BROWNS English Language School, 1/102 Adelaide Street, Brisbane

You might be lucky and have a great teacher, but apart from that, I cannot recommend Browns ELS. First of all, many friends told me that there is a huge difference in the course pace between exam preparation courses and others. While the pace is adequate for the Cambridge courses, you might be better of considering another school for any other course. Moreover, if there are too few people, as this was the case for the business course, one might have to attend another class, which does barely prepare you for the final exam. Despite all those, many of the student computers do not work. In the unlikely event that you should have found one not being infected by some malicious program, it is quite probable that the internet will not work. A fact which is known by the Browns management for ages and although they said that they will improve it shortly, nothing happend. This excuse however, is something which isn't uncommon at all. Especially when it comes to Browns Luxury Accommodation. Two of my friends experienced bruise while sleeping on low quality mattress where you could feel the springs. Although they had complained and were told that they will order new mattresses immediately, nothing happened till they complained through their agency. Then, they were at least given another (used) mattress. Despite that, they were neither allowed to use the air conditioning nor to invite a friend. Moreover, there were too few dishes, despite that they were hardly in an usable state. In addition, they also had ants. Regarding the location, it is about a 10 to 15' walk from the school, right beside a park. Beautiful, isn't it? Well, at least as long as we do not consider the neary uncountable rail tracks on the other side of the building. So be prepared to hear trains and birds all day long. All in all, it's definitely not luxury and similar appartements in the same building are at least $100 cheaper per week per person(!) So Browns is earning $100 per week, when you book your accommodation through Browns. In case you have made your decision to life with a homestay family as I did, you might be again more or less lucky. Whereas it took me about 30 minutes to school, others had to commute for up to an hour and more. Definitely not that what they promise! Moreover, not all hosts are really carefully selected by Browns. There are some families which do it only for the money. And although the students complain over the same homestays again and again, nothing is done. Eventually, I would like to mention, that, according to my opinion, a first class teacher should be someone who has some experience in teaching. I do not want to say that the Browns teacher are inexperienced, but hardly any teacher did her/his profession for more than two years...