ELS Language Centers - Tampa

Dhari Almutairi

Everything Pr****lla Ca**o said was not true, I’ve been studying at ELS for a year and half and it’s an example for the heaven, bro everything is amazing here I feel like I’m in my home, students, teachers, directors are friendly. I can’t imagine my life without ELS I’m leaving in two months to start the university and my life will be boring far away from ELS Look how happy I am

RODRIGO LAGUNA

I only can write good comments about ELS Tampa. The teamwork of teachers is amazing, with a teaching process focused to generate a good environment for students. The teaching material is top-notch, up-to-date and very entertaining topics. My classmates have become new friends. Thank you Walbert, Taylor, Shireen, Jenny, and Mona. It has been a great pleasure meeting all of you.

Mohammed Alghamdi

First of all, learning English is something that depends on your insistence. However, this school is good to learn an academic English language. But Tampa is not the right place to study on.

Priscilla Carmo

I’ve decided to write this review because If I had read something like that, for sure I would not have studied here. First of all, don’t pay many months in advance, don’t make the same mistake that I made. 1- This center is inside of University of Tampa, but NOBODY is allowed to get a student ID, EXCEPT students from Japan, which is not fair because everybody pays and takes the same classes. 2- ELS charges students in different amounts, even for the same number of months. Once you find it out and complain, they will give you a discount. 3- Let’s talk about an important topic, the academic director was TERRIBLE! He used to mistreat students in his office and in front of other students, if students made complains, he threatened to fail them, and for many times he did it. I saw a lot of abuses that Saudi students have suffered during the time I’ve studied here. They were afraid to complain and fail in the final test. It was amazing when they came together to write to their government about how they were mistreated and ELS had to receive someone to listen to Saudi students concerns. 4- Students from 3 different levels are at the same class, it’s very weird, they do it because they don’t have enough teachers, even teachers that are not there anymore talk about abuses against them and students. 5- In my last weeks, ELS changed the academic director (because he got a new job, otherwise he probably would be there, practicing the same abuses, knowing that nobody was going to punish him). The new academic director did not do significant changes, even when we told her that a lot of students were cheating in class and they were getting the best student award in the certification ceremony, this way it’s easy to go to the next level! They used to take picture of the quiz and share among them. What it was a shame, we are adults and a piece of paper won’t guarantee that you SPEAK English when you don’t. 6- Although the books are good, teachers didn’t have enough time to finish them, they were constantly running out of time, it was terrible because we used to receive a lot of information and we didn’t have enough time to process and practice them. They were aware that it was almost impossible to learn this way. 7- Teachers are another problem, few were good, others were foreigners with a terrible accent that you barely understand. Sam, Shireen and Mona were good teachers there. 8- Another serious problem for you who are thinking in investing your money to improve your English in this school is that most students are interested only in get a paper certificate and not interested in actually learning because their government pays everything for them, school, house, food… So hardly ever they will be interested or committed with activities, and most of them are in group, be aware, because you depend of your friends to develop some skills in class, men spent many hours watching soccer games in their cellphones and the girls don’t care about classes and speak their language during the group activities. Of course, I’m not generalizing, but most of them (75%) feel that they are in a summer camp. 9- Many students bring food for lunch, and ELS have a small table with 3 chairs, a small microwave and minibar that does not support the food of all students, I thought that the infrastructure would be at least decent, considering the fact that it is inside of a university. So, if you are considering to study in this place, be aware that many students don’t write a review because they have intention to attend the University of Tampa (UT), so they are afraid of any kind of retaliation or just wanted to forget this terrible experience.