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leavingonajetplane
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 15
Location: Europe
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 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:46 am Post subject: EF Summer schools? |
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Hya
I have an interview in the u.k for EF Summer schools in china but after what i've read on here am not sure if i'm even going to go to the interview!. Does anyone have any experience of their summer schools? Has anyone got anything positive to say about EF? |
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jamesmollo
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 276
Location: jilin china
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:03 am Post subject: ef |
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although I have not personally worked for EF, there is enough bad press out there for me to be wary of them.
There are hundreds, thousands of schools/organisations to choose from, why not try one that doesn't have negative comments about them.
Better to be safe than sorry.
In fairness to EF and the many other franchises out there, they are indepently run so It's not really fair to say they are all bad.
Good rule of thumb: talk to a foreign teacher who has been working there, If they offer you an email address, not a phone number, don't bother. More often than not this will be from the DOS or FAO saying how great their experience was. |
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leavingonajetplane
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 15
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:28 am Post subject: |
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| Hmmm just checked the small print with EF and 4500 rmb per calendar month for 40 hr week ( 26 contact teaching hours)is not worth bothering with!. Could anyone actually survive on that 'salary' in china? |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:58 am Post subject: See Below |
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| leavingonajetplane wrote: |
| Hmmm just checked the small print with EF and 4500 rmb per calendar month for 40 hr week ( 26 contact teaching hours)is not worth bothering with!. Could anyone actually survive on that 'salary' in china? |
Don't even consider it...not at all.
Go look at www.eslteachersboard.com Jobs in China.
Many schools right here in Guangzhou are offering RMB 1500 a week for 14-16 hours of summer camp for four weeks, that is RMB 6,000 for about 64 hours. Do the math on your own.
And speaking directly on my own personal and very, very recent experience with EF Guangzhou, in the person of one illustrious and rather dubious Brit who runs the place, I would rather dance with 10 cobras than even go near them and dancing with the cobras would undoubtedly be safer. |
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Sonnet
Joined: 10 Mar 2004
Posts: 235
Location: South of the river
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:46 am Post subject: |
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Yawn. There are plenty of good EF schools, but anyone who bothers defending them on here gets buried under a flurry of overexcitement.
For what it's worth, the summer contract salary may be "only" 4500RMB/month, but how many other summer programmes include free housing & a round-trip airfare? That's got to be a consideration, particularly for teachers not already in China who're considering a summer school here. |
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Shan-Shan
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1074
Location: electric pastures
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| salary may be "only" 4500RMB/month, but how many other summer programmes include free housing & a round-trip airfare? |
You mean EF provides transport and lodging for its slave labour force brought over for the edutainment of rich kiddies and teens? That's so nice. |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Sonnet wrote: |
Yawn. There are plenty of good EF schools, but anyone who bothers defending them on here gets buried under a flurry of overexcitement.
For what it's worth, the summer contract salary may be "only" 4500RMB/month, but how many other summer programmes include free housing & a round-trip airfare? That's got to be a consideration, particularly for teachers not already in China who're considering a summer school here. |
Frankly, back up your rather gratuitous remark, please.
I would encourage you personally, in view of your very sweeping comment, to open a new thread called good EF schools in China and ask posters who have either been employed there or had dealing with them to post their own thoughts and comments.
Let's see what kind of feedback we might get. |
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Sonnet
Joined: 10 Mar 2004
Posts: 235
Location: South of the river
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| HunanForeignGuy wrote: |
| I would encourage you personally, in view of your very sweeping comment, to open a new thread called good EF schools in China and ask posters who have either been employed there or had dealing with them to post their own thoughts and comments. |
Stay on-topic, please. The poster asked about EF summer schools, and I replied. From the perspective of somebody who has worked in an EF summer programme. Which, I believe, puts me in a minotiry of one here.
I have no desire to get into any further drawn-out EF debates; people who have actually worked in an EF centre usually have different opinions to those who haven't. And regardless of whatever gets posted on this board, good EF centres have no problem finding teachers who're willing to work for them. So, really, as much as it may pain the critics, there's no debate to be had. |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Sonnet wrote: |
| HunanForeignGuy wrote: |
| I would encourage you personally, in view of your very sweeping comment, to open a new thread called good EF schools in China and ask posters who have either been employed there or had dealing with them to post their own thoughts and comments. |
Stay on-topic, please. The poster asked about EF summer schools, and I replied. From the perspective of somebody who has worked in an EF summer programme. Which, I believe, puts me in a minotiry of one here.
I have no desire to get into any further drawn-out EF debates; people who have actually worked in an EF centre usually have different opinions to those who haven't. And regardless of whatever gets posted on this board, good EF centres have no problem finding teachers who're willing to work for them. So, really, as much as it may pain the critics, there's no debate to be had. |
Once again you have begged every gratuitous issue that you have raised.
You raised the issue of the wonderful EF schools; no one else had.
You are a not a minority of one, as you write, but perhaps you are the voice of EF management. That strikes me as a distinct possibility.
As for your comment about good EF centers having no problems finding teachers, rubbish. The centers in GZ were so desperate recently that they bombarded the private mobile telephone numbers of many foreigners living in GZ (and we are surprised by what method they might have acquired these numbers) with ENDLESS SMSs begging them go to work for EF GZ. In those cases where they had the landline numbers, they cold-called repeatedly, etc., etc. And of course all the emails that one can imagine...and this was in addition to an advertising campaign on all the free sites on the web. Does that say something? |
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Sonnet
Joined: 10 Mar 2004
Posts: 235
Location: South of the river
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 1:58 am Post subject: Re: EF Summer schools? |
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| HunanForeignGuy wrote: |
Once again you have begged every gratuitous issue that you have raised.
