Heed the Red Flags

After nearly a year of being unemployed and sulking in my Austin, TX apartment, I had little choice but to set as my primary objective what had only been a Plan B when I lost my job: getting a job teaching English in Asia. When I first entertained the idea, it was with a childrens school outside of Seoul, South Korea in mind. I ended up abandoning that gig in the 11th hour, though, thanks to a massive fluctuation in the value of the Korean Won and not in favor of my would-have-been salary.

I first came upon EF (also known as English First) China in the form of a sidebar ad on another website, where I was investigating teaching opportunities in Japan. Curious I recognized the EF moniker form the educational tours my [edited] 8th grade teacher Mrs. D[edited] chaperoned I clicked away and arrived at the EF home page.

Unlike the majority of ESL job postings online, EFs website was organized, informative and beautifully done. It explained in crystal-clear detail what I could expect from the application process, upon my acceptance as a teacher, after my arrival in China and on the job, as youve probably already seen. Enthused, I feverishly submitted my application.

I didnt hear anything for the first several days, which left me slightly disappointed, but not surprised after more than nine months of repeatedly being rejected. Within 48 hours of EFs response, however, I had a job offer and a placement in Shanghai. I hope this isnt too good to be true, I thought as I clicked the Send button above my acceptance email, signed contract attached.

As you can probably guess, it was far too good to be true. Although EF Shanghai is far from the worst place Ive ever worked, little about the company save for the clean, modern Swedish design sensibilities of its centers separates it from any of its multinational competitors.

The Good

I like to start with positive in life whenever I can, so Ill begin by telling you what was good about my experience with EF.

First and foremost, the company was always on-time and often early direct depositing my monthly paychecks into my Bank of China account, which it set up for me. Additionally, I was promptly reimbursed for expenses I incurred during the application process, such as obtaining my online TEFL certification and Chinese Z work visa. As promised, EF facilitated me getting said visa converted into a residence permit, providing me with a work permit, medical examination and a transfer to the office where I had to submit my paperwork, again paying all associated costs.

All of this is important because many schools (particularly local ones) have a reputation of being late on teacher pay, which usually foreshadows a given institutions closing.

EFs reception service upon my arrival was also excellent. Apple, my liaison, was a few minutes late to pick me up, but nonetheless escorted me to the four-star Rayfont Nanpu Shanghai Hotel, where EF had prepaid two weeks of stay for me. Before she left, she provided me all the materials Id need to start with the company the following Monday, including instructions as to where to meet her colleague, whod be taking myself and my future colleagues to orientation.

Overall, EFs strong suit is that it has money and it uses it to make sure teachers bare necessities are covered.

The Bad

Of course, that doesnt mean that EF pays well. Sure, the 12,350 RMB or yuan per month (about $1,850 when I arrived in November 2009) is enough to live a relatively comfortable life in Shanghai, and probably a slightly more comfortable one in Beijing, Guangzhou or Shenzhen, EFs other main cities in China. You could also save quite a bit of that money if you wanted to.

Unfortunately, this sum isnt enough to both save and spend and if youve heard stories of other peoples ESL experiences, youll know that such a story is very atypical for English teachers in Asia.

Unlike the majority of programs in Korea and Japan and an increasing number in China EF doesnt offer you accommodation or reimburse you for yours. My modest, one-bedroom on the outskirts of whats considered downtown Shanghai ran me 3,000 yuan (or about $450 at the time) per month, coupled with around 700 yuan (or about $100) worth of utilities. I spent about 200 yuan ($30) per week on groceries, 50 (about $7) on order-in food to the office and 100 ($15) filling up my Metro card. In other words, my recurring 9and modest, I might add) monthly expenses totaled 4,050 yuan, or about $625 about one-third of my pre-tax salary.

Its important to consider the issue of tax, however, since China uniformly taxes expat employees in this pay class at a rate of 20%. In other words, my take-home pay was only 9,880 yuan per month, which means that closer to half of it was gone before I even got paid.

Adding to this fact that Shanghai is much more expensive than the rest of China particularly if you hang out anywhere but the most local bars or restaurants means that I was having to live extremely frugally to meet the financial goals Id set prior to knowing what my financial bottom line would be.

Its also worth noting that unlike many other schools through Asia, EF doesnt reimburse you for your flight up-front. Rather, it pays you monthly installments of a set, 8,000 RMB annual employee transportation allowance that, at around $1,200 in November 2009, didnt come close to covering the actual cost of a round-trip ticket from anywhere in North America or Europe to China.

The Ugly

I havent mentioned much about my work environment yet and you know what that means: it f[edited] sucked.

