Job Discussion Forums

KateCee · Joined: 15 Sep 2003 Posts: 72 Location: China....no more.

OK, let the brickbats fly!

Kate

PS: PMs welcomed, too.

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

I know a few people happily living in Zuhai. But EF has a bad reputation on these boards. Do a search.

Myself, I don't know much about them, but I have worked in large language school companies before, and you are warned here and now that education will take a back seat to the almighty dollar (or yuan.)

Glen 2003 · Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 50 Location: China

EF is a typical chain school,thus I wouldn't expect too much from them.

Darius · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 11 Location: Hong Kong.

I taught at this school for a few terrible months and I recommend that you go nowhere near it - ever!

The management is a combination of totally incompetent and slyly devious - no one has any idea what's going on from one day to the next and this places huge amounts of unnecessary stress on the teachers.

When I was there they were in grave financial difficulties and were cost cutting all over the place. By "cost-cutting" I mean that they stopped providing us with adequate photocopying budgets, teaching resources, markers, etc. I left because they could no longer honour the accommodation clause in my contract. It was an absolute joke. Three teachers out of five left on the same day and the two remaining were only there because they couldn't afford to leave. I'm an experienced high school English teacher and I've never seen an unhappier staffroom in my life.

Don't think that you'll be teaching in the "well-appointed" school either - you'll be farmed out to local middle schools to teach classes of 50 plus in slum-rooms with no air conditioning and temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius. We used to call ourselves "the whores" because that's what it felt like.

The school's only been open since April 2003 and literally dozens of teachers have passed through its doors - most only staying a few weeks or months. EF Zhuhai has never been able to keep a DOS more than a month and when I was there they didn't have one. The DOS's responsibilities were simply divided up and added on to the teachers' work-loads. Some of us were teaching up to 32 hours a week!

The owner's a very cunning Hong Kong Chinese and he will be constantly leaning on you to do things above and beyond your contract.

Don't be like me and ignore the bad press about EF on this site - it's there for a reason (although obviously I can't comment on other EF schools). EF's flashy website bears no resemblance to the reality of EF Zhuhai I can assure you.

When I look at the EF advertisements now I laugh - and it's a laugh of bitter experience.

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Multi-city chain English mills suck major portions of aes...and EF is among the worst, at least in too many people's experiences. The things Darius tells you above are among the same things I've heard in many other stories. DON'T go there!

MT

senor boogie woogie · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2004 6:04 am Post subject: No chain schools (preferrably)

Hola!

I am looking for work in Lanzhou because my wife has gotten work there. I have gone through recruiters (bad news but I don't know the area well) and I have instructed them. NO EF!

I looked at EF Lanzhou, on Angelina's ESL and it just plain s u c k e d. You get one full day off (probably Monday). The school is open between 730 AM and 930 PM. You will work all day on Saturday and Sunday teaching kids classes, and the accomodation is shared. This company is too cheap to find their teacher a place of their own, even in a backwater like Lanzho

You have to wear a tie. I only wear a tie for real money. This aint.

The pay is 5500 RMB for 104 "contract hours" which comes out to be 53 RMB or $6.44 cents per hour.

Colleges and Universities are MUCH better! For example, there is a school called Yumen Petroleum Language School in a smaller town than Lanzhou which pays 4500 RMB for 60 hours a month, Monday through Friday and single housing. This breaks down to 75 RMB per hour worked. $9.12 cents per hour, 2.68 more than EF, no weekends, work nearly half the hours, have your own place to stay, and a school that's happy you are there!

Lastly, if you work in EF, and on your first day see a man or a woman driving an Audi, BMW etc wearing gold and a Rolex, that's the boss. He'll tell you that China is a "poor" country and that that salary is comparable to other professionals in the area and all that garbage.

DONT do chain schools. Work for the Universities and other public schools. Trust me.

Senor