks finishing the program there. My review will cover both halves of the program.

The teaching staff at LC was great across-the-board. While one of the instructors was a little arrogant, they all demonstrated extensive knowledge of their fields, and the head of English teaching in Cambodia, Nick M, was seriously one of the best teachers I've had, period. The program is organized in an efficient and smart way - most days, you'll get a little bit of teaching practice, English grammar lessons, practical knowledge for getting a job, and best practices for English teaching. The amount of info thrown at you can be a little overwhelming - I could barely handle Khmer lessons after eight hours of lessons while dealing with jet lag - but most of the time it's manageable. I felt extremely prepared to teach after the month was over, and I was able to get offers from both schools I interviewed with.

The support staff in Cambodia and Vietnam were also great. They will help you with pretty much anything you need - housing, visas, jobs, motorbikes, even point you to good restaurants. Hien, the head LC coordinator in Vietnam, literally forwarded our resumes to one of the schools here and got us interviews without us doing a thing. I really wanted that safety net when moving to the other side of the world, and the staff continues to help me with everyday kind of stuff even after I've completed the program and it's invaluable. The day Hien came with me to make sure I got a good deal on a guitar, I knew that these folks go above and beyond to make sure you have a good experience here.

There were some rough spots that LC can work on. The LC hotel in Cambodia, the Marady, is not the nicest place. They advertise having wi-fi, but few of us in the program were able to get access in the room, and internet access is needed when doing homework for the program. Power outages are frequent in Phnom Penh, and though the hotel has a generator, sometimes it didn't work and the outage would last an hour or more. Food at the hotel is decent, but overpriced. It can also be somewhat monotonous to wake up at the hotel, eat breakfast there, go to eight hours of classes there, do homework there, and then sleep there. On alternating days, classes are held at the local university and it's a nice change of pace. By contrast, the hotel in Vietnam was nicer and gave me no issues. The LC office in Vietnam is also a rather nice facility for the area.

Weekend trips aren't anything different than what one would expect booking through your average tourist agency. It was wonderful to finally see Angkor Wat and nice that LC recognizes so many people want to go there that it's worth including in the price of the program.

The bottom line is I wanted a program that prepared me to teach English and gave me a support network in SE Asia, and LC delivered on both fronts. If they want to be a truly top-notch TESOL program, they could improve their accommodations in Cambodia.

Cambodia was wonderful. I don't think I had really high expectations for the experience (I was more looking forward to China), so I found the whole thing to be surprisingly lovely. As a whole, Cambodia is great: people are friendly, it's easy to get by with English, there is a decent expat community, the LC staff is helpful, the excursions are nice, and the fellow participants always ensure you're in good company. The course was more work than I or the other participants were expecting, but nothing impossible. We were definitely still able to enjoy our time.

China has been more challenging than expected, particularly in relation to the language barrier. I'm based in Xi'an, which has a very low English-speaking population. But the program followed through in securing me a job: I had a contract and a visa before I left the U.S. I only work three days a week, my apartment is paid for, and I get paid enough to live comfortably and be able to travel.

Overall I'd say it was a good experience. There were definitely some parts that I wasn't too keen on, but that goes with any large-scale program that has 20+ people of different ages, backgrounds, nationalities, and interests. I signed up for the volunteer plus program which tacked on an extra month of unpaid volunteer work that was set up through the Language Corps Thailand branch. That ended up being an incredible experience that was greatly rewarding.

It was also interesting to see the difference between the beginning of the program in Cambodia and the end of the program in Thailand. We got our hands held a lot in Cambodia and considering how many of us had shipped off to a completely foreign country without family or friends it was helpful. In Thailand we were very much more left to our own devices which was perfect for that point in the program.

I enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to friends but I would also recommend them to do some research on their own. This program may not be the best fit for everyone. You can easily do some looking around and find cheaper programs that don't include the nice trips to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat, Sihanoukville, among others.

I recently completed the Language Corps one month TEFL course with equal time spent in Cambodia and Vietnam. After a frustrating period of searching online for reputable TEFL courses I finally was told by a friend and now fellow graduate of the course to check out Language Corps. I was happily surprised by their professional organization but found that the next course was beginning in only 3 days. I was worried that there was no way I would be able to enroll at such late notice, but with the help of Linda Smith (Director of Operations) and a long bus ride from Vietnam, where I was visiting a friend, and Cambodia, I was able to arrive just in time to start the class.
The teaching staff in Cambodia was great and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that the head instructor Nick Mihaljevic is a rare talent and accomplished grammarian that any prospective teacher would be lucky to learn from and be inspired by. He is also a spectacular karaoke singer and dancer but don't take my word for it, Thursday night Karaoke at he Marady hotel is an experience one should not miss.
After the first two weeks of teaching theory and grammar instruction and a tough goodbye to a group that became a tightly knit group in our classes in Cambodia, a smaller bunch of us headed to Vietnam. The staff and offices in Vietnam were professional and well prepared and I couldn't have been happier with my time there. Linh and Hien were supportive and available to all of us and our student teaching time (every day for two weeks) was the most important part of the entire course. Constant feedback from our teachers and our fellow classmates, in addition to relationships built with our talented students prepared us well for the jobs that all of us hold now.
I am currently teaching at a monastic institute in Pokhara, Nepal, instructing young monks in English and Physics and while still learning, feel that the course gave me the confidence necessary for the task of instructing young monks here in the mountains of Nepal. Every member of my class who I am in contact with has found employment, including class members who did not have university degrees and were advised by many people they would be unemployable.
Learning to teach with Language Corps was an all around great experience and I would recommend it to any prospective student looking for a reputable organization with talented instructors here in South East Asia.

It took me almost two years to finally commit to joining the program and moving overseas. Being from small town Texas it was a huge change. I can tell you that I don't regret it one bit. I came to SEA 23/1/2014 and today it's 22/4/2014 and I have had the time of my life. The LC Asia Program is a great way to get eased into the south east Asian culture because you are in a group of other people who are in the same boat as you. They bought a ticket, packed up there belongings and moved over here just like me; and believe me, they were just as scared as I was. So with that in common, it made things so much easier. We quickly became a huge family and I still stay in contact with most of the people in the group all over SEA.

THE STAFF: I already knew a bit about the LC because a friend of mine joined the LC a couple of years prior. She gave it great reviews and I can totally agree. The staff is awesome. They do a great job of helping you with your day to day needs. They can recommend anything from good restaurants, bars and markets. They will even tell you where to get a good haircut and they are available just about anytime during the day. They really know what they are doing.

THE CLASSES: The first two weeks are a bit tough if you haven't been in a classroom in a while. Eight hours a day of note taking and lecturing. However, the teachers make it fun by including games and other ways to make it more fun than just lectures. You learn a lot of information in a short amount of time but it definitely prepares you for teaching.

THE EXCURSIONS: The excursions were a great way to break up the classroom time. A weekend in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat and other temples and another weekend spent in Sihanoukville just lounging at the beach. Both very cool experiences.

STUDENT TEACHING: The second two weeks are all about applying what you've learned in the beginning to real life teaching. You're days consist of teaching in the morning, Thai language and culture lessons after that and then you lesson plan for the next day. If you haven't taught before it can be a bit challenging for the first couple of days but it gets easier and more fun as the time progresses. My students were very eager to learn and they still email me with questions they may have! The staff in Pattaya is just as helpful as the staff in Phnom Penh and they too are available at just about any time.

All in all, the LC Asia program was worth every dime I spent on it. This has definitely been a life changing experience. If you have never been to Asia (or have never left your home country, like me) I HIGHLY recommend this program. You wont regret it!