Job Discussion Forums

[akaizer]

Hey everybody, I consider myself rather middle school in the ESL world after 3 years in Korea, but to be honest I need to see something new.

For a summer in the sun I was looking into American Village/NACEL summer english camps in France. Unfortunately there is not alot of info out there about peoples experience at these camps.... Except for this one, and a few random blog photo's I've found nothing....

http://www.iantravel.com/teach%20abroad.htm#F

Anybody out there able to spare a few words about their experiences here.... or is this place (With its years of job postings) simply a scam??

Yes, I have searched the Dave's esl forms, but came up with nothing...

Thanks for any help!

[verminvirnich]

topic titleDo Not Work at American Village summer camps

Well I guess just cause you ingeniously whipped out a link advising against working at Amvil, that that suffices for proper advice for job seekers. LOL. (Remind me to ask akaizer for advice before applying there hahaha).

But reality akaizer is right despite Amanda's ost on the board. I've had friends that have worked at Amvil and they've had awful experiences. (edited for spelling)

[mandalynn2104]

wait wait wait.... I'm sorry. Did you ever work with American Village? Because it sounds like someone is a little butt-hurt because their friend didn't quite fit in or do their job well and got fired. I don't understand why you've taken it upon yourself to blast a company you've never worked for.

I've worked for numerous summers at AmVil and I am going back again this summer. It's the most fun job I've ever had -- just be creative, do your shit, and keep on. And sleep when you can because it's a crazy summer, but it's just a summer.

American Village is not an easy job. That's right, you work LONG hours.... many of those hours are spent in costumes, dancing, singing, being in silly skits, and playing sports outside. Only 2 hours per day are spent teaching English in a classroom. Any summer camp job has incredibly long hours --- sorry your friend wasn't equipped to deal with it.


There are over 10 sites in Amvil.... Your friend might have gotten a shitty director or a shitty team.... just like any other job. Each site is going to have a totally different experience -- you can't blame your friend's experiences on Amanda and Nico. You also have to keep in mind how much bullshit they go through day-to-day to put together these camps underneath insurmountable piles of paperwork and red tape.... and stupid counselors who can't or won't do their jobs.

American Village isn't right for everyone, but judging on the amount of returning counselors, it's right for quite a few people.

[verminvirnich]

Advisory: Stay Away From American Village ESL Summer Camps (Operated by Nacel Open Door)

If anyone is thinking of working at American Village, join a workers union at Nacel.

American Village is a Toxic Place to work.

I was in regular contact with friends and colleagues while they were working at American Village ESL Camps. One of my colleagues had to borrow money to get back home after being fired after the first week for no reason, ruining her travel plans. Another friend quit after he became physically sick, which he attributed to the stressful conditions at American Village. He was lying in bed and the site director, who was advised by another counselor of his resignation, walked into his room and started yelling at him and threatened to drag him to the van and drop him off at the train station after he requested to stay in the dorm til he recovered. Other former colleagues also complained of workplace harassment which was ignored when reported. One of them who is great with kids but has obesity ended up physically attacking the idiot who wouldn't stop making insults, even during staff meetings. The supervisor at the time ignored the problem and allowed it to get out of control, even brushing off violations of the code of conduct in “Le Chartre du Bon Animateur”, (Document 5 of the contract) which my friend had sited when he complained and insisted that there was a problem. How dumb can you be to not see the existence of significant internal problems that are worsening by the minute, threatening the peace and safety of a summer camp, especially when it's reported to you as blatantly clear as my colleague had done? Try calling me a "fat ass" while I'm working at a summer camp you jagoff and you'll see what happens to you. BTW the site director in question was famous for holding staff meetings at 3am and being a *beep*.


1 Conflict of contract by American Village coordinators and site directors.

Any sensible person recognizes when the line between acceptable and harassing conduct, and unfortunately this line is continuously crossed at American Village and the site and headquarter directors never address these problems, nor do they do anything when complaints are made. As a result of ignoring complaints of violations against respectful conduct written in the contract under section Chartre du Bon Animateur and not disciplining counselors who violate “counselor commandments”, American Village directors and coordinators are in conflict of the “fundamental principles” upon which they claim AmVil is based. American Village on the contrary fosters hazardous working conditions.

