Practice Paradise — Course Review
Is it really as effective as English Coach Chad claims?
Disclaimer: This is not sponsored content. I bought Practice Paradise one year ago and my intent is to provide an honest review.
In the past 2 years, I have taken my English from a poor A2 to a solid C1. During this journey, I tried every app, method, and approach possible. At the same time, I never really worried about improving my spoken English. I always thought it was simply too difficult for me.
Everything changed when Mark Farnsworth introduced me to IPA and explained in a simple way the most common mistakes I was making and how to correct them. During that conversation, I realized that I could drastically improve my pronunciation with a few simple adjustments.
So, I opened YouTube and started looking for shadowing videos. This is when I came across English Coach Chad’s channel. It did not take me long to consume all of his free videos. So, motivated by his method, I decided to buy an annual subscription to his course, Practice Paradise.
Was is worth it? Let’s find out in this review of English Coach Chad’s Practice Paradise course.
Content
When you join Practice Paradise, you gain access to more than 2,500 videos with transcription, audio recordings, and downloading options. In those videos, English Coach Chad reads an on-screen script, inviting you to shadow him or repeat with him 2 or 3 times. In all of the videos, the recipe is pretty much always that. What changes is the topic, the speed with which he speaks, the choice of words, and the learning goal. In other words, Practice Paradise is all about improving your English pronunciation.
Note that most of the videos are in HD and last 10 to 15 minutes. Also, each video allows you to leave comments to ask English Coach Chad or other students for help or clarification.
As English Coach Chad told me in an email conversation we had, he considers Practice Paradise as the Netflix of English learning. Although Netflix offers much more advanced search and filtering systems, the amount of content offered by Practice Paradise is simply jaw-dropping.
Also, just as in Netflix, each video is part of a short series of 15–50 episodes called “courses.” At the time of writing, there are 65 courses available, each of which course has its own specific theme or goal. This makes it much easier to find what resource you want to use to practice English. For example, I prefer entertaining videos to formal ones, and I found in “Smile & Speak English” a good source to end my learning lesson with a smile.
Verdict: 10/10
When I bought the course, I did not expect such a large and varied collection of videos. The amount of content Practice Paradise gives you access to is simply incredible.
Platform
All Practice Paradise content is available through a web platform. Just like Netflix, all you have to do to access the platform is log in to the site with the credentials you created during registration. Then, you can browse the available courses or perform a text search to find videos to watch.
Unfortunately, the search system does not work as you would expect. Actually, it does not provide effective results. Plus, the Practice Paradise platform completely lacks tags or genres. This means that filtering videos and finding similar content are not easy tasks.
The platform comes with a Guide page that tells you how to use Practice Paradise. At the same time, there is not really a system that takes you by the hand and guides you through the videos and their difficulty. When I first entered Practice Paradise, I felt disoriented by the amount of content available, and a year later, the situation has not changed much. Chances are that you spend more time searching for videos than watching them. Now I truly understand the Netflix metaphor!
The strengths of the system are definitely represented by the progress info. The platform tells you how many videos you have watched of a series, gives you the option of marking a video as viewed or not, and provides you with a total count of the videos you have watched. These are all the stats you really need.
I am a software engineer, and maybe my expectations were simply too high, but I would have appreciated more features. For example, I would have loved to be able to set reminder emails. Also, I would have liked to see some gamification elements.
Verdict: 7/10
Practice Paraside is about content, not technolgy. It provides you with what you need to improve your English, but do not expect a Netflix-like user experience.
Approach
English Coach Chad seems to be a wholesome human being, someone you would like to know in real life. He smiles in every video, encourages, and inspires you with his positive energy. English Coach Chad really seems to love what he does, and this makes all the difference.
Also, just like us students, he makes mistakes. It is not uncommon to see him correcting himself, repeating a sentence, or asking himself questions about the pronunciation of a word. When you find yourself struggling to repeat a sentence and see him struggling as well, it will help you realize that even native speakers can have a hard time with some expressions. This is truly encouraging.
So, if you are looking for formal classes, you may not like English Coach Chad’s approach. If, on the other hand, you prefer to learn in a more relaxed way, you will enjoy Practice Paradise a lot.
Verdict: 10/10
English coach Chad brings a ton of energy to each video and that makes Practice Paradise special.
Pricing
You can buy Practice Paradise in two ways:
- 1-Year Access for $98 USD
- Lifetime Access for $248 USD
In other terms, you can get access to 2,500+ videos to improve your English pronunciation, with text transcripts, and the ability to download them all for almost $8 USD a month. Also, keep in mind that English Coach Chad keeps adding new videos. So what you are buying is access to a course that keeps getting better over time.
Most competitive courses cost more and, as you are about to discover, are not as effective as Practice Paradise. Generally, I do not like to spend money on language-learning services. First, because I am a cheap guy. Second, I always feel they provide an amateur approach to learning or improving a language. Why pay, when I can find equal or better content in free form on the Internet?
On the contrary, Practice Paradise offers a professional solution that can really make a difference in your English. You will not find something comparable for free online. So, considering the quantity and quality of the content Practice Paradise gives you access to, that’s a steal!
Also, keep in mind that with Practice Paradise you will also gain the ability to contact English Coach Chad. You can email him with your doubts or leave a comment directly below the videos. I sent him a couple of emails, and he responded in less than 24 hours. This is priceless!
Verdict: 10/10
For $8 USD a month, Practice Paradise is ridiculously cheap. I do not like to spend money, but I would be willing to pay three times as much to have access to such a high-quality service.
Effectiveness
At the end of the day, the effectiveness of a course is what really matters, and Practice Paradise does not disappoint expectations. I used the course intensively for a couple of months, and it helped me significantly improve my pronunciation.
I now know the correct English pronunciation of more than a thousand words. Also, more importantly, my tongue has become used to pronouncing sounds that I would not naturally be able to make in my native languages. This is a skill that you will be able to reuse when learning other languages with similar phonetics as well.
At the same time, as with any course, you need to be consistent if you want to get better. For personal and business reasons, I had to shelve the course in the second half of the year. However, I am convinced that if I had maintained the constancy that such a course deserves, I could now sound like a native speaker in most sentences. I never thought I would say this. Thank you Practice Paradise for restoring my confidence in my English pronunciation!
In conclusion, the effectiveness of the course is unquestionable. Still, I would have liked to see some more technical videos on IPA and proper tooth and tongue positioning. Maybe that is not the goal of the course, or maybe I could not find these videos because of the poor search system. Either way, I would like English Coach Chad to put more emphasis on technical content as well. This might help students in improving some specific sounds, such as the th-sound.
Verdict: 9,5/10
Practice Paradise will help you improve your English pronunciation impressively. For language learning enthusiasts, it lacks a bit of technicality, but for the average student, this is an 11/10.
Practice Paradise: Final Verdict
Practice Paradise contains a ton of English learning videos on a Netflix-like platform. Unfortunately, the user experience is not as rich as on Netflix. But the real star here is English Coach Chad, the author of the course. His energy is contagious, and his approach will convince you that you can really achieve your goals. Practice Paradise is not just any ordinary course. Practice Paradise is the ultimate resource for improving English pronunciation.
