Job Discussion Forums

[Praguegirl]

Does anyone know if the Language House in Marbella is legit? My friend has been offered an extremely luctrative contract there and we aren't sure if it's a scam or not. She is an American currently living in Ireland on a holiday visa, and has no legal papers to live/work in the E.U. (though the schools claims they will take care of all that) She has been offered the following package after a couple of skype interviews:


Here's the offer, in the contract and all:

net salary: 2000 euros per month, paid even for holidays
2500 euro bonus for one-year contract
housing: free furnished apartment provided by employer
visa assistance
round trip provided by employer
teaching load and schedule: 25 hours per week

they've also told me "The necessary documents required from us to process your visa/work permit have been forwarded to the visa issuance department, you are advised to contact the bellow for your visa/work permit assistance."

Does this sound legit? I've done some research but can't find much either way. They have a decent looking website, and haven't asked her to submit any fees or payments of any sort like some of the other "scam" schools are known for. Any advice/information/etc would be greatly appreciated!

[spiral78]

Not legit. Impossible, in fact.

They'll be asking for some money soon

Perhaps it's the 'bellow'who will start with the discussion of fees.

[jonniboy]

The Language House itself is likely to be legit, the scammers hijacking the name aren't.

Lucrative job offer in Spain = scam. End of.

[sarahm46]

Hi there.

I have had the same offer, same contract exactly! I am highly suspicious and have spoken to them via Skype chat only and then I insisted on speaking to a human. Their school numbers don't work and are different on the email than the website. NONE of them work and if you reach someone they hang up. When I chatted with them, no details were offered so I just kept asking questions...answers were hesistant and slow..frequently changed... and the details of their offer seemed to change with my stated expectations! There was also so many pauses between responses.

They finally called via skype and said hello and hola, and then hung up because of a poor line and then started the skype instant chatting again.. I asked for a name, noone had ever offered a name and just simply referred to the "school authority". I was given Mr. Birkeland as a name.. he said he was my only contact. He also happens to be a student on the school website's "what people say about us" page. He was a student learning Spanish and is from Norway. If you research him via Google in Norway he has an agency that provides entertainers for events, or something like that.

I asked again about getting some names and contact information for teachers whom I could speak to and also what this "School authority" was.
I then asked for a valid telephone number for the school but have never heard back since!

I am extremely suspicious and so are all of my friends who are EFL teachers who have traveled.

I am not sure if my questions or the fact that they forgot that I was British and didn't need any help with a Visa, was the reason for no response, but having already signed this contract like a fool and the date of arrival being on the 20th May, I think I would have heard from them by now! Don't you think?

I have only one question. If they are scamming me, how are they doing it if they offer to pay for the ticket and everything? Obviously if I didn't recieve the ticket, I wouldn't go.

[spiral78]

Hmmm. 20th May? Still plenty of time for them to request the fees Or to tell you they will reimburse your travel, not send you a ticket.

IF they actually sent a ticket (I guess tiny, tiny chance of this) I'd be EXTREMELY cautious about meeting up with them at the airport or wherever. Frankly, I'd suspect a human slavery ring or something...I know it sounds crazy, but it's less far-fetched than the contract described in the OP.


Anyway, do keep us posted - this will be interesting, whatever happens!

[sarahm46]

You will be interested in the email I just got. It just seems so unprofessional.. They have answered it as simply as possible and just sent my email back with the answers added onto the end of my sentences. Why are they bothering to answer them I wonder? Also, notice that nothing has been said about the "school authority".. I am going to copy and paste it on here (There answers are in bold):

Who and what is the "School authority"? Are there any names? Yes
Also, are there any names and contact information of any teachers who work there that I could contact? Ms Brenda [email protected]

I also wanted to know if you work for the school because you are shown as a student on the the website's "testimonial" page talking about learning Spanish? I finish my Spanish studies with them and started working as online teacher with the school.





The Language House
Mr Eivind Birkeland
Address: C/Antonio Machado 5
Edificio San Juan 1�C
San Pedro de Alcantara
29670 Malaga
Skype: thelanguageshouse
E-mail:[email protected]
Tell: +34-951242140/951247174

[spiral78]

What's 'Mr. Birkeland's' first language supposed to be?

