Job Discussion Forums

[Symphany]

I'd like to teach English in China and I'm looking into a company called English First, has anyone worked there or know about it? Secondly, is there a chance to get overtime there?

Thirdly, if you teach English in China and you are unhappy with your employer, can you change jobs and work for another employer easily? This was the case in Japan where I worked for one year under my first employer, and quit just after renewing my second visa. I could have stayed a year under my second visa but elected to leave early.

[therock]

I would say English First is the equivalent to Nova in Japan. Scroll through the old posts and you will find many negative comments about EF.

As for changing employers, generally you need a release letter from your first employer before you can go and work for another.

[Symphany]

I actually used to work for Nova, and before the recent melt-down there were some consistencies that existed that made Nova livable:

pay was always on time, and you could count on living in a fully furnished western-style company apartment

your visa was yours and did not belong to the company so you could change companies any time you wanted

Nova was the biggest chain, so if you hated the branch you worked at you could literally change branches to anywhere in the country

privates were not illegal and you could teach as many as you wanted as long as you didn't pinch company students

there was always the chance that you could try climbing the ladder if you were in it for the long-haul.

That level of consistency has been thrown with the recent financial difficulties, however, I was wondering what the situation was with EF, and with Chinese chains in general, is there a merit to them, even if they are probably not the best gig around, some redeeming quality that atracts people and gets them to stay there? If not, they sound pretty terrible and I'm not sure how they survive.

[stillnosheep]

They are not a chain (one company controlled from Head Office).

They are a franchise (they grant licenses to indivduals and companies to use their name and 'method').

Some franchises may be better than others but absolute horror stories abound including death threats to teachers who try to demeand their rights as contracted, terminate their employment etc.

Caveat emptor.

[clark.w.griswald]

EF is similar to Nova in that it employs lots of teachers throughout the country and that some of the teachers come to hate that company. Overall though most of the teachers do the job and enjoy their time in China. While some choose to stay on there for a while, many use EF as an easy landing and a stepping stone to other work in the future.

One big difference in China is that the work permit is not yours so to speak and as such is not easily transferrable. So if you just up and leave the employer that helps you get the work permit then you can generally expect to lose that permit and have to start the process over again. You can leave an employer mid-contract but you generally need to work with the employer and get a release letter in order to transfer your working rights to your next employer.

[SnoopBot]

[tw]