Job Discussion Forums

scooby_rex · Joined: 19 Mar 2009 Posts: 36

anyone had any experience with Language Link?

they look like the best russian outfit to go with cause i can also choose to go to St P'burg or Volgograd

anyone got any thoughts on em?

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

The three 'Mac' schools which are notorious in Russia are BKC,LL and EF and they vary in degrees of 'badness' according to who you talk to about their experiences with with!
You can find plenty of postings about them on this site from me and other contributors and I 'm sorry to say that the negatives far outway the positives!The basic problem is that they pay salaries which are a joke,especially with the high inflation and cost of living in Russia today,in return for offering you dubious benefits such as crummy shared accomodation and visa invitations(which are work permits since regulations changed!).Unfortunately,because of the new restrictions these firms are about the only way you can get into Russia to work nowadays and of course they exploit this to the maximum!There are a few other firms still operating such as Globus which pay better on an hourly basis but they do not provide accomodation and prefer experienced teachers.People who got in with the 'Mac' schools used to supplement their meagre earnings by having private students on the side if they were lucky enough to have a schedule which enabled them to do it,but since the economic downturn these have continually dwindled as people who are still lucky enough to have jobs try to reduce their expenditure on things such as private lessons(just as in many other countries!).In view of all this,I would seriously ask yourself whether it is a good time to consider going to Russia at all for the forseeable future as the international economic crisis is just beginning to show its teeth there,as even the President admitted only yesterday when he said that unemployment is growing much faster than official statistics show!Bad news about anything in Russia rarely gets much coverage in the mostly state-controlled media there, so you can draw your own conclusions....It was never an easy place to go and work in anyway,even when the economy was supposedly 'booming' in recent years!

canucktechie · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 343 Location: Moscow

As Maruss says there are better schools to work for than the "3 Macs" but since they are better they can choose their teachers from those who are already "on the ground" in Moscow and they don't have to take the risk of hiring someone whom they've never met in person and who has never been to Russia before.

This is true now more than ever due to cutbacks at the big schools and the fall in the number of private students.

Of course if you can do a really good job of impressing someone over the phone and have great references you might be able get a job at one of them. Who knows. But I wouldn't count on it.

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

zeke0606 · Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject:

GF,

AMEN to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been in Russia since December 1999 and have watched things change. I even worked for LL in Ufa - terrible ending as with most posters that work for the 3 Mac's!

I pointed this same fact out - very poor English - to a poster wanting to go to Saudi Arabia and was lambasted for it by that poor fellow, That is until I did tell him that the employers read these forums too! And they usually can find out who posted the 'crummy' English. I did get an apology from him and on the open forum! He might do well...............

Zeke

GF · Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 238 Location: Tallinn

Are you still in Russia? Where? I also came in December 1999, but bailed out in June 2004 to work in Estonia (it had just joined the EU the month before) and have never looked back since. I also worked for LL, but in Moscow. My experience with them was very positive and I still keep in touch with the general manager.

zeke0606 · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:43 am Post subject:

Hi GB,

Yes, I am still in Russia. I started in Togliatti in 1999 and moved to Ufa in 2003. It is a nice city that thinks it is still a village..........
The non-franchise LL here has a woman owner and when offering me a new contract after my year was up - she decided to lower my salary by $50 and add 10 hours of class time. I asked why I was being punished and for what reason - I was given no answer, so I took the money for the air fare and left. And that is about the only thing that I can say publicly about LL. I returned in three months with another school, but now I'm retired and just doing what I feel like doing.