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Anthony Bozzola ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 04 December 2014 Location: Wrexham, Wales Status: Offline Points: 2 |
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Hi, I am brand new to this site and have been looking into a TEFL course for a while now.
I just wanted to ask, has anybody had any experience with LoveTEFL in the past and would you recommend them? Also I am VERY torn between two intern-ships - China or Thailand. They both sound phenomenal, this will be my first time anywhere in Asia (except Turkey when I was younger!) and part of me loves the thought of China but something seems so right about Thailand as well. Any help would be awesome, thanks!
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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The normal procedure is to pay to get qualified. Then go and work in a school who pays YOU to work there.
Love TEFL have a great idea: you pay THEM to get qualified and then you pay THEM to go and work in a school for free. Sounds a bit of a rip off to me. Just get qualified and go and find a proper job. Don't get taken advantage of. |
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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I did the Thailand Internship with LoveTEFL June to August this year and it was one of the most challenging but also one of the best decisions I ever made.
You are placed in a rural school with at least one other Intern and generally the only English speakers in the area. They place you in schools that cannot afford to employ native English teachers and they are so grateful to people volunteering to go there. It's great experience for teaching and the teachers get you involved with other activities with them and in the area. At weekends all interns get together and do different activities and explore the area and get aquainted with the local tourist street. Depending on what school you are placed in you may end up being thrown in at the deep end like myself, though one of my friends was more of a teaching assistant for the two months and didn't take any classes on her own. LoveTEFL were great when you sign up providing with lots of information and easily contactable. They have staff in-country as well to help you out if any problems. They do have paid opportunities as well which would be good after the internship. The only reason I haven't gone to them for paid work is because I have chosen to persue teaching English in Europe instead but I would recommend them. So in my experience Thailand was awesome, but I have heard great things about China too. Hope this helps ![]() |
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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A wild guess here: do you happen to work for LoveTEFL then Mazz?
If not, how come, since you were qualified, you didn't find a proper job teaching English where the school paid you rather than you pay LoveTEFL for the "privilege" of working? Internships like this are ridiculous - it's bad enough that interns work for free in some companies, but to PAY someone to work is a complete ripoff! So Mazz, if you are not a faux account from LoveTEFL then I'm afraid you've been badly ripped off. While you were paying to work, your peers were being paid to work.
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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Well clearly you did not properly read my post as I stated I do not work for LoveTEFL and the reason for this is their positions are in Asia and I am seeking work in Europe currently.
I assume you have looked at the pricing for the LoveTEFL Internships? £795, included in that is the 120 hour online course, orientation where you are put up in hotels for 4 nights before the school placement. During the placement you are provided with accommodation and schools provide 1-2 meals a day. They don't make you teach full time hours either. You also get a 5 day holiday on Koh Samet at the end of the internship. Plus support during the internship. So I do not see where I have been ripped off here? I just feel that is is a valuable experience that I would recommend to others. Especially to people who have no teaching experience. I incorporated the internship into my few months traveling south east Asia. Sometimes it's not all about how much money you can earn out of it but the experience and putting that smile one someone's face, making a difference to someone's life. My response was to provide information to the original poster who was asking about these internships. Everyone wants to get something different out of their experience and I don't feel it necessary to slate people for giving information based on their own experience. Edited by Mazz0801 - 09 December 2014 at 21:31 |
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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To the original poster... I have just thought when I was looking for TEFL courses and internships there is another company that do 5 month internships which are paid. I think you can get these through TEFL Heaven but I'm not sure. I just remember finding one that was paid but unfortunately I couldn't commit to it at the time but it would have been what I would have chosen to do if I'd had a longer gap to do it in.
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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So you pay 800 quid for an online course which you can get for 150 quid. That means you pay 650 quid to LoveTEFL so they can find you work in a school. The school also pays LoveTEFL to provide them with a teacher. Probably about a couple of hundred quid.
So you pay. The school pays. The kids probably pay. And the middleman makes a lot of money. Internships - making people work for nothing or pay for the privilege of working - are a ripoff, pure and simple. To the OP, I'd thoroughly recommend you avoid them at all costs. You are paying through your nose for something you don't need.
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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So are you saying that you can find reputable teaching work with just the online course alone? I've lost count of how many job adverts I have seen that decline applicants who only have the online course.
I don't see what the issue is with paying £650 to a company that sorts you out with a teaching placement with the added security of there being people to turn to if things don't go well. Accommodation for 8 weeks plus a holiday at the end of it... you could pay out 650 for a week long holiday to a company. To OP if you decide against an internship I would recommend signing up for an intensive or classroom based course rather than online as respectable employers won't touch you with just an online certificate and no teaching experience. Either way it's going to cost a few hundred. |
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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Don't try and change the subject.
I'm saying PAYING to work in a school is ridiculous and a ripoff. If you want to encourage this then what you are doing is devaluing the work of teachers. If newbies want to do it then they're being ripped off. Now, explain to me, if you can, how paying someone to work for them is good.
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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Like I have already explained you aren't paying to work.
