Magic Ears interview questions

I applied and then scheduled an interview, but when I entered the platform, the company had erroneously set me up to interview someone else, as if I already worked for them and I’m the trainer. I emailed them about their mixup but then received a response. So then I just scheduled another interview. During my actual interview, I mentioned the mixup and the interviewer did not offer his apologies or say that he’d follow up with the tech department. No, instead, he didn’t want to talk about it. That is not how a professional reacts.

What a mess! The fact that there is no real training in this company should have been an immediate red flag. I kept hearing online about the 'training' or the 'teacher's manual' or something, but there was none of this. I was only ever referred to YouTube videos of other teachers teaching a class as a substitute for any real training. Within 48 hours of applying, I was invited to a teaching demo and interview. I passed the demo and was asked to do another, longer demo with a member of the Chinese staff. So I did, and she stopped me five minutes into the demo and said that I did a really great job, and that she would like to schedule a trial class as soon as possible. The next day, I had my trial class with one student. He was fairly advanced for the lesson, and I was worried that I would get through the lesson too quickly, so I tried challenging him a little bit outside of the "on-rails" lesson - you know, REAL teaching. This is NOT what Magic Ears wants. They want you to follow their awkward, level-inappropriate, non-native English lessons to a T, all while being so high energy and over the top, you'd lose your voice in a matter of minutes. After completing my trial class, I thought I did a good job and that everything would go well. I heard nothing. A week passed. I emailed Magic Ears and was told that my energy was not high enough. They gave me the option to do another trial class (unpaid, mind you), and I accepted. This time around, I had three students, one who showed up 2/3 of the way into the class, another who was a gem, and another one who was a little brat - extremely difficult and would not look at the camera or stay in his chair, and who kept making noise all through the lesson. I followed the instructions and muted his mic, reported the issue, and proceeded with the lesson. Besides this, everything went else was fine. The next day, I got the email saying that I wasn't a good fit. I have a TEFL/TESOL and 4 years of ESL teaching experience, so I really thought I'd be a good fit. I realized afterward, however, that Magic Ears is not looking for a teacher. They are looking for a clownish personality to perform on camera and make the Chinese parents think their kids actually learned something. The weak curriculum alone should be a red flag to any ESL teacher. Here is an example of some of the language being taught: A: “I like fall. I feel cool.” B: “I don’t like it.” C: “I’m not happy.” This is an example of ONE conversation! Nobody talks like that! This is NOT real teaching. Big thumbs down. This company will be gone in a couple of years.