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Monday, February 04, 2008

Eurolingua Brno, Czech Republic

This comment appeared on the "nominate a school for blacklisting section."

Eurolingua in Brno, Czech Republic is best to avoid.

"After one interview and seeing the premisis, I opted not to take a job offer with them and decided that I will not work with them ever.

The woman who runs the place has very little in people skills or social graces and said to my face that she refuses to hire people legally, won't help employees with taxes. Basically, she said she gives you the money and the rest is your problem and don't ask her for help.

The bureaucracy in the Czech Republic for foreigners is quite daunting, so you certainly don't need an employer like this

While I have not worked there personally, I have a colleague and a former student who both have done teaching work there (they are both Czech) and neither had much good to say about the owner of the school or her people skills, they also went on to say that many students were not happy at the owner's business practices on one level or another."

_________________________________________________________

Not too sure whether this schools deserves a mention here. Any comments either way (nothing nasty please) would be of help.
In any case a degree of caution never does any harm.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Pamplona, Spain


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can concur with some of what's being said here.

Like the original poster, my personal experience with Eurolingua is limited to an interview. I have however taught students who came from Eurolingua to schools I was teaching at and they did not have much complimentary to say about it.

As for my interview (early 2007). The woman who runs the school did indeed come across as rather clipped and curt though I would not say outright rude. The whole interview did feel very, very rushed though.

As for the premisis, the biggest problem I saw is that the building the school is in faces out onto one of the main roads into the centre of the city and its always busy. Although the school is not on the ground floor, the noise is quite noticable and I could see it as being a distraction while teaching.

The taxation matter is only an issue if you're working in the Czech Republic on a work permit, as opposed to a business license. Under a work permit, the filing of taxes is the responsibility of the employer. Under a business license it is the responsibility of the license holder. If the original poster wanted to work on a permit rather than a license, then it would be an issue if the employer refused to pay taxes.

The Czech bureaucracy is indeed the bain of foreigners in this country. In as much as the work permit is concerned, it is the place of the employer to apply for that, the individual employee can not.

For myself, I did not make the decision of not working for Eurolingua based on the interview, I simply got a better offer from a different school.

Based on the number of former Eurolingua students I've had in my own classes and the general disatisfaction they voice about it. I'd be inclined to avoid it.

If you are going to work for them. take out a business license so you don't have to dick about with who pays taxes and such, you'll have more control and most CZech schools would rather you had one anyway.