Would highly recommend!

Thank you so much Dave and Larry (as well as everyone part of the TEFL Tokyo family!) for all of the experiences I have had over the last month doing the TEFL International TESOL course. I have now sadly left Japan, but it's thanks to you and everyone at Hi5 English school that my time with you was an absolute pleasure.

The course itself is an interesting analysis of both the english language and how english should be taught to foreign speakers, and includes aspects such as the history of teaching methods, the psychology behind a student's progress in the classroom, the international phonetic alphabet and the intriguingly universal human language of supra-segmentals (which is just a fancy word for tone of voice, for example how you can laugh at the right part of a joke in any language just from the sound of the punchline). In this way, the broad range of the course means that it isn't just interesting to linguists and educators, but that people from all fields could also add their own interpretations.

The actual teaching I did for the course was also really enjoyable, my Japanese students were almost without exception engaged and -in the case of the little kids- adorable! I even received presents from a few to thank me for my time spent with them, which was particularly sweet.

As for the team running the course I could not have been luckier. Despite the fact I was the only student doing the course for the month of March I had plenty of great company and good times! I was even invited to go to the school's annual ski trip to Nagano which was a particular highlight, and the school usually has extra-curricular events, such as the big Easter egg hunt planned for April. TEFL Tokyo is also about a 5 minute walk from beautiful Mizomoto park, a breath of fresh air in what can sometimes be a stifling concrete Tokyo, and I was lucky enough to eat my lunch under blooming cherry blossoms there as often as I wanted to.

So all in all a great place and amazing people, which I would highly recommend! In fact I've begun bugging my older sister to come and do the course once she's finished her degree (so you may need to prepare for another member of the Rais family!).

Thank you again to Yuko, Vincent, Raymond, Olivia, Sean, Derek and especially Dave and Larry for such a lovely experience.
If I were to do the TESOL course again, I would do it at TEFL Tokyo (2nd conditional!).