DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY AT BERLITZ

[Gość: impa]

I cant believe it my teacher at Berlitz is really a carpenter. And I have
already paid about 4000 zł studying there. For a FUCKING carpenter. Has this
happened to you?

[butter_fly]

Gość portalu: impa napisał(a):

> I cant believe it my teacher at Berlitz is really a carpenter. And I have
> already paid about 4000 zł studying there. For a FUCKING carpenter. Has this
> happened to you?


Is he a good teacher? I mean, if he can teach, what difference do his other
skills make?
Somehow I can't imagine his being a teacher without the right talents.

[Gość: Bee]

thank you butterfly... I'm a teacher at Berlitz... and somehow I don't see why
a carpenter can't be a good teacher. Every Berlitz instructor goes through a
very detailed training...

so please, if you don't know what you're talking about, just keep quiet

[Gość: impa]

What different methodology do you know other than Berlitz method? My teacher
said he was trained only 2-3 weeks. Is that detailed training?
He is nice but does he know anything about teaching. I pay a lot of money and
such an expensive organisation should provide educated teachers. I was told
that all teachers have finished university.

By the way are you maybe a hairdresser?


Gość portalu: Bee napisał(a):

>
> thank you butterfly... I'm a teacher at Berlitz... and somehow I don't see
why
> a carpenter can't be a good teacher. Every Berlitz instructor goes through a
> very detailed training...
>
> so please, if you don't know what you're talking about, just keep quiet

[butter_fly]

Gość portalu: impa napisał(a):

> What different methodology do you know other than Berlitz method? My teacher
> said he was trained only 2-3 weeks. Is that detailed training?
> He is nice but does he know anything about teaching. I pay a lot of money and
> such an expensive organisation should provide educated teachers. I was told
> that all teachers have finished university.


OK, apart from that what can you tell us about his lessons? His little ways,
you know, the way he explains things, prepares handouts, makes you work hard,
helps you achieve something. So, how bad is he?

[Gość: impa]

He doesn't prepare anything. Just a book and conversation, what am I really
learning. Sometimes we write on the board, but thats it. And we never do
grammar.

butter_fly napisała:

> Gość portalu: impa napisał(a):
>
> > What different methodology do you know other than Berlitz method? My teach
> er
> > said he was trained only 2-3 weeks. Is that detailed training?
> > He is nice but does he know anything about teaching. I pay a lot of money
> and
> > such an expensive organisation should provide educated teachers. I was tol
> d
> > that all teachers have finished university.
>
>
> OK, apart from that what can you tell us about his lessons? His little ways,
> you know, the way he explains things, prepares handouts, makes you work
hard,
> helps you achieve something. So, how bad is he?

[butter_fly]

Gość portalu: impa napisał(a):

> He doesn't prepare anything. Just a book and conversation, what am I really
> learning. Sometimes we write on the board, but thats it. And we never do
> grammar.
>
And how long have you been learning there? Are you sure you are not making any
progress? Perhaps you should make a complaint? Perhaps if you - students
mentioned the problem in the office, they would do something about it. Is
English his native tongue?

[Gość: awalk]

Gość portalu: impa napisał(a):

> I cant believe it my teacher at Berlitz is really a carpenter. And I have
> already paid about 4000 zł studying there. For a FUCKING carpenter. Has this
> happened to you?

A carpenter in the US makes about $500 a week. I wonder how much he makes here. Anyway your 4000 zl isn't that much from a carpenter's point of view. :)

[Gość: Monika]

Yeah..right.I wonder if a carpenter could teach English in an English speaking
country. And if you were a Polish carpenter...well, would you teach a good
Polish???

[balbina_alexandra]

I am a teacher too, and once I was about to start working for Berlitz.
Although I studied in Poland, I have what they call 'native like competence'
(which they test religiously buhahaha). I was a fresh graduate and all my
mates' did ome jaw-dropping when it turned out I was about to start my job
there... I went through this extensive 2 week long course and I was absolutely
horrified. The method itself is not totally bad, in fact it's quite effective
fo elementary levels. Still, it's awfully boring, especially for more advanced
students. University education does not really matter - in fact it's enough to
be a native speaker, Polish people stand a chance if they were raised in an
English speaking enviromnent. Carpenter or hairdresser, why not if they're
British or American? They believe you can be a good teacher after the
training, your lack of imagination, experience is not considered any
further... Berlitz has some very good teachers but they have some terrible
ones as well. That's why you have to be extremely careful, given you pay for
the course. Correcyt me if I'm wrong - Berlitz is the most expensive school in
Poland, isn't it?

