BerlitzReviews of berlitz.com

I signed up for 4 weeks of daily lessons and the coordinators kept switching teachers due to vacation schedules, but they wouldn't be honest with me about it-I would just show up for my lesson and someone new would be there. My first class was with a woman who was working her last day before maternity leave so on day 2 with a different teacher I spoke to the front desk admins about wanting to stay with 1 teacher for the rest of my course due to the disruption and wasted time of starting over with a new person every few days. When I was on my 3rd teacher and told I would be getting a 4th the following week, I put my lessons on hold until my favorite (2nd teacher) returned from vacation. I spoke with the coordinators multiple times about my schedule flexibility and the importance of not having 4 teachers in 4 weeks and never had a straightforward conversation with them. Otherwise they were nice and my 2nd teacher was phenomenal, but the classes are very expensive and I received unprofessional treatment from the schedulers.

Positives: 1. The administration staff and the tutors that I deal with in Namba (Osaka) are amazing. They are extremely professional, polite and welcoming. 2. Berlitz is very flexible and accommodating. I can schedule face to face lessons after work, during weekends, etc. If I need to reschedule I can do so on a day's notice. Negatives: 1. I would have preferred it if Berlitz was open to personalizing their teaching methods. Fundamentally I have an issue with the direct/target/immersive method that is enforced. I respect that Berlitz has some evidence to suggest this may be more effective than other teaching methods (e.g. grammar-translation), but I find it extremely frustrating having tutors that can speak English but are not permitted to. This is particularly draining when it can take me up to ten minutes to learn a basic concept that could have been explained in ten seconds. 2. Berlitz should consider personalizing their learning material. As far as I am aware every Japanese language student uses the same textbook. As a casual learner perhaps a different textbook would have better suited my personal circumstances. Summary: I don't think that Berlitz is very good value for money. They have great staff and I do see a lot of potential for improvement, but an unwillingness to change.

Excellent teachers. The school is a little eccentric. For example another teacher showed up suddenly with no explanation. It was not clear who would be teaching the next class. Kind of random.

We were actually quite disappointed considering the high reputation and expense of Berlitz. They were short on supplies and we feel that our kids did not benefit very much from the program. We were also told that they would be required to give an oral presentation to the parents at the end of the week, which did not happen.

Instructor took too much time on several sections that were not that critical. The result was that I did not complete the Level 2 course work in time.

I had some instructors that were actually interested in teaching me and correcting my pronunciation, but I also had some others with limited background and interest to discuss even newspaper topics. Actually, I found few of them more interested in their breaks than in my lessons.

Several changes during the course , good teachers but very different approaches with different ideas of who things have to be done. But the course helps me a lot , Regards

Classmate had a lot of background noise which made it difficult to hear. Noises coming in through a microphone are more disruptive than if dogs, husbands etc. are in the same room. I would have gotten more out of the class if not for the disruptions