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Passion for ESL
Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 18
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:05 am Post subject: Considering applying for ILA |
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Hi,
I'll finish my CELTA in December 2010. I was interested in applying after that for ILA because it's registered as an approved centre by NEAS in Australia. Does anyone have more information/personal experience of ILA they would be willing to share? The website is quite comprehensive but things such as salary and the reality of working there are of interest as I have a young family that I'll be supporting during that time. We're happy to live basic but obviously I need to be realistic as to whether this is possible. Da Nang interests us the most. Sorry, I posted a small part of a reply asking about ILA on the Newbie forum but later found this for ILA specifically. Thanks for any info. |
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mark_in_saigon
Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 837
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 2:47 am Post subject: about ILA |
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I would just repeat what I said in an earlier post on this thread about so called tier 1 schools. You can be very disappointed with the lack of professionalism in any of these schools, I find it a little easier to swallow in the lower level schools for some reason. You may want to PM Kornan on this, he had some very detailed comments about his experiences with ILA. I also had a very negative experience with them, again, this is not at all unusual in VN, the lesson I take away from it is do not expect the prestigious schools to operate at a higher level than everyone else. If you can accept that, you are fine. |
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Passion for ESL
Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 18
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:22 am Post subject: Mark |
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Thanks for your comments. I had thought perhaps because of it being registered with an organisation in my home country that it might mean it rated higher by 'Western' standards than some other schools, but maybe that's not the case. I appreciate any feedback because I'm trying to find out as much as I can about various schools before going. Have PMed as you suggested too, thanks again! |
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mark_in_saigon
Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 837
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 2:39 pm Post subject: about western standards |
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Western standards is mostly just a concept when living in VN. If you are paying a lot of money for something, maybe you can get them, like 5 star hotels would be an example. Then when you are in the real world, like 98% of the restaurants in VN, you can throw the concept out the window. So, businesses like these schools hold some middle ground. They are of course teaching English, and even have some western staff. But what power enforces western standards on them? None that I know of. Of course it is disappointing to deal directly with a westerner there and have him or her be the one to prove that the organization is what it is. For some crazy reason, I prefer to have that proved to me by a native, or a less respected establishment. But you know, when the western employee gets on his motorbike and drives away, he has to follow the same crazy rules as everyone else, the western standards just are not there, and we have no real choice but to adapt to the reality of the situation. Not that there is this huge group of expats just dying to change the scene. The nature of the environment is part of the attraction for many expats, if not most. Not all the foreigners who come are here strictly to help create the most modern environment imaginable. |
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Passion for ESL
Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 18
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Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:45 pm Post subject: expat experience |
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Good to hear your thoughts Mark, and yes when I did volunteer work pre-kids we went with a 'native' organisation rather than a Western one, for reasons similar to what you say. I think perhaps because I'd be relying a bit more on money, and having kids to consider now, I'm a bit more cautious - being responsible for others changes things for me a bit, but then again we'll be making sure we have back up money/plans etc regardless, and would be open to taking back with us whatever experience we gain. Cheers! |
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I'm With Stupid
Joined: 03 Sep 2010 Posts: 432
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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Magic8ball wrote: |
And honestly, ILA (and other schools) avoid teachers who look Asian, especially Vietnamese because parents have a strongly held belief that you may not be a native speaker, even though (I assume) you are. |
Funny, because I know Vietnamese-Americans who teach at ILA and Apollo and got the job with no experience straight after the CELTA or TEFL, the same as everyone else. |
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Magic8ball
Joined: 08 May 2009 Posts: 27 Location: HCMC
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Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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I'm With Stupid wrote: |
Magic8ball wrote: |
And honestly, ILA (and other schools) avoid teachers who look Asian, especially Vietnamese because parents have a strongly held belief that you may not be a native speaker, even though (I assume) you are. |
Funny, because I know Vietnamese-Americans who teach at ILA and Apollo and got the job with no experience straight after the CELTA or TEFL, the same as everyone else. |
And that was the exception not the rule.
Perhaps ILA really needed people, but I think the main reason was that the newly hired teachers had paid for, and taken their CETLA course.
And what's become common, is for schools to have recent CELTA grads, with no teaching experience be assigned to adult classes. The complaints come in, and these new teachers are sacked.
ILA will usually put new celta grads into the children department, but Apollo and Language Link will throw them right into the fire with adults - and these newbies get burned badly. |
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bule_boy69
Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 158 Location: Jakarta
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Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:14 am Post subject: |
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Magic8ball wrote: |
ILA will usually put new celta grads into the children department, but Apollo and Language Link will throw them right into the fire with adults - and these newbies get burned badly. |
Hmm thats interesting.
I have a few years experience, but not a lot of experience teaching young kids. I'm a bit kiddie phobic actually.
Which school outa ILA,Apollo,Language link (or others for that matter) do you think would suit me best?
I wouldn't mind getting a bit more experience with young learners...but I don't think I'd cope well with a workload that was heavy with young kids.
How many kids classes do folks at these schools usually get in a working day?
thanks |
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I'm With Stupid
Joined: 03 Sep 2010 Posts: 432
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Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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bule_boy69 wrote: |
Hmm thats interesting.
