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Wall Street English is an Italian-based language school that has been providing English education both online and in-person for many years. However, in this article, I will focus on their online classes to compare them with other platforms. As an online language school, Wall Street English does not openly display its prices. To obtain information about their prices, you need to contact the platform directly. In my opinion, this is a significant drawback because the lack of transparency regarding prices and plans creates a sense of unease for users.
Also, on Wall Street English, you can get one of three plans; online, full access, or private. I believe this is something we can’t analyze now since we don’t know the prices and the packages of these plans. However, I want to say I believe that a platform should be either just online or face-to-face rather than trying to do both.
Furthermore, Wall Street English employs a blended learning method where you first access interactive lessons and watch videos on your own. Then, you complete exercises provided by the platform. Only after that can you have a lesson with a teacher. In my opinion, the fact that Wall Street English mostly relies on self-study and doesn't prioritize individual lessons is a significant disadvantage. However, to provide you with a more comprehensive review, I have also examined user reviews alongside my own experience. I’ve gathered these reviews from Trustpilot, Quora, Play Store, and App Store.
Like any other platform, Wall Street English has its pros and cons. Therefore, I will share these with you to help you understand the platform better.
According to my own experience and the user reviews I have read, the best feature of Wall Street English is its comprehensive approach that includes all language skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This proved to be the most beneficial aspect of studying English with Wall Street English because it allowed me to improve my speaking skills and also provided a solid foundation for engaging in conversations. Therefore, in my opinion, the strongest aspect of Wall Street English lies in this integration of all language skills.
The worst feature of Wall Street English, according to my own experience and the user reviews I have read, is the fact that a significant portion of the work is left to the students themselves. While there are activities that cover various language skills and allow students to improve, they are expected to do everything except for speaking practice without much guidance from the teacher. This not only raises questions about the value of the price paid but also indicates a lack of emphasis on the student's education. This aspect bothered me the most and even led me to discontinue my collaboration with the platform. This is because, with Wall Street English, you need to watch the interactive videos and complete the exercises, then you can get into a group lesson and talk about the video and exercises.
Trustpilot is a platform where users from around the world can share their opinions and rate brands based on their experiences. That is why it is an important resource when researching a company. Therefore, I also examined the Trustpilot reviews for Wall Street English.
In my investigation, I found that there were 1,176 reviews about this platform on Trustpilot. Of these reviews, 84% were positive, 6% were neutral, and 10% were negative. However, the most notable aspect that caught my attention was the inability to access a significant portion of the reviews. I had not encountered such a situation with the brands I previously examined, which led me to consider the possibility of Wall Street English being involved in filtering the reviews. Of course, I cannot confirm if such a thing is possible. Anyway, now I will share some of the reviews about Wall Street English from Trustpilot with you.
Before we delve into the reviews, I would like to point out that a significant portion of the positive reviews were made as a result of an invitation from the platform. This means that users provided feedback not only based on their own initiative but also at the request of the platform. This may slightly alter the perspective, but of course, the final judgment is up to you.
“I’ve been attending this school for 1 and a half years and I feel very good because the teacher are super helpful and very good. When I started, my English was bad.. but finally I’m learning and I’m able to understand everything!!” -Jey, Trustpilot
“I very appreciated the exercises and the interactive activity of the Workbook, I liked also the frequency of the Digital Encounter, but I'd like to have a less mechanical Encounter schedule. Everything although, thanks WSE!” -Nicolo
Under normal circumstances, I would have liked to examine the reviews that received 1 and 2 stars in this section. However, as I mentioned before, a significant portion of the reviews about Wall Street English on Trustpilot is not visible, and somehow these reviews tend to be mostly negative. Therefore, I would like to share with you two reviews that I was able to see:
“I can't recommend it, I've tried various English schools but this one just didn't satisfy me!” -Francesco Fratta, Trustpilot
“Not useful if you are looking for improve your English. The price of the course does not justify the real value of the lessons. Classes do not prepare you for the certifications required at a professional level.” Marco, Trustpilot
On Quora, there are many questions left unanswered on Wall Street English. Questions that got answered are either about teaching there or the answers are unrelated to the question. Therefore, I will share only one question and its answers with you.
