Job Discussion Forums

[andwar]

What's the story with the NORTH AMERICA INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH SCHOOL? Good place to work? Treat their teachers well? Issues with non-payment of salary?

[Dave Remenda]

[Oh My God]

[mark_in_saigon]

You know, a funny thing about those names pointing to a particular country, this one references a continent, but close enough. You would expect the name to mean they employ expats from that country and/or focus on the dialect referenced in their name. So American (what is Cleverlearn now, American something Academy?) would employ Americans, Australian whatever would employ Australians, what have you. Then the students could handily choose the school that fit their future goals. Great idea, huh? We all quickly learn that those names mean very little. Maybe in some cases the oversight has some tie in to the country, but the name really has no relationship that I can see to who they employ and the dialect they teach. I recall a term describing this kind of thing - Markascience (or Markescience). The "science" of marketing. We just need a few more realistic names. How about the It's Greek to Me School of English? Might be quite appropriate for someone's school. Anyone from Greece teaching English here?

[sigmoid]

Cleverlearn is just American Academy. They abbreviated this to AMA to avoid using AA, I guess. AMA, of course, stands for American Medical Association.

Didn't there also use to be [or maybe still is] a school called Asia-Europe or Europe-Asia?

Wasn't there another school called NAMES with the NAM standing for "North America" or is this a rebranding of that place?

Is Outerspace still around? Who remembers SITC [Singapore Int'l Training Center]?

Anybody remember any other weird names/infamous schools?

[Prof.Gringo]

[Prof.Gringo]

[mark_in_saigon]

I think we should focus on the possible names to help these guys out. I know we have some Italians teaching English, we could have "Mama Mia, Dassa Spicy English School".

Outerspace seems pretty realistic. They could specialize in the Martian dialect I so often encounter. They could employ lunatics.

[JSutt]

[VietCanada]

Low pay, huge workload, laid off in the summer if not fired for some absurd reason during the school year. Basically all the duties you'd have with any International school but about half the pay and no benefits whatsoever. No vacation time but TET is unpaid if that counts. Occasional make up days (Saturday) for national holidays if you get the holiday. No OT pay but OT work is expected. Complaining gets you fired. Not loving everything gets you in the firing line. It's a cult and Dr. Lee is the idol.

If you qualify for a position at an international school then you should apply to one. Lots of pseudo international schools around like this place.

OTOH if you fit in you're golden. Except for the low pay, lack of benefits, unpaid holidays and OT. Expect to work 12 hour days and a good part of the weekend.

[VietCanada]

AFAIK Cleverlearn and AMA are not the same school. Cleverlearn is a joke. AMA is well organized and pretty much trouble free but not the best paid job. Probably good for newbies to get their feet wet. Raises happen over time and I've met some who've worked there for a couple years or more and they're happy.

Cleverlearn on the other hand is the poster child for amateurish, incompetent management in EFL/ESL.

AMA quotes net, Cleverlearn offers the same pay but gross. My last experience with Cleverlearn was an unfortunate waste of time with a child manager who was upset that I interrupted his video game and had no concept of what a job interview is. He boasted that he never reads resumes and demonstrated a demo lesson that made me spit coffee out my nose. Absolutely classic. I need google glasses for those moments.

[bobpen]

VC, in my experience with AMA, what you said about them couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, your description of Cleverlearn is precisely accurate for what I've seen with AMA.