American Village length of contracts ranges from 10 weeks to lesser lengths. People should be advised though that whatever they offer is worthless in the real world as American Village operates with little integrity as an employer. A lot of people hired as linguistic counselors don't last that long. American Village coordinators are bent on making the counselors they hire miserable then quickly refurbishing their workforce with a new cast of naive applicants. You can give the job an honest effort but it won't matter. The site directors at American Village are always making endless petty criticisms which metathesizes into fault-finding campaigns towards their staff and they (or Amanda Pardue's Right-Hander, Nico) frequently force people to resign for no legit reason. Or as in sighted example atop, some counselors resign voluntarily if the negative workplace morale makes them sick. These scenarios have happened to some cool people under pathetic circumstances.

What you do is your choice, but nobody would go through the process of getting a criminal record check, contacting people for reference letters and paying for airfare to work for the worst employer (American Village) that they will ever have.

So my advice is that AmVil is not worth the trouble to apply for nor the flight to Europe. The coordinators in Rodez do not care about the priorities you make to go there and work for them nor the trouble you will go through to collect and send in all items needed with the application, which takes a lot of time to apply for, obtain and send.

Do yourself a huge favor, don't work at American Village.

2 Mistreatment of counselors by AmVil site directors & harassing conduct amongst counselors

The coordinators in Rodez and the site directors unlike counselors have job security and treat the staff they hire like crap. They gain nothing by treating the counselors with dignity (which is why I recommend joining a Nacel union before signing the contract). Instead of running the camps with basic general courtesies towards their staff, Pardue & Co. run the camps as if it were an autonomic factory.

To my knowledge, Nacel currently does not conduct oversight on American Village camp program to ensure counselors are not mistreated by their superiors or colleagues nor do they conduct oversight on program quality. This is a problem due to how the coordinators in Rodez are challenged in providing & maintaining anything but foul workplace morale at the camps and a poor quality program. The AmVil coordinators in Rodez can be the biggest *beeps* and not be held accountable to anybody.

The site directors will often call counselors for a private meeting into his office, often in front of the children while counselors are working. Once in the office, the directors make silly criticisms, all in an act of issuing veiled threats of being fired. This is one example out of many that American Village English summer camps (Operated by Nacel Open Door) is a degenerate place to work.

The accounts I heard were always the same. There would be 1 or 2 other counselors lined up waiting outside the directors door where they'd be called in after the other and issued the same "evaluations" and stupid criticisms. Before it was their turn, the counselors waiting in the hall would hear their colleagues getting ripped apart by the director as he ensured he was loud enough. I will leave it to others to judge whether this is an example of abuse of authority. My friend, who was emotionally spent kept me on the line and had her phone on when she was called in to the office by the site director. If this were a sitcom, it would be funny but unfortunately it's not. One of the criticisms my friend was issued was that based on her "facial appearance" during their very late night staff meetings, the director told her she had concentration problems and was told to improve her "focus" during planning meetings. He also told her (contrary to what is said in the counselor manual) to “stop asking questions all the time during staff meetings”.

Unfortunately people are people and not robots, and this sort of juvenile criticism from your boss can get irritating fast. He basically criticized every little thing he could think of under the sun to the point where she told him to *beep* off and quit.

Amongst colleagues, American Village allows workplace harassment to run unfettered. It's quite probable that they have no standards when it comes to the dignity and well-being of their temporary staff.

(DOCUMENT 5, SECTION 3, LINE 9: “THE NACEL TEAM IN RODEZ IS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES FOR ANY PROBLEM THAT CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OR RESOLVED AT THE SITE)
Another former colleague of mine was also pushed to the brink of nearly attacking another female counselor who was issuing insulting comments to her non-stop but she was ignored by the site director and headquarters director Amanda Pardue who told her "don't disturb me while I'm on my weekend holiday". Whether Nacel is different from the those running American Village in Rodez is another question but AmVil coordinators do not care about workplace morale. Try calling them about a problem. Nobody is listening. Instead of getting the proper attention to complaints of violations of conduct, they'll start questioning whether to retain you or not.


