ESLinsider reviews scam? This article digs deep into the Ian Leahy/ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA online course.
ESLinsider reviews scam? We have the inside scoop below for you.
trustedteflreviews.com verified customer reviews of the ESLinsider Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/eslinsider-tefl/
ESLinsider is owned and run by one individual: Ian (Patrick) Leahy.
ESLinsider has been banned (since 2017) from Facebook, for spreading misinformation and astroturfing.
It has also had a number of its sockpuppet identities banned from Reddit.
Ian’s online operations consist of:
- A personal blog, where he shares his worldview and TEFL opinions (inghh.com)
- A professional blog, where he trashes all of his business competition (eslinsider.com)
- A school website, where he sells his unaccredited TEFL/TEKA course (course.eslinsider.com)
Whilst Trusted TEFL Reviews cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that ESLinsider is a scam operation, there are credible (first-hand) testimonies documented online that claim that Ian Leahy:
- Convinced people to take his TEFL/TEKA course, placed them in a school, and then creamed off between 20-40% of their monthly salaries without their knowledge or authorization.
- Recommended to foreign teachers that it was acceptable to use fake college diplomas; resulting in a number of foreign teachers being detained in China, imprisoned for 30 days, and then subsequently deported from the country with a lifetime travel ban.
- Made non-TEFL-related purchases with the credit card details of his customers, without their prior knowledge or authorization.
To be fair here, Ian Leahy has flat-out denied all of these accusations. However, when directly confronted in a popular TEFL forum by one of his alleged victims, Ian avoided acknowledging his customer, a female American teacher in her mid-twenties and avoided answering any of the allegations levied against him.
Instead, and in true-to-form Ian Leahy style, he simply claimed “fake news” and that he is the focus of a “witch hunt”. When the forum administrators asked how the customer complaints written on over 20 separately-owned websites could be classed as being a fake-news witch hunt, Ian replied that all 24 separately-owned and separately-operated websites are run by the same person – a person who is out to tarnish his reputation. This defense just doesn’t appear to hold any credibility whatsoever.
This article hasn’t been written to prove or disprove Ian’s innocence. It has been written, instead, to shine a brighter light on Ian Leahy and ESLinsider – to illuminate better for the general reader the credentials of the individual who claims to be an insider expert on everything TEFL-related.
We do raise questions and fact-check Ian, but we also give Ian the opportunity to present his side of the story. Ian provides his side of the story in his own spoken and written words: in the website screenshot images below, and in his comments section response further down this page.
The first section of this article below was published back in 2020, and additional material has been added further below that more recently in 2021.
For the convenience of our readers, we have labeled the first article section ‘Article Section A’ and the second ‘Article Section B’.
This post was updated on September 14th, 2022, to add ‘Article Section D’.
April 25, 2022 update:
Trusted TEFL Reviews received fresh information that Ian Patrick Leahy has spent the past winter working on the ski and snowboarding slopes on the Montana/Idaho border.
It is now Ian’s plan to head to Oregon this summer, to continue seasonal work on the slopes.
We also read a few of Ian’s Reddit comments (which he deleted when he found out we were aware of his many Reddit profiles) in which he enquires about under-the-table paid jobs in Chile and New Zealand.
It is plainly obvious from Ian’s online activity that he now earns very little (if any) money from his ESLinsider TEFL program and that, subsequently, his ESLinsider TEFL program is practically no more.
It is also plainly obvious that the ESLinsider TEFL website is still online because it costs very little to maintain and we imagine that Ian hopes to still make a bit of money out of it – selling unaccredited TEFL courses – when he can.
Article Section A
On July 29, 2020, Trusted TEFL Reviews added a blacklisted warning to the ESLinsider Online TEFL/TESOL (TEKA) certification program and its owner, Ian Leahy.
ESLinsider is run by a guy who goes by the identity, ‘Ian Leahy’. He appears to spend a significant chunk of his free time publishing defamatory material and conspiracy theories on his school blog. Incredibly, these posts are mostly about other Online TEFL programs; i.e. his business competition.
