The so called president Diego who is never around and [edited] appears for odd meetings with teachers and tries to lay down the law. Michelle knows nothing about teaching and passes kids so they return for the school. heard her talking she is so into her online teaching she has no time to really care about the school. The only director who did was a lady called Gloria. If interested in Ecuador steer clear of CHC.

As a former CHC Teacher I can tell you that they do not care about the Teachers. It's all about the money $$$. I wish I had seen these posts earlier.

It is true what the previous teachers have said about the pay. It doesn't cover lesson plans, prep work, teachers meetings. Teachers meetings are not for the teachers. Advertising is 2$ an hour. I never got fined because I always was on time and handed in the test scores etc on time. They are not organized and will blame you for their disorganization. If a student is failing they will pass them anyways. I taught some kids that were well above the level they should have been in. It's your fault if you don't have things ready while you are waiting for them to give you what is needed to be ready. It's your fault if the students are unhappy.

This sounds all too familiar! I have met a number of ESL teachers who have been fed nothing but lies and half truths in regards to visas in Ecuador. Southern Cross is without a doubt one hell of a corrupt and nasty place to work. I have seen the way they treat American teachers, it is not nice! I have even seen the way the treat Scottish teachers!! Avoid this school!!! The CELTA course is ran by jumped up social missfits with highly over inflated opinions of themselves. I have met a number of people who studied at their CELTA school and they said the environment was oppressive, unfriendly and upsetting. Enough said really.

I almost worked here! I have met a few teachers who actually did and they slated the place!! Not one teacher had anything good to say about CHC. I also remember the pay was a total joke as well! That was what turned me off accepting their offer of employment. I am starting to think that there are no honest schools left in Ecuador! If you think CHC is a scam you should try working at Southern Cross in Guayaquil!!!!!!!!! The WORST school I have ever worked at! A total con when it comes to pay, they lie to you about visas, the timetabling it a farce and the teachers are a nasty, cliquey bunch of social rejects!

I am the teacher that was threatened to be killed.... First off this was my first job in ecuador ... I sincerely hope that not one person judges Ecuador in comparasion to this place. I must explain.... One night we were not asked but forced to go to loja to attend a teacher's meeting there... While I was there all of the teachers had gone out for whatever reason and the owner was drunk(Diego) I had recommended that he not drive due to his intoxication when I suggested that he take a taxi this the owner responded "do you think you are better than me" which severly confused me.... I dismissed the comment and proceeded to my friend's house. However, they were having a party that night. Although, I had participated very little in that party I had gone outside to smoke a cigarette where once again without doing anything I was confronted by the owner where I was told " maybe you are someone in the us but here you are s$&* and if I want you dead I can have you killed for very little money" so obviously I am not a fan of this company. The frachise was sold to another person who was quite a good person however, with no ethics he opened a competing school in the same city and he controlled which students and which teachers taught where ....which eventually put the person who opened the franchise and paid for the license out of business. I had to contact to us embassy and report him as a threat to my life as to what he had commented to early in my job there. I would not recommend this school to anyone. There are no ethics there and the teachers are well underpaid. The us embassy is currently aware of his threats towards me and if anything is to happen to me he is to be held responsible. Do not accept a job here there are much better schools in Ecuador....

Good Luck in China.... I was there and over all it was a great experience....My location wasn't the best but I would not trade that experience for anything in the world. You will do great! I appreciate your kind words and support, I do not like being negative but my whole experience with CHC was so bad that i felt an obligation to pass on to others. I am still gun-shy after the CHC fiasco, so not sure if I will continue with the ESL teaching , maybe at a future date, who knows.... any way good luck in China and have fun!!!!!!!

I been there bro I know how you feel. I have felt bad about myself for not being able to stay at a job and maybe beat myself up. However that is exactly what people at these places want you to feel so they can continue the cycle of manipulation and control over others who they see as below themselves. In real life these people are nothing but imbeciles who have nothing better to do than display immaturity and childishness while pretending their pretend "schools" mean anything to anyone.

As for mean people throwing stuff back at your face I've had that happen all too often when I post on these boards. But we live in a world full of stupid people and you just can't take what they say too seriously, just laugh it off. I've been posting on here for a while now and i think many people who would want to act mean and full of ill will have realized they're are not going to see me just go away when they do that. It's only going to make me stay on here permanently and I will always be ready to whack a weasel across the head, sending them back down to the holes they popped out from.

Sorry if I caused any offence!

Just a bit down on teaching in general to be honest. I also got the shaft in China, so I know, it is not nice when you get screwed...even more scary when you are on your own, very far from your home country.

One reason I have never replied to these boards is the meanness I have read from some of the people.... it seems that no matter how sincere they are , there is someone who wants to throw it back in their face... good people do make mistakes... in this business it is hard to really determine how good a school is until you get there.... Thank you for your kindness... when you make a bad move as I did... you are hard enough on yourself without others trying to place the entire blame at your feet..... I am the first to admit I screwed up, however, that still does not absolve the school for the way they treat their teachers.... I was simply trying to make sure others who follow are aware of the situation before they go......I feel I was very mild on my assessment of this school... I could have told so much more but since i feel that most of the blame lies in my failure to investigate further... enough said! I love what you said though.... when will people have a conscious about they way the treat others????

