I would not say that China is the problem or the Chinese.

Im sorry to say you are wrong. [edited]. China is not a place for you to enjoy living and working in. if you'd have stayed around longer I'm sure you would have learned the same.

To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised that you were even hired by a company like EF let alone that you managed to last several months there and that ultimately it was your decision to leave as opposed to being sacked after the complaints from students and parents.

Thank you guys for all your kind comments. It's nice to know that others can sympathise with my story. I would not say that China is the problem or the Chinese. This company is just a laughing stock. They are the epitome of corruption and love the fact that they can get away with murder quite literally in China. If you want your coffin sent back to your parents, then you should work for EF China, as that's how you will end up.

Either through stress or overwork. In terms of people saying Taiwan, and Middle East would have been a better option. I can confirm that I did not go to China for the money. I went for the experience and how it will look on my resume. Plus I wanted experience in teaching kids. Middle East ask for MA and above for a good salary and their recruiting processes are way more thorough.

Whoever said that EF is a business and condones this. You clearly are misguided, and if you claim to know as much as you proclaim about business then let's see how far you go. High staff turnover 90% or more = bad quality and as a result = a high level of customer complaints = lower retention rates. Do your Maths honey lol.

My EF China hell

I didn't want to share my story. I didn't want to share it, because I would rather forget what happened, but I am plagued by the thoughts of my experience on a daily basis. And it's something I will never forget. Seeing several others posting their experiences, and seeing how similar things happened, has made me decide to come forward. Hopefully someone will never have to go through the hell that I went through and not make the same mistakes that I did.

It was the beginning of the economic crisis, and jobs in London were scarce. Family members of mine had been laid off work, and I had just graduated at an awful time in … , after my degree and CELTA course. I took the CELTA knowing that I will be able to work abroad and that will hopefully offset any issues regarding job hunting in Europe.

I was lucky enough to have great contacts in London, and had a good regular job in a London language school. Moreover, I also had my summer job lined up in Cambridge, and my employer in London was happy for me to come back after, however I had applied for a job at EF. I didn't apply hastily and thought about the decision very seriously. I decided to apply and see if I would even be accepted and then I could make an informed decision. I also applied to several other countries and had interviews with schools in South Korea. The way that EF sold their contract was excellent, as they put photos of the apartments, videos of employees telling you how fantastic it all is. I did lots of independent research, but clearly I did not do enough.

I wanted to beat the brunt of the crisis and avoid sitting at home at all costs. My London contract ended and I went on to work in Cambridge. The summer course lasted around 2 months and everything went swimmingly. Prior to this I had one short telephone interview with the director of studies at EF Hangzhou. I asked as many questions as I could, and she seemed to just laugh at every question and you could hear others laughing in the background. It just didn't sound very professional and I had a bad feeling about it all. She scoffed at me every time I asked her something serious and tried to shift her answers to something positive and always focusing on the positive to try and make me want to go there.

I didn't know at the time how EF are experts at sales and their main focus was mainly sales and not on the teaching at all. A few weeks went by and the director sent me an email saying that she will discuss my interview and CV with the senior management, and will get back to me in due course. Shortly after I was offered the position, however they did not send me the contract, and sent me a copy of what would be my contract. I found this extremely strange and asked if it was possible to sign the contract before arriving, as I didn't fancy travelling half way around the world and then having no job.

They weren't keen on this idea and informed me that my visa would take longer if we did that or some bullshit like that. They started my visa process, as I thought about everything, and had no work coming up after my summer course, and it seemed like a fantastic offer. I thought if I don't try, then I'll never know what I missed out on. They told me that everything is paid for, including the visa, but they don't let you know that you have to pay for your tourist visa initially, which costs in excess of £50.

They seemed flexible on the start date and they knew about my situation, and where I was working currently. However, I suddenly got an email saying that I would need to be there in two weeks, otherwise I won't have the job. I only had one week of my summer course left, and that means that I would only have one week to prepare and move half way around the world. I was not impressed and had to book the ticket at short notice. I managed to get a good price and booked an open return ticket, as I did not want to be left stranded in case of any emergencies. Turns out this was one of the best decisions that I've ever made.