A common thread in his posts is to claim that all positive reviews recorded or written about his competition are fake, and all negative reviews recorded or written about ESLinsider are fake.
Another common thread in his posts is to claim that he has personally taken the TEFL courses of his competitors and that they were all terrible. It could be true that Ian has spent his own money to go Undercover TEFL Student on his business competition, but we feel that this is highly unlikely.
After reading some of Ian’s negative posts levied against his business competition, we can see that Ian definitely doesn’t shy away from writing the most absurd lies in order to try and convince his readership to instead take his TEFL/TEKA course. We tried fact-checking ESLinsider.com, but after a while, we just gave up because so much of what Ian publishes is simply not true.
This in itself should be a red flag for anyone considering whether to pay money to him.
We also feel that it is very strange that the only reviews of ESLinsider.com are on ESLinsider.com, and (with the exception of one, 4-star review) they all appear to be 5-star ratings.
ESLinsider also doesn’t appear to have any social media footprint to speak of at all, other than his prolific rants on Reddit and Quora.
Again, ESLinsider was banned from Facebook.
Ian Leahy likes to painstakingly point out, though, that he has reviews on his YouTube channel – something that he, of course, has control over. Ian also likes to brag about how popular his YouTube channel is. Upon closer inspection, though, we see that the majority of his videos have less than a few hundred views and for a channel that has been active for so many years, the number of ESLinsider YouTube subscribers is not as impressive as Ian likes to make out.
Continuing on the theme of reviews: we noticed a batch of recently written (June 2020) Quora posts – all praising his course. All five reviews were written within a couple of days of each other, and all five reviews contain the word, ‘legitimate’.
We checked and all of the posts were written by people who registered with Quora at around the same time, just to write their reviews. The language structure in all five reviews is also remarkably similar.
Prior to this sudden burst of enthusiasm from these supposed ESLinsider course graduates, who suddenly felt a strong urge to join Quora and write how legitimate his program is, no one had written any feedback on Ian’s courses on Quora since he first began operating his program.
Logically, it would appear that those Quora reviews were likely written by someone connected with ESLinsider. As Ian is the sole owner of the program, we would make a logical guess that he in fact wrote those Quora reviews himself.
Here is one of those Quora posts that Ian has successfully managed to market online for himself:
In recent weeks, we also noticed that Ian Leahy has been spreading false information online about trustedteflreviews.com, and spreading garbage online about the top 5 TEFL/TESOL courses listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Our interest was piqued, we dug more into Ian Leahy/ESLinsider, and the red flags just kept popping up.
It is in our professional opinion that Ian Leahy is probably an English teacher, living in Fukuoka, Japan, who created a website and who tries to drum up business for his unrecognized courses by attacking the big TEFL/TESOL course players with outright lies – hoping to catch some crumbs of business in the process. It is also our professional opinion that the reviews that he lists on his website are probably fake.
We advise proceeding with extreme caution when dealing with this individual.
If you do find yourself being convinced to take his TEFL/TEKA course then ask the owner for examples of reviews that are not listed exclusively on his website, on his YouTube channel, or on Quora. We advise asking Ian for reviews written on third-party review websites, where he has no control over the content of those reviews.
In the meantime, Ian’s program will remain on trustedteflreviews.com – acting as a public service warning.
His introductory, zero-review rating does mean he will need to begin (alphabetically) at the bottom of the Trusted TEFL Reviews ranking table and then work his way up, once we begin receiving verified customer reviews, written by real people.
We welcome any comments from Ian Leahy, and we welcome any student reviews of his program so that we can actually hear from anyone who might have taken his Online TEFL/TEKA course.
Ian has been contacted and invited to add his response to this post.
If it transpires that our information is wrong, we will delete this ESLinsider reviews scam warning.
Article Section B
This section of the article was updated on February 8, 2021.
The following Ian Leahy/ESLinsider website screenshots appear to show a rather different individual than the one who claims to be an insider expert on everything TEFL-related. Two of them, of serious concern I must add, also appear to demonstrate a misogynistic lean in the social philosophy of Ian’s worldview.