On the internship you teach roughly 10 hours a week.. that's hardly working but doing enough to gain experience. If you add up how much accomodation with cost you for a 2 minth stay, add in food and drink for 2 months, add a four star hotel for two nights then a floating hotel room on the river for two nights. Then add on the transfers from the airport and travel to the island to stay in four star accommodation on the beach for another four nights and how much would that all cost? So I don't see where your idea of 'paying someone to teach' comes from as after all that it doesn't work out really different from doing a classroom based course.. you have to teach classes then too and wait, yes you have paid to do the course... you clearly have a huge bee in your bonnet about these companies. Of course they make money out of it, that's called business, but I don't see that as a bad thing when they are helping schools who can't afford to pay a full time English teacher at the same time as giving someone the opportunity to teach and learn skills, see if it is something they actually want to do. And to reiterate, you won't get a job with a respectable school without any experience of teaching first. And like I also suggested for people who have a problem with voluntarily using their time to help others there are paid internships you can apply for aswell. |
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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Yes you are. No matter how you try to spin it, you are paying to work. That's what an internship is mate. You handed over money to work in a school. That's paying for teaching.
You are very naive to believe this. Trust me, I know how these companies and schools work. 1) The newbie teacher pays the middleman. 2) The students pay the school and the school pays the middleman. So the middleman makes money from both parties. Plus there's the bigger issue which you're conveniently ignoring. By getting a cheap teacher the school is helping devalue the entire profession of teaching. By making newbie teachers pay for the privilege of working the middleman is devaluing the profession of teaching. Can you see that? TEFL teachers have enough problems as it is. They need to be paid a decent wage and treated with respect. How can this happen when people like you are willing to pay for work and support a system which cheapens the whole process? I can understand that you've paid your money and you don't like hearing it is bad thing, but trust me, when you've been working for a few years and know as much about how the system works as I do then you'll kick yourself for selling yourself short by paying to teach.
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Mazz0801 ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 December 2014 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 11 |
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I won't be kicking myself in a few years because I have had a valuable experience out of it and it's helped me gain skills and confidence.
As you seem to know it all how do you suggest these schools out in remote areas who can't speak English themselves go about hiring and also generating the money to pay for full time English teachers for over 500 students? How about the countries with a high poverty rate, children who are homeless and their parents can't afford to pay for them to go to school. Should these companies not build schools in these areas and supply volunteer teachers to help them learn to broaden their employment prospects in the future? where are they getting their income from to pay teachers when the students can't pay to go there? These internships are good for people who also want to travel and try it without committing to a long term, paid contract but just for the experience. There's plenty of paid opportunities in schools out there for teachers wanting to pursue TEFL long term as well as these internships. Not everyone wants to teach English long term. People have different reasons for wanting to do things meaning different ways of going about it are more suitable. No point in patronising people because they have a different view to you. That's just life. You don't agree with them, I do, and the original poster has the free will to make up their own mind what they want to do. |
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tefler ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 05 December 2014 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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Skills and experience and confidence all your co-teachers will have been paid for when they did their first year in the business! It's interesting, this morning I was talking about this with some colleagues and we were trying to think of any other profession where people PAY to work. And we couldn't think of any. Can anyone come up with a profession which PAYS to get experience? You don't want to hear it, but the bottom line is that you were exploited mate. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that's the way the rest of the profession views it. And to the OP I would simply say, if you don't want to be exploited or ripped off, do it the proper way. The way 99.9% of TEFL teachers do it: get qualified and then get a school to pay you for work.
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Snowypatrol ![]() Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: 26 March 2015 Status: Offline Points: 1 |
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I took the 120hr TEFL course with LoveTEFL and found it OK for the price. I wanted to get a little teaching experience behind prior to applying for a TEFL position overseas and almost signed up for the China internship.
After carrying out some research online you can imagine to my horror that I found this link http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=1821535 I was shocked to say the least that I could have ended up in China and been arrested. My advice to anybody looking to carry out this sort of internship is carry out your research first. I have since just been offered a position in Wuxi with a salary of £800 per month.
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Richard_b ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 16 July 2015 Location: Lancashire Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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Are internships in China officially illegal?
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WolfSapphire ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 20 April 2018 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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Tefler, how else can I try out teaching EFL, something I've never done before, to see if I like it or not, without committing to a full 5 months, or worse still, a whole year, in country on the other side of the world? Seriously, if you know, please tell me. Because how else can I get experience to prove to an employer than I am adequately skilled to perform the job they are paying me to do. Do you expect someone to hire you with no evidence to show them of being able to actually do the job? For them to find you can't actually do it and they have to go through the whole hiring process all over again. Meanwhile, the children at their school have no teacher and no lesson. The employer I work for during my internship will be able to give me a professional reference to pass on to any future job applications I make.
Edited by WolfSapphire - 20 April 2018 at 22:37 |
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WolfSapphire ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 20 April 2018 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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What did you decide to do? How was it? I'm about to do one
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WolfSapphire ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 20 April 2018 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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Hi Mazz, What kind of information did they provide when you signed up? Where in Thailand was it? What was the weather like in June and July? What was your accommodation like? Did you share a room?
Edited by WolfSapphire - 20 April 2018 at 22:42 |
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TrustedTEFLReviews ![]() Newbie ![]() Joined: 09 May 2019 Status: Offline Points: 5 |
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I have to agree about placements in general not really being worth it. It is so easy to find teaching English work abroad that there really is no need to pay to get teaching work. It just makes such little sense. Mia.
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