Archive for the ‘TEFL International’ Category

Not got either, you say? Well, maybe you should try a job with is “the most exciting employment opportunity of your life” which is “not hard” and ”pays well”. Apparently you can “forget the commute, over-time …missed lunches… jammed photocopiers and demanding supervisors”. You can, so they say, be “your own boss”, “starting at the top”, “‘playing’ at work” in “a low stress environment” with “supportive colleagues”. You can even, believe it or not, ”Live longer” and get “physical benefits included… in your… package”. What is this job, you ask?

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This is pretty old now as it was part of the same interview that eventually became Parts One, Two, Three and Four. Unlike them, I couldn’t be bothered updating or sending the third set of follow up questions this time, but still thought it was worth posting given the amount of time and effort (mine and Bruce’s) that it took. If anyone wants to add updates or links to updates in the comments section, please do.

TEFL International and the lawAlex: Some court cases you’ve been involved in

Bruce: TEFL International has not been involved in any legal action.

Our school in Thailand was sued by a former employee claiming he had not been paid his final pay. He claimed he had only been paid 6,000 baht. Apparently he had forgotten that we had paid him by check and we had the cancelled check that showed he had been paid in full. Obviously we won that case.

In another case (more…)

Marcelo Montecinos, an English teacher from Chile, suggests the ATONIN Time Pyramid- which is basically to get your students to learn the “word” ATONIN and then to remember that the three prepositions in it are in order of the lengths of time we are talking about, being: points of time for AT, dates for ON and longer periods like years for IN.

A very nice tip indeed, which I will try next time I am teaching this point. In return, Marcelo has asked me to provide a link to a TEFL word game he is selling- www.phrazzleme.com . Haven’t tried the game myself, but a teaching idea for a link seems like a fair deal to me, and better than taking cash for randomly mentioning TEFL International in your blog as seems to be their latest marketing tactic.  If anyone else would like to swap a good TEFL tip, article or whatever for a link, please contact me using the relevant box above and to the right.

Or do I mean part 40? Anyhow, this was basically completed months ago, but did nag Bruce into answering a couple of extra questions that had occured to me since and got his reply last week. I still think there are some interesting points coming up, so if everyone gives some interesting and civilised comments below we might put the effort into polishing up Parts 5 etc in the same way.

“Business relationships of TEFL International

Do you or your wife own a share of or have a paid director’s position in any of the for-profit TEFL International organisations?

There are none. We opened the company in Thailand called TEFL International but that was set up to stop devious people from stealing the name. The school in Thailand is also a non profit. If we did have an outside EXTRA income we would be breaking the law. We do use locally-generated income to cover our operating expenses but it is only the lunatic fringe who have an issue with it.

So the company in Thailand called TEFL International never did any business, employed any staff or made a penny of profit?
This question actually points out a difference between US and Thai law. Both our US company and our Thai school are non profits. But our US company has far more flexibility. We can literally do almost anything to increase revenues as long as these revenues go towards our operating expenses. So we could sell franchises, or TI merchandise, or almost anything, as long as that revenue goes towards our operating expenses and nothing else.

Thailand law is very different. Our Thai school can ONLY teach English and conduct teacher training and nothing else. So I believe we have used that company on occasion to run programs our school is not allowed to run. Things like English Camps and Teacher Placement. We pay taxes on that income and use it, again, for operating expenses.

As long as there is no extra “benefit” we fully comply with the law.

Innovative Solutions- What is it, what does it do, what is its connection to TEFL International, how do you ensure its independence, is all this information easily available to people who might need to know?
It was set up by an ex employee as a recruiting and placement agency and I have nothing to do with it. We recruited and trained for them for 1 year. We do not currently work with IS.

As a non profit a lot of information about us is available online. One of Mike’s jobs is managing external affairs and he answers general inquires on anything to do with the course. We also have a seven-day, 24-hour admin staff that are trained to answer most questions. I will also answer questions too when people write me or post them up – hence one reason why you see me participating on-line so much!

A lot of the flack seems to come from people who had business dealings that later fell through, e.g. India. Can you give us some major examples of when this happened and the story of what happened in each case?
Its only one business deal and, no, I cannot comment now. I have filed criminal charges and they are in the hands of the local authorities. (more…)

The second in a new set of guest pieces (more writers wanted!), this time from recently CELTA certified blogger Jon Bellwood

“Thinking of doing a CELTA? Then before you take the plunge and lay down a substantial sum of money you might want to know what you’re letting yourself in for. Allow me:

To have set the alarm bells ringing is my intention; the CELTA is far from all good. This is without reference to its worth (the qualification is world recognized) or the experience (you will meet wonderful people and have wonderful times).

So if it’s a wonderful experience why set the alarm bells ringing? (more…)

Hi Bruce, welcome back to TEFLtastic. It’s a shame we never get anyone from TEFL International contributing to TEFL.net when it isn’t connected to teacher training. Let me know if any of your trainers are interested in writing book reviews or articles for us.

I am certain that can be arranged!

For Part Three, I’d like to do an update on what has changed in TEFL International and in the TEFL world more generally since your last comment in Interview Part Two on 28 July this year. I haven’t been following all the various stories very closely, so apologies if you have to repeat some things you’ve said many times elsewhere but I guess most people reading are in the same situation as me. I’ll ask for your comments on things I’ve heard, and then give you a chance to mention other things. 

