I'm going to speak English in this video.
You guys can turn on the subtitles if necessary.
So, after making some videos about Langmaster and Elight,
I've seen a number of comments saying things like:
I don't really want to do that.
For one thing, I don't have first-hand experience with very many centers here in Vietnam.
There are some that I think look professional,
but I don't want to say that they are when I don't really know for sure.
Also, I know that if I start listing good centers, some people are going to say:
"Oh, he's been paid by those centers to promote them
while badmouthing other centers like Langmaster and Elight!"
So instead of giving you guys a list of good centers,
what I want to do in this video is give you a few tips for avoiding bad ones.
I've got three warning signs that you should look out for when you're considering studying at a center.
And these warning signs don't necessarily prove that a center is bad,
but they should make you skeptical,
and they should make you cautious before handing over any money.
The first warning sign—
this isn't going to surprise anybody—
is plagiarism.
If you're considering studying at a center, go check out their Facebook page,
and if you see posts like this, where it's:
"THE 25 MOST COMMON PHRASES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH!!!"
Or . . .
"10 AWESOME WAYS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION 'HOW ARE YOU?'"
Those posts are almost always plagiarized from other sources.
Like, let's take a closer look at this one.
So, we'll take the first little bit, "I attended MIT," we'll search for that in quotes,
then we'll also include "I grew up in Korea,"
and "I'm an easy going person that works well with everyone."
Wow, look at all those results.
Cleverlearn has it, a center called Lesh has it . . .
Some of these things get copied so many times, you can't even tell where it came from originally.
My guess is that it came from, like, VnExpress, or some other big site like that.
Now, I know some people are going to say, "Eh, it's just a post on Facebook. Not really a big deal."
I see where you're coming from.
Plagiarizing material for a Facebook post is not the worst crime ever,
but it does demonstrate that that center is not totally honest and professional,
and if they're dishonest and unprofessional about that,
they might be dishonest and unprofessional about other things, too.
I know there will also be some people who say, "Oh, every center in Vietnam does that."
That's not true.
Once again, I don't want to list good centers,
but there are centers whose Facebook pages are totally clean.
They've got announcements for upcoming classes and events,
they've got photos from their centers,
and maybe some articles which they've shared—
not copied, shared—
from places like VnExpress or Dan Tri.
It's all very ethical and professional.
Just keep in mind that if a center plagiarizes content from another source,
they're using that content to try to make themselves look like talented, dedicated educators,
who are providing free lessons to everyone.
You know, plagiarism is a form of cheating.
And if that center is willing to cheat other people out of their work,
they might also be willing to cheat you out of your money.
The second warning sign that should make you skeptical of a center is promises.
Any promise about the results that you'll achieve after studying in their course, like . . .
"Hết mất gốc!" (Hard to translate. Kind of means "No longer at 0."
Or "Fluent in 3–6 months!"
Or "Reach this or that IELTS score!"
"This or that TOEIC score!"
. . . should make you very skeptical.
The thing is, serious and honest educators know that we can't promise our students any results,
because ultimately it depends on the students.
The students are the ones who have to do the majority of the work in order to achieve results.
Also, when centers make promises, the time that they promise is usually completely ridiculous,
like "Speak fluently in 3–6 months."
That is not possible.
Time for a bit of brutal honesty.
If you're over the age of 18, and you have an elementary level of English,
you will probably never speak English fluently.
Now, I know some teachers are going to hear that and say:
"How can you say that? You should be encouraging and motivating your students!"
Yeah, but I don't want to provide false encouragement.
The truth is—and I'm basing this on my own experience learning a foreign language as an adult,
and teaching a foreign language to adults—
the truth is, learning a foreign language as an adult is extremely hard.
And if you don't have much of a natural talent for languages,
if you don't have a lot of time to study,
if you don't have much of an environment in which to practice,
reaching real fluency is nearly impossible.
For most adult learners with an elementary level of English,
the best you can probably hope for is to reach an intermediate level of English.
And that is still definitely worth doing,
but even that is going to take years of hard work.
Not months, years.
There's no magical method, no wizard teacher who can make you fluent in 3–6 months.
That's just a marketing ploy designed to fill you with hope, so that you'll hand over your money.
In short, the bigger the promises a center makes, the more skeptical you should be.
The third warning sign for an unprofessional center is a lazy placement testing process.
Now, any remotely decent English center is going to check your level of English before putting you into a class.
And professional centers take that process seriously.
You guys know that now I'm running my own classes. I do all of the placement testing interviews myself.
But before that I worked at a big center with lots of teachers.
And at that center, placement testing interviews were always conducted by native-speaker teachers,
or native-level teachers,
who had gone through at least two training sessions in how to properly conduct placement testing interviews.
So, if you go to a center, and the placement testing interview is handled by a university student
or a teaching assistant who seems to not have a lot of training or even a very high level of English,
that should make you very skeptical.
Also, regardless of who interviews you, pay attention to the questions they ask.
Ideally, placement testing interviews should be a bit challenging.
You know, they should be testing the limits of your English.
That's going to mean different things for different people.
If you've got a really low level of English, then it's going to be challenging just to answer, "What did you do last night?"
But if you've got a higher level of English, then you should be asked to express your opinions or ideas,
to talk about experiences, to make connections between things.
If you walk out of the interview, and you feel like:
"God, that was so easy! I didn't even use half of my English abilities."
That should make you skeptical.
On the other hand, if the placement test is way too difficult,
like if you know that your level of English is above zero,
but you walk out feeling like:
"God, I couldn't answer any of that!"
That should make you skeptical, too,
because they might be trying to give you an overly difficult placement test,
in order to pressure you into a lower-level class.
So, those are my warning signs for avoiding bad centers.
Once again, keep in mind, those things don't necessarily prove a center is bad,
but they should make you a bit cautious.
I'm sure you guys have had some of your own experiences and you have your own warning signs.
Please share them in the comments. I'll be reading as many as I can,
and I'll be dropping hearts for those that I think are helpful.
And I've got one final thing I want to say.
Keep in mind that you are responsible for your own success in learning English.
I think that finding a good center or a good teacher is worth doing.
But in the end,
studying on your own is what's going to make the difference.
So . . .
take responsibility, and good luck.