Price versus quality in online English and Business English Courses

As I look through many different websites I see a great difference in prices offered for one hour of a one to one Business English course.  I wonder why there is such a great difference.  Can it be because of the teachers’ location, or the teachers’ English teaching experience?  When you search for an online business English course, what are you concerned about most?  Is it price or quality?

Many of the lower priced sites that offer business English courses seem to be high volume places with many teachers.  You cannot tell the real experience of these teachers, and you do not know how good your face to face learning experience will be.  Your one to one business English course may not be a good experience for you.  One thing that you can do is probably assume that the sites run by the owner teacher have been set up by someone with teaching experience that now wants to work for themselves.  One way to tell if the owner teacher sites are good is if they are still in business after a year.

What can you expect from a $10 per hour business English course?  One question to ask is how much effort will the teacher be putting in when they are only getting paid around $10 an hour?  For people from some countries, that may sound like a lot, but for a native speaker living in their own country it is not enough to live on.

Even if the native English speaker is not living in their own country, their costs are still higher than the locals. They are not able to share accommodations or costs with family members and it probably costs a lot more for them to visit family and close friends.  As well, to indulge in familiar food usually costs more overseas than the local fare.  Because they may be alone they would or could have a higher need for socializing.  With all this comes more costs than a local might have.

What can you expect for more money, such as $50 to $60 per hour for a specific Business English online course?  I would say you should expect a lot.   The teacher should know the subject, the teacher should be prepared for class, the teacher should do more than go through the motions for 60 minutes, andyou should be getting a lot of relevant material.  The teacher should be teaching you more than what is in the material.  Lastly, the teacher should be concerned about improving your English skills.

Before you start taking business English courses on an online website you should do some research about the company and the teachers.  You can Google the website and see if there are any comments about it in forums.  When you initially sign up you can ask the person some questions about the teacher and about the course.  If you are not satisfied, do not sign up for the business English course.  Remember that your goal is not to save money, but to get the best business English course for your dollar, so look for value and not just price.