Thread: TEFLtastic interview with Bruce Veldhuisen

As Ajarn gets a mention, thought searching for the interview with the boss of TEFL International might interest some of you

Originally Posted by jimbo

Well,...where is it then? Or am I missing something? (as usual)

That sounds rehearsed. Have you had experience saying that to your TWO wives? Seriously, how do you find the time on here with all your privates and your wives? Oh, and a day job too?

i'm lost

guess he thinks ajarnforum posters aren't sabai sabai? intersting take on TEFLWATCH, too.

Your take on the TEFLWatch story

TEFLWatch was a flawed idea from the beginning. Their concept was that the teacher was always right and, therefore, the schools were always wrong. How can a site like that have any credibility? There must be situations where the school is right and the teacher wrong, even if it is just 1 in 50.

But, for me, my involvement with TEFLWatch began when I shouldn’t have gotten involved in a business deal with a person that I now believe cheated me in many ways. When the whole thing fell apart, this person and his associates used TEFLWatch as a weapon against me. For nearly a year, a small group of individuals, none of whom were actually our course graduates, used multiple usernames to attack me, the company, our courses, and even my family.

There were a few legitimate complaints aired. But the legitimate complaints could be counted on one hand, and our staff had done their best to resolve these complaints while still meeting our international and professional standards. The rest were over 100 pages of baseless, unsubstantiated attacks.

Just when I thought the misinformation and attacks were bad, they took a turn for the worse. The owner and chief moderator of the website made wild and personally damaging accusations. He claimed that I got him fired from his job and that he fled the country in fear. This was so over the top I was stunned. I had no idea who he was, where he lived or where he worked but suddenly I was being publicly accused of getting the guy fired. And people posting on the website seemed to believe him.

I was just getting to the point where I felt like something had to be done when everything about TEFL International disappeared from the site. Conspiracy theories were everywhere. But according to the owner, he said he had been holding me to a higher standard than anyone could possibly attain and realized that the dispute was a commercial one, not one involving teachers and lack of pay.

I think a site like TEFLWatch is great but I think it needs to be fair and well moderated—a way of resolving disputes not just airing (sometimes baseless) accusations would be a vast improvement. Mike FitzGerald mentioned one of his trainees in China recently used a site called ESLjudge, which took the teacher complaint to the school for a response, and then submitted it to three impartial legal arbitrators. I think a site like that has more credibility and helps teachers better than unsubstantiated angry personal attacks disguised as public truth on something like TEFLWatch.

11. Thailand
- Who would suit working and/ or living in Thailand


Someone who can literally say “sabai sabai” and not get stressed out by the sometimes arbitrary way things work here. Our head office and first course is in Thailand, so we have over a decade of the infrastructure needed to help someone learn the Thai way of being relaxed. We help lots of trainees that come here with a more western attitude to adapt to the stress of living in a different culture. That’s one reason we have such an excellent relationship with the MOE and have been able to expand to north and south Thailand.


- The difficulties of doing business in Thailand

The bureaucracy and the “long timers” who tend to be the biggest wingers you have ever met in your life! (see ajarn.com discussion forum!). I mean really, if you hate it so much, why have you been here 10 years?