LTTC is Advertising

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

LTTC are a crap deal. Two of the teachers whose names are on the ad are good, but most of the other good ones have left now, from what I’ve heard anyway. These two are not the managers, either, and the American managers are full of it and don’t know what they’re doing, except looking like they do to impress the naive students. The office politics are pathetic in one of the two schools - and you will have to work at both locations because they move teachers to the one most people don’t want to work at whether they like it or not.

LTTC used to have a really good reputation long ago, but now they are sliding, and student numbers are falling: that’s why so many of their “long time” teachers have left. Their jobs will not last forever, but some of them can’t find work elsewhere because they are too old for Taiwan. They are advertising for one term because that is all you could be hired for: they fire teachers before winter because that is their low season, and if you’re new you’re the first to go unless you lick the American managers’ arses. They are losing popularity, so if you teach there you’ll have to have two week holidays after every ten weeks whether you like it or not - and the pay rates advertised are what most of the classes will be - at least that individual advertising was honest enough to put them out in the open.

The text books are archaic and the Taiwanese managers stand over you like wardens at a prisoner of war camp. The end of term exams are so bad that you have to write your own to actually grade the students. They are only interested in making money now - but they are going under basically.

You have been warned! :noway:

2

:laughing: Can you say “disgruntled former employee?” :laughing:

I’ve always heard that LTTC was one of the better teaching gigs in Taipei, although they tend not to tolerate arseholes too well.

3

Well then you haven’t spoken to any capable ex-employees, and I have - many, in fact. They all agree LTTC is a joke, and many Taiwanese are aware that the standard is no longer good. I think you are one of the teachers there trying to protect your last bastion of employment, or why would you reply in such a way?

4

Yes I have. And current ones. I have many close friends and acquaintances who work or have worked at LTTC.

Not the ones I know. Some do, some don’t.

Did I imply that you’re an arsehole?

You think wrong.
I’m not, and have never been, affiliated to LTTC in any way. I do, however, work for a company that competes with LTTC in certain areas and am keenly aware of how it’s perceived by the public. I’m merely posting my opinion, which is based on what I know of the place over the last 15 years or so.

5

:stuck_out_tongue:

6

Well there you go. You have one, I have many – at least 15-20. Therefore my opinion is weightier than yours and so I win. Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! :laughing:

7

oddly, I know of other university extension departments providing English courses that are suffering too.

It may be market forces at play. There are many more choices available for learning English, now. So students are now opting for downtown buxibans, rather than the less accessible extension depts. of LTTC, Chengchih, and so on.

Kenneth

8

Yes, economic factors may have played a part in LTTC’s demise, but also management, both upper and lower are to blame. I don’t think there’s any excuse for that. The place just has very little integrity any more, apart from a few of the teachers. If you are the kind of person who only wants to make an easy buck, you’ll do well there.

I know a few teachers that were fired there, and they definitely wouldn’t be calles “arseholes” or even bad teachers (in fact two of them were definitely excellent teachers) - except for one who was clearly a psycho - but only one.

Here is a thread I found on Dave’s which described some of the staff at LTTC very well. I wonder if he was referring to it:
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1083816719-3671.txt

[By the way, before, I made the mistake of posting under my girlfriend’s login, forgetting to logout and back in under my own name, so it’s not really her argument.]

9

I don’t know who you’re talking about, Blue, but I’ve been enjoying reading this thread. To tell the truth, I can’t think of any teachers who were “fired” for anything other than not performing well. Sure, we’ve had our share of psychos, but even some of them were good teachers.

I’ve been there since 1990, and one of the managers there for about 5 years now, and in many cases, I’ve been the axe man. Every case of someone being fired has been due to bad student surveys and unwillingness, or inability, to change. That includes some really nice people, and that always hurts.

I’ve got to tell you, though, that it’s really hard to tell who’s a good teacher until you’ve seen the person teach. Introverted, shy people often turn into the opposite in class, and personable, genuinely nice people often come off as cold (or worse) in class. You’ve got to consider that when you listen to your friends complaining about us.

As for the article on Dave’s, yeah, we’ve seen that too. And we’re pretty sure who wrote it–a teacher whom the students constantly complained about, one who most of us think was a bit out of touch with reality. Like I said, we’ve had some real nut cases.

Now, one thing you’ve said is true–we have had to let some really fine teachers go. Some of them refused to use our textbooks in class. Some had trouble coming to work. Some just had too many student complaints, usually about their moodiness, unprofessionalism, or other problems.

sigh

The LTTC is like other schools in that respect. If you generate a lot of student complaints, you get fired. If you don’t, you don’t get fired. Life’s like that.

10

[quote=“Ringman”]
The LTTC is like other schools in that respect. If you generate a lot of student complaints, you get fired. If you don’t, you don’t get fired. Life’s like that.[/quote]

Exactly…good teachers are the ones that generate income.

Only once have I had to let a teacher go because they couldn’t teach. All the other times it has been about character issues.

11

Recently I’ve seen a job ad for LTTC (The Language Teaching and Testing Center). According to some of the posts on this thread (over 10 years old), it’s not an ideal place to work. Does anyone on this forum know anything about the current state of things at LTTC? Has anything improved?