Firstly Arnold at Impact Teaching was incredibly helpful and supportive during the entire process, and was always there when I needed him. Living here is a great experience which I am glad I did, and I believe it is incredibly valuable and will hopefully open the door to more opportunities potentially in Shanghai, Hong Kong or other well connected places. It is very important to get stuck in to some extra curricular activities to get a better chance of meeting new people which I have done with football.
What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
My future advice would be to think about how you are going to spend your evenings in the week, and even the weekend, as having hobbies like football, learning the language, or in my case trying to learn some music production skills, because when you don’t have anything to do in the week once you get home around 6, it could prove to be a bit lonely and you may feel a bit homesick, which is normal.
Pros
- Cultural differences
- Independence
- CV (showing you are willing to go and do something like this is valuable)
Cons
- Losing all your habits and comfort foods that you may have at home and having to find new versions of everything.
- May feel lonely at times which emphasises the need to get yourself out there and do activities.
Response from Impact Teaching
Hi Vera. We’re terribly sorry to hear about your experience on the program. This type of feedback is not common but we appreciate it, nonetheless. We are very much not a scam and none of our reviews are fake, so it is incredibly disappointing to hear your strong feelings.
All of our teachers who faced delays waiting to go to Poland last year have already been offered a full refund, and we have started to issue them.
We were not the only teach abroad company to face issues with Poland last year. In the runup to the election, the majority of visas were put on hold and things became quite complicated. These matters were completely out of our hands but we were working tirelessly to resolve them.
We also did our best to keep candidates in the loop with developments through multiple Zoom calls and individual correspondence, so we regret to hear that you feel it wasn’t enough. We sincerely apologise.
The problem has since been resolved and moving to Poland is much easier again. Despite this, we are in the process of issuing full refunds to candidates that have requested them.
And Vera, we don't recognise your name, please reach out to us and we'll be in touch to arrange your refund as soon as possible. We hope to make this right and apologise for your experience.