There is no system in place to resolve any problems that arise at American Village including workplace harassment. Misconduct is tolerated and played down by site directors and staff at Rodez (Pardue & co.). Their general incompetence and refusal to enforce the counselor commandments as written in their own contract (Chartre du Bon Animateur) leads to a degenerate workplace that sometimes breeds violent confrontations amongst counselors.

IMO, the American Village camps programs doesnt live up to and is contrary to Nacel's mission statement due to:

a) The way American Village coordinators and directors treat the counselors

b) Their lack of enforcement of respectful conduct as contractually obligated, their ignoring of complaints &

c) American Village's lack of program quality

3 No professionalism at AmVil

You can be the coolest person in the world who puts in 100% but you'll be met with unreasonable expectations every minute of the day. One of the things my colleagues said was that the constant nagging and shadowing of one of the site directors stifled any creative ability and enjoyment during entertainment shows. They were always tense and exhausted every minute of the day because of this director. Similar unreasonable working conditions and foul morale existed under other site directors. Be warned! The camps have the hallmarks of the worst job you will ever have. You'll be stressed out from overwork and long hours. And you'll be pushed to the brink by the relentless supervision and scrutiny of site directors, their neverending requests and silly critiques.


(i) Advice

If you plan on working at this camp because you want an outrageous challenge or you're already in France and have nothing to lose, I encourage you to have the contact information of Nacel apart from American Village especially if the site or headquarters director tries to force you to nullify your contract. You should phone up and bother anyone with whom you get into contact at Nacel if you disagree with their antics or experience abuse on the job. If you have to talk to many people on the phone, all the better. Chances are that there are some good people working at Nacel who are unaware of how toxic American Village is. Or maybe not.


4 Nacel's awful American Village program: Totally Not Worth Working there.

American Village is a disingenuous place to work. Site directors cannot be relied upon to give, and do not give fair performance assessments of counselors. They also collect evaluations of counselors from other counselors. It is not advisable for anyone to work for any employer when your positive work history and job security is largely influenced on written evaluations from your coworkers and not supervisors, especially if youre going overseas and especially when it comes to the horrendous American Village (operated by Amanda Pardue & her right hand honcho Nicolas Comby) where bad chemistry often develops amongst fellow counselors due to all the toxicity, degrading conditions and the inefficient format and organization of the camps at American Village. People I've spoken with have said that when they were forced to terminate their contract for no legit reason, with a folder on the table baring their name, poor assessments written by other counselors were sited during the discussion, and these other counselors were not people with whom they had good relations. There is a good chance that you will really hate the place and the people there so just don't bother applying.

5 You will be over-worked beyond the norm.

Due to the lack of organization, efficiency, innovation, and lack of program vision at the camps from everyone from the coordinators at the office in Rodez (Amanda & her right hander Nico) to the site directors, American Village ESL camps have a radically exhaustive work-intensive format that emphasizes on many, many, many, many, many never-ending hours of manual labor of counselors accompanied by constant supervision of the site directors. It is beyond any normal standards that are allowed within the customs and laws of the western world. Yet they are merely trying to normalize their awful working hours and conditions by explicating in the manual that "a typical day at the camp is long and lots of work".

The planning and preparation of the camp programs and activities is neither innovative nor interesting, rather it's archaic, menial work. Not that that in itself is a bad thing but combine it with the insane amount of hours of working within an environment of poor morale...and you'll start hating the work fast. At least when I work at Starbucks I get to meet interesting people and tease it up with my coworkers. Which leads to this next nugget for anyone naive enough to work there.

If you decide to work at that hell hole, it's recommended you look busy even if you are doing nothing. Pretend to scribble notes or cut paper no matter how useless so that you look busy, even if it creates garbage waste. It won't be much more than the mountain of waste they throw out every week anyway which is a byproduct of the camps inefficiency. Acting busy even if doing useless activity will mitigate conflicts with their strict and at times, outright nasty supervisors.

Site directors are constantly dissatisfied which in turn makes for a very strenuous working environment along with everything else.

The experience of everyone I talked to was nothing but constant criticism and micro-management by the site directors. Working hours for one of my colleagues went from 9AM-2AM, 5 days per. No joke. They were having staff meetings at 12:30am and the site director insisted on seeing them work during early morning hours. I got to hear the negative antics of this duckbag during these late meetings through my colleague’s skype and I'm satisfied as to the accuracy of my feedback.

