Join the Praxis team. We're hiring!
johnb
February 20, 2008, 04:10 AM posted in General DiscussionWe're on the move here at the Praxis Factory, and we're hiring new staff to help us launch a number of new products (six, actually -- French, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Japanese).
To help us find the best candidates, we're turning to you, the ChinesePod community! If you know anyone who fits one of the below positions, please tell them to send their resume to john.biesnecker@praxislanguage.com. In exchange, we'll give the person that refers a candidate we hire a free six-month Premium subscription to one of our products (of course if you refer yourself and get hired, you'll have Premium access to all of our sites for free :P).
Below are the four positions we're looking for for each team (the copy is generic -- replace "LanguagePod" with "RussianPod," "ArabicPod," etc., and "Language" with "German," "Italian," etc.). If you or someone you know has any questions, please contact me directly at the above e-mail address.
Note: All positions are full-time in Shanghai. For the native French speakers, we're looking for people from France only. For the native Egyptian speakers, we're looking for people from Egypt only. For the native German speakers, we're looking for people from Germany only.
Languages: French, Italian, German, Russian, Arabic, and Japanese
Lead Teacher
As the leader of LanguagePod, you will be creating fun, exciting Language lessons together with a native Language-speaking Lead Host and delivering them to a virtually unlimited audience via podcast. This is an opportunity to teach in a communicative -- rather than grammar-driven -- way, to right the wrongs of the textbook-dominated classroom, and to re-kindle the enthusiasm that has been beaten out of students by years of outdated pedagogy. As a native English speaker, the insights you’ve gained in while mastering Language are invaluable.
Go to http://spanishpod.com/lessons/bottle-of-water and listen -- the Lead Teacher is the male voice, JP, and the LanguagePod Lead Teacher will fill the same speaking role for Language.
Requirements:
- Native English speaker, with fluency of Language acquired as an adult
- Masters Degree in linguistics, education, or Language
- Teaching experience and strong academic foundations
- Experience teaching with new technologies
- Familiarity with computers and the Internet
- Intense dissatisfaction with the current state of language teaching
- An infectious passion for teaching and learning
Lead Host
As the main Language voice for LanguagePod, you will be working with the Lead Teacher to create lively, entertaining lessons that deliver Language to a virtually unlimited audience via podcast. The ideal candidate will be young, vibrant, and have a passion for languages and learning. The Lead Host will assist the Lead Teacher in creating lessons and other material, take charge of PR initiatives, and develop and lead the user community.
Go to http://spanishpod.com/lessons/bottle-of-water and listen -- the Lead Host is the female voice, Liliana, and the LanguagePod Lead Host will fill the same speaking role for Language.
Requirements:
- Native Language speaker, fluent English
- Passion for language, learning, and communication
- Experience teaching Language to English speakers preferred
- Media or broadcast experience preferred
Academic Developer
The Academic Developer is a native Language speaker with strong Language writing skills and an understanding of grammar. English skills are a plus. The Academic Developer is responsible for all lesson publication, including editing materials, annotating materials with grammatical information, and operating technical publication systems.
Customer Service Representative (internship)
The Customer Service Representative is a native Language speaker, and has excellent written English. The Customer Service Representative is responsible for providing marketing and promotion support for LanguagePod, and assisting customers in solving technical and payment-related issues.
fordbronco
February 21, 2008, 12:45 AMBazza, Looks like the folks over at PolishPod have heard of you.
auntie68
February 20, 2008, 06:22 AMDear johnb, if you are going into Arabic, I really, REALLY hope that you will find a way to work with the guys at ArabicPod.net, who are managing to do a superb job with that language despite being under-funded and... amateurs. They do a particularly nice -- and effective! -- job with one very difficult aspect of learning Arabic, which is helping learners to find a path between "colloquial/regional" Arabic forms and formal Fussha. Just my 2 cents' worth...
excuter
February 20, 2008, 11:30 AMhmmm...Germanpod...native speaker? check! Languageloving? nearly unstoppable! where to sign up? starting when?
fudawei
February 20, 2008, 11:52 AMI love these guys!
auntie68
February 20, 2008, 12:03 PMdear johnb, I just read your full post (oops!) properly (oops! oops!), and have to say that I'm a bit shocked. Why this insistence on an "Arabic" host from Egypt? This decision would have been readily understandable say... 15 years ago -- when Egyptian colloquial Arabic was the most "international" vernacular, but why today? Does this mean that you would reject out of hand, a very bright would-be host from -- say -- Dubai or some other equally progressive and international "gulf state", or even a Jordanian who speaks beautiful Arabic and who (quite typically) may have been educated in international schools in Beirut or Cairo or Amman? This is incomprehensible to this humble Auntie. I simply can't believe the words that I am reading here on CPOD.