[Gość: gykkerod]

I checked into a hostel on the edge of town and pulled out my crumpled pages
of phone numbers. Most of the $65 phone numbers no longer worked, but a few
did, and they were hiring for the winter session. I tucked in my shirt and
made some appointments. Guaranteed employment here I come.

Or maybe not. The first interviews were humiliating disasters. I soon learned
that there are people in this world who take Teaching English as a Foreign
Language very seriously, and they don’t want to hear that you are just passing
time while traveling and trying to get laid and have absolutely no interest
in, or knowledge of, basic English grammar. The vast majority of these people
are British and Canadian. When they asked me why I wanted to teach English, I
shrugged and admitted that I’d never really thought about it, concluding
thoughtfully that it was probably better than working in a factory, which
wasn’t really an option anyway. Wrong answer.

Eventually I learned to feign interest in teaching. That was the easy part.
Much harder was feigning qualifications. One Canadian lady interviewer seemed
utterly convinced that I had long desired to teach business English and help
people communicate better with their fellow man. She was about to offer me the
job when she suddenly thought to ask me to briefly explain the present perfect
tense.

"I’m sorry to ask you such a basic question," she said, misinterpreting my
wide eyes as a sign of hurt pride. "It’s just a formality. Sometimes you get
these completely ignorant American kids who walk in here not knowing anything
at all. You wouldn’t believe it."

I looked at my shoes and tried to think of some way out of this. But she
wanted an answer, and the silence wasn’t letting me out alive. Twelve years of
American public education had taught me many things, but the present perfect
tense wasn’t one of them.

"How about just an example of the present perfect?" she offered nervously.

The interview ended like all the others. I began to hate Canadians and Brits,
and all their grammar questions.

Then something saved me, something American. Actually something started by a
German based in America, but now owned by the Japanese: the world-
famous "Berlitz Method." When most people think of the Berlitz method, they
think of Charles Berlitz’s trademarked "immersion" pedagogy, a world-famous
system that teaches foreign languages through mimicry and colorful visual
aides. People tend to think of smiling Argentineans in pink power-suits
pointing at a big picture book and learning the difference between "next to"
and "in front of." Attractive, professional Berlitz teacher: "Juanita, where
is the red car?" Smiling power-suited Argentinean: "The red car is in front of
the white house."

That’s the commercial anyway. The real Berlitz method is a successful
international business strategy with the sole aim of making the firm the
McDonald’s of language instruction. In Eastern Europe, this involves hiring
greenhorns without a TEFL certificate who can’t get a job anywhere else and
paying them low wages under the table. Meanwhile, corporate HQ in Princeton,
NJ, works overtime to craft the company’s profile and image via saturation
advertising, which the company uses to justify exorbitant rates for its 45-
minute "units of instruction."

But while the Berlitz scam is bad for its customers and long-term employees,
it’s great for desperate TEFL-less kids who can’t get a job anywhere else. All
you need is a pulse and their one-week training seminar. (It’s also pretty
easy to steal Berlitz’s corporate clients once you explain the scam to the
overcharged managers and offer to teach them for half the price. I know one
kid who started his own language school by stealing a single heavyweight
Berlitz client.)

It was at Berlitz that I finally learned what the present perfect was. After
paying my dues at the Blue and White, as it was known among teaching types, I
went on to other things, but when times were tough I often returned to
teaching English on the side–from day school to college. The pay was always
bad, the students usually uninterested and the status boost negative. But it
was steady, easy work I’d recommend for anybody caught jobless in the crummy
American economy. At the very least, it’s a good way to kick around working 20-
hour weeks until something better comes along. And in Eastern Europe,
something always does.

[Gość: awalk]

Gość portalu: gykkerod napisał(a):

That's a good one, I guess that settles it then. :)

[Gość: ziutka]

kochani zaden dobrze szanujacy sie obywatel niemiecki nie úczeszcza do Berlitz
Schule, gdyz znana jest ona z braku kompetentnych osöb i zerowania na
pieniadzach klienta. A w ten oto sposöb wýkorzystuja niemcy Polaköw......

[Gość: patty]

I'm a student of English at UAM and i agree with you!!!!!!!!I person who is not
at least a student of English can do more harm than good.And it makes a great
difference.You shoul change the school as soon as possible!!!!