Just think about it. It's 12:45 am, the director is not an idiot, he knows everyone is really tired. People are telling him "Yeah I'm burned out". Yet this jagoff is such a control freak he doesn't give a damn about morale or have any faith in his/her staff. Most of the site directors do not entrust the counselors with any independence to do their job which is the only way to have a camp run well. They have to breathe down their backs all the time and order them around and make sure they work till 3:00am in the morning! ugh

If you're looking for work at a linguistic camp in Europe, there are other camps that give linguistic counselors more independence and breathing space and probably definitely have a better morale. A colleague of mine for example worked at another camp in Europe which had a completely different format relying more on independent responsibility and planning and unlike AmVil, did not involve the constant criticism from supervisors and the constant hostility which always erupts amongst counselors at American Village. Teamwork takes more than one person and the cold reality is not only is it a bumpy road, but in an atmosphere of poor morale, teamwork will be a living hell for everyone. Think it won't? Go to American Village and tell me otherwise. Everyone I talked to told me how dysfunctional all the camps were at American Village. Better to go work at a place that gives you a positive experience and makes you feel like you've done something constructive.

Aside from the poor format and site directors, the problems at American Village are with the people at the main office in Rodez whom as mentioned, deceive young people by hiring them then firing them within a couple weeks (which leaves a lot of people in a financially difficult situation) and provide no oversight to issues like harassing conduct amongst counselors or the awfully degrading conduct by site directors towards counselors.

(DOCUMENT 5, SECTION 3, LINE 9: “THE NACEL TEAM IN RODEZ IS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES FOR ANY PROBLEM THAT CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OR RESOLVED AT THE SITE”)
One person I spoke with said that Amanda Pardue turned her complaints of workplace harassment against her, telling her things like "maybe this job is not for you" etc. after she complained. It could be argued that attitudes like this are the real source of the problem when it comes to degenerate workplaces.

If you are a young woman and you wish to work at a place where consideration will be given for your emotional being, it's not advisable to work at this camp. You might find yourself under emotional distress while working at those camps & unfortunately Amanda Pardue is not an empathetic creature nor is (handyman) Nico.

American Village English camps treats its language counselors as disposable slave robots without conscience, not as people. The stories I've heard indicated that the workplace morale at American Village is awfully poor. In the handbook, AmVil warns applicants to "be prepared for long days of work". So do they want you to go there and give it your best? LOL. Here's the joke of the day: American Village English Camps. If youre astute and youre considering working for them, it might be advisable to bite them back by filing complaints for the benefit of other unwitting counselors. Amanda Pardue and her right hand dumbell need to quit sitting on their fricken ass all day and start doing their job. (I can stuff my face with as much cheese and wine as I want while playing on the computer, but I wont be accomplishing anything productive or supporting my company's mission statement).

If you're simply looking to embark on a new opportunity abroad and gain work experience that you can put on your resume and you're not the astute type and don't want to be bothered with the possibility of needing to file complaints of labor rights and contract violations, it's recommended you don't risk working at American Village. You may be enticed by the prospects of working abroad but AmVil is far from being the thick and juicy “filet mignon” steak of an experience. As mentioned, look for another camp. Chances are there are few other ESL camps, if any, that severely lack in integrity as much as American Village does. You will waste your time and money going to work for AmVil and walk away in resentment without having gained anything. Too risky. Besides you can travel in Europe easily at any time.

I hope this is of help. Good luck!


I'd like to add a few additional thoughts to this post.

The TEFL industry continues to expand. With that, websites such as DavesESLCafe provide comprehensive information on everything ESL and allow teachers to provide feedback to colleagues. Being insulted with names such as “lard boy”, “jolly rancher”, “big guy”, “puff daddy”, “butters” and “pork chops” while you are working and seeing your boss dismiss ensuing objections to those insults does not enhance the good name of a company. On the contrary, it pisses people off.


