Job Discussion Forums

[babs]

Has anyone worked for Smith's School of English or heard anything about them? I know they offer franchises to foreigners wanting to set up their own English conversation schools in Japan. Sounds like a minefield to me!

[Gordon]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=10027

[PAULH]

see also the post on Smiths in http://www.gaijinpot.com under Small Business and read the whole thread (about 70 posts). I was one of the main protagonists in that discussion.

[SEndrigo]

[SEndrigo]

[PAULH]

The only difference with Smiths is YOU pay them (US$15,000 up front and 50,000 yen a month thereafter in royalties) rather than be paid a salary, just so you can teach English- most of which you can learn to do for free or minimal cost without their help.

[bearcat]

Actually Paul it is worse than that.

They pay 15k up front (or more sometimes), then every month they pay 500 (5man) for administration fee, then they pay 10% of money collected from students for royalties on top of that.

Thats not counting then rent of your apartment(most of those struggling franchises are run out of apartments), utilities, OR Advertising.

Advertising you say? Yes. You have to pay for the flyers (bought from smith at a smith price). If you want to flyer yourself that is. If you want someone else to do it (and they have to look foreign..too and usually have to be ones Smith controlls) then you have to pay that person to do the flyering.

So monthly expenses will run you pretty high... and that from Day 1 of your school being open.

You are better off just teaching privates and avoidng Smith's School of English and its scams, fraud, and commercial cult activities.

Think I'm exaggerating? Check these forum threads for gaijinpot and Let's Japan:

Main thread with 82 replies that point by point show the lies and deceit of Smith and his followers:

http://www.gaijinpot.com/forums/read.php?f=30&i=263&t=263

Another thread showing similar:

http://www.gaijinpot.com/forums/read.php?f=33&i=8338&t=8338

Let's Japan's Thread that also I also placed a point by point run down of what Smith and his followers did on the above threads (51 replies):

http://www.letsjapan.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1259
__________________

Bab, Smith is bad news all around. Its not bad enough that they will swindle you, that they know nothing of ESL/EFL, and have a curriculum for 3 or more years that amounts to less than 80 pages.... total for All levels(paulh can verify this as he has seen the curriculum), but they will do it with tactics you hear about when you see groups like religious cults. Read the threads in detail and take note of what Smith and his "mentoree group" members lie about.

Back to the curriculum as well, Smith sells that curriculum on his website for 2k. 80 pages for 2k! He offers unaccredited, not recognized in Japan by any schools (exept his) certification in teaching.... a 3 day only program for over 6man(600).

I encourage people to read and get as much information about this group. It is through information that it can save others from being victims of this racket.

[guest of Japan]

Ouch! That's horrible.

By the way everyone. I'll be happy to write 80 page curriculums for 200,000 yen. Just send me a pm and a money order.

[PAULH]

With spelling like that, that's not saying much.

[guest of Japan]

My post did not contain any spelling errors. There was one typing error where I hit the period instead of the comma.

I highly suggest you refrain from your habit of criticizing other posters' spelling and grammar errors because your posts are loaded with the same.

[PAULH]

Guest

I wasnt referring to you I was referring to the spam mail that appeared yesterday and appears to have been deleted by the moderators.

"im the best techer n china".

[guest of Japan]

It seems the mistake was mine. Oops. Sorry.

Obviously I was a bit defensive. I very mistakenly felt insulted. Apologies for my error.

[PAULH]

PS

I can usually tell the difference between typos when typing on a computer (I do the same) and when its obvious that a person can not spell or has poor grammar.

[bearcat]

Seems the main thread, running for 7 pages and one of the most replied to and read threads warning people about Smith has been deleted this evening. That's a shame since it had alot of useful information in there for people.

[Nismo]

The likely scenario would be that someone from Smith's contacted Dave Sperling and threatened.