Job Discussion Forums

[edwinagirl]

Does anyone know anything about Wall Street Institute? I heard they were in serious decline. Any comments?

[Miyazaki]

In the past, I've spoken with several teachers who had either worked for this school or were working there at the time.

In fact, last year, there were a couple of American teachers who I used to see in the gym and they told me a lot about what was happening at Wall Street.

All in all, I've received only negative reportsabout Wall Street. Apparantly, there are several British teacher supervisors working there who have poor leadership qualities and no formal training in Education or TEFL methodology. They've been described as quite autocratic.

There is also apparantly a lot of in-house fighting among teachers and the British supervisors who are, I've been told, 'lazy' and try to pass their lessons off onto junior teachers so that they can 'do admin work.'

It seems these British supervisors would ask junior teachers to do some lessons for them so that they could get off early or do 'office work' on the condition that they would later, down the road, teach a lesson for the junior teacher. This never happened. A Pattern developed where the junior (new) teachers were being taken advantage of by these older, British supervisors.

I have been told that these British supervisors have been the source of a lot of conflict at Wall Street.

The wages are low. I was told that they average out to about NT$475 per hour after working approximately 27 to 30 hours per week. Split shifts are the norm, where teachers are required to start in the morning until 12:00pm and then return at 4 or 5pm and then teach until 9:00pm. Also, I was told that Wall Street Institute contracts teachers to a 6 day work week.

The facilities look clean and new and there is normally a teachers' room at all branch locations to sit down in between classes and eat lunch or prepare for lessons.

Wall Street also uses its own in-house materials and I am told once you learn these materials it cuts down on class preparation time dramatically. In fact, one Wall Street Institute teacher told me that he had become incredibly bored with the material after a year of working there and that the job was not very challenging or interesting.

As well, like many schools in Taiwan, Wall Street does not provide housing for English teachers. I have also been told that Wall Street does not hire teachers from overseas and that they require applicants to come in and sit an interview in person. This may have changed since I received most of the above information on Wall Street in 2003 and 2004.

Final word on Wall Street Institute is - high turn over rate, lazy and autocratic British head teachers, boring materials, low hourly wages, split-shifts and 6 day work week.

The presentation at Wall Street is very slick. Many computers and classrooms with glass walls and glass marker boards. The compay is actually a Spanish company and has branches in China and Bangkok, Thailand. I have also heard reports from other teachers that they may have already expanded to Japan as well.

If I were a new teacher in Taiwan looking for a job (I would NEVER consider working for Wall Street or a BERLITZ at this point), I would rank Wall Street in this way:

Salary: Poor
Hours: Poor - Fair (split shifts are routine in EFL in Asia)
Facility: Good
Location: Good (close to MRT Stations)
Mangagement: Very Poor

I don't think you could do much worse than working for Wall Street - it is the bottom of the EFL barrel (as is BERLITZ).

You can do better even without proper EFL qualifications (my opinon).

[edwinagirl]

Wow,

Thx, Mizayaki, for taking thew time to write this!!!

[Pop Fly]

Great ersponse. Very well encapsulated. But the "British invasion" of autocratic teachers seems a little off in my recollection of the place. Of the managers that were tehre, 2 were American, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Brit and 1South African.

The South African was the real pip. Total control freak. Mr. Micro Manager. He alone is worth giving WSI a big thanks but no thanks.

It boggles my mind how Rick Lee, owner of WSI Taiwan continues to employ this SA dandy, even after losing at least 1/2 a dozen quality people, Taiwanese and Foreign alike, as a direct result of having to much contact with this greasy of greasies.

As for being on the decline, I was teaching a business class yesterday, and we were using the ESL business in Taiwan as a model for discussion. Without any prompting or cajoling from me, WSI was deemed to be the cream of the adult language institute crop by my students. When I inquired as to why they felt that way, they said it is so expensive, it has to be the best.

There you go. Never mind that the majority of their learning will be done on ther own with a computer. Charge them 90K a year and they'll line up for days.

So, after explaining a few of the basics of a WSI contract to my business class, I went out on a limb and predicted that WSI would begin closing its doors within the year. I further predicted that ShiLin would fall first, followed by Panciao.

Later that same day, my g/f called me from the ShiLin nightmarket to tell me that WSI's building was "For Rent".

Now I like Rick Lee. I think he is the coolest, hippest boss I've had in Taiwan. But now, not only has he lost some key players due to the Anti-Buddha, he is actually losing his flagship branch.

And has Mr. Greasy been canned yet? I don't think so.

[donfan]

Miyazaki I don't know why you feel compelled to repeatedly point out that the supervisors were British. Do you think it is because they are British that they acted in such a way? Do you feel that the British in general have far less scruples than North Americans?

[Chris Smith]

I went to WSI's ShiLin branch about 2 months ago for an interview. I was intreagued by the fairly rapid rise of this company in Taiwan, with it's professional looking appearance. I'd also asked a similar question to the OP on this site.

The guy who interviewed me was a very nice person and keen to show me around and explain the WSI system. Their basic customer service appeared to be immaculate, with convenience and courtesy for the students being the priority. Easy payment and well rehearsed explanations. Certainly the cutting edge of customer care in Taiwan, and they should be applauded for that.

As for the academic stuff, it was very interesting. As Pop Fly says the computer content of the course is very high and I suppose WSI should be at the forefront of computer aided learning, but... this is still in its infancy, and it was very obvious from my observations in ShiLin.

A student's listening ability must certainly improve by leaps and bounds from this system. There are lots of comprehension based exercises, complemented by contact time, once a week, with a person who evaluates the student and reinforces the learned materials. We might want to call the person I just mentioned a "teacher", but in fact this person's main task is to evaluate students to make sure they are keeping up. There are very few teaching skills employed from what I could tell. The in-house materials I saw shocked me in two respects- their blandness and shallowness + their confusing presentation. Mechanical. Seeing that gave me a huge sense of achievement over what our teacher trainers and teachers produce.

The pay is certainly not great. In other schools, this is often acceptable for teachers if there's plenty of job satisfaction to be had, but frankly I couldn't see it here. From a teacher's point of view I would say it is almost impossible to learn any teaching craft by working for WSI.

On a final note, I should mention that the genuinely nice guy who interviewed me had been in Taiwan for 9 months, 3 of which were as a "Service Manager". Before coming to Taiwan he had never taught before.

WSI is more of a business than other buxibans in Taiwan (a grand statement, I know). They have a new project called "English Anytime" which is basically their computer system, but now available online. They are doing their best to offer convenience to their customers, but that will come at a heavy price, both for franchisees and the customers themselves. Why go to class when I can learn at home? So long as I progress through the system, I am learning...really!...really?