We cannot forget that we as ESL teachers have values and standards like a lot of other hard working people. We need to be honest in our work ethic and expect honesty from our employers. We also need to speak up when employers like Nacel's Open Door American Village ESL camps fail to uphold their own standards of conduct or treat their staff horribly. I hope those who are reading this whom are considering applying at a place like American Village will be mindful of and recognize issues that arise in toxic workplace environments like Nacel's Open Door American Village ESL camps and refuse to tolerate and support the stench of their foul workplace morale. Speak out, post comprehensive feedback online for the TEFL community such as on Daves ESLCafe Forums Boards, file complaints with company headquarters or company union reps. Together we can make raise the standards beyond the horrible workplace conditions American Village ESL camps bestow on unsuspecting applicants.

[Polska715]

This is ridiculous! I worked at Amvil last summer, and it was one of the best summers I can remember! I was looking forward to going back this year, but my personal circumstances have prevented me Several of the friends I met there ARE going back, too!

No, it's not a vacation, you're responsible for children's safety and fun, so it can be hard work, but it's FUN hard work with good people.

Yes, you will always encounter one or two people who you don't like, in ANY job, and when you live and work closely, you have to be able to let things roll off your back.

Bottom line, if you're not too uptight, if you take things as they come and like to act silly and dress up in costume and play capture the flag in beautiful locations in France, it's a great job! If you can't deal with long hours (albeit, long hours playing games, as I said) don't take the job. I, personally, highly recommend amvil.

[verminvirnich]

You're an idiot Polska.

Advisory: Stay Away From American Village ESL Summer Camps

If anyone is thinking of working at American Village, join a workers union at Nacel.

American Village is a Toxic Place to work.

I was in regular contact with friends and colleagues while they were working at American Village ESL Camps. One of my colleagues had to borrow money to get back home after being fired after the first week for no reason, ruining her travel plans. Another friend quit after he became physically sick, which he attributed to the stressful conditions at American Village. He was lying in bed and the site director, who was advised by another counselor of his resignation, walked into his room and started yelling at him and threatened to drag him to the van and drop him off at the train station after he requested to stay in the dorm til he recovered. Other former colleagues also complained of workplace harassment which was ignored when reported. One of them who is great with kids but has obesity ended up physically attacking the idiot who wouldn't stop making insults, even during staff meetings. The supervisor at the time ignored the problem and allowed it to get out of control, even brushing off violations of the code of conduct in “Le Chartre du Bon Animateur”, (Document 5 of the contract) which my friend had sited when he complained and insisted that there was a problem. How dumb can you be to not see the existence of significant internal problems that are worsening by the minute, threatening the peace and safety of a summer camp, especially when it's reported to you as blatantly clear as my colleague had done? Try calling me a "fat ass" while I'm working at a summer camp you jagoff and you'll see what happens to you. BTW the site director in question was famous for holding staff meetings at 3am and being a *beep*.


1 Conflict of contract by American Village coordinators and site directors.

Any sensible person recognizes when the line between acceptable and harassing conduct, and unfortunately this line is continuously crossed at American Village and the site and headquarter directors never address these problems, nor do they do anything when complaints are made. As a result of ignoring complaints of violations against respectful conduct written in the contract under section Chartre du Bon Animateur and not disciplining counselors who violate “counselor commandments”, American Village directors and coordinators are in conflict of the “fundamental principles” upon which they claim AmVil is based. American Village on the contrary fosters hazardous working conditions.

American Village length of contracts ranges from 10 weeks to lesser lengths. People should be advised though that whatever they offer is worthless in the real world as American Village operates with little integrity as an employer. A lot of people hired as linguistic counselors don't last that long. American Village coordinators are bent on making the counselors they hire miserable then quickly refurbishing their workforce with a new cast of naive applicants. You can give the job an honest effort but it won't matter. The site directors at American Village are always making endless petty criticisms which metathesizes into fault-finding campaigns towards their staff and they (or Amanda Pardue's Right-Hander, Nico) frequently force people to resign for no legit reason. Or as in sighted example atop, some counselors resign voluntarily if the negative workplace morale makes them sick. These scenarios have happened to some cool people under pathetic circumstances.

What you do is your choice, but nobody would go through the process of getting a criminal record check, contacting people for reference letters and paying for airfare to work for the worst employer (American Village) that they will ever have.

