BootsnAll Travel Community

I've been thinking of working in Boston for another year to another year and a half or so, and then teaching in Korea for a year (or more) and THEN doing the big RTW.

I know that Korea doesn't require any certificate to teach, but as a thread on here clearly dictates, I'm going to get my TEFL certificate beforehand, to learn how to teach and make sure my students get their money's worth. (Getting paid extra by employers would be nice, too.)

And now I'm thinking that CELTA might be the best overall choice, in case I want to go on and keep teaching all over the world, or stop in the middle of my RTW to teach for a while. It's a few hundred dollars more, but I think it will be more worth it by then.

I would be looking into a monthlong full-time program with housing, preferably in a cheap (but interesting) area that's a cheap flight from the U.S. (i.e. not Asia/Australia).

Here are some price quotes I found:

--Prague from 769 GBP
--Riga from 699 GBP
--Krakow from 699 GBP
--Lisbon from 944 GBP
--Ljubljana from 699 GBP

The prices vary widely otherwise, so I'm wondering -- are the courses in Slovenia or Latvia BAD because they're so cheap, or is the cost of living that low? (To compare, prices in the UK are well over 1500 per course, Australia from around 1200.)

I got all prices quoted from Cactus TEFL.

I barely know where I'm going with this, now. Anyone have any ideas?

The celta is one particular course, and it's monitored by Cambridge assessors who ensure that it is more or less uniform so the quality is unlikely to vary much. Of course different people leading the course will have different personalities and maybe somewhat different approaches, but the content should be very similar from place to place and as far as I know employers don't really think much about where you got the celta from - just that you have a celta.

[Other tefl courses may be good too - I have a celta, I think it's good, but that doesn't mean other courses aren't. From what I've heard, having a celta in Europe as opposed to another tefl certificate is a bigger advantage than in many other places. But it sounds like you've already considered this and have decided on the celta.]


I don't recall if it is standard for celta prices to include accommodation but that would very easily explain the difference in the prices you cite - cost of living, even in the new EU countries, is substantially lower than in western Europe and I presume Australia. The course fee also has some relation to school running expenses, salaries of staff, etc., which are also bound to be lower in some places than others.

Yes, I'd rather do the CELTA than a regular TEFL course because I'd hate to get somewhere I'd like to teach and then find out that they require the CELTA. If it's only a few hundred dollars more, then why not just get it now?

Those prices are for tuition only. Housing is a few hundred dollars/euros more.

I'm just concerned that the prices vary so widely for tuition alone, which makes me think that the cheaper courses may not be as good. Because I'd really like to learn how to be a good teacher in addition to earning the top certificate available.

I've also got some Latvian heritage, with family (way back in the day) from Riga. It would be nice to spend a month there.

Don't worry about prices reflecting quality of course as far as CELTA is concerned, - for example, the one in Ljubljana is run by excellent teacher trainers; it really does have to do with where you do it - Eastern European prices are lower. Of course you have to pay more if you do it in London, because London is quite simply a very expensive place, and teacher trainers etc. have to pay much higher prices so they have to be paid more. It is not a reflection on the quality of the course, because, as Kate says, the CELTA course is more or less the same wherever you do it.
wherever you do it, good luck!