Reviews on ESLinsider’s courses

9 min readAug 20, 2020

ESLinsider is my site that I started working on 10+ years ago. My name is Ian and I am that colorful blue guy that you see above.

This is a collection of reviews that I have put together from various sites on ESLinsider’s online TEFL courses. I’ll point out the positive reviews and address some of the negative ones that were mostly written by trolls.

Reviews on ESLinsider.com

Most of the reviews on ESLinsider can be found here.

Gintare said:

At first I was sceptical about taking this course mainly because you have to dig quite deep to find it. However, once again by finding and taking this course I realized that not all good things are easy to find and not all very well advertised stuff is necessarily of good value.
Having said that I am really happy that I have chosen to take this course. Content in this course is well structured, includes loads of practical material as well as practical tasks that let you to comprehend and memorize learned content even better. No boring stuff. Moreover, Ian was always very attentive and helpful with any questions I would have. Thank you very much for not wasting my time, but teaching useful skills!

My thoughts…

True, you do have to dig deep to find it. I don’t advertise, use 3rd party review sites (more on that later) or do affiliate marketing like most courses do.

ESLinsider on Youtube

One of the best things about ESLinsider is that all of the videos included in the course are mostly on Youtube too.

I made this image a few years back, but there is a recent review on ESLinsider's channel here that reviews ESLinsider's most popular videos including one that's controversial in some people's eyes.

That Youtube channel is here.

I added some commentary on some of the reviews on ESLinsider's courses in this video.

Reviews on Quora

This is Kristina’s review of ESLinsider on Quora.

George’s answer from Quora.

ESLinsider is a legitimate company. I took the course in 2016 and learned a great deal from it despite already having been in Korea for six years at that point. The information is concise and practical with many videos of Ian actually in classrooms demonstrating the material he is presenting.
Not only is there a wealth of teaching material available in the course, he provides you with information on classroom management (something basically non-existent in most TEFL courses) and tips on how to avoid bad jobs (again, non-existent in other courses).
Ian is also constantly updating the course in order to improve the material. As a side note, I have personally met Ian and can vouch for his character. With this course you are learning from someone who has been there and done that which is far more than I can say for any other course I’ve seen. I would highly recommend ESLinsider’s courses to anyone considering teaching in Asia.

George also left a review on ESLinsider here.

3–4 years ago I did initially name my courses with “hours” like 60 and 120 hours. But didn’t like that because it’s not really authentic and I felt that is a little lie in the online tefl course industry that I didn’t want to perpetuate any more.

You can’t really call them “hours” if there are not scheduled class times so I’ve changed the names from, for example, the 120 hour to “advanced” course but again some other courses used this so I wanted to be more original and changed it again to TEKA (short for teaching English to kids in Asia).

120 hour — advanced — TEKA

And since then that course has been updated.

Here are some comments from Quora.

Some of these were left originally as “answers” but Quora removed them because I guess they were new accounts and new accounts aren’t allowed to answer??? Strange policy. Anyways I told them and they came back and left them in a comment under my answer.

Karolina said:

I had to add my comment again, it has been deleted.
But as I said before, Ian’s course is100% legit. I bought it last year and still use it, Ian has always been extremely helpful and insightful, sharing his vast knowledge and experience. I haven’t tried aby other TEFL courses, so I can’t really compare, but I can say that Ian’s course is really useful, not just theory, not like read, pass some test and forget. I actually learned a lot, since I had to also submit lesson plans etc.
For sure it’s not a scam, I have no idea why would anybody think like this. You pay for the course and you get great content, reviews and help from very responsive creator. What’s more, Ian keeps updating his course, so once you make purchase you keep getting some extras later.
Couldn’t recommend more, it’s sad that somebody has an imaginary problem with it. Keep the vibes positive, people.

Kelli said:

I added paragraphs to this one for readability.