Aside from spamming the internet, and offering an unrecognized, unaccredited TEFL/TEKA course, Ian has also been linked to credit card fraud and recommending to teachers wanting to teach in China that they use fake teaching credentials – resulting in their imprisonment and subsequent deportation from China.
This ESLinsider reviews scam accusation can be read online by conducting a Google search.
Article Section C
We wanted to show a typical example of Ian Leahy’s attempt at discrediting a well-respected and fully accredited, reputable Online TEFL/TESOL certification program online:
We really can’t imagine what “Based on my experience” means because it is highly unlikely that Ian Leahy has paid the course fee to take this course.
Why has Ian published this nonsense on his TEFL school blog?
He has published it because he hopes that students looking for reviews of the University of Toronto TEFL/Teach Away TESOL program will click on the link, think that he is a TEFL authority, and then gradually become directed to take his unaccredited TEKA TEFL course instead.
It’s basically spam, and Ian’s spamming was the reason why ESLinsider’s Facebook page was deleted by Facebook and is the reason why Ian Leahy is still banned from posting on Facebook.
Article Section D
This is the sorry-looking TEFL certificate that you will receive if you complete an ESLinsider course:
We advise proceeding with extreme caution when dealing with Ian Leahy and his ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA program. We can’t write with absolute certainty, but it looks very likely that the ESLinsider reviews scam is a genuine concern.
Instead, we recommend choosing to take your international TEFL/TESOL certification course with a program offering a fully accredited course that is far more recognized internationally than ESLinsider TEFL.
The four highest-rated ESLinsider TEFL fully accredited alternative course options, listed in order of customer review ratings:
- TEFL Online Pro – https://teflonlinepro.com/
- OISE Toronto TEFL – https://teflonline.teachaway.com/
- CIEE TEFL – https://www.ciee.org/
- Maximo Nivel TEFL – https://maximonivel.com/
CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro are Level 5 and CELTA-equivalent Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs.
TEFL Online Pro verified customer reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2022/
OISE Toronto TEFL verified customer reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/oise-university-of-toronto-tefl/
CIEE TEFL verified customer reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ciee-tefl/
Maximo Nivel verified customer reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/maximo-nivel-tefl/
CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro certificates are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized. ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA certificates are not accredited at all and are not internationally recognized by any stretch of the imagination.
TEFL Online Pro won the Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022:
All 46 Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs currently listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/
Mia Williams
April 11, 2022 Update:
Ian Patrick Leahy from Eslinsider has spent the second winter in the USA, working on the ski slopes.
This winter, he has been working in Montana.
The world of TEFL can sigh in relief that Ian has taken a break from full-time scamming TEFL students and trashing legitimate TEFL programs online.
Read more ESLinsider reviews
New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.
Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory
TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers
This is an update on the contents in the above post regarding ESLinsider and its one-man-show creator, Ian Leahy.
Trusted TEFL Reviews reached out to Ian, but Ian has chosen not to comment on why he has been spreading garbage online about trustedteflreviews.com and spreading garbage online about the top 5 TEFL/TESOL courses listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews.
If Ian has nothing to hide, we thought he would have jumped at the chance to explain his actions in a transparent manner and clear up the question over whether his TEFL course is a scam or not.
Ian’s silence is very worrying.
Mia Williams
OMG. Just looked at the ESLinsider blog and (like you wrote) he DOES trash all of his competition on it! It’s also his MAIN website where he promotes his online TEFL course! Wow! How totally unprofessional! I would never take a course with that guy. What if I somehow got on his wrong side? I would be so worried he would start attacking ME online too! Hopefully enough people read this article so it either puts him out of business, or makes him seriously rethink how he runs his business. Wow!
Rachel.
I hadn’t thought of that. But yes, you make a very good point when you write that Ian Leahy has demonstrated that he is capable of trashing all of his competition online – so what would prevent him from online trashing an individual who disagreed with him over something that he had a vested interest in.