So my advice is that AmVil is not worth the trouble to apply for nor the flight to Europe. The coordinators in Rodez do not care about the priorities you make to go there and work for them nor the trouble you will go through to collect and send in all items needed with the application, which takes a lot of time to apply for, obtain and send.

Do yourself a huge favor, don't work at American Village.

2 Mistreatment of counselors by AmVil site directors & harassing conduct amongst counselors

The coordinators in Rodez and the site directors unlike counselors have job security and treat the staff they hire like crap. They gain nothing by treating the counselors with dignity (which is why I recommend joining a Nacel union before signing the contract). Instead of running the camps with basic general courtesies towards their staff, Pardue & Co. run the camps as if it were an autonomic factory.

To my knowledge, Nacel currently does not conduct oversight on American Village camp program to ensure counselors are not mistreated by their superiors or colleagues nor do they conduct oversight on program quality. This is a problem due to how the coordinators in Rodez are challenged in providing & maintaining anything but foul workplace morale at the camps and a poor quality program. The AmVil coordinators in Rodez can be the biggest *beeps* and not be held accountable to anybody.

The site directors will often call counselors for a private meeting into his office, often in front of the children while counselors are working. Once in the office, the directors make silly criticisms, all in an act of issuing veiled threats of being fired. This is one example out of many that American Village English summer camps (Operated by Nacel Open Door) is a degenerate place to work.

The accounts I heard were always the same. There would be 1 or 2 other counselors lined up waiting outside the directors door where they'd be called in after the other and issued the same "evaluations" and stupid criticisms. Before it was their turn, the counselors waiting in the hall would hear their colleagues getting ripped apart by the director as he ensured he was loud enough. I will leave it to others to judge whether this is an example of abuse of authority. My friend, who was emotionally spent kept me on the line and had her phone on when she was called in to the office by the site director. If this were a sitcom, it would be funny but unfortunately it's not. One of the criticisms my friend was issued was that based on her "facial appearance" during their very late night staff meetings, the director told her she had concentration problems and was told to improve her "focus" during planning meetings. He also told her (contrary to what is said in the counselor manual) to “stop asking questions all the time during staff meetings”.

Unfortunately people are people and not robots, and this sort of juvenile criticism from your boss can get irritating fast. He basically criticized every little thing he could think of under the sun to the point where she told him to *beep* off and quit.

Amongst colleagues, American Village allows workplace harassment to run unfettered. It's quite probable that they have no standards when it comes to the dignity and well-being of their temporary staff.

(DOCUMENT 5, SECTION 3, LINE 9: “THE NACEL TEAM IN RODEZ IS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES FOR ANY PROBLEM THAT CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OR RESOLVED AT THE SITE)
Another former colleague of mine was also pushed to the brink of nearly attacking another female counselor who was issuing insulting comments to her non-stop but she was ignored by the site director and headquarters director Amanda Pardue who told her "don't disturb me while I'm on my weekend holiday". Whether Nacel is different from the those running American Village in Rodez is another question but AmVil coordinators do not care about workplace morale. Try calling them about a problem. Nobody is listening. Instead of getting the proper attention to complaints of violations of conduct, they'll start questioning whether to retain you or not.


There is no system in place to resolve any problems that arise at American Village including workplace harassment. Misconduct is tolerated and played down by site directors and staff at Rodez (Pardue & co.). Their general incompetence and refusal to enforce the counselor commandments as written in their own contract (Chartre du Bon Animateur) leads to a degenerate workplace that sometimes breeds violent confrontations amongst counselors.

IMO, the American Village camps programs doesnt live up to and is contrary to Nacel's mission statement due to:

a) The way American Village coordinators and directors treat the counselors

b) Their lack of enforcement of respectful conduct as contractually obligated, their ignoring of complaints &

c) American Village's lack of program quality

3 No professionalism at AmVil

You can be the coolest person in the world who puts in 100% but you'll be met with unreasonable expectations every minute of the day. One of the things my colleagues said was that the constant nagging and shadowing of one of the site directors stifled any creative ability and enjoyment during entertainment shows. They were always tense and exhausted every minute of the day because of this director. Similar unreasonable working conditions and foul morale existed under other site directors. Be warned! The camps have the hallmarks of the worst job you will ever have. You'll be stressed out from overwork and long hours. And you'll be pushed to the brink by the relentless supervision and scrutiny of site directors, their neverending requests and silly critiques.


