Pros
Some of the teaching staff was very kind, and did try to behave as professionally as they could, in the midst of a highly unprofessional environment, and the constant bullying by the academic manager.
Cons
Unqualified and viciously bullying mid-management, and poisonous work environment that will make no love of teaching, and no money in the world any worth it. Bias and kinship: Native English Speakers will be treated with a lot more respect than the non native, and given career advancement opportunities in place of more senior staff because of their nationalities. The teaching is backwards, outdated, and highly inefficient; the students are provided with photocopies of books, instead of actual books, which makes up for a really embarrassing reality for the teachers. Classes are way too too big, and too far apart in age and capability gap, which makes the teaching unfeasible. I had never taught in a language institute where you can have a class of 18 plus people, from 50 year olds to 15 year olds. The school says (upon interview) that it will help set you up with accommodation, but that is a blatant lie. Upon arrival you are placed in a filthy, dangerously unsanitary run down hotel, for a week, after which you are also completely left on your own to find accommodation, in a country where it is not only ridiculously overpriced, but also highly scarce, and where you are subsequently subjected to scams at every turn. East Timor's lack of infrastructure and accommodation scams are a very well known factor in the region, and yet LELI provides no warning and no safety net what so ever to its teachers. As a result this school always ends up losing all its best teachers, almost upon arrival, while being left with either staff that is not very serious, or just those who strive in a poisonous work environment _which will obviously further contribute to the latter. The school does not seem to mind the turn over at all though, because even though teachers leave all the time, there are always more teachers (who are unaware of all the above mentioned) flying in. Be aware of your visa situation. The school has you working for them for months on a tourist visa, and makes you pay for a work visa which you have never enjoyed if you leave before they have sorted it. For an institute who currently advertises itself as one who is looking for serious teachers, LELI is simply the most unethical and disreputable place I have ever worked for _the exact type of place that will seldom give ESL teaching and teachers a bad reputation _The irony in its claim of striving for seriousness being exactly that it's mostly a place for ESL backpackers, BALI cruisers who wish to make a little money while travelling through that part of the world. And I say this with no judgement towards these type of people, I am just saying that if you are a serious teacher then this is not the place for you _ it's a trap, a total bate; so much so that I had to remove the very few months I could bring myself to stay there out of my CV. Avoid this institute unless you are too desperate.