АНГЛИЙСКИЙ НА СТЕРОИДАХ - КУРС ЗА 45000 РУБЛЕЙ | DAVE_ENGLISHBAD

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

Intro / context

• The speaker (a linguist) says it has been a while since their channel had reviews.
• They claim they overprepared for today’s review by:
  • reviewing a course for about a month, and
  • “sampling/working through” it for the rest of the time.
• They frame the video as partly humorous (“banter”), while also aiming for objective criticism.

Debate over “expertise” and credibility (Dave’s background)

The speaker calls Dave’s claimed expertise controversial and argues that his “teacher in China” background is not meaningful because:

• In their view, China mostly enables native English teachers (USA/UK/Canada, etc.) to teach.
• If Dave is not actually qualified as a teacher (or if students/families were misled about his nationality), the credibility of his courses is questioned.
• They argue that teaching credentials obtained under such conditions “have no value.”

Course pricing and marketing framing (“English on steroids”)

• The speaker says the course is very expensive, mentioning a price around 40,000–45,000 rubles (including the need to take out a loan/credit).
• They interpret “on steroids” as marketing branding similar to fitness/gym-style “pumping” metaphors.
• They conclude it’s largely a uniqueness gimmick, not a literal educational advantage.

What the course claims to offer (structure of lessons)

The speaker describes the course’s lesson flow (“canvas”/workflow) as:

• Warm-up: pictures + words
• Sentence filling: selecting/placing parts into brackets (staged grammar presentation)
• Grammar training: video + brief explanations
• Bracket filling with theory
• Short text practice: fill blanks while using audio
• Bind/close practice: transactional dialogue (“learning to buy”) with short audio + Q&A
• Speaking / roleplay:
  • read lines another person (teacher/partner) says
  • listen again and answer using true/false
  • produce the written phrases and receive responses
• Further repetition of prior materials
• Daily practice: compared to Anki
• Cardio: extra content video to increase exposure/listening

Positives acknowledged

The speaker credits the course for:

• Many tasks spanning receptive and productive skills (listen/read/write/speak)
• Feedback via a curator
• A structured metaphor: warm-up → training → cooldown/cardio
• Avoiding being only “recorded grammar videos,” using modern AI/neural-network generation
• Additional materials, including:
  • quizzes
  • Anki-like practice
  • a downloadable training journal

Serious criticisms

AI audio feels lifeless

• They argue “combining two voices” is not full audio quality.
• They want:
  • more sound design,
  • more realistic situations,
  • more creativity,
  • and less generic dialogue recycling.
• They claim the AI-generated dialogues lack “human touch.”

Roleplay format doesn’t maximize speaking

• They complain that some roleplays are basically reading lines rather than actively manipulating language.

Group classes with native speakers—called “cringe” and ineffective

Biggest complaint: native-speaker group lessons were extremely boring/unproductive. Allegations include:

• the native speaker didn’t follow the lesson plan well
• the instructor asked questions one-by-one without good correction/feedback
• no meaningful group interaction or creative assignments occurred
• lack of feedback made the session feel like a waste of time

They also add an age-mismatch complaint:

• minors/children should not be mixed with older men for these topics
• the discussion topics are inappropriate for children

Teacher quality and selection

• They argue teacher selection is not strict enough.
• Example: the teacher allegedly missed an A2-level mistake, which the speaker considers unacceptable for an expensive course.

Level/vocabulary mismatch

• Vocabulary feels unclear per level (A1/A2/B2), with words they see as unnecessary at low levels.
• They also criticize texts/tasks for being too dry and not like real reading materials.

Overall evaluation and pricing conclusion

• The speaker says it’s not a scam-like “just pump money” course, and some design choices are good.
• However, they claim they overpaid, and the main weaknesses make it not worth the higher tiers.
• Final stance:
  • Even the minimum tier (~20,000 rubles) is still considered expensive.
  • They estimate a fair maximum price around 10,000 rubles.
  • Recommendation for group classes:
    • replace native speakers with better ones, or
    • hire strong professional Russian-speaking teachers.

Promotional segments: speaker’s own school and additional courses

The speaker promotes their own school:

• Communicative approach
• Lessons primarily in English (with some Russian elements)
• Personal teacher selection by the speaker, supervision of lessons, and recorded lessons
• Use of “Progress Me” and textbooks/foreign publications
• Free level check with human feedback (bot assigns, human provides feedback)
• Notes about upcoming price increases and booking with current tariffs

They also promote a new phrasal verbs course (relaunch):

• 11 topics / 11 weeks
• Practice in speaking, reading, writing, listening
• Speaking + writing tests with feedback
• Total duration: 11 weeks + an extra month to finish while work is checked
• Price: 4,000 rubles

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Methodology / instructions presented (detailed)

A) How to enter the giveaway (stated rules)

• Write a comment
• Like the video
• Subscribe to the channel
• The speaker states they check subscriptions when deciding winners.
• Winners:
  • can receive the featured book, or
  • if they don’t want it, they claim they can negotiate sending another textbook instead.

B) How the course lessons are organized (“canvas” workflow)

• Warm-up with pictures + words
• Fill in sentence blanks (brackets) to introduce grammar
• Grammar training with video + short explanation
• Repeat bracket-filling using the theory
• Practice with a short text:
  • fill blanks
  • use audio and answer questions while listening
• “Bind/close” style exercise (transactional dialogue):
  • short dialogues
  • listen to audio
  • answer questions
• Speaking / roleplay:
  • read what the partner/“girl/Dave” says
  • listen again
  • true/false
  • say the prepared phrases; partner responds
• Additional repetition of earlier content
• Daily practice (Anki-like)
• “Cardio”:
  • additional video content for listening exposure

C) Phaslav verbs course learning plan (speaker’s relaunch)

• 11 weeks = 11 phrasal verb topics
• Weekly assignments cover:
  • speaking
  • reading
  • writing
  • listening
• Tests:
  • speaking test
  • writing test
• Feedback includes:
  • correctness of phrasal verb usage
  • overall speaking feedback
• Duration:
  • 11 weeks + 1 extra month to finish
  • ongoing checking during the extra month
• Price: 4,000 rubles

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Speakers / sources featured (as identified in the subtitles)

• Borodaty the linguist (main speaker/reviewer; also promotes their own school and courses)
• Comrade Dave / Dave_Englishbad (course author being reviewed; referenced as “Dave himself”)
• Evgeniya (senior teacher; British accent; mentioned as checking pronunciation in the speaker’s promoted pronunciation course)
• Anatoly (mentioned as a teacher involved in replacements/dropped lessons)
• Ksenia (named during an observed speaking/roleplay lesson)
• Additional named individuals in the subtitles (possibly students/participants):
  • Maxim, Denis, Danil, Lyokha, Dmitry
• No explicit external “news source” beyond a brief unrelated satirical song/prison sentence snippet shown in subtitles (likely a filler/auto-caption artifact rather than a clearly sourced reference).