Hello,

I am the founder and CEO of Language Direct, and would like to respond to the allegations made in this forum by Ms. I[edited] (helena).

I[edited] was hired by us on 16 May 2011 and completed a total of 28 lessons before being relieved of her position with us for canceling two lessons on only a few hours' notice (due apparently to a "more important job" turning up).

What I[edited] states is correct, €14 per hour means €14 for a 60 minute lesson, €10.50 for a 45 minute lesson, and €7 for a 30 minute lesson. If a lesson lasts for only 30 minutes, the customer only pays for 30 mins and we only pay the teacher for 30 minutes. We are an international school, and an hour to us means 60 minutes. Everything is made clear at the start of a teacher contract, and any teacher that feels that the amount paid is not enough is free not to work for us.

It is unclear how I[edited] arrives at her €5 per hour. This seems to imply about 2 hours preparation for every 1 hour of lesson, and/or extraordinary electricity or internet costs. Please keep in mind we pay for the phone calls, so that could not be the issue.

If you do the numbers properly, you will see that a full course load of 30 contact hours per week pays €1680 per month. This still allows for 10 preparation hours out of a normal 40 hour working week. Most importantly, we pay the same rate worldwide, so if a teacher decides to get up and move to China next week they will still get the same rate. It is our position to encourage people to live their lives globally and travel as they wish. This benefits teachers abroad - as I[edited] mentioned in a German forum she complained on, she lives in Turkey, where the minimum wage is €336 per month. If someone chooses to live in Münich or London, that's fine, but we do not compensate them more for that. In most locations, our offer is a very good one, and is certainly a lot more than would be possible in both terms of money and courseload from a local school.

At the end of the day, I[edited] was paid on time, according to this standard agreement that we have had with hundreds of teachers since 2006. These teachers (more than 100 of them currently) are all highly qualified specialists with at least a University degree in Languages and 2-3 years of teaching experience, and we have not had a single complaint of dissatisfaction yet (do a Google search and you will see this is true). A number of our teachers earn more than €1000 a month in their freelance positions with Language Direct, on their own schedule, with complete flexibility in hours worked and the ability to travel with the job. The benefit of being able to teach students worldwide at a rate higher than many local language schools offer without having to leave your own apartment is a very strong one for many people.

Regarding I[edited]'s translation claim, the proofreading job that she mentions was for a total of 975 words. It is an industry standard to expect 2000 words per hour from a proofreader. The total number of words on this job (975) was stated in the job request, the PO, and the invoice, and the stipulation of 2000 words per hour was also made clear. I[edited] agreed to take the job under these conditions. She has subsequently claimed to have taken twice the amount of time that industry standards dictate were needed for the job. This is by no means our fault, and it is not our obligation to compensate for it. I[edited] agreed to do 975 words at 2000 words per hour and bill €25 per hour for it. Final amount payable is therefore €12.19, which appears in our system and for which she has not yet issued an invoice.

Regarding our profits, I'm sure most of you are not so naive as to share I[edited]'s belief that business is as simple as "Sale Price - Teacher Cost = Profit". Among our costs are a salesforce of 8 people employed full time in winning contracts, telephone connections on lessons, costs for advertising, administration of student accounts, customer service, support desk and IT infrastructure, HR, recruitment and training, legal on contracts, credit card settlement, office space and travel to support all of these functions, and so on and on and on. The "airline" I[edited] talks about is indeed a series of partnerships with 15 airlines (see http://www.languagedirect.net/en/airline-partners.php) which is run by a dedicated marketing manager and involves advertising worldwide - anyone who can think that such marketing activities do not cost a lot of money is very naive indeed. At the end of the day, more than 50% of our costs are taken by such functions, leaving a very different picture of what we are "left with" than I[edited] suggests.

Finally, both Timothy at our Teacher Support Desk and Ashley at our Translation Support Desk have spent countless emails / Skype chats over the last 2-3 weeks trying to explain these situations to I[edited], obviously without success. We are sorry that she feels mistreated, but from a company point of view there is nothing more that one can really do than offer a fair, transparent offer to potential employees, pay them as agreed and on time, and to address grievances directly and promptly when when they occur. We have done all of the above, so really don't know what else we can offer to make this person happy.

In the meantime, if you are reading this forum and figure that €1680 is not a bad monthly rate for 30 hours of teaching, do check out our jobs page at http://www.languagedirect.net/en/jobs.php. The work is freelance, so it's up to you how you divide your time and you are responsible for your own tax and social security payments. Please do however be aware that most of our freelancers are much more qualified than the minimum requirements listed - many of them have been with us for 4+ years, and indeed 15% of our current teaching force holds a PhD. Naturally, we would also be happy to put you in contact with a whole list of teachers who are happy working for us who do not share I[edited]'s opinion.

Please note also that we only employ native speakers. We support Germans teaching German, Italians teaching Italian and Spaniards teaching Spanish - simply with the added freedom to operate from beyond the country in which they were born. The world is an increasingly global place, as both our teachers and our customers understand, and just because you want to learn German doesn't mean the process needs to take place in Germany. Of course the final proof of everything lies in a satisfied customer - I'm sure you will agree that a teacher who is abused or unhappy with conditions will not result in good customer feedback. Check out our ratings for yourself, here: http://www.languagedirect.net/en/student-testimonials.php or, our client list, here: http://www.languagedirect.net/en/corporate-clients.php.

Should you have any questions or concerns about this issue, please feel free to contact us at teacher_support@languagedirect.net. Most of all, we are more than happy to provide plenty of references from more than 100 satisfied teachers. We are always happy to help!

Yours Sincerely,

Cillín Perera