Quite a disappointment
My stay: February 4th-April 14th, homestay, group classes, one-on-one classes. LTL is a big disappointment. Prior to my arrival, I used flexi-classes which I would definitely recommend. However, LTL’s school in Taipei does not hold its word and is extremely overpriced. The pros: LTL has a great community of people, and people attending are very kind - especially Riona (the coordinator of Homestay) is always ready to help. The teachers are alright. The cons: LTL makes a LOT of promises online that they do not live up to. For example, I did not receive a placement test (was placed in the beginners class for two weeks), my group classes were repeatedly more than 6 people, they forgot about my prepaid survival kit, my room in my first homestay was part of the living room/kitchen (no individual room with a lock, and it felt more like the family wanted to make money off the situation), my second homestay only spoke English with me and was located way more than 45 minutes away from LTL. LTL also repeatedly brought us into the facilities of children’s cram schools when the ratio of students to classrooms exceeded their own capacity - then we would sit at these tiny tables and chairs made for 5-year-olds, while 5-year-olds had classes next to us. It felt like a joke at that price. My experiences even seemed rather mild compared to my friends at LTL, but I will leave it up to them to write their own reviews. The repeated excuse from LTL has been the “after Covid, we got more students than expected”. It is understandable that it can be hard to adjust quickly, but if LTL already knows the quality of the product they are selling to us online does not fulfil the agreed-upon conditions, it is to lie to the customer. I never fully received what I paid for. This is a breach of contract, and I think I am entitled to a refund (like many others should be). When raising the problem to Andreas (the founder of LTL), the only solution I was offered was free flexi classes, but these are not even close to the value lost by LTL’s breach of contract. I highly regret spending my money on LTL. If you are reading this as a potential LTL student, you are better off going to the language schools attached to Taiwanese universities (you can attend them with visa-exempt travel and some also offer one-on-one classes). Here, students are more international, so you are forced to speak in Chinese with everyone. In that way, you get to focus on “living the language” as LTL promised but never fulfilled.