Language Systems International Reviews

Everything else: low wages, if you're sick more than 2 days they will fire you (even with hospital records), you'll never get a raise, they make you use their textbooks that contain a lot of errors and are not very good to say the least, no room for flexibility in the classroom, students are treated like they're in middle school, you are expendable as a teacher, no job security, some PCs are not qualified to be in their position, PCs I've worked with have done nothing but talk badly about the students and it's horrible, most teachers are not happy with their job and it reflects in their performance, they randomly added a week off in December without telling anyone and that really effected a lot of teachers financially, students are afraid to speak with most PCs, no cellphones allowed in class even if you're trying to show an example of something.They put cameras in a lot of the places in the hallways and even in the classrooms. I mean, it's not as if I'm doing anything wrong or inappropriate, but I don't feel comfortable in being watched all the time. My students were scared. It negatively impacted my class. My students were afraid to say things because they didn't want to get into trouble. As teachers, we create connections with our students. LSI does everything in their power to strip that away. A teacher I worked with was fired after being in the hospital for a few days. The messed up part was that she had left some of her things at work. The PC went in and took out all of her stuff, went through it all, and threw everything away. Not all of the paperwork pertained to LSI. In fact, most of it was her own worksheets and handouts that she spent hours preparing. i'm just saying that I don't think it's right to go through someones things and throw it away. Especially not right after you threw the teacher away because she was ill. And all of her other things too? Was it necessary to throw her coffee cup and personal belongings away too? That's horrible. That's ridiculous. I really could go on for a lot more. Sorry for the grammar errors. I just get so angry when I think of LSI.

As previous reviews mention, LSI has been on the decline in recent years. They pay the same wage as when I began working there years ago. It is almost the same rate as Los Angeles' minimum wage. This never really bothered me because I come from a privileged situation where my partner is the breadwinner, nor is it illegal. However, many teachers are struggling there, and morale has been on the decline. It is no secret they are engaged in a wage and hour lawsuit because all employees have received the notice. Which with all honesty I do not know how this didn't happen sooner since so many ESL schools have suffered the same fate. This is California after all, a state that takes employment law very seriously and requires hourly employees to be paid for all hours worked. This includes coming in five minutes early to set up your classrooms and five minutes to clean up, in addition to paid preparation time, which while minimal, is still necessary. So, yes, this is something many ESL schools have failed to do, and as a result, have suffered the consequences with being smacked with wage and hour lawsuits. I have already received a notice and a check from another school that I worked at previously. Upper management seems to be shocked by this when in reality a simple google search about California employment law would yield that they have indeed been violating the law by not keeping track of time and paying for all hours worked. This bothers me as someone who has lost some of my university teaching jobs because of low enrollment. Students will attend LSI because of its lower cost, but that lower cost comes from their unfair labor practices. I do not know what the future holds for this company, but I can't say it would necessarily be a loss if it closed down like so many other language schools.