Job Discussion Forums

[SandyG20]

I am applying for kindy jobs and dd dragon schools. Anyone have any experiences with those?

I prefer older students - but I could do that for a year and then move on to a different school.

I would also like a University job - but most don't seem to just hire with a phone interview.

Have a BS and teaching license.


Like the Shenzhen area or close by I think - definitely away from lots of snow and ice.

[samhouston]

DD Dragon is ok I suppose, if you're in a hurry to get in country. But there are some rather eloquent posts on Dave's about the disadvantages of working for a buxiban, so you should look those up before deciding.

The owner of the DDD company is a fast talking British guy, or South African or something, named Steven Molteno. He's not a bad guy, just has trouble telling the straight truth. For instance, the deal was five days a week. That's what my faxed contract said, and that's what he told me on the phone. Not so. The whole DDD system is set up for six days a week. Maybe all buxibans are. The contract I signed at the Shanghai office was missing the five days a week paragraph. Of course, assuming a certain essential decency in dealing with a White guy, I signed it. Even if I had read it, I probably would not have noticed that missing paragraph, since it was the only thing different from the first contract. He also did a bang-up job promoting how great and fun Wenzhou was, and that I was a fool to want to stay in Shanghai.

Other than the blatant switcharoo with the work week, everything else is pretty much as expected. But the big risk is the owners of the local franchise. You can ask for the contact info of previous or current employees, but I doubt you'd get very far. Molteno would probably just throw your resume in the trash if you asked too many questions up front. I was lucky, as my local handlers were very accommodating and rather nice to me. I had a pretty decent apartment as well. The pay is 8000rmb, which was alright I guess, especially if you're in a dump of a city with nothing to spend money on. I was always paid on time. The hours were Tue-Fri 4-8 and Sat-Sun 9-8. Mondays off.

Even though Molteno suffers a couple moral blind spots (I do too, heh), he is a genius of a teacher, and you learn his methods during a few easy days of training in Shanghai. This has proven very handy in my later teaching gig, so much so that I often wonder what the hell I was doing before I knew all these fun tricks. Every single class is already laid out in detail, there's no doing your own flash cards or any of that kind of silliness. The books, designed by Molteno, are very good and the kids love it. (Some, maybe a lot of, schools use terrible worthless books written by Taiwanese businessmen or whatever. But DDD's materials are very good.)

If the franchise is new, there will be few to no students enrolled, which means you have to go around in the blazing fury of the summer sun handing out leaflets, swatting at mosquitoes, and doing endless demo classes. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it's a job much more suited to a 20 year-old, and not someone in their mid-30s.

I did get a Z-visa, but as like a lot of things in China, all was not as it seemed. The franchise didn't have a license to hire foreigners, so the boss had some relative at a factory issue the visa. Whatever works. Other DDDs might have more legitimate visas, others might just do F visas.

[Totemic]

[sahilsondhi]

How is DD Dragon treating you? I'm in contact with Cathy from the DD Dragon school in Baoshan District. I've heard mixed things and I'd like to get a clear picture of what goes on. Someone help please!

[foreignDevil]

[Raindrops]

DD Dragon is farming FT year around ...

[sahilsondhi]

Raindrops- care to elaborate?