Some clips of Flight of the Conchords. "Business Time" and "Jenny" are partcularly great. Two very talented and funny Kiwis!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Call for Papers


Well, it's a call for anything, really. Fact is, I haven't received notification of any grotty EFL outfits who deserve the TEFL Blacklist treatment over the past few weeks, and that's just got to be wrong!

So, please get yourselves together and send me your alarming stories of barmy bosses, crackpot colleagues and demon Directors. I'll be waiting to hear from you!

6 comments:

Hypersonic said...

I shall have to work one up about Embassy then, won't I?

The TEFL Tradesman said...

I'm sure that won't be difficult, Ali. I could get together a story about Embassy, too - in fact, I reckon half the EFL teachers in the UK could do so!

So make it a real good one, eh?!

Anonymous said...

How about the mighty Nova from Japan?

Unknown said...

The absolutely worst place I worked for was CDC in Rome. The outfit is till trudging along. They calimed to be a method school but their method was a text and questions...no, translation hadn't been mentioned. ANyway, I worked there for four years and discovered what it must have been like to be Padre Pio. I had to be in two separate rooms at times. SO, the director got double pay as she used to book two studetns per hour and I would run back and forth. Sad thing is...I earned just a little less than I earn today with a far more reputable school I have trained to be every possible type of EL Cambridge trainer (CELTA, DELTA, CELTYL) and have an MA in applied linguistics but...I earn just a little more than what I earned working for a cowboy outfit back in 1991 !

Anonymous said...

Uhhh, puhLEASE add LONGRE Centres imMEDIATELY in SHANGHAI as worthy of lifetime achievement award for cheating teachers, ripping off students, hiring shady unqualified staffers, and for fleecing staff, students and teachers in a 3 in 1 fell swoop. LIFETIME Oscar for Lies and Cheating! Avoid LONGRE!


Right off the bat, when I first signed the contract, the first day on the job the secretary at the front desk told me that the person who hired me had just been fired(!). The place ended up as a fiasco where at any time varying students and teachers were in and out in a confusion worthy of any Chinese fire drill.

Longre qu se ba! (du bu qi, excuse me bentin')

Anonymous said...

Get STRONGER stay away from LONGRE training centers!! Say NO to Longre! They have a reputation for lies. They tell you on the contract you are just a teacher but they will try to get you to do free things for them like to interviews for corporate companies, compose books for them. They use the lie of ohh we will just pay you as teaching hrs....this is total bullshit. They also will put the base salary at minimum 15hrs to a maximum of 60 hrs but it is impossible to do over time only in the summer you may get some over time. They will lie and tell you there are alot of hours. In fact there are not much, so you are stuck with base salary!!

They pay nothing for their teachers and right now are in desperate need for teachers...they were soo desperate that they hired people from non-native English speaking countries to teach..Crazy for the students to understand!

The staff are rude and have no manners and speak little or no English. The management is very unorganized. At one time they were calling the teachers the night before to take a class the next morning...they are supposed to give at least one week notice.

They also completly rip off the students by charging them out standing prices for books and courses. They do not even care about the level of the student...they just want to fill the classes and collect the money. At least if you take 6,000 to 10,000 Yuan from someone at least put them in the right level. Also this is due to the Chinese staff interviewing the students and they do the placement and their English is not even the best...so this the result.

I had one Chinese IELTS teacher at Longre tell me he still has not graduated from University and he has never taught before and has no teaching certificate and Longre hired him and paid him like 20 yuan per class. This is what Longre does for the staff...the hire shady people with no or little skills and it shows!

Don't get me started on the GM's and upper managemt!! They walk right by us teachers with their snotty nose so high in the air with their Pink cuff linked shirts...The Kings of SHIT Island!!

This school is sinking and is not one to go to. There are many other centers in Shanghai that pay much better and have good management.

Again, please stay away from LONGRE TRAINING CENTERS!!! They are full of lies, cheating and screwing anyone they can to make their BLACK money!!

Get STRONGER say NO to LONGRE!!!