This is a completely legit course and worth every penny I paid when I completed the course in 2019. It actually makes me sad to see the reviews on here that are not from people who actually took the course.
This course was well planned by someone who actually teaches and knows what is needed to be successful. The course not only how provided how to teach English to students in a thorough and concise manner but also what to expect traveling to another country and interacting with other cultures. I found this part fascinating and exciting. He also spent a section on getting a job and how to avoid trouble.
The owner of the course provided lengthy and detailed feedback to all of the lesson plans I created. His video examples are real examples, not just paragraphs of reading and underlining nouns and verbs.
Classroom management was also covered. I spent much time deciding on a course and I don’t regret it one bit that I stumbled onto this one. I do have a college degree in Education but still found a wealth of games and ideas in the course. I truly believe I learned things about English I didn’t even know, I am a born English speaking American! Its easy to take forgranted how easy we learn our own native language.
Living in America and teaching American children English is much easier than in another country. English is everywhere and children can learn being exposed to the language in our culture. Teaching English to students in their own country requires preperation and skill to be an excellent teacher. I feel wholeheartedly that ESLinsider gave me the knowledge and skills to do exactly what his course says it will prepare me to do. I also know that I can reach out to Ian and he will continue to help me if I needed it.
This is a legitimate course, not unreasonable in cost nor fraudulant. It was not just busy work to make money and provide a certificate. I highly recommend to anyone looking to teach English as a second language.

On Reddit

Getting a job is the easy part, but doing your job is the hard part and that’s why I think you need a visual course that makes learning easier.

Any critical reviews?

Aside from the fake reviews written by one troll competitor hiding behind fake id's here are some written by actual students.

I understand the level of difficulty between the courses.
However, in the 20 hour course, when answering the questions, the
answer could be easily seen in the text that was meant to be studied. I
would suggest more of a challenge where studying the context is
mandatory to correctly answering the question. Not just searching for
the match to the question.
That is my personal opinion. Other then that, the material was well put. Thank you.
Sarah G.

My thoughts…

That course is old (4 years+) and doesn’t exist any more. I think there is zero value in making something more difficult for the sake of it. In the case of text I try to minimize it (since people don’t read) and make it easy to find the answer so you don’t end up searching outside the course like people do here.

Here are a few emails I’ve received.

Thanks Ian, got it.
Course was spot on. Just the website (enrollment, payment & processing) could do with being more user-friendly.
Smiles
Steph S.

My thoughts…

Yeah, maybe that’s true.

I try to make it as efficient as possible, but there is only so much I can do with the software. First step is to create an account and then pay with Paypal and enroll.

What Doris suggested

I have to say, the Grammar section was my favorite. There was a lot to take away from it. While I wish the technical vocabulary has more in depth definitions/explanations, being able to work out the differences between “present tense simple” and “present tense continuous,” (etc) was completely satisfying and felt quite rewarding.
Jeremy M.

There is a small section in the course on grammar which I’ve thought of completely removing. I think studying grammar for TEFL is useless. It’s the kind of thing that goes in one ear and out the other for me and it’s commonplace with other courses.

98% of you will not be some professor up there spouting off theory. It’s more basic than that. Most of you will be teaching children and/or students with a basic to intermediate knowledge of English.

You have to come down to their level and you use images, actions, and situations to teach and not abstract theory.

If you are a native speaker then you should already have an intuitive grasp of it.

It’s another language to your students, so you don’t go into the classroom and say “Okay, kids today we are going to study the present continuous form of blah, blah…”

You’ll get a lot of blank stares.

You want to teach them practical and useful language not abstract grammar definitions. Also as a native speaker most schools hire you for your accent and they may have the local teachers there teach more technical stuff.

Related to TEFL courses (here on Medium):

Reviews on ESLinsider’s courses

Reviews on ESLinsider.com

ESLinsider on Youtube

Reviews on Quora

On Reddit

Any critical reviews?

What Doris suggested

Related Youtube videos:

Related to TEFL courses (here on Medium):

Written by Ian@ESLinsider