Job Discussion Forums

[abigolblackman]

Could someone provide me with a contact email for HR at Wall Street English? I can't find any contact info. Online. Thanks.

[LongShiKong]

A former colleague went to work for them in Shanghai but he hasn't returned my latest email yet. Try a search for "@pearson.com", "shanghai" and "Wall Street"

[abigolblackman]

Thanks LongShiKong.

[Harpoon]

[Gtomas]

Is Wallstreet that bad? They have a reputation for being organized and well run in Shenzhen and I was thinking of eventually looking for a job with them. Long hours or such?

[Denim-Maniac]

Although they do ask you to work long hours, Ive always had the impression they are good. Probably the only place I would like to work in China, outside my current employer.

I do think they expect you to know you shizz though. I have a colleague now who has an MA in Education, but he actually doesnt know sh*t about EFL...IPA - nope, Grammar - nope. The students like him a lot....but he was refused at Wall Street because he doesnt know jack about a lot of TEFL stuff. At the moment I do work a light workload, but the non-tefl types mess it up for the serious teachers here...so places like Wall Street hold some appeal to me.

[Mr.Engrish]

[Opiate]

Serious teachers at Wall Street? Doesn't Wall Street hand you lesson plans and materials which you must adhere to? Or is that perhaps a different school?

[therock]

Wall Street is like all language schools, all they care is about profit. However at least they pay a decent wage.

[Denim-Maniac]

@ Mr Engrish - I teach 10 x 90 minute classes a week, no evenings or weekends. Its not the lightest of schedules compared to some, but I think its a pretty good one for a training school teaching adults.

@ Opiate - Yes, I do believe they give all materials and ask you to adhere to them. That's serious teaching in my book. It would suggest there is a set syllabus to follow which should include skills, target language etc etc. The 'free' materials system which so many places follow is the bane of my life TBH. Students who accept a set syllabus are more likely to want to learn IMO. Free material isnt the way ahead (for me). People I work with use a lot of free material and it tends to make my job harder as students fail to get the difference between interesting and useful sometimes.

[Gtomas]

[Denim-Maniac]

Its a difficult one I think. Designing material, maybe I just dont have the right skill set to do so effectively. Generally speaking though, I would say there isnt a language point or skill set that exists that hasnt already been taught 1000 times from a book. The topic isnt important really, the skill or language point being learned is.

I prefer to teach that point or skill set from a tried and tested source, and I feel my part is to take that material, and tailor it to my students, my environment and my classroom. I still plan 'how to teach', but spend far less time on the 'what to teach' part.

I have a complete set of Face2Face textbooks and I try to use them as much as possible but I do sometimes face resistance because I have to compete with free material teaching. Yes, I accept the 'transgender marriage' is interesting, but what do students actually learn? (we have a lot of these wacky materials floating around my place!)

I only know Wall Street by reputation, and have one ex co-worker who is a receptionist for them...but I believe they tend to work more along the lines of a syllabus which would suggest to me they focus more on the useful than the 'interesting'.

[isitts]

[TechTeacher]

[Denim-Maniac]