I agree with KS and as what he said,not all Aston schools are franchises..The school I'm teaching at is the biggest in Shandong and it's not a franchise..we met the owner many times and he's from the US.The owner and the managers are so friendly and I don't have any problem so far...I'm not a manager nor a recruiter here as you thought..Though, I've been here for 5 years, but I prefer to teach because I love it and travel on weekdays..Payment is great, commensurate to the number of hours you teach..very fair ,I can say.