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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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 Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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| From what I've seen, lending a recibo in DF is as common as getting a shoe shine. I've seen this in Guerrerro and Jalisco as well, but also to include Mexicans providing services like teaching, plumbing, and electrical work. |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Guy Courchesne wrote: |
| From what I've seen, lending a recibo in DF is as common as getting a shoe shine. I've seen this in Guerrerro and Jalisco as well, but also to include Mexicans providing services like teaching, plumbing, and electrical work. |
Yes, quite common here, too . . . for Mexicans but not for foreigners. I was offered a job working for the city government. When I told the director of the program that I didn't feel the pay and benefits were worth the hassle and money involved to add the job to my work visa, her response was that I could use one of the Mexican employee's recibos rather than add the city government as an employer on my work visa. Obviously, this woman had never hired a foreigner or dealt with the local immigration office.
Are we getting off topic here yet?  |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject: Re: Berlitz in Mexico-opinions please |
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| kamikazekid wrote: |
| I am wondering whether anyone here has worked for Berlitz before |
Getting back to the original topic . . . one of my co-workers used to work for the local Berlitz. The 2-week unpaid training sounds about right. If I recall correctly, he said teachers taught in two-period blocks of time: something like two 45-minute classes with a 15-minute break in the middle and were paid 80 pesos per block. He worked for Berlitz part-time in the evenings and for another school in the mornings. This was a couple of years ago, so some things may have changed since then. Since he's a local, obviously a work visa wasn't an issue for him.
Regarding unpaid training time, another well-known local chain/franchise school requires its own teacher-training course for 4 (unpaid) weeks prior to working there with no guaranteed number of hours upon completion of the course. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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Most of the chain or small language schools in DF do the same thing on training, but I think 1 week is most common, and unpaid of course.
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| He worked for Berlitz part-time in the evenings and for another school in the mornings. This was a couple of years ago, so some things may have changed since then. Since he's a local, obviously a work visa wasn't an issue for him. |
Makes me wonder about the legality of asking a foreign worker to restrict employment only to Berlitz. This isn't exactly like a contractual clause for someone from Microsoft being unable to work for Apple.
In Acapulco, there are very few language schools and everyone knows each other. I know that HH will fire a teacher caught working at a rival school at the same time. The Ingles Individual there claims to have had their 'teaching system' stolen by a competitor...a teacher who jumped ship, and probably did no more than swipe a dictionary. Strange attitudes sometimes in small towns. |
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kiwimex
Joined: 04 Feb 2005
Posts: 1
Location: Downunder
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| Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:09 am Post subject: Re: Berlitz in Mexico-opinions please |
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Hi kamikazekid
I worked for Berlitz en el DF back in 1998. Two weeks unpaid training is exactly right, which is fine if you are desperate to get a job and if you haven't had any previous ESL training. I had just completed the CELTA in 1997 but found I could not put into practice what I had learnt, as Berlitz has a completely different methodology (although things could've changed by now).
Classes were taught largely orally, were teacher-centred and if I remember correctly, the rooms didn't even have a whiteboard. The teacher models a word or sentence and the students repeat - over and over again. It works for some people, especially the aural learners. But it doesn't cater for visual learners, and I saw a lot of students struggle because of this. Their belief is that adults can acquire a language in the same way children learn their native tongue - by hearing a word or phrase, and repeating it. A tad too simplistic for my liking.
Ah yes, and the worst part was their policy of monitoring your classes via intercom!! It wasn't subtle either. You knew, and the students knew when they listened in because you would hear the click and hiss of it coming on. Very off-putting indeed!
As far as private tutoring is concerned, there is no way they can monitor this. It's ridiculous! How exactly are they going to find out - unless they follow you home and interrogate every person you talk to.
The reason I ended up with them was because in comparison to the other chain schools around, they seemed to be paying better.
On a positive note.... the other teachers, the admin staff and the manager were all really lovely people.
Hope this helps. Good luck finding something you are happy with.
Kiwimex |
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