I guess I am lucky to have lived my whole life and never had such a horrible experience... my ESL teaching days are over..... I will never get myself in a situation such as that again....

You state your ESL teaching days are over, yet in the same posting you call yourself a professional with a degree and many years of experience, and bemoan how shabbily they treated you.

You can/have read about how bad/dangerous Central and South America can be, so why even go there?

GL for the new yr
TL

I've just returned from teaching at Canadian House. I taught there for 5 months.

On 1st arrival it seemed like a pretty professional set up and all teachers were warmly received. Over the 5 months that I was there though, relations between management and teachers reduced to a point where they point blankly refused to have staff meetings with us in order to address the problems we were having.

There were many problems with the school - including having to submit lesson plans to management and not being paid for this extra work, not being paid for marking tests or exams or writing out report cards (some teachers had upwards of 70 cards to write).

Most teachers were there on tourist visa's and at first this wasn't a problem and there wasn't an issue getting the 3 month visa extended to a 6 month visa. The school even helped those that needed this to be done. However, if you were on a 6 month visa or once your 6 month tourist visa expired the school then started advising teachers they needed to get a working visa which would cost them $230, plus the cost of the trip to Peru to get the visa, then to Guayaquil to activate the visa. The school refused to help with the cost.
We were all lied to on several times about the visa situation. I was told that if I left the country and re-entered after my 6 month tourist visa had expired, I would be given another tourist visa. Or if I left before the visa expired the days I was out of the country would carry over... I knew this would not be the case as I've travelled to many countries and no country allows you to carry over days. I left Ecuador and tried to re-enter a week later and was told at the border that I couldn't as I'd already been in the country over 90 days that year. I had no choice but to enter the country illegally (my flight home was in 3 days). When I went back to the school to ask them what had happened and to ask for help, I was told that as I didn't work there any more, wasn't housed in any of their apartments and had chosen to stop working at the end of January that I wasn't their responsibility any more. Which shocked me as when we 1st all arrived we were told that "Canadian House is a family, and we are you're family here and if you have any problems we will help you".

There were also numerous problems with the accomadation that the school provided. Apart from over charging on rent ($65 dollars a month per room) the apartments were basic - bed, gas stove top and fridge (although one house with 5 teachers living in it didn't have a stove top or fridge for the first 6-8 weeks) There was no table, chairs or electrical goods. Teachers also had to buy all their own bedding including curtains (i had a $10 dollar blanket as a curtain for 6 months) and all their own kitchen goods, including utensils, crockery, pots and pans. These items are not cheap in Loja and you can expect to pay out at least $100 to make sure you can live when you 1st arrive. We also did not have a bin in our house - we couldn't afford to buy one and the school refused to buy us one, so we had to dump our rubbish in litter bins in the locality.

The directors of the company also do not seemed to concerned about whether the students are learning English or not. I had one class that I could not connect with and was struggling to teach, I approached them twice to ask for help which I did not receive. After the third test, I went to the directors and asked for the parents of the children who were failing to be called so that they would be aware of the problem and perhaps start ensuring the children were studying at home. My request was refused and it was insinuated that it was my fault the children were failing and it was up to me to make sure they all passed. After the children sat the final exam, 8 of my students had failed. So the pass rate was lowered. When I still had 3 fails and asked that one of the directors spoke with the childrens parents to explain I was told "Well, we'll see, maybe if the parents are really upset and want to send their kids back for level 2, we'll just pass them".

Payment for teachers - $4 an hour is enough to live on in Loja if you work 5 hours or more a day. Payment is usually into a bank account but more often than not in cheque form and not always on time.

There are 3 directors of the school. An English lady called Gloria, a Canadian called Michelle and a Lojano called Diego. He is unreliable and not trustworthy. He threatened to kill one teacher and was constantly making moves on the female teachers (even though he is married to Michelle) He would regularly use your image without asking you for adverts in local papers to promote the school. Michelle is more concerned with writing her thesis than helping any teacher. And Gloria is a yes woman and blames everything on the other 2. The working relationship between all 3 seems to have totally disintergrated to nothing and you will never get a straight answer from any of them. And if you manage to get something that resembles the truth, one of the other directors will veto it.

It seems to me, and to many other teachers that taught there at the same time as me, that CHC is purely about making money. It's not about teaching English.

There are some positives about the school - it's recently been given a big facelift (the reason why CHC can't afford to help teachers with their visas) and class rooms all have white boards and enough chairs and tables for students. The 2 secretaries working at the school who are brilliant and the school would fall apart without them, but they are seriously under appreciated. The students at the school are great and really keen to learn English and are really dedicated. It's such a pity that the staff and students are being let down by incompetent management.