A Quora user asked “Do you think Wall Street English is very useful for student?” and this question got 5 answers. Here are 3 of those answers:
One user, who taught for 2 years on Wall Street English answered the question saying most students don’t get much success since the platform relies on its students to do 2/3 of the work by themselves.
Another user said it is useful for speaking if you join group classes. However, this person didn’t give any information about the interactive lessons and the exercises.
“It could be useful for speaking if you join social-complementary-chat classes. I am studying English with WSI system. I enjoy so much.” -Burcu Sener, Quora
Lastly, a user named John Edmond who taught on Wall Street English for 3 years said the platform can be successful in many areas but also fails in most of them too. He said the experience you get as a student depends completely on the school you are choosing and the staff. Therefore, I can’t be sure about online education. Furthermore, he said on some face-to-face branches, there are very few native teachers, students have to work by themselves for the most part, and the classes not being suitable for beginners and advanced students.
“Beginners really struggle because everything is in English and it can be very confusing for them to work out even basic meanings. Advanced students rarely benefit as the system doesn’t really prepare students well for complex discussions, nor does it provide comprehensive vocabulary or encourage nuanced use of English.” -John Edmond, Quora
On Play Store, Wall Street English app has over 8 thousand reviews and a rating of 3.1 out of 5. This means many users commented on Play Store about the platform and even though most reviews are positive, the number of negative reviews is too high to be ignored. Here, positive reviews are about how helpful and easy to use the app is. On the other hand, negative reviews are about technical problems within the app. I think these two sides conflict with each other. Therefore, I will share some of the reviews so that you can decide for yourself:
“Excelent platform to increase your English skills, I love it!” -Juan Camilo Benitez Santana, Play Store
“Its not mobile friendly, also cant book the classes through the app and after the update several task on my digital book also disappear. Huff” -Annisa Choirani, Play Store
“Everything is good. But when I am In the speaking session in this app on my phone it would always say that I'm wrong even though I pronounced everything perfectly. Tried that on my laptop and in center. They work perfectly fine but not on my phone. it's a big problem because when I have to go on trips, I can only rely on my phone and it have that big problem. Devs, please, fix it.” -Htoo San, Play Store
“The app oftenly freeze. Developer update the app too frequently and it effect my schedule for practice. Moreover, WSE has too much restrict rule for class booking. It's not good as it try to advertise itself. Lastly, if you haven't flexible time, you will regret if you choose WSE. I'm the one who regret. However, my 1 year course will end soon.” -jasmee noh, Play Store
On App Store, there are only 287 reviews on Wall Street English and the platform has a rating of 4.4 out of 5. Here, positive reviews are about the app being helpful while negative reviews are about the technical problems within the app. This I think shows that the app needs some improvement and since some of the reviews are a few years old, I don’t think the platform is improving the app.
“Great App. It really helps me since I am more convenient with my iPad to study lessons. Besides it sometimes have connection problems. Although my internet is great it show slow connection sometimes.” -မင္းတလ, App Store
“Great!!! It is very good for home user.” -Phyo 88, App Store
“Sadly, this app is terrible. I can’t study conversation lessons. I open this app and study about 3 minutes. After that, it show alert “slow internet”. Actually, my internet is great. Because, so that’s every times that I check my internet with a other movie websites at the moment. And these websites alway do work good.” -sadly 2018 June, App Store
“Terrible app. It’s really terrible to use. I have to record for my lesson but I got an error again and again. It’s wasted of my time. You need to fix as soon as possible.” -puae pyae moe, App Store
Based on the user reviews I have read and my own experience, Wall Street English is not a reliable platform. The reasons for this include the platform not being suitable for beginners despite not being clearly stated on its website, the significant amount of work that students are expected to do on their own, and the platform not delivering on their promises. Therefore, I would advise you to focus more on these aspects rather than the reviews from students who may have had a positive experience, and I recommend avoiding taking the risk with Wall Street English.
However, of course, you can ultimately decide what is best for you. If you are interested, you can visit our website to explore 7 other online English learning platforms and check out any ongoing promotions to find affordable language education.
