I studied English in a few places (language centres, private tuition, you name it), not that i like it, but my mom was very particular about me having solid English.  Well, am i there yet? Not really, still working on it, but the good thing is i can sure contribute to this topic discussion. 

British Council has a big name, but costly because of their name.  Well, being a girl I would buy a branded bag but do i need to pay premium price for "branded" English (well i do like the sofas in their centre, so comfortable)? Also, their teaching is too casual/relax.  I didn't feel solid each day walking out of the classroom.  I just didn't like that feeling.

Erican is another centre i studied at (just near by British Council). The environment there was more serious and they are good at teaching me grammar and writing. The full-time course was quite tough, I was shocked by the amount of work i have to do at home. almost everyday I have essay writing practice, pre-reading activity, and also have to prepare for presentation.  I know not everyone like it, some of my classmate didn't like it at all, but hehe... they were known as the lazy ones.
There were a few matsaleh and local teachers. We didn't have matsaleh teacher the whole day, but I remembered i would have matsaleh teachers for at least 1 to 2 hours per day teaching speaking and listening classes, local teachers usually teaches grammar and writing.
Oh oh... another thing you should consider is whether the teachers are helpful or not.  This is very important.  Some of the teachers there are very hardworking. They actually stayed back after class to give me extra help on the things i didn't understand. That was really helpful.

Cambridge Language Centre (aka Titian Jaya), nothing to say about them, this is a con company anyway (for some reason they have changed their name a few times, heard they got sued by University of Cambridge because of stealing the name "Cambridge" without authorization) and their buffet style (all you can learn) learning system doesn't work. Waste of money and time. As you know buffet stuff are usually low quality. 

Private tuition was ok, quite effective as well, costly for sure (my mom didn't like it), but very boring (i didn't like it), "i stared at you, you stared at me" (a cantonese song).   

There are more, but church day tomorrow, got to sleep now.  Cheers!


Joana, may i know which course did u take and how much r the fees in british council? Im looking for part time course with full time course effects hoping to improve nt only on communivations, but also grammar and broadening of vocab. Any suggestions?

British Council (BC) charges RM850 per term for 2 weeks,  one month is RM1700. It doesn't look very much more expensive compares to ELS and Erican, but mind you, BC's programme is THE MOST expensive, because for RM1700, you will only get 60 hours of lesson. Whereby ELS and Erican is giving around 100 hours of lesson per month.