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Sunday, August 03, 2008

Berlitz Zagreb, Croatia

Posted on the "nominate a school for blacklisting section". Any comments?

"Berlitz Zagreb Croatia is nearly identical to its Turkish counterparts. 40 odd hours of unpaid and irregularly training, a Canadian LIS who can't tell time and confuses Tuesday and Thursday and who prefers to communicate changes telepathically, promises of ample classroom hours only to be rewarded with late or missing pay, unfulfilled working permits etc. They're also constantly hiring and have known to have a nearly complete turnover every 3-4 months. I'd recommend collecting garbage or volunteering for work in Iraq before this place. Hope it's not too late for inclusion."
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Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Pamplona, Spain

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds similiar to a 2008 experience an acquaintance went through. A two week unpaid training session, no guarantee of hours and he reported a rude staff, as well. In the end, he was not hired and told that the training he received was compensation enough for his time! Also Berlitz-Zagreb teachers (don't know if this is universal) are prohibited from teaching in other lang schools -- some teachers have been fired because of it.

Anonymous said...

I had the same experience at Berlitz Zagreb. We were given approximately 10 CD-roms full of "training" which really was nothing more than 40+ hours of self made commercials for Berlitz and their so called "method." They didn't keep many of their promises and would routinely find reasons to either cut pay, not fulfill promises of work permits, or cancel classes without warning to you or your students.

They have a "senior status" at Berlitz-ZG. It basically requires you to work 400-500 classroom hours or 18 months if I am not mistaken before you receive your "full pay." Unfortunately, most of us (especially the German native speakers) were weeded out fairly or unfairly before we even came close. If you last 6 months at this place, you're doing something magical.

They have a very, very nasty reputation around Zagreb. But fear not! There are language schools on nearly every street corner and ALL of them are happy to find a qualified native speaker. It's a great city and beautiful country.