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bluenight · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 5

Anyone know about this organization?

-bluenight

bluenight · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 5

bluenight · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 5

CountBassD · Joined: 08 Feb 2010 Posts: 33 Location: Bogota, Colombia

I worked for them for a little while. Sigfried is a nice guy, and he does actually sponsor your visa, but it is totally up to you to leave the country and handle all the costs. It is good work if your top priority is a visa, but one of the lowest paying institutes in Bogota. When I was last there, around November of 2010, he was paying 15,000 an hour, which is borderline insulting.

littlelauren86 · Joined: 20 Sep 2011 Posts: 94 Location: Korea

I interviewed with them as well, and they were offering 22,900 (something like that) per class. So the pay's pretty low with them being a charity and all, but if you're only looking for the visa, it's an option.

G22 · Joined: 25 Oct 2010 Posts: 89

I know someone currently working there and he told me they pay 15.000 an hour, although you can get a visa through them if you pay for the expenses yourself.

jmc6161234 · Joined: 12 Jun 2013 Posts: 1

I have taught ESL in Bogotà for more than 4 years. Just spent a little more than a month working for Sigfried and I can tell with total certainty that he is one of the biggest con-artists I have met in, well anywhere (and I owned my own small ESL Institute there @ 10 years ago so I know how the 'sharks' swim).

Yes, they might sponsor your visa AFTER you've arrived in country but all costs associated (including r/t air to home country, etc.) come out of your pocket and it normally add up to about 2 months pay. Speaking of pay ...

Although he will swear to you that you'll get paid on the 10th of the (next) month "without fail" I NEVER got paid on time - sometimes for weeks / months on end - and he could not give a sh*te about your situation. "Que se jode gringo", bite it!

The "bilingual" school that he contracts with, Colegio Pio XII, is a 60 - 90 minute commute from center of Bogotà - far beyond the airport - and once you're there (bus leaves from his office in neighborhood "Las Galerias" at 6:30am) you won't get back to the office until 6:30 - 7:00pm. Ergo, need to run an errand?, go to a doctor?, do all of the run-around for your visa / cedula / find a suitable living arrangement? - good luck doing it all on weekends. Again, "tough sh*te gringo". Speaking of the school ...

To call this abomination a 'school' is ludicrous. The lunatics run the asylum = the 'students' (aka -the lunatics) are the worst bunch of cheating, crying, lying little sh**s I've taught anywhere in the world (and I have taught in Colombia for over 4 years). They say that the school has videotaping in every classroom (supposedly to protect the students +/or teachers from untrue accusations) and the admin will constantly state, "well, we'll just have to look at the videotape..." - but NEVER do. In fact, most, if not all video cameras in classrooms are not functional.

Ergo, catch students cheating (I mean a cheat sheet right under their test paper!) and good luck getting anyone to believe you. Students get the last word (heck, every word for that matter) and good luck trying to fail anyone - the school just changes their grades in their computer system = there goes any semblance of your teaching integrity / authority out the window. Now try "teaching" to 30 lazy-arse, lying, cheating, lunatics when they KNOW that they'll never fail (even "modest" grades are pumped up by admin w/o your knowledge).

Sigfried will cry poverty at every turn (supposedly owing to the 'non-profit' status) and he's a complete liar. I knew what he was getting paid for each foreign teacher at the school and by my calculations he was pocketing more than COP10.000.000 - per month! Just in his pocket. How else could he afford to live in both the Cayman Islands AND Bogotà? - yes, it's true. He lives in Estrata 6 (highest income level in Bogotà) and flies back and forth to/from the Cayman's almost every weekend.

I hope this is enough said because believe me there is more. Again, I've been around the LA and especially Colombian teaching block quite a bit - the only 'personal growth' going on with this clown is in his pocket.

adamthenerd · Joined: 30 Jul 2013 Posts: 17

All these things are so true about the school and Sigfried. The school only cares about the money coming from the parents and Sigfried only cares about the money from the school nothing else. The bottom line is the bottom line for these animals!!

Here is a post about my experience
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=103529