Job Discussion Forums

Andy8405 · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 35

I'm mid-job search and have a seemingly promising lead to teach history IN english to Chinese students (HS level) with the Ameson Institute for Foriegn Languages. The "institute" is a group of schools within China that are accredited (by whom?). I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some feedback if you know about this organization, have had experience with them, etc. Thank you Very Happy

jibbs · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 452

Their Headquarters are in Nanjing and they send teachers to schools in Jiangsu Province. They may have expanded into others provinces. My last contact with them was nearly 3 years ago. Seemed like their job offers were not bad, reasonable pay for not many hours, usually high level English (for China, anyway) high school kids planning to go to uni in America or wherever, so you could be teaching some pretty advanced stuff.

randyj · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:48 pm Post subject:

I second what Jibbs has said. I have seen their operation up close and personal in Yangzhou, and I even taught one class of their students, mostly rich, spoiled non-achievers who plan to enter the family business. These students are on an academic track completely separate from the gaokao. Ameson pays well, and they are dependable, but they are also very demanding. I was in the teachers' office one day, when two of the Ameson bigwigs came in from Nanjing and fired two teachers on the spot.

peewee1979 · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:49 pm Post subject:

I signed a contract with Ameson last year to teach in a specific school and city. After signing the contract and getting the medical and all the other stuff they then called me up and said they wanted to send me to another city and told me the reason was the program at location A was closing down.

Once I went to their office they informed me that they wanted me to work in location B for 3 days a week and they go to location C for 2 days a week. Location C was a 2 hour bus ride away from location B.

Turns out on my visits to the school at location A I made friends with the Chinese teachers and a few of the students. The Chinese teachers AND the students told me the program was still in operation and they got a new foreign teacher at the start of the new semester.

Ameson did a bait and switch and outright lied. On top of that they REFUSED to put a monthly or weekly hours worked amount in the contract and wrote some phrase like " teacher will work assigned hours" and would not define what this meant after repeated requests.

tuvia · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 34 Location: beijing

peewee1979 hit the nail on the head with that group. i came very close to taking a job with them, then noticed that the contract was very vaguely written; they verbally stated that i wouldnt be 'farmed' out to different locations, but when i asked them to write it into the contract, they refused. fortunately at the last minute i declined the job.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

peewee1979 · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:18 pm Post subject:

Baozi man · Joined: 06 Sep 2011 Posts: 214

"Seemed like their job offers were not bad, reasonable pay for not many hours, usually high level English (for China, anyway) high school kids planning to go to uni in America or wherever, so you could be teaching some pretty advanced stuff."

You may be teaching juvenile delinquents who are too dumb to pass the high school exam; therefore, their parents pay high tuition for them to go to a prep school and then "go abroad."

Careful with programs preparing students to go abroad. They can be baby sitting services for rotten brats with rich parents. The kids may be rude, disrespectful, xenophobic, and because of the money, the schools are very timid about discipline. Many of these kids don't know the meaning of NO. They have done whatever they want all their lives.

Nightmare in the classroom time.

Cyberkada · Joined: 04 Dec 2011 Posts: 306 Location: Xi'an, China

jibbs · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 452

Yeah, my current job is teaching high school students who are going to finish high school in Canada next year. Quite a few of them are terrible with English, and don't put in much effort either. Granted the material is like middle school in Canada, very hard for most of them. They don't seem too spoiled or rude or anything, just more like they know their grades here really don't mean anything, and some of them would fail so hard if they did. So there is some sense of entitlement I guess, or whatever. But their days are long and they are often tired.