The irony for me in this whole affair is that Ian Leahy likes to present himself as a bastion of truth. But when you see how he clearly manipulates reviews of his program, and when you see how he tries to throw mud at an unbiased Online TEFL reviews website, you see that the main motivation behind his behavior boils down to simply drumming up business for his TEFL course – trashing everyone and anyone (in Ian Leahy’s warped perception) who crosses his path in the process.
It is actually individuals just like Ian Leahy, who contribute to giving the online TEFL industry a bad reputation.
Mia Williams
ESLinsider scam update: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/07/24/is-eslinsider-legit/
I had a quick look through that guy’s site and at first I thought it was a joke site.
He can’t really think anyone would take him serious the way he paints his face different colors and writes all that baloney about all his business rivals?
I understand why you have added the warning label for Ian Leahy and ESLinsider, but I really don’t think anyone with an ounce of sanity would take what he writes as anything other than borderline crazy.
Btw, I found my TEFL course through the reviews on trustedteflreviews.com, so thanks a lot for providing this excellent website and every success for the future!
Nick.
Hello Trusted TEFL Reviews,
I’m pretty confident that I share the view of the majority of Ian Leahy’s business competition (i.e. other Online TEFL schools) when I write that we are tired of the incessant, misleading content that he spreads online.
I don’t think that everyone is aware of the fact that Ian Leahy runs a TEFL program (eslinsider) of his own, and that his sole intention is to cash in on new trainees taking his course.
He tries to present an image of a champion of truth, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Ian is well-known throughout the Online TEFL community as an individual who spends the majority of his free time spreading false gossip online about his business competition.
We have read the article about Ian Leahy’s courses being banned in China, and I must write that we are hardly surprised by the news.
If only Ian would focus more of his time on the quality of his course, he wouldn’t need to act in the way that he does.
Kind regards,
Paul Murphy
Operations Manager
info@teflonlinepro.com
https://teflonlinepro.com/
https://www.facebook.com/teflonlinepro/
Teachers’ Choice Award winner, 2019 | 2020
I wish I had bothered to do my research before falling for this scam. Ian Leahy from eslinsider took $300 from me, for a course he claims is “accepted worldwide”. It’s all smoke and mirrors. The course (if you can really call it that) is nothing more than a handful of poorly executed videos. The real clanger came when I began applying for jobs online. It was then when I came face-to-face with the sobering reality that the certificate awarded by Ian isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. It wasn’t accepted by any of the schools I sent my job application to. Let’s just hope that more people become aware of Ian’s scam.
I have officially had enough of your reviews website.
Mia Williams (if that’s really your name) reminds me of a lot of the feminists I was unfortunate to meet when I lived in San Francisco. One word defines them: Bi**hes.
Delete my listing or you will have big problems!
Ian Leahy, owner of the ESLinsider online TEFL certification course (https://www.course.eslinsider.com/)
Thank you for finally taking the time to leave your reply to this thread.
I had hoped that you were going to address the issues that have been raised by your customers. Instead, I have had to asterisk the offending insult which you included in your comment.
This is really a shame because you have been provided with the opportunity of replying to your customers, to defend your business practices, but you simply choose to continue on in a non-transparent manner – continuing with what clearly appears to be an intricate TEFL program scam.
I have read the posts, written by you online, where you try to undermine the trust of this reviews website by claiming that various schools own trustedteflreviews.com
It is clear that you do this to deflect the focus away from the glaring issues of your TEFL operation.
When you feel in a more professional mood, you are very welcome to revisit and write a more fitting response to the (genuine) accusations levied by your customers on this page.
Mia Williams
We would like to make our readers aware that Ian Leahy, owner of ESLinsider, has now left Japan and has returned to Monroe, New Hampshire, USA.
Among his reasons for doing so, was the tanking of his TEFL operation – ironically, in a time when online tuition has become more popular than ever.
Ian also mentions that he might return to Japan.
If he does, and if he does decide to continue with his TEFL course program in future, we hope that he has a Road to Damascus epiphany; whereby he returns with a completely different business ethic, i.e. treating his customers as the number one priority, and refraining from drumming up business for himself by attacking his business competition with baseless, outrageous conspiracy theories.
