Tls - Tewi Language School

[emilyb]

Before the inevitable MacWalen post, let me say that I'm trying to avoid attending Walen due to the distance from my home in Nonthaburi. I've no problems with Walen, but I would rather go somewhere closer to home. And, yes, I know about the Northern office. Please don't post telling me about Walen.

With that out of the way, does anyone have any experiences with TLS (Tewi Language School)? I forget what links we can post, but if you search Tewi Language School it's the first result. They seem to have been around a while and they seem legit, but after searching quite a bit there's virtually no forum activity on them - unless I'm using the wrong name. I've done plenty of googling around which has proven to me that they're aggressive with their online marketing (who isn't these days?), but there's very little in the way of actual student experience reviews and the like.

I would genuinely appreciate any comments by TV members who have had an experience with TLS, if you feel like taking a moment.

Thanks!

[emilyb]

No replies, that's a good sign!

[badmedicine]

Never heard of them, but I've found from experience that other people's recommendations or criticisms of schools might not match my own experience.

Basic M.O. for sussing out a school is go and see if they'll

i. let you have a free lesson (if no, walk)

ii. let you see the materials to look over

(if no, walk)

iii. let you talk to current students

(if no, ...you got the idea)

If the answer to all of the above is yes and you liked what you saw/heard, book the mininum number of lessons that they allow. Good reputation schools will let you pay for just one month at a time. If they insist on anything longer...well, if it were me, I'd probably walk, depending on how impressed I was with the answers to i., ii., and iii (and how desperate I was for that school to be suitable!).

Under no conditions sign up for 6 months or a year (unless you're just after Ed visa) no matter how good they may seem. Month at a time is the best way. Things can change a lot from one month to the next (including teachers).

Edited July 12, 2011 by badmedicine

[aneliane]

I went to TLS in Silom.

Took 1 month of private lessons.

Organization wise : It was a bit of a mess, they introduced to my teacher when I paid.

Got a first lesson and she was OK

Then the second day I turn out, she's not available - although she is in the school, she has another student, that came and just dumped me !

and they just give me someone else. the new one seemed to be clueless, regarding teaching methodology the type that "tell you" what things mean once and move one and of course, expect you to just remember them.

No interaction, just her speaking, no drills, no vocab sheets

Then the next day yet another teacher and this one made me regret the second, she was just terrible.

I requested my first teacher and I had her for the rest of my hours

I guess she was ok: I mean she knew that I had to actually speak Thai in order to be able to learn anything. she did make me talk / asking me questions, and I did make some progress, but one only vocab sheet out of 20 lessons, hardly no drills, she did not seem to enjoy what she was doing, she took quite long breaks as soon as she got the opportunity. She was very pretty and attractive and I guess she might have preferred a male student to seduce.

We just went through the book, i would read the vocab, then the dialogue, then she would write some questions on the board to practice and asked me to answer them. Then on to the next chapter.

So 1 teacher ok out of 3 ...

Please could you tell me why you want to avoid Wallen ?

Edited July 19, 2011 by aneliane

[MacWalen]

Sorry guys, this is not Wallen but Walen, I see it quite often spelled with double l recently so just wanted to fix it. Just a note. Please continue.

[crystal8]

I went to TLS in Silom.

Took 1 month of private lessons.

Organization wise : It was a bit of a mess, they introduced to my teacher when I paid.

Got a first lesson and she was OK

Then the second day I turn out, she's not available - although she is in the school, she has another student, that came and just dumped me !

and they just give me someone else. the new one seemed to be clueless, regarding teaching methodology the type that "tell you" what things mean once and move one and of course, expect you to just remember them.

No interaction, just her speaking, no drills, no vocab sheets

Then the next day yet another teacher and this one made me regret the second, she was just terrible.

I requested my first teacher and I had her for the rest of my hours

I guess she was ok: I mean she knew that I had to actually speak Thai in order to be able to learn anything. she did make me talk / asking me questions, and I did make some progress, but one only vocab sheet out of 20 lessons, hardly no drills, she did not seem to enjoy what she was doing, she took quite long breaks as soon as she got the opportunity. She was very pretty and attractive and I guess she might have preferred a male student to seduce.

We just went through the book, i would read the vocab, then the dialogue, then she would write some questions on the board to practice and asked me to answer them. Then on to the next chapter.

So 1 teacher ok out of 3 ...

Please could you tell me why you want to avoid Wallen ?

A bit to clarify here. OP is talking about Tewi Language school here (TLS). The one from Silom is called "Thai Language School" which in short also called "TLS" Language school. For OP, regarding TLS (Tew Lang: School)Tewi Bangkok office is in Ramakhanghang Soi 60/3 (the one I studied for 2 years), Northtern buri and pattaya office. My personal expereince with them is very smooth, and visa process done by them is lightening fast as always, very helpful as well. I paid for 22000 baht as an old student. You can ask and may be allowed to pay 3 times in the first 3 months (at least that's how I paid both times). I think I studied good with them but I have always been a fast learner. I liked my teacher there but now I am moving to a different school in Pattaya because of my own problem and nothing to do with the school. If possible I would stick with them.

[MacWalen]

There you are, TLS and TLS are actually different schools! This is very interesting. As I mentioned somewhere else we have such great market now for learning Thai that there are so many schools that they start using the same names. I don't know how this is allowed. Perhaps the owners could sort it out among themselves. What if there was a third school or even fourth using the same name, then we would have a real mess.

Walen School

[ignis]

Thought one was TLS and the other CTLS ? or is that yet another school?

CTLS is at

50/74 Chaeng Wattana Road,

Pak Kret

Nonthaburi 11120

Thailand

I went to see them last year, also in the same building is another Thai language school, is just across the road from Central Plaza........ Even here it is to far to drive from where I live, as in the next Village to me is a school for Thais to learn English, but the owner went to school and Uni in UK, so 1 on 1 learning Thai = 6,000 baht for 40 hours + less then 2km away, I would use well over 6,000 baht just for petrol to get to Pak Kret to do the same 40 hrs without the school fees.

Of course it depends it you need the ED Visa or not.

Edit: appears 'Tewi language school' is also at the same building in Nonthaburi, both this and CTLS do the 'ED' Visa, feel sure there was another name so maybe there are 3 schools in the same building ?

Edited October 4, 2011 by ignis

[bytebuster]

Just joined this site so I'm sorry for late response.

I'm studying in CTLS school located in Pattaya, about to complete my 1st year here.

Well, as everywhere, it has pro's and con's:

Good -

certainly, the best price in area, 22k for 180 hours; remember that my comparison is one year old, so it might have changed since than;

a very talented teacher (you know, many teachers just read the book - and yes, I really care about studying)

never delayed any visa-related documents, no issues

The director is a friendly person as well, easy to negotiate (I needed special schedule for myself).

What is really important for me is that the students so study indeed, you know what I mean.

Bad news -

used to have a significant staff rotation, so the teachers changed three times (I'm conservative on this);

also, since the school is not that popular, they cannot make huge offers. For instance, I would be glad to study another language as well and pay maybe +50% of the regular 180-hours price, but the teacher is only available on individual basis (no classes yet).

I've made several friends who study there for second year. This is a good sign to me.