(i) Advice

If you plan on working at this camp because you want an outrageous challenge or you're already in France and have nothing to lose, I encourage you to have the contact information of Nacel apart from American Village especially if the site or headquarters director tries to force you to nullify your contract. You should phone up and bother anyone with whom you get into contact at Nacel if you disagree with their antics or experience abuse on the job. If you have to talk to many people on the phone, all the better. Chances are that there are some good people working at Nacel who are unaware of how toxic American Village is. Or maybe not.


4 Nacel's awful American Village program: Totally Not Worth Working there.

American Village is a disingenuous place to work. Site directors cannot be relied upon to give, and do not give fair performance assessments of counselors. They also collect evaluations of counselors from other counselors. It is not advisable for anyone to work for any employer when your positive work history and job security is largely influenced on written evaluations from your coworkers and not supervisors, especially if youre going overseas and especially when it comes to the horrendous American Village (operated by Amanda Pardue & her right hand honcho Nicolas Comby) where bad chemistry often develops amongst fellow counselors due to all the toxicity, degrading conditions and the inefficient format and organization of the camps at American Village. People I've spoken with have said that when they were forced to terminate their contract for no legit reason, with a folder on the table baring their name, poor assessments written by other counselors were sited during the discussion, and these other counselors were not people with whom they had good relations. There is a good chance that you will really hate the place and the people there so just don't bother applying.

5 You will be over-worked beyond the norm.

Due to the lack of organization, efficiency, innovation, and lack of program vision at the camps from everyone from the coordinators at the office in Rodez (Amanda & her right hander Nico) to the site directors, American Village ESL camps have a radically exhaustive work-intensive format that emphasizes on many, many, many, many, many never-ending hours of manual labor of counselors accompanied by constant supervision of the site directors. It is beyond any normal standards that are allowed within the customs and laws of the western world. Yet they are merely trying to normalize their awful working hours and conditions by explicating in the manual that "a typical day at the camp is long and lots of work".

The planning and preparation of the camp programs and activities is neither innovative nor interesting, rather it's archaic, menial work. Not that that in itself is a bad thing but combine it with the insane amount of hours of working within an environment of poor morale...and you'll start hating the work fast. At least when I work at Starbucks I get to meet interesting people and tease it up with my coworkers. Which leads to this next nugget for anyone naive enough to work there.

If you decide to work at that hell hole, it's recommended you look busy even if you are doing nothing. Pretend to scribble notes or cut paper no matter how useless so that you look busy, even if it creates garbage waste. It won't be much more than the mountain of waste they throw out every week anyway which is a byproduct of the camps inefficiency. Acting busy even if doing useless activity will mitigate conflicts with their strict and at times, outright nasty supervisors.

Site directors are constantly dissatisfied which in turn makes for a very strenuous working environment along with everything else.

The experience of everyone I talked to was nothing but constant criticism and micro-management by the site directors. Working hours for one of my colleagues went from 9AM-2AM, 5 days per. No joke. They were having staff meetings at 12:30am and the site director insisted on seeing them work during early morning hours. I got to hear the negative antics of this duckbag during these late meetings through my colleague’s skype and I'm satisfied as to the accuracy of my feedback.

Just think about it. It's 12:45 am, the director is not an idiot, he knows everyone is really tired. People are telling him "Yeah I'm burned out". Yet this jagoff is such a control freak he doesn't give a damn about morale or have any faith in his/her staff. Most of the site directors do not entrust the counselors with any independence to do their job which is the only way to have a camp run well. They have to breathe down their backs all the time and order them around and make sure they work till 3:00am in the morning! ugh

If you're looking for work at a linguistic camp in Europe, there are other camps that give linguistic counselors more independence and breathing space and probably definitely have a better morale. A colleague of mine for example worked at another camp in Europe which had a completely different format relying more on independent responsibility and planning and unlike AmVil, did not involve the constant criticism from supervisors and the constant hostility which always erupts amongst counselors at American Village. Teamwork takes more than one person and the cold reality is not only is it a bumpy road, but in an atmosphere of poor morale, teamwork will be a living hell for everyone. Think it won't? Go to American Village and tell me otherwise. Everyone I talked to told me how dysfunctional all the camps were at American Village. Better to go work at a place that gives you a positive experience and makes you feel like you've done something constructive.

