Just a heads up for anyone thinking of applying or accepting a job from this language "school" close to HCMC...

It also goes by the Vietnamese name of Anh Van My Viet, AVC and AVEC. The female owner will pretty much say lots of things in the interview to entice you, but once you accept the position, it'll fall to the wayside. In my interview I was informed that I would recieve assistance in finding housing and that housing in this small city wasn't that difficult to find. Well, after 2 weeks here, I'm still living in a hotel room. The employee she assigned the task to only had so much patience to do it because she'd never done this before, had no idea how to go about finding me a place to live, and was busy with her other work. Only 4 furnished places were offered, and 3 of those were from desperate word of mouth. Only 2 unfurnished places were seen and one of those was from a contact I had made. After being forced to choose the better of the lot (a hotel for long term stays which inc. a kitchen, but it's out back) the employee made it clear that that was that and no more help would be forthcoming. There are essentially no (furnished) apts. in this city, or at least not at a decent price.

Not having rented or bought a motorbike yet, I was also told in the interview that "don't worry, we have a motorbike you can use." This was repeated a few times in various ways. At no time was it indicated that money would exchange hands, or, if I didn't want to that it would be impossible to find a bike rental in Bien Hoa. However, when confirming the details of the interview with her in an email, she suddenly wanted to charge me for the usage of the motorbike. Because I don't do financial business with an employer, I decided to rent one from some place. Only it turns out that absolutely nowhere in Bien Hoa can you rent a motorbike. She has never once asked me why I don't want to rent hers, nor has she followed up with me as to my transportation needs. The office staff is completely unknowledgeable about the bus routes. Only at the end of the second week was any attempt made to arrange a xe om for my rides home.

In addition to that, she mentioned a contract in the interview, but I haven't seen any sign of one. She also said that she never hires a teacher who doesn't have a degree (I don't), but she agreed to hire me (obviously out of desperateness). She claimed that she could only pay $15 an hour, as stated in the ad, but suddenly now she has a new ad stating $15-25 an hour. We discussed children's classes as well as adults, but only one of my classes is "adults" - the rest are very young children and teens. The word 'teen' never came up; I now understand that the school focuses on the kids. The situation of bad behavior from the children, but she neglected to tell me that the children have absolutely no boundaries once they enter the school and anything goes. They sit in the administration office, enter the teachers' lounge, run up and down the stairs screaming before, during and after classes, etc. It is difficult at times to hear my students and the test room is directly in front of the lobby surrounded at times by all the noise. There is a place on the class log where you can write about behavior, but who knows if it's looked at. There is an area with at least a dozen new computers which the kids can use. Many of them show up before class to use them for video games (not English learning video games) turning it into an internet cafe. Then they're even more wound up once class begins. All of the children's classes have a Vietnamese teacher in them (as is the practice in Vietnam). However, there is no procedure as to when they speak to the students or in which language. It's just all organized chaos.

The 2 best things which can be said for this school is that she does pay when she says she will and the office staff are friendly. In summary, be careful if you decide to take a job here and definately make sure you already have a place to live and a motorbike! Suerte.