As a disclaimer, I will say that I loved my students more than you can ever imagine. I was lucky enough to teach adults aged 16 and up I was placed in what EF calls a SMART center so I actually had a chance to develop several new friendships much more easily than other teachers might be able to. My students showed me parts of Shanghai and China Id never have been able to see otherwise and for this alone, I am forever emdebtted.

That being said, EF is surely not the only school with good students.

Unfortunately, it is one of the worst managed places Ive ever worked Im speaking about my own workplace, of course, the EF Megacenter national headquarter near Shanghais Peoples Square.

Friends I had who worked in other centers throughout the city and country, teaching both kids and adults, had varying reactions to their workplace. The vast majority were disappointed ones, particularly kids teachers, who were unwittingly forced into working two six-week sets of seven-day work weeks during EFs seasonal Summercourse and Wintercourse modules without extra pay or time off, I might add.

Back in my own center, several irregularities irked me. First and foremost, was the issue of Feedback. About half of a given SMART teachers schedule is composed of four-person (or less) Face-to-Face classes. In addition to low student-teacher ratios and personalized instruction, a benefit for these classes (from a student perspective) is individualized feedback within 72 hours of class completion.

Being the overachiever and generally good worker than I am, I made a point of entering feedback immediately after each Face-to-Face class. Its worth nothing that I not only got zero recognition for my excellent all but a couple of the other teachers were chronically late, sometimes by more than a week but was also made to stay in the office during office hours for which I wasnt paid and having completed all my work.

As a result, I ended up being in the center approximately 50 hours per week, despite the fact that I was only being paid for 25 and only had classes between 18-20 of those. Perhaps more annoying than the lack of recognition and unnecessary time in the office was the fact that EF keeps the Megacenter unbearably hot in the winter and unbearably cold in the summer, making for an incredibly uncomfortable workplace.

Technology-wise the center was also lacking and since I once again worked at the national headquarters, I can only imagine how bad-off satellite centers were. Computers both at teacher desks and in classrooms were sluggish, resulting in sometimes 10-minute delays to class starting, delays for which we were often blamed.

On a personal preference note, I found my frequently being observed through the classrooms glass walls by corporate visitors from Sweden to be obnoxious and even embarrassing. Although my immediate supervisors periodic observations served mostly to affirm my confidence as an English teacher, his quarterly conferences with me did little but remind me that he didnt personally like me very much, a fact underscored by his omission of all the areas in which I excelled and his marked focus on matters of office gossip.

Curiously, he also scolded me for my wardrobe from time to time, despite the fact that I was the only male teacher to adhere to the dress code, which required a belt, tie, dress slacks and a shirt tucked into them. Hed chide me for wearing shoes he considered to be too fashionable with his belly hanging out from his open bottom shirt buttons.

Hate sales? I dont, but it got really f[edited] old have to put the EF logo on every piece of content I produced for my students, as well as having to use official product and course names whenever I mentioned any linguistic concept even nominally related to them.

Alternatives

EFs main direct competitor in China is Wall Street English, a decidedly more corporate-oriented institute that has at least as many centers as EF nationwide, if not more. Wall Street has a reputation of working its employees even harder than EF 34 classroom hours per week vs. 25 but also pays significantly better, in addition to a rent-and-bills stipend each month. Like EF, Wall Street is a multinational company, so its conceivable you could take your job to another country if you make it long enough.

Once Id finished with EF, however, I had no desire to work directly for someone again. By virtue of my friend Kyle, who worked for British Education Ltd. at the time, I was able to procure several high school-aged students as private clients, eventually making as much per month as Id made with EF working only half the time. This kind of arrangement is ideal if youre experienced or adept enough that you dont have a problem making lesson plans from scratch. Its also important that you be OK with working under the table since you might not have your residence permit any longer.

Cancelling Your Contract

If youre currently employed by EF but dont want to be you probably have a lot of concerns right now. Namely, that youre under contract. First things first: the only thing you need to do to get out of your country fair and square is provide your supervisor written notice at least 30 days before your last planned day of work. End of story.

But what about my residence permit? What about it? Although EF drones will tell you otherwise, you are under no obligation to allow them to cancel your residence permit, regardless of whether or not they paid for it as I did mine. Thanks to archaic information technology infrastructure, Chinese authorities are unable to cancel any entry document without physically having it in their possession and the immigration agency is too busy with other issues to bother itself with tracking down teachers who quit their jobs a few monthly early.

Of course, your residency permit will eventually expire but if you want to stay in China, you can. Simply go to Hong Kong and obtain a multiple-entry tourist visa, as I detail in this article.

After youre out of EFs grip, Shanghai (or wherever in China youre based) is your oyster. Ample opportunities are available both within and outside the ESL industry. Or, if youve managed to save money, you can get on the next plane to Vietnam like I did and never come back, as Ill describe in next Fridays post.