Aside from the poor format and site directors, the problems at American Village are with the people at the main office in Rodez whom as mentioned, deceive young people by hiring them then firing them within a couple weeks (which leaves a lot of people in a financially difficult situation) and provide no oversight to issues like harassing conduct amongst counselors or the awfully degrading conduct by site directors towards counselors.

(DOCUMENT 5, SECTION 3, LINE 9: “THE NACEL TEAM IN RODEZ IS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES FOR ANY PROBLEM THAT CANNOT BE DISCUSSED OR RESOLVED AT THE SITE”)
One person I spoke with said that Amanda Pardue turned her complaints of workplace harassment against her, telling her things like "maybe this job is not for you" etc. after she complained. It could be argued that attitudes like this are the real source of the problem when it comes to degenerate workplaces.

If you are a young woman and you wish to work at a place where consideration will be given for your emotional being, it's not advisable to work at this camp. You might find yourself under emotional distress while working at those camps & unfortunately Amanda Pardue is not an empathetic creature nor is (handyman) Nico.

American Village English camps treats its language counselors as disposable slave robots without conscience, not as people. The stories I've heard indicated that the workplace morale at American Village is awfully poor. In the handbook, AmVil warns applicants to "be prepared for long days of work". So do they want you to go there and give it your best? LOL. Here's the joke of the day: American Village English Camps. If youre astute and youre considering working for them, it might be advisable to bite them back by filing complaints for the benefit of other unwitting counselors. Amanda Pardue and her right hand dumbell need to quit sitting on their fricken ass all day and start doing their job. (I can stuff my face with as much cheese and wine as I want while playing on the computer, but I wont be accomplishing anything productive or supporting my company's mission statement).

If you're simply looking to embark on a new opportunity abroad and gain work experience that you can put on your resume and you're not the astute type and don't want to be bothered with the possibility of needing to file complaints of labor rights and contract violations, it's recommended you don't risk working at American Village. You may be enticed by the prospects of working abroad but AmVil is far from being the thick and juicy “filet mignon” steak of an experience. As mentioned, look for another camp. Chances are there are few other ESL camps, if any, that severely lack in integrity as much as American Village does. You will waste your time and money going to work for AmVil and walk away in resentment without having gained anything. Too risky. Besides you can travel in Europe easily at any time.

I hope this is of help. Good luck!


I'd like to add a few additional thoughts to this post.

The TEFL industry continues to expand. With that, websites such as DavesESLCafe provide comprehensive information on everything ESL and allow teachers to provide feedback to colleagues. Being insulted with names such as “lard boy”, “jolly rancher”, “big guy”, “puff daddy”, “butters” and “pork chops” while you are working and seeing your boss dismiss ensuing objections to those insults does not enhance the good name of a company. On the contrary, it pisses people off.


We cannot forget that we as ESL teachers have values and standards like a lot of other hard working people. We need to be honest in our work ethic and expect honesty from our employers. We also need to speak up when employers like Nacel's Open Door American Village ESL camps fail to uphold their own standards of conduct or treat their staff horribly. I hope those who are reading this whom are considering applying at a place like American Village will be mindful of and recognize issues that arise in toxic workplace environments like Nacel's Open Door American Village ESL camps and refuse to tolerate and support the stench of their foul workplace morale. Speak out, post comprehensive feedback online for the TEFL community such as on Daves ESLCafe Forums Boards, file complaints with company headquarters or company union reps. Together we can make raise the standards beyond the horrible workplace conditions American Village ESL camps bestow on unsuspecting applicants.

[Polska715]

Nope, I'm American. As are most of my friends who are going back, some of whom were already on their 2nd or 3rd summer. It's called American Village, and while they employ a fair number of Europeans, too, there are a lot of perfectly happy Americans who return each summer.

It sounds like maybe *you* just had a bad experience. I'm sorry to hear that, but it seems a shame to try to prevent people from participating in a program that they may enjoy a lot, maybe people who will positively impact the children just because your feeling bitter about someone you didn't get along with when you were there.