Job Discussion Forums

Estelle · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 5

Be very careful with [b]English First İstanbul [/b]especially the Suadiye location. The owners basically run a sweat shop and although pay levels are above average, you will find that the level of frustration you experience due to the lack of management skills of Ben and Deirdre will more than erode the experience of teaching in Turkey. This is for a number of reasons:

1. The contracts that they get you to sign are not worth the paper they are written on from your perspective. Ben is especıally good at explaining what you are reading in plain English actually means something different.

2. The teacher accomodations are dreadful. The one my friend stayed in was cockroach infested and hadn't been properly cleaned in years.

3. They have no problem firing teachers who stand up for the ethical treatment of their students, especially when it comes down to relaying complaints about course material. They fire teachers on a regular basis for all sorts of reasons although they seem to have a full set of justifications ready to explain away why the 50% attrition rate occured.

4. Kelkit. This is a cess pool of a place with the combined delights of toilets that can't even take toilet paper, isolation, temperature extremes of -35 to plus 45 degrees celsius, fundametalist islamic culture and no real mod cons.

5. They will ask you to pay your own fare to İstanbul and then ditch you if you stick up for your rights.

6. The basic hotel room that you can expect on your arrival ıs a bed in a shared dorm room.

İ would strongly advıse ESL teachers to look elsewhere. İf you are convinced by them at least get them to provide you with a return air ticket and do not leave your home coountry before your work visa is ready or you will be doing a 2 day trıp to a less than exotic small Greek town every 3 months and staying in a less than comfortable hotel. On the other hand if you crave excitement of the worst type imaginable sign the contract.

Also keep in mind that İstanbul is a lot less safe than English First makes out. They have had at least 3 teachers stabbed or mugged in the last year or two. So be warned.

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 3:05 pm Post subject:

Blah blah blah, Ginger, Blah blah blah.

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject:

PS All at the relevant school send their regards and want to reassure you that none us here have been stabbed, fired, flogged, mugged, teased, taunted, or otherwise abused recently. This is not for lack of trying, mind you, as some of us are partial to such things.

Estelle · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 5

well Steven either you are an employee or one of the management. My understanding is that more than one of the staff were stabbed. Thank you for such a moronic response that didn't address any of the criticisms. By the way this is typical of the way English First fobs off criticism. İt looks good but if you are a smart ESL teacher, you will still be wary of this school and its subterfuges.

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 4:11 pm Post subject:

You can call me Steve. We needn't be formal here.

May I ask if you worked for EF and why they upset you so much? They really seem to have done you wrong. Or was it your friend they done wrong?

Do tell.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Hi Steve. How's it going?

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject:

Hiya, dmb!

It's all going ever so spiffily. Fancy a weekend pint to drown our sorrows brought on from working in such a cruel and violent city full of liars and cheats?

Love,

Steve

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Sorry Steve off to Scotland on Thursay for a bit of skiing and a wee dram. After Bayram though( apologies to Molly for going off topic. Oh and apologies to ekmekparasi for using an evil tukish word)

ekmekparasi · Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 63

Don't be like that Damian, I never said Turkish was evil. In fact I speak Turkish quite well. I just don't see the need to ''boast'' about your limited Turkish by writing o zaman instead of then.

Skiing, trips to Scotland, 9 grand courses, are you earning that much or are you living off your Qatar earnings?

Anyway if you can't beat 'em join 'em.

Iyi eglenceler (please forgive me not having a Turkish keyboard)

ghost · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 1693 Location: Saudi Arabia

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject:

All is well, though admittedly I am not dripping with the aforementionned wads of cash or reams of credit cards, as I am not that sort of guy (Am steve, I am, woaaargh). I am a cheap and teetotalling control freak who would never stumble out of a bar into the arms of the violent nasty turks who lie in wait to stab unsuspecting yabancilar... Who apparently have been on a mugging/stabbing fest here in trendy Suadiye--- though none of the long term teachers can remember any except one occurrence back in September, which happened to a fella who was fired and who has written a post fairly identical to Estelle's in other locales and who isnt a woman but rather a man (just as I am).

Wheee.

Estelle · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 5

İ suppose that the first point is that there aren't a lot of long term teachers there and the second point is that Steve or whatever ıts name is is obviously a member of staff.
My earlier point was that it would be stupid for someone to pay their own fare if the school in question was questionable. İf you are already here and you like working under poor management then you should experiment but İ sure as hell wouldn't be subsidizing a highly profitable private sector school when you can get at least as good a deal from one of the private high schols or universities in İstanbul.
İ have been contacted by more than one teacher who was fired by the school. One of them told me of one teacher last year who was stabbed and when he started to recover, English First fired him. There was another English First teacher who was stabbed during a break in in his apartment in Kodakoy. He was knifed a few times in the stomach and remained in hospital for a few weeks.
Once again, Steve's glib responses evade the issue. İf you enjoy working for that firm then lucky you. Not everyone has had the same experience and rather than blindly defend them, there is absolutely no reason why people should not be presented with both sides of the situation - or do you believe in censorshıp? The recruiting ad is understandably one sided but there is no reason for you to become an unpaid lackey. When they cut you loose without your rightful stipend, then İ suspect you will change your tune.

calsimsek · Joined: 15 Jul 2004 Posts: 775 Location: Ist Turkey

Welcome back ghost I'v missed your in sight into this city. So good to see that your back on the first negative topic you can find.
This topic is about one school which may or may not be run by dogs. I don't know, yet lets not run down a city of 16,000,000.
P.S Have good time dmbdrink a few for me, (while married with children on the way ends up in �rğup)

ekmekparasi · Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 63

Faustino:

I am sorry for insulting your level of Turkish. Of course you are right that inserting o zaman in an English sentence is no determiner of a person's Turkish ability. And of course I couldn't possibly know your level of Turkish and who cares.

Faustino · Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 601

Let's not get bothered by this any more. I had to read the pther posts just to try and get back to the topic!

I had to friends who worked at the Suadiye branch last year, both of whom echoed some of the points made in the original post. However, there complaints were generally about being made to do work for the sake of it during quiet periods, and about pointless administration. I think you would be faced with such issues wherever you worked, and so it comes down to whether or not you're getting paid enough to put up with the things you don't like about the job. Given that they both moved on to bigger and better things, I guess they felt that it wasn't worth staying for the money on offer.