I have a few years experience, but not a lot of experience teaching young kids. I'm a bit kiddie phobic actually.
Which school outa ILA,Apollo,Language link (or others for that matter) do you think would suit me best?
I wouldn't mind getting a bit more experience with young learners...but I don't think I'd cope well with a workload that was heavy with young kids.
How many kids classes do folks at these schools usually get in a working day?
thanks |
Full time expect 24 contact hours per week. All of your classes will be at evenings and weekends. Evenings will generally be two 2 hour classes per night, and weekends will be 3 or 4 classes per day. So the standard schedule would be 3x4 hours during the week and 2x6 hours at weekends. For some reason, English schools seem to have a thing against giving consecutive days off (funnily enough the bosses seem to get them though). I don't really understand why. ILA won't give newly qualified teachers adults, but if you have experience, I expect they will. But there are going to be a limited number of adult classes at any of these schools, so expect most of your classes to be kids (and of course you can always volunteer for the late shifts, which guarantees you at least older kids). Having said that, older teenagers will be a lot like teaching adults. Except that you will have a TA in the room with you.
Incidentally, since you mention workload, particularly the very young children are a great way to increase your teaching hours without a huge amount of planning time (compared to adults). The first few lessons will take an age to plan, but once you know a decent repertoire of games and activities, it's just a case of fitting them to the language point in a nicely staged way. You still have to anticipate the problems, but there will only be one or two bits of language to look at.
Language Link in HCMC is quite a small school, but they're big on business English, and run a lot of classes for corporate clients, which may suit you. The issue there will be whether they could offer you anything substantial, or just a few classes here and there.
Apollo are pretty similar to ILA from what I know, except that they also have partnership schools, which involves going to different public schools in the city and teaching the kids. I've heard good and bad about that, so I guess it depends on the teacher. |
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BrentBlack
Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 96 Location: Quan 3, Saigon
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Last edited by BrentBlack on Sun Nov 07, 2010 5:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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AJR
Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 6
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:19 pm Post subject: Currently an ILA teacher |
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Hi- I just wanted to chime in here as an insider. A lot of people seem to be offering insight based on understandings gained looking on and I leave it to anybody to judge that insight on whatever merits you may. I was hired last Spring to teach at ILA HCMC and I got on a plane and showed up and signed the contract. I had only a Pass Celta and some volunteer teaching experience, you could say 6 months or you could look at the hours- I really did it, but hey, I was only volunteering. I signed on as a Scale one teacher. The pay scales are published and not really arbitrary- they're based an your Celta grade and your experience, yes with some discretion involved when the contract is drawn up by the supervising manager. For regular hours a scale one teacher makes a little over $17 an hour and for overtime a little over $20. You are reviewed every 6 months and automatically brought up a scale if you have met every basic requirement (2 workshops a month, one meeting a month, one observation every 3 months, not tardy without notice). For full-time you are contracted at 20 to 26 hours per week classroom hours. I teach kids with my oldest students being 14 -15 years old. Teachers with more experience teach adults and do level testing for new students. At almost 6 months I am being urged to take on more adult classes.
Our pay goes into our bank accounts every month on or before the 10th. There is nothing dodgy going on here. You get tons of professional support and on the spot lesson planning support. With any big organization there are flubs and some unhappy people and also an eye on the bottom line. ILA is foreign owned with a large Vietnamese staff that I am often grateful to and fond of. The amount of "Asian" native speakers, i.e., American, Canadian, Australian, English and so forth is a minority that I haven't correlated to their statistical presence in the population at large. I will say it is not rare or noteworthy to have such a colleague. One of my best friends here is an American child of overseas vietnamese, full on viet name, full on american guy, I would say maybe 15% of the teachers at my center were as such when I arrived.
Anyway- the weekends are tough but rewarding. Sure I would take a "better job" with better pay for less hours with better development- I could go on, but its a square deal here- take a better one if you've got it, don't be afraid if this sounds good. |
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elliot_spencer
Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 495
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:27 am Post subject: |
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Does anyone know how much salaried teachers get at ILA?
Thanks |
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bingmayong
Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 24
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:48 am Post subject: |
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elliot_spencer wrote: |
Does anyone know how much salaried teachers get at ILA?
Thanks |
Your question was answered in the post above yours.
AJR wrote: |
For regular hours a scale one teacher makes a little over $17 an hour and for overtime a little over $20
...
For full-time you are contracted at 20 to 26 hours per week classroom hours.
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Kornan DeKobb
Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 242
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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elliot_spencer wrote: |
Does anyone know how much salaried teachers get at ILA?
Thanks |
Not enough to make it worthwhile. |
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Zajko
Joined: 31 May 2007 Posts: 130 Location: No Fixed Address :)
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Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:43 am Post subject: |
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Full time salaried teachers get between about $1400 and $1800 a month according to experience. This is based on 82 hours teaching per month, and as most teachers actually teach around 24 hrs per week, this equates to about 100 teaching hours per month. Meaning about 18 hrs a month on average of overtime, paid at $20 to $25 per hour. Total salary therefore about $1800 to $2300, gross, based on 24 hours work a week. Likely to be very weekend heavy with two non consecutive days off during the week. In addition, they also now add around 7 extra hours of holiday pay each month for full time teachers. |
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