Job Discussion Forums

[Seetheworld]

I've decided to post this in a different thread because I want everyone to know that Berlitz Istanbul has lost its franchise is now New York Studio. I could see that the thread about Berlitz has been revived and I know that they are currently recruiting heavily. I am a person who has worked for this company for over a year now so I can speak with some authority regarding working conditions and company policy.
You should not take relative silence on the message boards to mean that things have in any way improved. They may be better than they were years ago, I can't say, but things are definitely not good now (nor have they ever been, really, just bearable enough for a relatively easy going person to deal with) and are deteriorating at an alarming rate now that there isn't a governing body to check behaviors. I am on my way out of the door and I would strongly advise anyone who is considering working for this company to reconsider. Language schools are a dime a dozen in Istanbul and they're all (at least the big ones) better than this one. If you want more information, feel free to private message me.

[coldcucumber]

Revive this warning. The plague and all abounds within these hallowed halls of English. Avoid this place, lest ye find yourself wanting to dive off of the nearest bridge for a nice cold bath.

[coldcucumber]

Recruiting again.
Warning.
Warning.
Warning.

[gump]

In my three years in TEFL, this is the worst language school I have ever worked for.

Late pay? Check.
Pay less than what is owed? Check.
Teachers working illegally? Check.

This company refuses to give itemized statements regarding pay and regularly cheats teachers out of money by taking random deductions out.

Psychotic owner and evil LIS manager? Check.

The owner of this school is a certifiable psychopathic liar. What does he lie about? Everything. He makes excuses as to why pay is late. He lied about why he lost the Berlitz franchise (he had been defrauding them for years, photocopying Berlitz material, etc) He's doing the same thing now with the textbooks they are now using.

Ever go into a new class and the students want to know why they don't have new textbooks but instead, shoddily put-together photocopies and burned CDs? It's uncomfortable. And guess what? The poor excuse for a manager, the LIS, will flat-out tell you it is ALL YOUR FAULT.

When the staff or sales people lie to students and the students complain, the LIS manager tells teachers regularly that no matter WHAT lies the students have been told, no matter WHAT sort of fraud is going on, it's the teacher's responsibility to join in the web of lies and lie to the students' faces.

But it's not easy!

For example: A student says, "I want Upper-Intermediate General English." The staff tells the student, "Sorry, we don't teach that! Here is Upper Intermediate Business English."

The student comes to your Upper-Intermediate Business English class and there, right in front of him/her, is a computer screen that clearly shows all the books and level this school has to offer -- including Upper Intermediate English.

So they complain that they've been lied to

And the LIS manager says it's YOUR fault, as the teacher.

The list goes on. Students charged different amounts of money. They complain. The LIS manager blames the teachers.

Students asking why the school lost the Berlitz franchise name. It's the teacher's fault.

Students asking why the rooms and equipment are so run-down. It's the teachers' fault.

Recently, an infamous text went out to every single New York Studio student bragging about the "new, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art equipment" the school was offering.

They sent this message to the students THREE times.

This equipment consisted of:

1 A projector.
2. Run-down PCs at least 10 years old.

This school is an embarrassment.

As the school has been declining financially, they've increasingly become paranoid and have started cracking down on all teachers. Here are some of the shenanigans that have happened recently:

1. Randomly showing up at teachers' apartments to harass and investigate.

2. Sending out a mass email to every teacher with all kinds of threats including a sudden no-smoking and no-drinking rule in all apartments.

3. Sending an email to every teacher letting us know pay is going to be two weeks late. If anyone is going to get paid at all.

4. Firing teachers/forcing teachers to quit by harassing them out of jobs and then refusing to give teachers final pay until they turn in their apartment keys, essentially rendering foreign teachers penniless and homeless.

They continuously fault the teachers for every single thing that goes wrong with the school even when (for example, there is copyright infringement), the teacher has no clue sometimes what is going on.

Everyone knows that this company won't survive the year. It might not even survive the summer. The owner and the LIS manager are complicit in this house of horrors.

There is no reason to work here. There are a ton of language schools in Istanbul. Come on a tourist visa, find a job within your first month (I guarantee you'll find one on your first day) and you're set.

New York Studio, formerly Berlitz, is the worst of the worst and I've seen some REALLY bad schools.

[cartago]

Reminds me of Manchester Dil Okulları. I've never seen a place that was so abusive towards teachers and late pay/withholding pay.

[svenhassel]

they're photocopying books and burning cd's? Isn't that illegal? I hope the publishers (which book? oup, pearsons?) don't read this thread, poor ex-Berliitz are clearly not being managed very well.

Yes, I know photocopying books is rife in Istanbul, especially among the more unpleasant schools and uni's....

Btw if you want to know what's going on in turkey for teachers, all the dirty lowdown is on the FB page now. Many of the schools being discussed here have been thoroughly dissed over there..