Job Discussion Forums

[alisonclare]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and teahcing English. I'm going to apply for a yr long job in Moscow with Berlitz. However, after an e-mail and looking on the website I still can't find anything about wages etc. Has anyone on this forum worked for Berlitz and could please give me some advice on working for the company? Also I have never worked abroad before so I know I am throwing myself in at the deep end! Any general advice would be great

Thanks

Ali

[Like a Rolling Stone]

I was told "Don't work for Berltiz they are so bad!" that is the ones in Japan because the schedules are not fixed and the salary is quite low.

[spiral78]

Berlitz is a franchise. The owners in some locations are pretty good and others not; this is usually the deciding factor in employee satisfaction. I can't speak for Moscow's Berlitz. The one in Prague has a decent reputation among teachers.

Pay at Berlitz is usually low compared to other private language centres. You will receive training in the Berlitz method. This is based on some language learning theories that are considered to be generally outdated and ineffective in modern Second Language Acquisition research. Experience at Berlitz is not often considered desirable by other schools.

There are plusses, however. No lesson prep is needed - just put on your business dress, show up, and follow procedures/materials.

Also, Berlitz has name recognition and I know some companies in some cities who feel safer paying Berlitz for language lessons for their staff simply because the private schools have sometimes been known to go under or occasionally employ teachers with poor skills.

You are doing the right research - Moscow is a very EXPENSIVE city and you should be 100% sure that the wages offered by Berlitz are adequate for living expenses. Metro travel , admission to cultural sites, and very basic food are about the only things in the city that are not expensive!! Be sure to ask specific questions about internet access (internet cafes are not cheap) and accomodations.

As for Moscow as a first destination, I have just returned to the Czech Republic from a 10-week stint teaching an intensive course in Moscow. My first visit to the city. It's an incredibly intense place - 12 million people live there, the metro was designed to carry 6.5 million daily but there are actually 8-10 million on it every day, so your daily travel around can be a considerable factor. Honestly, I cannot imagine having to travel around the city on the metro from company to company to teach. Just going in and out of the centre once daily was more than enough for me!

Moscow, in my limited experience, is a bit wild and dark (bear in mind I saw the last long end of winter and the coming of spring). The centre is utterly beautiful, in my opinion, with stunning contrasts in architecture and history. I spent many hours just happily wandering with my Rough Guide, and sometimes with Russian friends. It's a very intense place.

Depending on where you live in the city, your daily life can be ok - or not. I was unfortunately located in the far southeast of the city, not the most salubrious district, and my streets were crowded with drinkers and smokers and panhandlers and feral dogs, among the business people and young mothers with children and grannies literally nonstop. It looked substantially the same at 6 am or 6 pm or midnight. Daily stuff like shopping for food and getting into the metro were pretty high stress because of the constant crowds.

Also, if you haven't already started, remember to study the alphabet and a bit of basic Russian before you go. I was sent on 7 days notice, so I was functionally illiterate my first month, though with my knowledge of Czech, I could at least pick up a word or two, and it was pretty easy for me to understand important individual works, like metro station names or street names.

The metro and supermarket shopping is not a big problem, and most people working in the centre understand at least some English, but if you're traveling outside the city or living in a district outside of the centre (likely) you will encounter daily situations where you'll need at least a little Russian.

I can't honestly imagine the challenge of going to Moscow straight from North America withough some friends in the city and some knowledge of language and culture. But if you're really ready to throw yourself in at the deep end, it's an intensely interesting and exciting place.