And if there is a complete putz among the posters here that distinction would have to go to you for offering TEFL certificate courses taught by so-called trainers who only hold a TEFL certificate — no wonder Alex listed you and TI on his wall of SHAME. Seems the perfect place!

Wow, you uncovered a huge scam. Sheesh. So there is a free conference but we are making football stadiums of money because we inclde a bit of promotional material when they arrive.

Are you really that stupid and do you believe everyone else is that stupid s well?

So our “scam” free conference has been uncovered. Those 700 teachers who enjoyed a days worth of free talks by a few of the worlds most famous authors were really duped into filling football stadiums with money just for me.

its funny. It might be just me but if this was such a huge money-making venture then why isn’t everyone putting on free teacher-training seminars? Why is it just us? And why are organizations like TESOL charging me hundreds of dollars for basically the same thing.

Man, can anyone give me a better example of a complete putz? Someone with nothing better to do than put others down for completely imaginary reasons?

Sorry, TEFLista, you just lost your response privileges from me. You have proven yourself to be a complete moron with absolutely nothing worthwhile to say.

So what has been the response by TEFL International and CMU TEFL (Chaing Mai University TEFL) to the above mentioned series of posts? They have simply taken down the webpage that describes the teaching qualifications of their trainers at CMU! Here they are again (taken verbatim, including grammar mistakes) from their previous webpage. Note that the only TEFL qualifications that the trainers have is a TEFL certificate, which is not a qualification for teacher training. Ironically, Bruce himself pointed out how the British Council defines such courses:

Certificate-level qualifications are first-level qualifications, usually taken by teachers with little or no ELT/TESOL experience who wish to enter the profession.

So the question still remains as to why the TI BOAA, CMU TEFL and Asia University (both in Thailand) would validate such courses and that’s anyone’s guess. I should point out, however, that Thai nationals pay approximately 15,000 Thai Baht per year to attend Rajabhat University. And that’s for an entire YEAR of university instruction. Now how much are people paying for a TI TEFL Certificate course at CMU (which has approximately 25 days of instruction)? Well, 52,000 Thai Baht with a deposit of 16,000 Baht required upon registration! I will leave it up to the readers of this blog to draw their own conclusions.

Anthony Sanford (Tony)
TEFL International Lead Trainer
National ity: American
Email: tonys@tefl intl.com
Education: BSc - Social Work, University of Alabama, United States;
Teach English as a Foreign Language Certification, Siam
Educational Experience, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Brief Bio:
TEFL International Lead Trainer, Tony has been teaching English in
Korea for more than five years. In which time, he taught at two universities, private language institutes and was able to help develop and open Korea’s first total immersion English village. Tony has managed English camps for both children and university students, and has also served as a teacher manager. Tony has been in Thailand for over one year now, during which time, he taught at a publ ic school and managed a university English camp.

Monika Brandli (Mo)
TEFL International Co-Trainer
Nationality: Thai/Swiss
Education: BA -Business Administration, Commercial College,
Switzerland; Teach English as a Foreign Language Certification,
Language Institute Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Brief Bio:
TEFL International Co-Trainer Monika has been teaching English in
Chiang Mai for more than 2 years now. Monika has been teaching
English at various government, and private language schools
including most recently Sart & Sl ip School. Monika gain her ESL
Certification through the LICMU TEFL Certificate program last year, and is now the TEFL International Co-Trainer here at LICMU.

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/Story?id=5838267&page=1

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/a-new-goal-for-football-stars-to-spread-love-of-languages-954593.html

Your work as a blogger humbles me, as ever. Keep up the great work Alex.