ESL students and teachers,\r
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I have been attending an ESL Adv. Class for almost 9 months at San Francisco Institute of English and I would not recommend the school for anyone.\r
We spent our last week after spring break in front of the school supporting our teachers who were striking for better conditions of work, fairly salary and health care.\r
The students tried to help and went to talk with the SFIE Director; Mr. John Kainlauri whom we never saw before at the school, didn?t want to talk with the students and asked for a letter as a formal complaint of the situation. On this letter, signed by dozen of SFIE students, we made clear that we would like to hear from him on Thursday, 20th March 2008 before we start transferring to another schools. Mr. John called in sick!!!!\r
We spoke with Mr. John?s representatives who were not allowed to give any position, and lied for the students saying that they will negotiate with the teachers. We found out later that the last word from the school directors was: ?let the teachers go, let the students go, we don?t really care. There will be new ones?...\r
A school is made of its teachers and students. The best teachers that I ever had left because they were not respected by the school director. Many of SFIE students are transferring to different schools.\r
If you are coming to San Francisco and you are looking for an ESL school, please be careful with schools like SFIE. They don?t really care about you.\r
In addition, the building is deteriorating; no heater, dirty windows and the walls are covered with mold. The neighbourhood have complained but they don?t care!!\r
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I am inviting the SFIE students and ESL studants from other schools to leave their comments and experiences about the unfair situation of the ESL teachers in San Francisco and the lack of respect with students.\r
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Alessandro de Melo
Cons: Service, Ambience, Management
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