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Imagination Education
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fat_chris



Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SledgeCleaver wrote:
Just listen to that name: Imagination Education. Sounds like something you'd say to a bushy-tailed psychology major while holding a piece of candy out the side of an unmarked van.


Oh!

Warm regards,
fat_chris
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NoBillyNO



Joined: 11 Jun 2012
Posts: 1762

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Imagine there's no education,
It isn't hard to do
No grades to study for
And no diploma too
Imagine all the students living life being fleeced

You, you may say
I'm a foreign teacher, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join CFTU
And the world will be paid in "won"
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fat_chris



Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl

You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
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Mr. English



Joined: 25 Nov 2009
Posts: 298
Location: Nakuru, Kenya

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I heard back from this outfit a few days ago. They told me a few months back with I interviewed via skype that they would pay me 300 per hour. I heard nothing for a while, then recently was offered a single class, 2 or 3 times per week for 2 or 3 hours per class, at 200 per hour. I declined. Can't trust this place.
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Riff Raff



Joined: 09 Jun 2014
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

*chirp chirp* a little birdy told me they like to get f visas
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coldcucumber



Joined: 21 Dec 2012
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I''ve just recently looked at their contract. 16 pages of fines and "carpe diem" related materials.
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The_Kong



Joined: 15 Apr 2014
Posts: 349

PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

coldcucumber wrote:
I''ve just recently looked at their contract. 16 pages of fines and "carpe diem" related materials.


Can you post a link?
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coldcucumber



Joined: 21 Dec 2012
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The_Kong wrote:
coldcucumber wrote:
I''ve just recently looked at their contract. 16 pages of fines and "carpe diem" related materials.


Can you post a link?


I can email you if you would like.
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coldcucumber



Joined: 21 Dec 2012
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 2:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://1drv.ms/1mtDLkv
A link to the actual contract.
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roadwalker



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 1750
Location: Ch

PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

coldcucumber wrote:
http://1drv.ms/1mtDLkv
A link to the actual contract.


One-sided contract. I wouldn't sign, even though in practice it may be ok. It could be that the school has attracted too many flakes in the past, and they want to cover themselves for worst-case scenarios. Still, I don't like the punishments especially for things that could be outside the control of the teacher, and/or easily abused, such as student complaints. And intellectual property rights? Way too much legalese for me.
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Hatcher



Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Posts: 602

PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am not sure the contract is legal.

I met them and was surprised how unprofesisonal they are. They wanted everything. Lots of options so you dont have to work with them.
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chinaman11



Joined: 12 Sep 2014
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 1:57 am    Post subject: Beijing Imagination Educaton Reply with quote

Don’t work for these people. I did for 7 months and it was a big mistake: false promises, lies, changing locations, unpaid overtime, and my salary was stolen. If you ever deal with Mr. Howard Zheng (郑峻华) Vice President of BIE, Mrs. Fiona Guo (郭翔雨) Teaching Director for BIE, or Irene Ma (马虹) Guangdong Regional Manager for BIE be aware that they are liars you should not trust, nor anyone else from this company.

BIE’s business model is to expand into every market in every new location it can for new cash, without the teachers, training, or any curriculum to do so. The contract is so one sided for precisely this reason and they will use it against you. Within one month I was told I had to go to a third tier city to cover an “emergency.” Mr. Howard Zheng gave me his “word” that I would be there for no more than one month; I was there for two and a half. This is justified in the contract that says they can move you wherever they want or dock your pay for ridiculous reasons, and they claim all material you develop as their property because they have none apart from one SAT exercise book. Almost every class you do is filmed as their property.

They will make you work overtime almost every month and the contract stipulates that you won’t be paid for anything below a total of 90 teaching hrs per month; per week doesn’t matter at all. Hours at their training center (the “office” I worked in was actually one classroom they rented from another training center) change constantly based on what the students want.

As mentioned by another teacher, there is no curriculum. Once I was given less than a week to prepare to teach an SAT Subject Test, they gave me a PDF they found online and said “nobody has ever taught it before” when I asked for training. I was never trained for anything. When a new teacher arrived to our office (of which I was the only teacher for months) she was given no training at all and told to start teaching a 3 week summer camp 2 days later. A teacher in another office once saw a man given no training be rejected by the students, BIE still refused to train him and then fired him in front of the students. They then asked him to “save the company” and teach even more overtime after he had been over hours continuously for 3 months.

The main company policy is to make arrangements behind the backs of teachers and then force it on them when everything has been agreed and nothing can be said on the part of the teacher. After teaching the load of 3 teachers for a month, my colleague and I were told that we would begin teaching entirely new subjects at a high school with ridiculous requirements like overseeing teachers who did not work for BIE, working full time at the school while still working the training center, and grading more than 40 essays per week while teaching different subjects for different grade levels.