You raised the issue of the wonderful EF schools; no one else had. |
Actually, I was responding to the OP:
| leavingonajetplane wrote: |
| Does anyone have any experience of their summer schools? Has anyone got anything positive to say about EF? |
| Quote: |
| You are a not a minority of one, as you write, but perhaps you are the voice of EF management. That strikes me as a distinct possibility. |
I know people here are a little paranoid, fanatical, and enjoy their conspiracy stories, but... that's a load of *******.
I'm the DoS of an EF franchise school in a small city. Not quite the voice of Silver Tower; sorry to disappoint.
| Quote: |
| As for your comment about good EF centers having no problems finding teachers, rubbish. The centers in GZ were so desperate recently that... |
I said that good EF centres don't have problems finding teachers.
And, actually, I am still a minority of one; the only person with actual EF experience responding to the OP's question about EF. Y'know, it'd be interesting to see how the EF threads panned out if the only people who responded were ones who knew what they were talking about. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 3:16 am Post subject: |
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To the OP, the wage per hours that are being offered are not the highest that you could get in China. If you are an experienced teacher or just someone who is able to do it all yourself then you could likely find a position that pays more for less hours. If however you are new to teaching or want a degree of support when you arrive then don't discount EF just yet.
I recommend that you keep looking and then make comparisons between programs later. Make an informed decision not a rash one! |
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Shan-Shan
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1074
Location: electric pastures
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| good EF centres have no problem finding teachers who're willing to work for them |
So true. There are far too many innocents who foolishly choose to listen to the cigarette stained, baijiu soaked promises of Big Belly Big Money Daddy EF. The unglamorous truth: many of these good hearted foreign folk desperate and down-and-out only end up lost and tangled in a cycle of bitter regret and sadness during their stint at one of Daddy EF's Big Schools. |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 7:24 am Post subject: See Below |
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Sonnet,
Sorry to say it but your position as a DOS in an EF school surely causes one to reconsider the objectivity of each posting that you have made. That needs to be said.
There have been cases on threads here were EF DOS's were "politely enjoined" to go to the defense of their school.
As far as I am concerned, I think Shan-Shan in his or her postings is much more on the mark.
And to the original poster, as Clark M. Griswald wrote, look elsewhere for better money.
Sonnet, if there were not a fire, why would there be smoke (in terms of EF)?
You will note on these forums that Wall Street, Dell, Aston, Web Intl, etc., the other big mills are not nearly as maligned as EF -- not at all. There must be a reason...................................................... |
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Mister Al
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 840
Location: In there
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 11:12 am Post subject: |
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Sorry going off topic a bit but
Shan-Shan wrote:
| Quote: |
| So true. There are far too many innocents who foolishly choose to listen to the cigarette stained, baijiu soaked promises of Big Belly Big Money Daddy EF. The unglamorous truth: many of these good hearted foreign folk desperate and down-and-out only end up lost and tangled in a cycle of bitter regret and sadness during their stint at one of Daddy EF's Big Schools. |
Point One: Are you saying that only 'desperate and down-and-out' FT's work for EF? If so, you're simply an insulting git.
Point Two: Yes, many may regret working for EF...but many do not. |
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englishgibson
Joined: 09 Mar 2005
Posts: 4345
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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Now, wait a moment Mister....you've never been insulting before  ...you and your lovely hydrant come around EF related threads for quite a while...did you really play that Irish music at Xiamen's EF event??? No disrespect, but you've been offering little of your factual EF experiences on our forums, although painting the EF related threads in "living color" 
| Sonnet wrote: |
| Yawn. There are plenty of good EF schools, but anyone who bothers defending them on here gets buried under a flurry of overexcitement.. |
and where do your stats come from ....i guess they get "buried under a flurry of overexcitement" ....maybe, you've got some "inside" info that we do not have 
| Quote: |
007 wrote:
I'm the DoS of an EF franchise school in a small city. Not quite the voice of Silver Tower; sorry to disappoint |
you've made my day and the Silver Tower really proud of havin' ya
| Quote: |
007 again:
.....the only person with actual EF experience responding to the OP's question about EF. Y'know, it'd be interesting to see how the EF threads panned out if the only people who responded were ones who knew what they were talking about. |
and i am yet another "only one" with actual EF experience
| Quote: |
| Yes, many may regret working for EF...but many do not. |
yet another great stats offered
EF English First Head Office in that Silver Tower surely does not make its STATISTICS on how many of its employees have come or have left. The door is often wide open.
Then, its STATISTICS in China on how many EF employees or students EF actually has or what the individual centers' actual sales are NOBODY WILL EVER FIND OUT
By the way OP, the Summer gig at EF s*cks big time. The truth is that the EF Headless Office has decreased its working hours from the slavory conditions of 39 academic hours (40 minutes one) to "only" 30-36 which is less than that slavory....however, they also decreased the pay per month....some locations paid more before
You will have to work 6 days every week as well as you will have to learn how to deal with your Teacher Assistants or Course Consultants that'll step on your toes....and then watch out for your parents meetings with your "assistants" translating/mistranslating the major part of what you have to say about your students...courtesey of the MacEF Chmanagement....any foreign employees at EF are just "foreign furniture", so be aware if you join in 
Peace to all EF discussions on our lovely forums
and
cheers and beers to the ones with actual EF experience as well as the ones that are either interested in EF related forums or just protect their interests  |
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