What is a Ph.D? The definition is a Doctor of Philosophy. If a person refers to someone having a Ph.D in music for example, they have not described the degree in the proper manner. I have a Doctorite in Music but I do not have a Ph.D. As for all the decussion regarding the legitimate TESOL Certificate......in Canada and the USA, only recognized schools by the government are legitimate recognized certificates obtained by a person. I have worked in foreign countries teaching EFL....not ESL for ten years and I can tell you from experience, there are many people who call themselves teachers of English who cannot put a decent sentence together. I did not work in Asia because I had to but rather, because I wanted to do so. Along with teaching at the University level, many students do not care regarding their profiicentcy but are only concerned about a high mark which they wanted handed out like it were candy, so as to enter the top Universities in South Korea which by the way, are listed at 156 in the UN's list of good universities around the world. There are many private business schools in Western Countries that only want to take your money and provide little good training regarding teaching English as a Second Language. And yes, South Korea has a long way to go before it has reasonable perfection of teaching methods. An English speaking person cannot teach English through Korean. The Ministry of Education in Seoul is paranoid regarding its students losing their Korean Language via only English teaching in the classroom. They are also paranoid regarding the retention of their culture. The new President of South Korea is in the process of doing away with private money making don't care about the foreign teacher attitude and hiring qualified foreign teachers to work in their Universities, High and Elementary Schools. That is a good move but they still have a long way to go in the treatment of qualified foreign teachers. Having worked in the Ministry of Educationd system, they still want to control what the Foreign teacher teaches.....they are nothing but paranoid.