Job Discussion Forums

[Borderline]

Hi all!

Let's face it. It's no surprise that EF are the two middle letters of TEFL. After all, EF are at the very centre of the English as a Second Language (ESL) industry, in China, as elsewhere in the world. I'll be coming to China in a few weeks in the management-level post of DoS with the global ESL industry leaders, EF English First. This will be my first managerial appointment and boy am I already looking forward to kicking the sorry excuse for a TEFL industry in China into shape! I've read all the bad vibe stuff on this and other forums about EF in China, but I'd like to hear the other side of the story: I'd like to hear from current and former DoSs about their experiences with EF in China.

On my EF DoS managerial training course I actually brought up the issue of the abundant amount of negative feedback about EF from erstwhile employees of this highly-professional corporation on the Internet. I was told that these lame forays into slander (and pathetic attempts at character assassination) were the result of an interesting confluence: open access to the Internet, and the type of FT (i.e., non-managerial members of staff) EF franchises in China have usually had to end up employing. Apparently, because of the ridiculously-low wages in China (a pitiful 350 quid for a staggering 26 classroom hours a week plus some 'social activities'), and because of the fact that demand for FTs in China already far outstrips supply, EF have had to resort to employing the otherwise unemployable: semi-literate (or sometimes totally and saliently illiterate), unqualified, inexperienced, down-at-heel drifters with huge gaps in their employment records who are escaping a fate of certain unemployment in the West, who, more often than not, can barely drum up the cash for the bucket-seat airfare to China for their two-month 'Oriental adventure working holiday'. In other words, I was told that these are simply ESL losers who just couldn�t hack the pace of life with, and market-driven exceptions of, the industry big boys and so have to whinge and whine on discussion forums about having to actually do some non-burger-flippin work for once in their sorry little lives.

Is this true? Do your experiences as a DoS with EF in China back this up? What should I expect as a DoS with EF as someone who is looking to put the quality back into TEFL in China? Will I have to battle with imbecile underlings/TEFL cannon fodder at work on a daily basis, or are they easy to whip into shape? Are they all beer-swilling, chain-smoking, whoring has-beens-who-never-were and who are so desperate for a beer, a ciggie, and some 'subsidised dating' female company that they will do as they are told, as long of course as it allows them to keep this, the one job that they are fortunate enough to have? How hard is it to get these lowlife ESL industry hangers-on to do their contracted 26 contact hours a week?

Many thanks.

[eslstudies]

Is anyone on here employed by EF, or is Borderline [whose style, tone and content remind me of one Bertrand] wasting more energy than Ricky Martin's girlfriend?
Bertrand, and his many reincarnations, was a poster who'd reportedly been sacked by EF in China, somehow landed on his feet in HK, and posted copiously in his denounciation of the SS EF and all who sailed in her. For him, that meant every FT on the mainland.
That aside, I'd say the management and employees of that company richly deserve each other!

[abusalam4]

Hi, Borderline, I do not want to take away any of your enthusiasm but let me tell you one thing very clearly: I would never work for any EF school in any part of the world, not ever -- too many bad stories of how students and teachers were treated there. Just the initials "EF" in the school's name make me run...that school chain has got a too bad name already, and it could not be worse. Even if you offered me 2000 USD or more a month for working there, I would for sure vehemently decline the job offer. I could not take pride in working for such a school, and if ever did I would I would feel myself to be a third-class teacher. It is just the bad name of the school, you know.....
There are so many better schools around and I do not see why anyone needs EF franchise schools...poorly managed by mean and greedy bosses who mostly know nothing about education, filled with unhappy students and demotivated teachers....
Do you believe you can change all that? I admire your courage to take the challenge. But I am afraid you will give up some time sooner or later.
So, then why not looking for a better school to manage right away??
EF forms certainly part of the pretty bad picture of the "TESL industry" in China. Go and run!

P.S. IMHO, EF is crap!

[james s]

You take your EF by the horns and good luck to you. I was there for a while and have never been so disrespected by anyone. I will never work for EF anywhere in the world ever again.

[stillnosheep]

And they said that the art of satire was dead!

[malu]

Yes, a fine piece of tongue-in-cheek by the OP but the comments of the respondents are on the mark. I wouldn't work for McEF simply because I couldn't bring myself to tell people that I did work for them. Even if, by some miracle, they offered an interesting job with good pay you would still have to dream up a face-saving answer to the inevitable "And where do you work, then?" question.

[william wallace]

Good lucky.

[The Voice Of Reason]

EF ate my hamster

[abusalam4]

They even ate the crocodile that I sent toi give them a big bite...lol!
Power to the people, and EF to hell!

[abusalam4]

[latefordinner]

It speaks volumes about an employer when the standard management response is to blame the employees. As my father would say, "A good working man is always taking care of his tools. A bad working man is always blaming his tools" (English wasn't his first language, I just remember it the way he said it)

[stillnosheep]

"A bad workman always blames his tools"

Mind you, as far as EF management are concerned they are the tools, and they can blame themselves. As, I suspect, the OP is well aware.

[HunanForeignGuy]

I can only add my voice once again to all the EF cacophony. I made the mistake of trusting them this spring, as you all know, almost quit one job, was supposed to start with them the following, signed contract and all and then was told that Shanghai had not proved the extra money for the new hire...but that did not prohibit them from calling me on the phone for weeks and weeks begging me to take a part-time job that paid RMB 100 per hour less than every other part-time job in GZ.

I can only wonder if the intial posting is what we call at home a "put."

[andrew_gz]

[eslstudies]