Despite Ian’s past actions, we wish him well on the road ahead and hope that this period of his life serves as a positive transformation – both for him and his business.
We also hope that Ian has the foresight to reimburse his customers who paid for something they never received.
Mia Williams
I was going to take the Tefl course through the program Ian Leahy offers (ESLInsider) but then I read the reviews and saw how bitter he is to other Tefl programs. Really, the things he writes online about (mostly) MyTefl and Tefl Online Pro is shocking. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! I watched his latest YT vid, describing (in unnecessary detail) how he moved back to the US, to live with his parents. Looks like his one trick pony days are over. Thank the heavens I stumbled across this website before I made the grave mistake of sending Ian my money for his course fee. Keep up the good work Trusted Tefl Reviews!
Amber.
Thanks for your input.
Ian writes rubbish about all of his main business competition.
The good news, though, is that his past is beginning to catch up with him now and more and more of his customers are coming forward and giving their accounts of how they got duped by him.
It’s likely the reason behind why he had to suddenly leave Japan.
Mia Williams
Unfortunately this 15 year-old company moves from one country to another every time the complaints pile up and victims try to get the police involved.
After digging around on the internet you will find complaints going back to 2007 and as recently as 2021 but deep down in the search results because Ian Leahy spams so much of his own fake reviews for ESLinsider that they take up the first 1-3 pages of search results. Then you find out that he used to live in Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and more recently in Japan. Is Malaysia, Vietnam, or The Philippines next?
I never used ESLinsider but my former GF in Korea did before she moved to China. Even when she told me how she was jerked around and cheated by the owner (Ian Leahy) she started crying two years after the fact. She actually went into debt because of the ESLinsider owner, Ian Leahy, who must be a super-smooth charmer to fool my ex who is now an IELTS examiner for the British Council. I look around on the internet and this guy spammed himself everywhere looking like a member of the Blue Man Group. A lot of stuff shows up. You know, we always are on the defensive against Chinese and Nigerian crooks, but looking back the ones that really fooled us were the fellow foreigners!
Tony.
Thank you for leaving your comment. Sorry, it took so long for us to respond – I only read your comment today as it accidentally landed in our Spam folder.
That is terrible what happened to your former GF. I hope that she has managed to get herself out of debt and that she is in a much healthier state of mind now.
Mia Williams
It is embarrassing to admit it but i was also (almost) scammed out of a lot of money by Ian. I first made contact with Ian through one of his YT videos. I really thought he was a leading Tefl expert. Had a bunch of questions that Ian gave great replies for and so took him up on his offer to Tefl train me. I remember thinking it was a bit strange that i had to give him my card details over the phone but i didn’t think too much about it because i thought he was kosher. I was meant to pay $300. When i checked my bank statement i saw Ian had taken the $300 and there was about another $900 missing from my account. Both payments were registered as being withdrawn from Japan. I’ve never paid for anything else in Japan. Luckily my bank did a chargeback for me and I recouped all my money. I had to cancel the card too. I really don’t understand why Ian is still in business and still scamming people. When i read through this blog post and the comments it took me back to a dark place, when my teaching plans were almost cancelled because of this person. I just feel so sorry for the other people who were not so lucky and who have been totally scammed by Ian. Astrid.
Oh and the article Ian wrote on Why Nearly All Women Are Prostitutes is disgusting and offensive. Also incredulous that a guy who provides a Tefl certificate course doesn’t know the first thing about phonetics. Astrid.
Astrid.
That is great news that you were able to claw your money back from Ian Leahy.
We 100% agree with you that Ian’s article is highly offensive. We are taken aback by the fact that he still has it published online. Ian just doesn’t appear to be accountable for anything he writes or does.
We also feel that it is incredulous that a guy who provides a TEFL course doesn’t know anything about phonetics. A guy who claims that he is a TEFL expert.
Mia Williams.
This is a quick 2022 new year ESLinsider update.
It has been brought to our attention that Ian Leahy (owner of ESLinsider) is now teaching English online.
