Teacher Standards

What we require

Sufficient fluency in the language you teach, and a genuine belief in the DLI philosophy — not a perfect command of grammar, and not a background in formal teaching. What we look for is a willingness to follow the system rather than default back to textbook habits once certified.

In practice, our best teachers have often been advanced students who improved rapidly using DLI themselves. Having felt the method work as a learner is one of the strongest signals that someone will teach it well.

Teacher tiers

FunLingua teachers fall into one of two tiers:

Tier 1 — FunLingua Certified Teachers

• Trained and certified through the paid DLI Certification Workshop
• Listed publicly in the directory with a "DLI Certified" badge
• Sets their own hourly rate — FunLingua adds a transparent platform fee on top, and the teacher keeps 100% of the rate they set
• Paid twice monthly for teaching hours
• Can teach private, pair, and group lessons

Tier 2 — White-Label SaaS Subscribers

• Independent teachers or schools, not listed in the FunLingua directory
• Pay a fixed monthly subscription for DLI materials and classroom tools
• Cannot brand themselves as "FunLingua teachers"

Certified teachers become eligible for the SaaS tier after 72 hours of certified teaching on-platform — one full fluency cycle — and many teachers use both simultaneously. See Become a Teacher for the full career path and earnings detail.

Certification vs. listing

Certification (the credential) and listing (active, bookable status in the directory) are kept deliberately separate:

• A teacher can be certified but temporarily unlisted — for a holiday, a pause, or because a specific language is temporarily oversupplied — without losing the certification itself
• Only listed teachers appear in the public directory; listing status is a visibility filter, not a judgment on certification

This avoids two problems at once: an overcrowded directory full of inactive profiles, and revoking a teacher's hard-earned certification over a temporary supply-and-demand imbalance rather than any fault of their own.

The certification path

Certification follows four steps, designed as a genuine filter rather than a formality:

• 1. Read the Method — the application confirms you've read and understood the DLI Method page before applying.
• 2. DLI Certification Workshop — a one-time paid workshop covering methodology, a live Q&A and demo lesson with the founder, and enrollment as an observer in a real lesson.
• 3. Observed Lesson — you teach a real class while a certified teacher observes and gives feedback.
• 4. DLI Certified — your profile goes live in the directory with the DLI Certified badge, immediately bookable.

For the full walkthrough, pricing, and the application form itself, see Become a Teacher.

Why we ask "why does DLI appeal to you?"

The application includes one open-text question: "Why does the DLI method appeal to you?" It's there deliberately, not as a formality. The answer helps us tell apart applicants who genuinely believe in immersion-based teaching from those chasing income who might quietly revert to their own habits once certified. Belief in the method is part of what we're certifying — not just the ability to speak a language.