Job Discussion Forums

[mack4289]

I worked in Inlingua Quito from Aug 2004- July 2005 and heres why you should stay away:
The principle reason is that they didnt pay two of my friends money they were owed and they screwed with another friend of mine about her last paycheck. One friend was my first boss, who was owed money for contracts she got for inlingua but inlingua never paid her. the second friend was never paid for his last month of teaching at inlingua before he became a translator for inlingua (if youre wondering why he stayed after getting ripped off, translators used to make 4x as much as the best paid teachers. but the translators pay was cut in half, even though inlingua still charges the same rate for translation). my third friend wanted to be paid hourly for her last month of work instead of by contract but, since she worked so many hours, inlingua just decided to pay her by contract. i threatened to quit if she wasnt paid all of her money. so inlingua brought me in to discuss this. well the discussion was really just the owner yelling at me in spanish. to inlinguas credit they did eventually pay my friend almost everything she was owed because she continued teaching a class after what was supposed to be her last day. so if you do inlingua a favor they will pay you almost all the money you earn.
a few smaller complaints: -if you stay at inlingua for a year or just have bad timing, you will be subjected to the yearly inlingua training course. this is two 8 hr training courses on fri and sat, for which inlingua does not pay you and forces you to cancel your classes. on top of that, the course is worthless: its the corporate representative from switzerland training you to use dvds in class (which inlingua doesnt have) and cds in class (when i left inlingua had one cd player, which was broken). youll also do a lot of practice for group classes, even though inlingua teaching is usually one on one.
- my second english speaking boss (there are the ecuadorian owners and then the english speaking boss) was the girlfriend of the owners' nephew. she was living with the owners. not a great position for someone who is supposed to stick up for you to the owners.
- lack of resources: addressed this earlier with the comment about the cd player. but forget about cd players, youre on your own if you want a marker or an eraser. and you have to get permission to make copies at the office.
the only way id take a job at inlingua is for the full time contract. its 600 guaranteed a month, a decent wage for a single person in quito. otherwise id look at ef, or experiment in international living, or key languages or the fulbright center (for the fulbright youll need a work visa). they pay the same and people generally have good experiences there. feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Mike
September 17th 2005
[email protected]
Busan, South Korea

[Justin Trullinger]

[phildyer]

Mike,

I've been working at Inlingua Quito for the last five months (so we must have just missed each other), and thought that your review was a little on the harsh side. It's definitely good to have pointed this kind of stuff out, particularly what you said regarding the teachers being screwed out of pay, but I haven't heard of anything like that happening since I arrived, so it's possible the bad publicity (which would certainly be duplicated if they tried anything like that with me) has taught them a lesson.

Generally I've found Inlingua to be pretty decent. The money's definitely above average for Ecuador ($7.20/hr), and I've been getting a reasonable number of hours (so that I'm earning slightly less than a full time teacher, but probably working nowhere near as hard). Also, the English speaking boss, from your description, has almost certainly changed - if not, her husband's going to be furious about her Ecuadorian boyfriend. I've found her to be very supportive, not only did she arrange for a 50 dollar pay advance when I really needed it, but she also gave me a cake last week.

The only things that irk me about Inlingua is the Herculean effort sometimes required to take photocopies (it's not as if I'm going to take 1000 copies of my arse if they leave the paper supply unsupervised), and the suspiciously high frequency with which they run out of coffee (for Monday morning classes, coffee is beyond essential). But I've literally never worked for a single company that hasn't annoyed me in some way, and in my opinion a decent hourly rate, regular hours and a cake balance out a lot of bad points. Oh, and they've got a DVD player now, too.

However, it could just be that I've picked a lucky time to work here, and that one of my colleagues is just about to get short-changed for some spurious reason. If this happens, I'll certainly let everybody here know ASAP, because making me get up at six in the morning and then not paying me isn't a risk I'd take lightly. It certainly hasn't happened recently though.

Until then, at least say "maybe" to Inlingua Quito, I reckon.

Phil.

[ls650]

phildyer, a question: If you thought they were a decent outfit, why are you leaving after five months? Did you have problems with the school, or was it simply time to move on?

[lozwich]

Every time I've heard Inlingua mentioned, it's always been with a similar "say no" sentiment, mainly concerning low pay and extremely long hours. I have no experience of the organisation myself, but it seems they have a negative reputation all over the world.

[Justin Trullinger]

I've never worked for Inlingua, Quito or elsewhere, and as many of you know, I currently work for the competition, in Quito. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. But I've had several friends, aquaintances, and teachers I've worked with who have also worked for Inlingua. (Several teachers, one in the translation department.)

The first thing I should say is that I routinely recommend Inlingua to teachers who apply to me, if I'm not hiring or simply don't want to hire someone in particular. Why? Because they seem to be more than willing to give new teachers, unqualified teachers, and short stayers a chance. And you have to get your first teaching experience somewhere. (And if you're only staying five months, you're not gonna get it here! I spend too much time on new teachers for that to be worth it...) And many of these people have stayed in touch with me about the positive working experiences they've had at Inlingua.

I suppose it's partly because Inlingua has their own "teaching method" (or at least books) that they don't feel the need for teachers to be highly trained/experienced. (I know some of their teachers are, but they really seem willing to give newbies a shot.)

Everybody I know who's worked at Inlingua has mentioned that support/materials are not easy to come by. But in the world of TEFL, that isn't a major criticism, just an observation. The $7.20 an hour they pay is high average for Quito, but I've heard that they don't pay transportation, and many of their classes are far flung about the city. (I've also heard of teachers being offered lower rates.) It's still decent pay, and many people say the conditions are decent as well.

My impression is that turnover is high (I know five months is far from being the shortest), but I'm not sure if this is due to low staff satisfaction, or merely to being willing to give a chance to people who were never planning to stay long. I also know that turnover in the DOS position, which has had some hit or miss effects. But then, DOS positions in Quito tend to be a lot of stress for not much more money than teaching, so turnover is high in a lot of places. (The DOS before me only lasted a year. The one before her was here for five, but she was a pretty tough bird. I'm figuring that 3-4 would be my maximum.)

And in general, I've heard that the owners are a bit tight fisted. (Photocopies, coffee, etc) But that's the world of for profit franchises. Whatever they can save, they earn.

All in all, Inlingua is neither the best nor the worst Quito has to offer. There are plenty of four dollar an hour, no last paycheck to anybody outfits around here, and they're far better than that. If you're serious about teaching, seriously trained, and planning to stick around, I doubt that Inlingua is the place for you. But if you're new, passing through, or just planning a quick stop, I imagine that they're better than many.

Regards,
Justin

[mack4289]

phil i think youre working for my third boss. the second boss i mentioned left quito a few months before i did.
i did intend the review to be harsh but it really isnt the best or the worst school. they always paid me on time and basically left me alone (for better or worse). my opinion of them was severely lowered by the way they treated my friends and also the way they treated me when i threatened to quit because they were trying to screw my friend. in that post i shouldve also mentioned that, after one of the ecuadorian bosses yelled at me for threatening to quit, i had to return to the office to hand in time sheets. while i was waiting for my new time sheets my third english speaking boss came to offer what at first seemed like an apology but turned into a request to "sort of, you know, keep what happened to yourself". that boss is a really nice person and im sure felt bad about what happened. but this was another opinion lowering experience for me.

to be precise, id recommend inlingua fifth out of the five schools that pay 7/hr (which i listed in my 1st post), based on my experience with inlingua and the generally good things i heard about the other schools.