It doesn't appear to be English, assuming he wrote the response

Their skype address appears to be misspelled...did it work in the plural form as it appears below? Maybe this is where they hijacked the real one....

The plot thickens. When are they sending your flight tickets?

You're right - highly interesting.

However, too bad that it's not a real offer - hopefully you don't feel too let down. It really is the proverbial Too Good to be True, I'm afraid.

[spiral78]

I just sent 'Ms. Brenda' an email asking for info because maybe I want to apply for the job (I've got three days off work and time on my hands - it's raining )

I'll let you know what sort of weirdness comes back, if anything!

If they monitor Dave's, probably nothing, obviously


I Like Emoticons Today

[sarahm46]

Lol..But I did feel a little uneasy about Ms. Brenda's email being there on display for all the world..What if she is just an innocent student? :roll

I wonder if she is part of the "school authority"?

By the way... I was quite disappointed actually. But ALWAYS suspicious... I haven't lived in England for 20 years and longer since I have been in Europe so I felt it was pretty high as it is about $700 more a month than a teacher with a Master Degree like myself, in the State of North Carolina where I live.

I would love to teach in Spain...


LEt me know as soon as you hear from Ms. Brenda.....

Cheers....

[sarahm46]

The Language house isn't the only scam out there (obviously). I have been corresponding with another school in England which has followed the same format of interviewing. I wasn't so suspicious with them as they were more professional but stupidly, I fell for this one too and even sent them a copy of my passport! (This was before I saw the contract...) How stupid can you get. I have certainly learned my lesson with these scam artists. I just worry about what is happening with my passport info!

I turned them down only for them to then send me an email asking me to sign a really unprofessional contract. It has a name and signature that do not match at the bottom. "Phillip Fahard" is Head of Studies, but he signed it as "Joan Collins"

I cant copy it as it is a pdf file..I will have to figure out how to copy it. But..the information is the same, with the bonus, paid airfare, accommodation, etc.. !800. pounds a month (NET)
EVerything else paid for!

[strictly_nicky]

[toast007]

sarahm46, any definitive answer on The Language House? i, too, received the exact contract mentioned above and went through the skype chat interview, talked to the visa agency asking for money ($235 USD), and emailed ms. brenda and received the same answers (written suspiciously in the same format as mr. birkeland...).

i was wondering if you succeeded in contacting them via phone -- at first i thought that they were an ESL institution whose first language wasn't English, hence the typos and grammatical errors in the correspondence...but since i've found your post....

should i just disregard what happened? is there anything we can do to make sure it doesn't happen again?

[spiral78]

Hopefully you didn't send the 235$!!

[sarahm46]

Hi toast007

Like Spiral78 said..I hope you didn't send the money. But, if you did, don't beat yourself up about it. You live and learn and I am certainly learning about doing business on the internet.

One thing I know is that you never send them any money! If they are offering as high as 2000. Euros a month, then they can certainly pay the visa fees.

They didn't ask me but I am a Brit.. they forgot this and asked several times and I guess when it finally registered was when they stopped contact..as I haven't heard anything from them since.

Be careful of a job offer for the English House in Scarborough, England. That is also a scam. It seems to me that if it is in this Skype written interview format than there is something definitely illegitimate about it. If they have Skype capability..don't you think they would want to actually "talk" with you? I was suspicious but thought that maybe it was some type of new format of interviewing that I wasn't familiar with, but it never felt right.

As far as what we can do about it..I don't know, except post warnings and notify the websites...

I already emailed Dave Sperling about this but I didn't get this job off of here. It was on Jacob Peebles Esl Employment.

Anyway..we just need to be more careful from now on!

Good luck with the job hunt.

[sarahm46]

Hi Strictly Nicky...

I live in Hendersonville, NC...near Asheville. I am not American but I have been living here for 20 years. I am from England.

Where are you right now? 5 years is a long time to be away from home..

I just had a quick look at your blog..looks really interesting and I am going to dig in and read later today when I get time.