[Nathan]

Although it did get me over to Japan for a few years, I believe the entire eikaiwa industry itself is a sham. Lack of qualified teachers, lack of actual educational material, etc.

From my brief experience, most of the people who took eikaiwa (and only eikaiwa) classes did not improve their ability, or their improvement was marginal. They would have been much better off taking a course from an actual certified instructor.