This probably means that his ESLinsider (unaccredited) TEFL course is dead in the water for the time being.
We see that Ian is still spreading his TEFL “advice” online, via his blog, advice that tends to take the form of pure fiction, and this probably means that he plans on continuing with his TEFL program – that is if anyone is willing to pay him for one of his courses or for his job finding services.
Trusted TEFL Reviews recently published a TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam article.
Ian Leahy (ESLinsider) is mentioned in this article:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/02/07/tefl-affiliate-marketing-scam/
Mia Williams | Trusted TEFL Reviews
Ian Patrick Leahy (ESLinsider) has just completed a second winter job at a ski/snowboarding resort – this year it was on the border of Idaho and Montana, where he had an issue with his manager.
He is currently heading towards Oregon, where he plans on working a summer season at Mt. Hood.
We have written to all of the lodges at Mt. Hood to let them know of the multiple and credible online accusations (by his TEFL student customers) of Ian’s alleged criminal past.
We learned about his current movements from his many Reddit profiles, via a tip-off yesterday from one of the TEFL certification programs (one of his business competitors) that he has spent years baselessly trashing online.
Two of these Reddit profiles are:
u/1rub
lip420
The world of TEFL can sigh some relief that Ian Patrick Leahy (ESLinsider) is currently distracted from scamming TEFL students and writing rubbish about his TEFL business competitors.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
Trusted TEFL Reviews has recently written two more articles about the ESLinsider scam program:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/06/07/eslinsider/
https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/06/23/eslinsider-warning/
Mia Williams
ESLinsider, an unaccredited TEFL certification program, operated by Mr. Ian Patrick Leahy, of no current fixed abode, has never attained ACTEFLC Fully Accredited status.
Any such claims to the contrary should be ignored.
ESLinsider’s application for accreditation was denied in 2021.
The main reason for this denial of accreditation was due to the inability on the part of ESLinsider to provide documentation that supported a detailed breakdown of its company structure and staff hierarchy.
It was subsequently discovered that the ESLinsider TEFL program is operated by one individual, namely Ian Patrick Leahy; an individual who has no permanent address and who has a well-documented and well-known reputation for applying aggressive astroturfing techniques with which to gain new TEFL students.
As a direct result of this denial of Fully Accredited status, Ian Patrick Leahy has applied his astroturfing skill set towards attempting to undermine the online reputation of ACTEFLC.
This behavior is a continuation of a long history of astroturfing.
ACTEFLC isn’t the first organization to be targeted and we won’t be the last.
What is astroturfing?
Astroturfing is an “organized activity that is intended to create a false impression of a widespread, spontaneously arising, grassroots movement in support of or in opposition to something (such as a political policy) but that is in reality initiated and controlled by a concealed group or organization (such as a corporation)”.
Mr. Ian Patrick Leahy targets its competitors and other organizations connected with the TEFL community with such techniques.
The ultimate goal of these tactics is to part people who are new to TEFL from their money; money that gets spent on a TEFL course provided by ESLinsider that is neither accredited or internationally recognized.
ACTEFLC advises people to be extra vigilant when dealing with this individual and his ESLinsider TEFL company.
—
Christopher Haines
Head of Accreditation Office | https://www.acteflc.com
eslinsider.com is a scam.
The positive reviews of the program on the internet are so obviously fake.
I found the website through Ian Leahy, the owner, and naively thought it would be a good online TEFL program.
It wasn’t.
I wasted $300 on a TEFL course that was just a collection of PDF documents.
Ian Leahy is a scam artist.
He is all over the internet.
Don’t fall for this TEFL scam.
When I was researching TEFL online programs, I came across ESLinsider. As you wrote, Mia, he IS all over the internet for TEFL searches. I saw through him right away. If he weren’t selling his own TEFL course I would maybe listen to something he had to write, but because he plugs his course I wouldn’t take seriously anything he writes about the TEFL courses he targets. He can be convincing, but when you read deeper and cross check you see that he is just a TEFL course salesman. Methinks he would be better suited selling used cars.