We quit and offered notice. I was told that I must work at the high school or leave immediately. This was a trick by Mr. Howard Zheng, Mrs. Fiona Guo, and Irene Ma so that they could claim I “offered notice but never bothered to show up” when I launched a complaint at the Labor Department. I then discovered from the Labor Bureau that my visa was illegal because they registered me as working for them in Beijing (I never worked there) instead of my branch location. My colleague’s visa also listed Beijing as the false location. This probably means they don’t have a license to hire teachers or even a teaching license from the government.

These are highly deceitful, incompetent, and untrustworthy people. You will deeply regret signing a contract with them.
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Alien abductee



Joined: 08 Jun 2014
Posts: 527
Location: Kuala Lumpur

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chinaman11 wrote:
I then discovered from the Labor Bureau that my visa was illegal because they registered me as working for them in Beijing (I never worked there) instead of my branch location. My colleague’s visa also listed Beijing as the false location. This probably means they don’t have a license to hire teachers or even a teaching license from the government.

In that case it sounds as if you were working on a tourist or business visa, which is one of the major "don't do's" in this business.

chinaman11 wrote:
BIE’s business model is to expand into every market in every new location it can for new cash, without the teachers, training, or any curriculum to do so. The contract is so one sided for precisely this reason and they will use it against you. Within one month I was told I had to go to a third tier city to cover an “emergency.” Mr. Howard Zheng gave me his “word” that I would be there for no more than one month; I was there for two and a half. This is justified in the contract that says they can move you wherever they want or dock your pay for ridiculous reasons, and they claim all material you develop as their property because they have none apart from one SAT exercise book. Almost every class you do is filmed as their property.

They will make you work overtime almost every month and the contract stipulates that you won’t be paid for anything below a total of 90 teaching hrs per month; per week doesn’t matter at all. Hours at their training center (the “office” I worked in was actually one classroom they rented from another training center) change constantly based on what the students want.

As mentioned by another teacher, there is no curriculum. Once I was given less than a week to prepare to teach an SAT Subject Test, they gave me a PDF they found online and said “nobody has ever taught it before” when I asked for training. I was never trained for anything. When a new teacher arrived to our office (of which I was the only teacher for months) she was given no training at all and told to start teaching a 3 week summer camp 2 days later. A teacher in another office once saw a man given no training be rejected by the students, BIE still refused to train him and then fired him in front of the students. They then asked him to “save the company” and teach even more overtime after he had been over hours continuously for 3 months.

The main company policy is to make arrangements behind the backs of teachers and then force it on them when everything has been agreed and nothing can be said on the part of the teacher. After teaching the load of 3 teachers for a month, my colleague and I were told that we would begin teaching entirely new subjects at a high school with ridiculous requirements like overseeing teachers who did not work for BIE, working full time at the school while still working the training center, and grading more than 40 essays per week while teaching different subjects for different grade levels.

We quit and offered notice. I was told that I must work at the high school or leave immediately. This was a trick by Mr. Howard Zheng, Mrs. Fiona Guo, and Irene Ma so that they could claim I “offered notice but never bothered to show up” when I launched a complaint at the Labor Department.

These are highly deceitful, incompetent, and untrustworthy people. You will deeply regret signing a contract with them.

If all these things that happened were spelled out in the contract then why on earth did you sign it? Sounds more like a bad decision on your part rather than being deceived.
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relaxtischina



Joined: 09 Jun 2009
Posts: 113

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NoBillyNO wrote:
Imagine there's no education,
It isn't hard to do
No grades to study for
And no diploma too
Imagine all the students living life being fleeced

You, you may say
I'm a foreign teacher, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join CFTU
And the world will be paid in "won"

Your an artist Billy. Heres a lesson plan template that could be handy for Imagine Education or any other PRC school for that matter.

The Chinese dream:

Oh, but ain't that the PRC
For ethnic Chinese
Ain't that the PRC
Something to see, baby
Ain't that the PRC
Home of harmony
yeah more than 1 little chinese houses
only for ethnic Chinese
Oooh, yeah only for their race
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chinaman11



Joined: 12 Sep 2014
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 5:35 am    Post subject: re alien abductee Reply with quote

Yeah, I never should have signed that contract. Young and stupid I guess. In China if something out of whack is there it's definitely there to be used so if there is a problem with anything tell the company to drop the clause, if they refuse it's obvious why. Learned my lesson.

My visa was a work visa but they register all the teachers in the wrong place which makes them just as illegal as teaching on a tourist visa because it must match your location and the government cannot be lied to about this.
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