EC Montreal English Language School

This could have been a great school. Unfortunately, Ana, the director of studies, is a nightmare to deal with. She hates her job. It shows. Don't count on her to meet with you even if she gives you an appointment. She doesn't care. A student with a complaint is just a nuisance to her. FIRE HER.

Want an international experience, becoming proficient in both English and French. This is the School!

I studied here for 3 weeks in 2014 and my English improved a lot! The teachers were great and the activities were plenty. However, I also took French classes here and did not really learn much. If it is French that you wish to study, better go to France. But if you want to study both, English and French, Montreal is the only place to go!

I wasted $3 thousands dollars in EC Montreal. I payed bilingual program and I didn’t have this. When I started the course, Ana (apparently* the pedagogic director) convinced me to start just in English class (morning and afternoon), well, I thought she knows what would be best for the students, and I trusted her. In four weeks I just studied "new vocabulary" in that classes (I mean two weeks just seeing about transportations and two weeks seeing about sports). I asked to change to other class with grammar (there is others classes with the same level) but they didn’t say anything, so I changed to bilingual program. The bilingual program in EC Montreal is different, you just have progress in the morning, because they don’t care about your afternoon class. For example, we don’t have progress test or some feedback from the teacher (only if you ask), and plus: we don’t have book or homework. I talked with the general director, Elisa, about this and she said something like “we are not shaping your English in the afternoon class”. But if we take classes, and supposedly we are learning something, we should have progress tests. Or not? No, in EC Montreal no! Finally, 12 weeks after my course, I did my exit tests (they fell proud of this because it is from Oxford) and I realized that the test has nothing in common with my classes. I mean, I have never ever see the type of test question in a class. That is, 12 weeks in grammar class in the afternoon and I have never see anything about third conditional (and the test is the most part about of this). The extra-activities in the afternoon is other problem, the responsible girl just take pictures when we come to the place, when everybody is happy, and then she goes away because she finished her work. In addition, she speaks only in Spanish which is her native language, I didn’t hear English or French from her. I have been in EC school for 12 weeks and (again) I HAVE NEVER EVER SEE SOMEONE CLEANING THE SCHOOL, every each day the bathroom is dirty as the tables in our classroom. If you don’t know about what you payed, or don’t care about your money, it’s a good place to study. It’s one of the most expensive schools in Montreal and doesn’t fulfill what sells. I’m just writing this because I talked with the director and I didn’t see that something will change. She just said “the schools receives many happy testimonials”. And I can understand why: you make a lot friends from every part of the world, you are happy because you don’t have your parents close, so everything is fun. But, I mean, you can have this in others schools. If you want to study English or French, EC Montreal is not a good place. And this is not my opinion, I have colleagues who have the same opinion and the same problem. They written in the testimonials the same truths as me and the school simply do not put it on the website. At the end, the director said me: “I am sorry for your bad experience with us”. Sorry? Three thousand dollars can’t be just sorry.

EC pays its teachers in Montreal $18/hr only for time in the classroom while expecting tons of work outside of it. It is an exploitative workplace using an outdated business model which belongs to the 1980s. Don't study here.

I had the best time at EC! I learned many new things and fell in love with Montreal! EC offers a very friendly and positive atmosphere to learn and gives us many opportunities to make friends and learn about the city. I will always remember my experience at the school.

EC Montreal is a great school with excellent teachers. The school organizes activities every week to create a very nice atmosphere at the school. I will recommend EC and will definitely come back to one of the many EC schools around the world! If you want more than just a language school, if you choose EC, you are going to have an amazing experience! I studied French and was able to improve my English too because Montreal is a bilingual city and the school also offers a bilingual course.

First of all, despite the money they took for the books, they don't provide books and other materials. (Only pdfs) They say because of the Covid-19 but also they organised a halloween party. When you go home, you have to revise what you learned in school. In the courses, you should take the photos of the board for exercices. You can learn French on YouTube, maybe better and for free.