Job Discussion Forums

route67 · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:00 pm Post subject: Vietnam US Society

Does anyone have any experience regarding this school? The salary on offer is attractive, so there HAS to be a catch...
Wink

lizarddoctor · Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 141 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

I taught a sample class at this school and didnt find the school to be bad, just the schedual bites pretty bad. After my class, they tried to hire me with a 7 day a week schedual at night during the week and full time on sat. and sunday. There are much better places in town for both schedual and money in HCMC you just have to look around a bit.

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

The salary at VUS is probably par for the course in Vietnam. I heard about the 7-day work week which includes 3 hour classes and traveling from branch to branch, so I didn't have much interest in working there.

They do have a very professional image and a nice office building. I think this sort of job would be good for someone who wants to make a lot of cash in a short time.

Vesuve · Joined: 18 Dec 2004 Posts: 28

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OzBurn · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 199

Salaries at VUS as at other schools depend on what you can negotiate. Most classes on a given day are scheduled at a particular campus, so it doesn't make much difference. The school likes teachers to work seven days a week. The curriculum is International Express (ugh) for adults, Headway for teens, Let's Go for kids, plus Mosaic/Interchange for TOEFL prep and Northstar for the last two courses.

Galileo · Joined: 10 Oct 2006 Posts: 63

Let me add my two cents about my experience at VUS-

1. Like the other posters mentioned, they will try to get you to work a seven day a week schedule. They will try to get you to agree to work ten hours on a Sunday. I think they have a shortage of teachers so they try to squeeze as much out of the teachers that they do have.

2. They will make you regret buying a cell phone. They like to get all teachers' cell phone numbers so can call you and ask you to substitute classes at the last moment.

3. A lot of their books don't seem to be carefully chosen. International Express with its emphasis on business English is not ideal for beginning students of English. Getting a class of low level adult students to participate in a discussion about a topic such as the advantages and disadvantages of privatization is usually impossible. They also had a book for teenagers with such lessons as "balancing a checkbook." Certainly, not the most relevant topic for Vietnamese teenagers.

4. They put a lot of emphasis on teacher popularity. Students report weekly about a teacher's performance and if they like the teacher then they have the opportunity to circle the smiley face on the evaluation sheet at the end of the course. On Teachers Day the Vietnamese and Foreign teacher who got the most smiley faces gets the highest award.

5. They always pay on time and you can get a lot of hours there.