Jake
- 2011-10-09
http://www.languagedirect.net/en/home.php = a very cheap looking website. I wouldn't expect much from a company with a website like that.
Macchiavelli
- 2011-09-06
Helena,
whoever "Matt" really is, it is clear that he is related to the company.
I wouldn't pay too much attention to what he is saying...
helena
- 2011-09-06
1. I started to work for Language Direct in early May. If you had read the prior posts properly you would have understood that.
2. How many weeks, months or years does it take you to understand whether someone is working professionally or not, or whether he/she is behaving correctly or not?
3. You seem to take personal offence to such a degree that it would be highly adequate by now to reveal the exact nature of your relationship with Language Direct.
4. Keeping to a factual way of discussing things helps being taken seriously.
5. Every offense and unfair judgement you make here on this forum or elsewhere contributes to the negative image of Language Direct, so just go ahead!
matt
- 2011-09-06
You worked for them for 6 weeks over the summer? This is insufficient time to gather an impression of how regular students operate. Surely every teacher knows that summer is a highly volatile period. There are many of us who have worked for LD for many years and have no problems with them.
How can you and [edited] dare to rub this company into the dirt when a) you have only 6 weeks experience with them and b) [edited]
helena
- 2011-09-05
How are you going to fit 30 busy managers with tight working schedules into a single week? Isn't it quite unrealistic too to think that they will all want to have lessons at different times? Usually, my students preferred lessons in the earling morning, the evening or the occasionally early afternoon on Fridays. In order to be able to give 30 lessons per week, you would also have to have a lot more students than just 30, as many students do not book lessons according to a fixed schedule/on a weekly basis. I fear that having so many individual students would provide considerable difficulties for the teacher in terms of managing their curricula and not losing track of their individual needs. Furthermore, during my work with LD, there was no such a thing as a stable amount of lessons per week. Bookings were made in a highly unpredictable fashion, and monthly teaching income became inpredictable too, as a consequence. All in all then, the calculation of 30 hours per week is a highly hypothetical one.
matt
- 2011-09-05
Of course, you are right regarding this point - as an independent online tutor it may be a problem to get that many students. And it is also very clear that you cannot make a living entirely on that alone. However, instead of having that kind of hassle the OP has had, I still would recommend to work as an independent tutor for an additional income, something like a second job. You will need another job to make a living, and you can' do it on online tutoring alone.
This is not true! Our local school in Portugal (where I live) pays €7 per hour! LD pays double, I already have a computer with an internet connection, and I do about 20 hours per week for them for mostly corporate clients that I wouldn't have access to anyway. I do some private telephone work myself, sure, but it's hard to get more than 2 or 3 students together at a time, and the systems are not set up as well. Also, these students don't always stay for very long, and I have to chase them to pay, and I have to find them in the first place.
LD students work for companies like pharmaceuticals or banks, and the work is constant. Invoices are paid on time. Even student cancellations are paid! Basically I can count on the 20 hours a week to pay my salary. I do translation and a small amount of face to face teaching on the side.