How not to be deceived when choosing English courses

10.03.2016

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How not to be deceived when choosing English courses

A wish to learn English well and fast is understandable: a new job, which English is necessary for; a trip, where you can’t ask passers-by for directions; a movie, spoiled by dubbed translation. There are a lot of different reasons, all of which lead to the same outcome – English is really necessary. That’s why self-study books like «Learn English in one hour» used to be really popular, however, now miraculous unique methods are getting more and more widespread.
Let’s make it clear: the goal of the article is not to mock at other language courses; the point is to save you from these know-it-alls who invented a «secret» method.
So, what should warn you when you're choosing English course?
Suspiciously low prices
Normally, such online-schools start with basics: they explain why English is so important. They talk about a nice future that awaits anyone who speaks English: books and movies without translation, bilingual children, a new better job and a long happy Alzheimer’s-free life. Well, can’t argue this point.
But what happens next is suspicious. The get to the price: usually this course costs 70000 rubles, but if you buy it right now, within 30 minutes, you’ll get a better price, so it’ll be just 17000 rubles. A hell of a discount, huh? Sure enough, if you make another account on the website, you’ll have another 30 minutes to buy the course.
Not any fair school can afford such a discount as long as a price of lessons consists of a number of aspects:

Technical equipment.
Educational material, its development and constant improvement.
Methodical work. Every student should be supervised by a methodologist who keeps track of the students’ progress and changes the study program when necessary.
Secretaries who are responsible for organizational matters.
Teachers.

That is why a 3-dollar Skype lesson can’t possibly be efficient.
Another thing about the money matter that should make you skeptical is how badly they want to sell you the whole course at once. They know better that anyone that student don’t finish their course, that’s why they want to minimize the risks and sell the full package. You, on the other hand risk a lot buying a pig in a poke. You should take one lesson, meet your teacher, try the method and make your own conclusion based on your own impression. Many schools offer a free trial lesson.
Super effective unique methods
Now let’s talk about the method that most of these courses are based on – mnemonic. The point of the method is learning words using associations with words from the native language. For instance, there is a work in Russian tcherdak, which can be translated as attic. You can memorize the word dark since it’s usually dark in the attic. The problem is that I don’t just have to memorize a new word itself, but also the association. And what if I just disagree with this association? And what if a can’t make up an association? Do I have to spend ours making up one instead of speaking English? Thanks, but no, thanks. And even if this technique works for you, how will you be able to use all these words? It’s like playing the guitar without strings! Learning new words should be thoughtful, that’s why we don’t recommend you learning more than 10 new words a day.
They also often promise to explain the difference between Present Perfect and Past simple once and for all. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. A language is not hard science; you can’t just understand something once and always use it correctly.
Don’t get us wrong: it’s good that there is such a wide variety of English courses. High demand – high supply, basic economics. More that that, any honest work should be paid. The key word is honest.
We wrote an article on how to study English more efficiently, let’s make a quick review:
1. Don’t concentrate on reading and translating. The best-case scenario is that you learn how to translate. Speaking skills won’t get a boost.
2. Don’t concentrate on grammar. This way lessons will soon become hard work like studying math. Grammar should be learned intuitively through various examples and repetition.
3. Forget about making a vocabulary. Do you remember those notebooks, where you had three columns for words, transcription and translation, respectively? And how many words do you remember? Right. You should learn words that you really need, only then you’ll be able to use them.
Studying a language doesn’t have to be hard work. A talented teacher can make you love the learning process.

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How not to be deceived when choosing English courses

Suspiciously low prices

Super effective unique methods

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