Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Isehtis]

I'm leaving soon for Korea, and I know I have a 5 day training course. I'm with Berlitz, does anyone have any ideas what to expect from the training?

[OiGirl]

Will you be teaching adults or children?

[jinks]

Prepare yourself for a rocky ride. Berlitz will suck you dry.

[SteveSteve]

I used to work for Berlitz. Their method (actually called the Direct Method by applied linguists) actually works well for very low beginners -- people who have absolutely no language ability. Beyond the high beginning level, the "Berlitz Method" can be quite insulting to a student's intelligence, even boring at most times. They're also sticklers for correcting student errors on the spot 100% of the time. Extremely demotivating if you're just starting to learn a new language.

Very little lesson planning is required because you are supposed to use the Berlitz materials, which spells out everything for you. Your class sizes will be extremely small, too. Mostly private tutoring and "group" classes may only have a maximum of three students. Not very helpful if you're planning pair activities.

If you're working full time at Berlitz in Korea, you'll probably be drained. However most of your students will be adults and it's generally low stress.

[Hotpants]

You'll probably spend your 5 days of training in their listen-and-repeat style method which is what Berlitz is all about.

A friend used to teach for Berlitz in Japan. Essentially her day was to model all the sentences, then have the students repeat after her. It was kind of like:

T: What's this?
S: What's this?
T: What's that?
S: What's that?
T: What's this?
S: What's this?
T: This is a pen.
S: This is a pen.
T: This is a red pen.
and so on...

Maybe the method can work for some students, but for a teacher, it is very mechanical, and as someone else said, there is little scope for you to be creative and introduce your own lesson ideas.

The only 'bonus' for the teacher is that you will be able to transfer to other Berlitz schools in other countries quite easily.

[Troglodyte]

[Isehtis]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'd searched for Berlitz on the forums and had seen that a few years ago they had a really bad reputation. Despite having signed up for a tonne of recruiters, 2 months down the line I still only had the one job offer, so I took it even though it was kinda a shit contract-

Pay isn't great

Get a housing allowance instead of accommodation, the allowance won't really cover my accommodation costs

Split shifts, 6-9AM and 6-9PM at 2 different schools.

Berlitz has a pretty dodgy reputation for how it treats its employees.


But heh, anything that gets me out of this country...


Edit-
I'll be teaching adults, I've heard a lot of criticism of the Berlitz method... I'm halfway through an ESL course and from what I've learnt so far it does seem like a flawed system. Ironic that I'd spent the better half of the interview saying why I thought the direct method was so bad...

[Hotpants]

That you've already read a lot of negative stuff about them, but have still signed makes you pretty brave

I think if there's anything positive, teaching in the Berlitz method makes great first-hand data for later DELTA/MA linguistics papers!

Anyway, I would absolutely pass on this schedule:

[Hotpants]

It also just struck me that you might need to check out getting 2 work sites approved by K-immi.

Don't know how Berlitz do it, but I guess they just declare one working address. That address goes on your Alien Reg Card, and you are only supposed to be working at THAT address only.

[Isehtis]

Hotpants- I signed the contract because there was nothing else going. I don't sleep much and can do it any time during the day, the hours will be a bitch but I guess I'll just live for the weekends.

I'm not sure about the two schools, originally I was told one was in Gangnam and one was in Gwanganhum, but this may have changed... Waiting to hear back in the next couple of days.

I was curious about what the training would be like?

[bobbybigfoot]

Glad I don't work for Berlitz. Doesn't sound interesting at all.

[Troglodyte]

I never understand how people can only get 1 job offer in 2 months. No one that I've personally known has gotten so few. Usually people get a few offers in the first couple weeks at least. AT LEAST!

[Isehtis]

It was a bit of a puzzle to me as well, I'd contacted 25+ Recruiters with a good CV and Photo, had no preference on location, age or pay, had all of my documents assembled and was a first-timer from one of the best universities in Britain.
The majority of the recruiters that advertised as having hundreds of jobs available gave no reply at all really, a few recruiters sent me quite honest replies saying that while they'd try and match me with a school, a year ago there was 10 jobs for every 1 candidate, and now there was 10 candidates for each job.

I wouldn't have signed this contract if a better one had been there, but I reckon I can ride it out for a year.