auntie68
February 20, 2008, 12:04 PMBut it is your business, after all, so please don't mind me!
auntie68
February 20, 2008, 08:00 PMOh oh, I have just re-read my previous posts, and am wishing there were some way to make them sound friendlier. sorry johnb...
calkins
February 20, 2008, 08:38 PMJohn, I am your man....whenever you start EnglishPod!
sebire
February 20, 2008, 08:46 PMYeah, being mono-lingual sucks at times like this!
johnb
February 20, 2008, 06:13 AMThanks, darcey. Maybe after graduation... :)
rsmith91
February 20, 2008, 10:36 PMI always thought you were going to start JapanesePod or maybe FrenchPod, but SIX at once! Wow! I'm particularly looking forward to Arabic. Even if it's only half as good as ChinesePod, it'll still be amazing.
ratatouille
February 20, 2008, 10:39 PMit's just copy and paste with a pinch of talent!
johnb
February 20, 2008, 10:42 PMExcuter, seriously, send me your resume and we'll start talking. Auntie68, we're not in the business of rejecting anybody out of hand :). However, Egyptian Arabic does seem to be the most widely understood today, and while it would probably be better to start four or five ArabicPods to cover the variations, we needed to choose one to start. That said, we take every resume on a case by case basis.
sparechange
February 20, 2008, 11:00 PMJohn: It may be a little early to ask this question, but can you comment on whether or not the Praxis Pass (or something like it) will exist once these other services are launched? I wouldn't mind being limited to choosing two languages if the price stayed the same. You could do more, I suppose, but honestly, who has that kind of time?
bazza
February 20, 2008, 11:35 PMShame there isn't going to be Korean or Polish.
auntie68
February 21, 2008, 12:09 AMhi johnb. Thanks for your friendly (and forgiving!) answer. I really do hope that Praxis will do a bit more research on this. Please, please review your decision to go "all-Egyptian" in your approach. Native Arab speakers are intensely conscious of national accents, can be prone to stereotyping (to put it mildly), and this approach virtually guarantees that you will "pigeonhole" your learners in some way or other, for better or worse. Do you really want to do that? Please don't let yourself be swayed too far by the usual arguments about needing "four or five ArabicPods". Simply not true. There is sort of a tendency on the part of Arabic speakers to over-emphasize the uniqueness of their own vernacular. And yet at the end of the day, they can all switch on the TV and watch Al-Jazeera, which has evolved an Arabic version of a "mid-Atlantic accent". Doesn't that cable network regularly have talkshows featuring Arabic speakers from different countries? Why not go for the Al-Jazeera-standard Arabic? I'd bet that your students would have easier access to Al-Jazeera, than to -- say -- an Egyptian TV channel. From the point of view of building up comprehension skills, it's probably more useful for your students to learn to tune their ears to the language of Al-Jazeera. And at the same time, they can get some valuable exposure to the techniques used by Arabic speakers to "tune down" their vernaculars in order to facilitate communication. Do please take a look at how the guys at ArabicPod.net deal with the differences (it does come up). I'd say that they do as good a job as JP and Liliana do at SpanishPod keeping the different kinds of Latin American Spanish free of tangles. Thank you for considering this, at least!
auntie68
February 21, 2008, 12:30 AMbazza, have you tried koreanclass101.com ? It's by the same people who do JapanesePod101. I started doing it "just for fun" when it launched, a few months ago, fully expecting to lose interest (or get overwhelmed) in a matter of weeks. But somehow I'm still there, and even getting comfortable with the pace despite being a lazy git who only listens to podcasts once. The quality of their teaching seems to be as high as CPOD, unlike the sister site JapanesePod101. For what it's worth...
bazza
February 21, 2008, 12:44 AMThanks, I'll give it a go.
sparechange
February 20, 2008, 09:04 PMSo it is true! Looks like I'll be spending some sleepless nights trying to decide which language to do next...
darcey
February 20, 2008, 04:34 AMWell, while I'm going to be going fulltime into university, I won't be applying, but I am thrilled to see Russian and Arabic, as they're two languages badly underrepresented in the internet and I would love to learn them with the Praxis/*LanguagePod method. I'd also be thrilled to finally be able to listen and appreciate the Advanced levels of a language (French & German). Good luck on hiring, and I can't wait to start tuning in!