OK

There are some reports of trouble with the immigration police connected to a TEFL International course in China- any information or comments?

I heard it all second hand but this is what I know.  In April 2008 the visa laws in China changed leading up to the Olympics.  Some people got caught in the cracks, the Course Administrator really failed (failed might be too strong of a term as it was a difficult if not impossible situation) and the police closed down the school.

I was unhappy with the way the CA handled things and I relieved him of his duties.  I immediately resolved the situation and we began offering legal courses the following month.

I have publicly posted on several websites about this situation and asked that if anyone feels they were cheated in some way that they should contact me directly or contact the BBB.

Can’t you just contact the course participants directly through their contact details and offer everyone a refund or whatever?

The accusation was not about one specific course.  (more…)

Candidate number one

Involves me, and Paul Lowe’s threats to sue me for never mentioning him on my blog (!?) or something, still can’t quite work it out. “Bizarro!” as TESall.com put it. I thought, what the hell if I’m going down might as well go down with a fight and show some people power and so started an I Am Spartacus campaign to tell everyone in TEFL what had happened. Messes the story up a bit that it was all bluster and he never did sue me, and that every blog he wrote to saying I shouldn’t be allowed to comment on there because I was guilty of a “hate campaign” (along with UsingEnglish.com, whose apparent crime was publishing my grammar game worksheets) just ignored him. So, not sure this one wins, although it did all take a break after online rumours (still unconfirmed) of a suicide attempt…

Candidate number two

-involves Bruce Veldhuisen’s TEFL International and their one time guarantee of academic standards IATQUO. Or not, as some kind of feud goes on to this day with them each accusing the other of being unprofessional and worse, which kind of makes you wonder about the judgement of the other side for choosing to ever doing business with them, doesn’t it? It’s got the usual recipe of anonymous blogs set up by people who slag others off for doing just that and bringing people’s family into it, but still not sure it quite takes the championship.

Candidate number three

This is more like it. TEFL Watch turns into an anti-TEFL International slag fest, with needless to say Brucey’s side not keeping out of it. Then, in a twist worthy of Dallas (or at least Neighbours), an ex-forum moderator becomes the accuser in chief of the management of the site because he suddenly decides that Bruce V and his crew and being treated unfairly, eventually driving the owner of TEFL Watch to give the whole thing up and start writing about healthy grilling with George Foreman. Nice and juicy, that one, and haven’t even mentioned the allegations of having to flee the country for their personal safety. Could still be the greatest TEFL soap opera of all time, but let’s see how the last candidate plays out-

Candidate number four

Can the anonymous blogger throwing accusations about Sandy MacManus uncover Sandy’s real identity and so stop him being an anonymous blogger throwing accusations about? And how does threatening to make him lose his job in the Middle East help with that? Or has Sandy already uncovered “Michael Flynn“? And what script writer is being paid for melodramatic twists like death threats? And why would Paul Lowe, the chief suspect, go from repeatedly claiming to the police that he has never commented on any blog let alone started one of his own to suddenly tell the police where that blog with the death threat and many of his bizarre comments is?

Votes for one of the four or other candidates below please:

TEFL International is not only often quoted as one of the largest TEFL training organisations (see the stats below), it is also almost certainly the one most likely to set off a firestorm by mentioning it on the internet- hence its interest, and the need for these somewhat strict rules on comments: (more…)

Bruce has replied to all the questions below, so thanks to the few people who helped me with those rather than repeating the same old “I have evidence but I’m not going to show it to you” comments. I’m going to ask quite a few back up questions, then the finished interview Part Two will go up in maybe a week. In the meantime, all comments on Bruce V, TEFL International etc will be deleted as all the recent ones have already been answered in the interview and there doesn’t seem to be much point in tackling them twice.

When the interview goes up, there will be a 24 hour period with no comments so that people can write up their detailed and evidence-rich responses on Word at home first, rather than firing off the first things that come into their heads. After that time, you will be allowed to comment only on the things said in the interview. Any other comments will be deleted, and persistent offenders will have all their comments deleted (also in previous posts) in order for it to be technically possible to block them through Wordpress. If you have any other comments or questions about TEFL International, you may of course email me.

Comments are open for this post so that you may, if you wish, comment on the policies described above. Any other comments will be deleted.

As is my role as the navelgazer of TEFL, having had to take a close look at the battleground that is the teflnet recently has made me wonder whether something deeper is going on. Do I hear “class war” as an explanation? I’m never one to rule that out, but my theory is that, as is often the case with these arguments that go on forever, we are actually talking two different languages.

As me and Sandy have been doing more than our fair share of trying to see the TEFL capitalists’ point of view recently, let’s see if I can’t try and explain our particular (and peculiar) culture and viewpoint to them:

 - If you are a successful businessman who heads a large company, for many people that is enough to make you the enemy. and there is nothing you can do to change their minds. For example, how many people have admitted they were wrong about Bill Gates’s evil empire just because he has turned into Mother Theresa? That’s right- none! It could be due to a philosophy of class war or other political reasons, it could be bitterness, but it’s usually a version of the tall poppy syndrome. I personally think that the tall poppy syndrome is healthy, and while it suggests an abandonment of logic it’s no worse than the ‘rich and successful = good’ culture of the rest of the world (more…)