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Beast
Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 120
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 Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:43 am Post subject: Language Link (McEnglish) |
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I once worked at this place and it was a terrible place to work. Students are passed to the next level no matter what they do in the class. The Admin. takes the view that all teachers are suspect. It's so McEnglish that some teachers have been told "Don't use any words that are not in the book or teacher's book." If a student doesn't understand every word of a song then it's your fault.
Dismal, Dismal and Dismal. Stay away. |
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coledavis
Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 1838
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| 'This place?' I believe there to be Language Link schools run as a franchise all over Russia. Perhaps you could tell us which school you are referring to. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| Sounds like could be any of them... |
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Peg Leg Pete
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Posts: 80
Location: Moscow
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:28 pm Post subject: Too true.... |
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It doesn't even have to be one of the Russian LL franchises. it could go for quite a few I have encountered elsewhere.
It's not teaching, it's doing time.  |
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yakov1
Joined: 12 Mar 2010
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:48 am Post subject: Re: Language Link (McEnglish) |
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| Beast wrote: |
I once worked at this place and it was a terrible place to work. Students are passed to the next level no matter what they do in the class. The Admin. takes the view that all teachers are suspect. It's so McEnglish that some teachers have been told "Don't use any words that are not in the book or teacher's book." If a student doesn't understand every word of a song then it's your fault.
Dismal, Dismal and Dismal. Stay away. |
HI! although i finally got myself a log in, i have been reading this forum for more than 5 years. it is almost a little family with the haters, the neutrals and the humourous.
i work for language link, i am nobody just a teacher. i used to work for them in uzbekistan and it ended badly,mostly due to changes in government rules(LL were everything right but the goal posts changed when the department for foreign teachers came under a different ministry).
after this i kept my visa and stayed in uzbekistan and taught privately making more than 3 times the money each month that LL paid me. it was easy to do too, just wasnt exactly legal. i can certainly understand some(especially those who do it legally) who work privately and rake in the money rather than work at a mcschool. sometimes, however, it is better the devil you know and when my visa was expiring i had to leave uzbekistan and russia was the logical step. i didn't want moscow at this stage so i looked further afield and took a great job in volgograd. i love the city, i am in the centre of it and my job is incredibly stress free. when i was working for myself i was also working a lot more hours. i also have a military pension from australia which makes things very comfortable for me, however, the teachers here just on ll salary seem to regularly have more than i have due to spending habits( i eat out a lot more etc and they generally cook at home to spend more on the weekend).
working for these schools means you have to accept a lot of things you don't really like at times but the admins have been here 16 years, one teacher for 3(canadian), another for 2(american) plus the russian teachers all been here for six years or more. they can't be too bad if people are staying around.
to comment on your actual post i can only refer to the practises of the local school:
students who complete the course, regardless of their final score, receive a certificate of completion. this is whether they pass or fail( basically it is a certificate of attendance but appears as a certificate of achievement). i dont really agree with this practice but hey i am not the boss. HOWEVER, students are NOT able to move onto the next level without passing. They stop then and there and have to repeat the level until they pass. We had a couple this semester in this situation and of course it is very disappointing. i have seen weak students fight tooth and nail to pass and have, others do little study outside of class and this is the result.
the statement about not using words in the book is very far from my experience in both the LL i have worked at...i write my own dialogues full of slang and phrasal verbs which are very popular with the students. every time a word has multiple meanings in English i would discuss that , even if not related to the topic at hand( for example set: sun setting, set the table, setting up for a meeting, being set up, set up on a date, set up a meeting, set off on a journey, set off a bomb, be set upon, jelly/paint setting etc etc). i have full support of the admins in this and they encourage me to do it further and we might even record my dialogues onto CDs so the students can practice them at home.
If you are new to the industry the mcschools have their place and certainly when you are TRP you can spread your wings further legally. for those who are not legal in russia you cant blame the newbies like myself seeking comfort of solid visa support etc. |
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PeterBar
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Posts: 145
Location: La France profonde
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:14 am Post subject: |
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Volgograd LL was fine several years ago when I was there.
Not that it's any reflection on the school, but I happened to see a poor guy jump off the roof of the building opposite the office.
Unlike the guy in H2G2 he didn't miss when he threw himself to the ground. |
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yakov1
Joined: 12 Mar 2010
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| maybe that's why the school moved! |
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anglichanka5
Joined: 06 Apr 2010
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:19 am Post subject: |
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| Language Link is pretty good. The administrators can be problematic at times but nothing that a little cultural understanding won't allow for. I've been working for 7 months at one of their Moscow schools and so far it's been a good experience. Everything promised in the contract has been received. And the atmosphere at the schools is comfortable enough. |
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ate_the_paint
Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:20 am Post subject: |
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I've been working for LL in a Moscow suburb for just under a year now and it's fine. It's a clean and (mostly) organized school. They don't let just anyone move on to the next level.
Our administrators are nice and the only problem I have is receiving suprise "make-up" lessons with a few hours notice (although this happens rarely) and the fact that when one of the teachers calls in sick the other teachers have to cover their classes. This works in theory but when one teacher is always calling in sick it kind of screws over the others.
I read all the negative slander about LL before coming over but in order to get your foot in the door in Russia you need the visa support of a McSchool, and none of what I read has turned out to be true. I know that LL in the Moscow Oblast is a good place to work. |
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