teacher opinions
MAY 2007 -

Sorry for any confusion.  To be honest - I have seen references to BOTH English First and English FAST to International House.  It may be that IH is the big Momma and the Fast and the First are offsprings, but two separate entities.  Thus, I will keep the comment on the Fast here until I figure out more about this school.  It seems to have slipped off the radar. But oldtimers on eslcafe still speak fondly of their experiences at the Fast.  Check out this link here.

So - just checked out the link and it goes right to IH, even though it's englishfast.net.    PHONE NUMBER given is (216) 336 8693, which means it's on the Asian side. ADDRESS: Yeldegirmeni  Akifbey  sok. No. 6.  Kadikoy Istanbul; [email protected].
April 2007 -

A regular poster on eslcafe's Turkey forum works for EF and is placed at a rather large business where she makes a decent wage, has a driver, and free lunches.  She enjoys her students there, even if they don't always show up (and occasionaly remove the door knobs).  You can check out her accounts of being an ESL teacher here...
"I'm not at EF anymore. (though admittedly I only left a few weeks ago)  so I can't comment on the joys of the new contract.   A lot of people did renew it so it can't be too off-putting.  I enjoyed my year there and my only complaint  was that I had some annoying split shifts and non-consecutive weekends.   The students were lovely and the pay was reasonable and on time.

Deidre is DOS at Suadiye now.  And the ever-lovely Pelin is at the Beyoglu branch (by Galatasaray Lisesi)  and Durdane is still handing our board marker refills and cash advances with a gruff smile  in Suadiye.  Ben, alas, has migrated to greener pastures at  Sabanci.  His coffee will be missed.

EF - or whatever they may be called now - does arrange for work permits but for legal and bureaucratic reasons it must be done from at home...then youenter Turkey ... then you go back to your country to finalize it (sounds expensive - ed)"

2005
Also - I heard someone say that IH/EF this school is owned by the British government - but don't know for sure if this is true.
"English Fast will pay Turkish Lira salary of 1000 TL for inexperienced teachers, 1400 for teachers who have experience more than a year, and 1800 for teachers who have more than three years experience.. Additionally,  400 TL will be paid monthly for accommodation expenses.  No extra payment will be made for furniture..."

posted March, 2006

NOTE: posted English Fast here because it is basically the same as IH.  Same owners, etc.
"I have absolutely no qualms against recommending International House  ooops, I think the franchise name has been changed.  It might be English Fast (I'm not the only one confused - ed) or something now.   Regardless,  Bora and Zeynep  own schools in Suadiye,  Etiler and now I think they have expanded to Bakirkoy.

I worked in Suadiye and it wsa great.  Are you going ot get rich? Probably not. Will you be paid on time and treated as a valued employee?   Yes - I'd offer one caveat - withthe expansion the management team  might have been spread out  which could possibly make for some rough spots  but when I worked at Suadiye I worked with some great folks  and I really enjoyed it.

We were paid on time and we were paid relatively well .  Seems like there's quite a lot of competition these days , so the offer may not be as attractive as it was. I left at the end of 2002."

posted 2005
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