Here you'll find answers to the most common questions about Foreign Friend's online English classes. Whether you're curious about course details, enrolment procedures, or exam preparations, we've got you covered.
Our comprehensive FAQs provide insights into how our programs can help you improve your English skills, achieve fluency, and succeed in various exams like IELTS, TOEIC, and CAE.
If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to our support team. We're here to help you on your language learning journey!
With multiple teachers to choose from and schedules totally committed to what we do, we can accommodate whatever it is you may need. Whether mornings, afternoons or evenings are better for you - even weekends. You can also choose between a fixed lesson slot or have a rolling schedule that offers you more flexibility where you book your next class at the end of your lesson each week.
Foreign Friend does not offer free classes. Free classes are difficult to manage administratively and they also don't lead to beneficial learning outcomes for those who attend. Language teaching is a service and maintaining a fee in exchange for the service is what protects the value of the exchange for both student and teacher. If you are interested in free content, please check out our IG page (insert handle) and look out for our YT channel coming soon.
That is exactly what we offer. We have over ten years of exclusive experience in top-notch, one-on-one English lessons.
We are pro-AI and actively encourage our students to use AI to support their English learning. We are currently looking into AI transcription tools to use in our lessons to provide added value to our students.
If formal classes are not an option for you, consider using AI (Loora, Elsa and ChatGPT are good options). The benefits of these tools is that they are cheaper and available on demand. Be aware that while AI tools are innovative and useful, they are not able to integrate your individual needs like a human teacher can. Furthermore, without you having an existing background understanding of English, you will not be able to gauge the accuracy of what AI is teaching you.
While feeling insecure about a foreign accent is a common experience amongst foreigners, the focus should be on accent reduction, not accent elimination. Making your foreign accent your enemy is not an efficient method for changing it. At Foreign Friend our approach is to help you build a better understanding of how the phonetics differ from other languages so that you can build the proper muscles required to articulate English sounds correctly.
Additionally, we support you in realising the truth about foreign accents: as long as people can understand you, no one cares about your foreign accent as much as you do.
Our mistake correction is systematic. Whilst the popular pedagogical approach amongst other online English schools is to correct every single mistake at all times, we do not agree with this. Correcting every mistake is distracting for A0 - B1 level students and interrupts their psycho-emotional learning. Neuroscience and educational psychology are of keen interest to Foreign Friend and, at the most basic level, research shows that any form of negative stress is not conducive to long term memory retention. Our approach is that as the student’s proficiency increases, so does the frequency of correction. In your first lesson, your teacher will run a diagnostic exercise to fully gauge the scope of your errors and will then develop a customised approach to deal with your most essential problem areas first, moving through subsequent areas only once the most urgent areas are attended to.
With extensive experience in the industry, we know that most online schools ask their teachers to focus on excessive mistake correction, purely functional content and to maintain a kind of professional distance between themselves and the student. While Foreign Friend teachers are professional, do correct mistakes and understand that you need your English to be functional, we also do not embody the typical, sterile learning atmosphere found in most online English companies. How we differ is that we keep a close eye on your motivation, your enjoyment of the content, we maintain a class record exclusively for you with free access at any time and we offer free added value learning (internal discussion groups, monthly newsletter and social media pages) as well as additional community opportunities to connect with other English students.
Active methods like regular conversation practice, language exchange, and recording oneself speaking are most effective for improving speaking skills. Shadowing English audio, reading aloud, and using English in real-life situations are second best. Passive methods such as watching English media and listening to podcasts can help with vocabulary and pronunciation, but are far less effective for improving your speaking.
No, we do not offer free trials. This is something that is typically offered by large, corporate English companies where business is conducted like a conveyor belt. We prefer to keep our offer more exclusive, personal and intimate. With over a decade of experience in the industry we are confident in the quality of our work and our continued competition is our testimony. For further confidence in Foreign Friend, please visit our testimonials page.
All of our teachers are native English speakers who have university qualifications in both English Language and Literature as well as post graduate degrees in Education. Teaching experience with second language English speakers is an essential prerequisite too. Furthermore, we only employ teachers who are well-travelled and culturally sensitive as this gives the classes a more connected, relaxed and genuine atmosphere.
Our course fees vary depending on the type of English class required and duration of the lessons. We offer competitive pricing and various payment plans to make our courses affordable. For detailed pricing, please visit our pricing page.
The tried and tested method that works the best is the immersive experience of spending time living in an English country. Nothing else compares to that in terms of speed. This is why, if you are a parent, we strongly encourage you to give your children this opportunity while they are still young as it will make a momentous difference to their lives. Exchange programs are a great option. Of course, travelling to another country is not possible for everyone, so the second best options are immersive alternatives such as English speaking friendships, English classes or any other activity that actually forces you to speak English. Reading, writing and listening are not enough. You absolutely have to speak.
Foreign Friend is pro-AI and is constantly looking out for ways to add value to our students’ learning through AI inclusion both within and outside of classes. We are very excited to see what innovation and developments occur in the coming years! At the same time, with the world moving more and more into modes of isolation, we fully believe that having a human teacher to connect meaningfully with is in your best interest as a learner. This viewpoint is backed by the psycho-emotive components of neuroscience and educational psychology. AI can be ignored or switched off and it does not intrinsically care for or monitor your motivation. It also cannot hold you accountable when your own humanness, such as the capacity for procrastination or insecurity, begins to negatively affect your progress. Humans can do all these things for you; our teachers will do all of these things for you. For us at Foreign Friend, communication is connection. AI adds immense value to your convenience and budget but no one can connect with you and work with you like another human being can.
We offer a variety of English courses, including:
The best course depends on your goals; that is no secret. What makes Foreign Friend the best choice for your online English course is that all of our teachers are well-travelled, native English speakers who are also university qualified specifically in English and Education. This makes them culturally sensitive, linguistically experienced, open-minded and absolutely able to meet your educational needs. Foreign Friend’s approach is personal and client focused. We don’t just cater to your needs as a working professional with goals. We are also interested in who you are as an individual.