I was very worried about arriving and not having the rep meet me there, but she was there and wearing a bright blue EF top, so that was almost impossible to miss her. She gave me a bottle of water, and then took me to the bus station. The bus takes 2.5 hours, and the train takes 40 minutes. Really made me wonder why I would want to fly for 12 hours, and then sit on a bus with no sleep for another 2.5 hours, if not more. I soon started seeing how cheap they were and how they look after their staff.

I just sat there, looking at miles and miles of road. There was nothing around, except fields and weird shaped houses, shaped like pagodas. Suddenly there were huge metropolises of lights and I knew we were almost there, as it was the city. Huge neon coloured lights and it looked like Tokyo or what I imagined Tokyo to be, but you could see the difference between Chinese writing and Japanese, or at least I could. It was all becoming a bit more apparent and daunting now. We got off the coach and got a taxi, the taxi ride wasn't too long. I just couldn't think about time anymore, as I was just so tired at this point. I lost track of time to be honest. The taxi arrived and my rep got out to pay the driver. On my side there was suddenly a huge thud, and a motorcyclist had crashed into my taxi, just as we parked up outside the apartment and dented the door.

I was so stunned at this point, everything was like a dream and I just didn't know what was happening. I got out and the taxi driver, kicked the man who was screaming in agony from the accident. There was also a little blood. I was so shocked and my Chinese was nil, so I couldn't ask him anything, even though I wanted to help. The rep told me to ignore them, and I was stunned at the cruelty of people in this new land. My first impression was that it was incredibly loud and noisy, and it seemed like this would be throughout the day. Bare in mind that I arrived late at night, around 11pm. The rep walked me to the apartment and it was not well lit. It was a dark courtyard that stank of urine, and it looked like a Mumbai slum. The door was basically the same kind of bars you get in a prison. We walked up three flights of stairs, and I was welcomed to my new prison.

The apartment inside was not so bad, the floors needed a bit of a scrub, the walls were newly painted, and the kitchen was not modern, but it wasn't all that bad. They had mahogany cupboards, and a flatscreen TV, plus a DVD player. There was a girl at the apartment and she was the one that I was replacing, as she was leaving to go to Australia. We clicked and go on immediately. I was told that I would be sharing with another guy, and he came back and got me a sandwich from Subway, which was very nice of him. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and I felt at ease, but nervous to start work. The welcome pack consisted of a phone card that doesn't even last 5 minutes, so you can tell your parents you are indeed alive, some poxy noodles that were beef flavoured, so that was great, because they knew I was Hindu, and 250 rmb, the equivalent of 250 pounds in China and 25 pounds back home, which doesn't even last more than a few days. The welcome back was beyond pathetic to say the least.

I was told that I will have the next two days off and will have to come in to sign my contract in a few days, and be introduced at the meeting. I thought I will have a few more days for training as well, but I was told that I will already start teaching in two days, and I will only observe for one day. This was ridiculous, but not so bad considering I had adequate teaching experience with adults and teenagers, but not with children. They told me that I will have a children's class to teach, and I did specify that I will accept the contract on the premise that they offer me more adult classes and not too many kids classes. So it did not look good at this stage. I was hesitant to sign the contract, but also keen to find out what happens next. Prior to this at the apartment, the DOS came to meet me, which was unusual, he didn't seem bothered at all, and he came to go out to a party with my new housemate who was leaving, and they did invite me, but I wanted to unpack.

He asked me the standard questions of how your trip was, and how was your flight, but he did so with extremely unenthusiastic energy about him. I was sure that he was either like this all the time, or he just didn't want to be there. I got the same feeling from the girl as well, she just was so happy to leave and didn't want to be there, but the guy I would be living with was a lot happier, probably because he had only been there for a month.

Below is the letter of complaint that I wrote to EF China's headquarters in Shanghai. This will explain the rest of the story.

EF Management
3F Jinling Hai Xin Building,
666 Fu Zhou Road,
Shanghai, China 200001

Dear EF Management,

I would like to inform you of the ill behaviour that I received whilst working at the East School in Hangzhou, China. My contract commenced on the …..

First and foremost, I was informed at very short notice to arrive as quickly as possible. I was very keen to start my experience, so I booked my tickets and arrived as early as I could within the two-week notice period. During my interview process, I was informed I would be living with only one other flatmate. Moreover, I sent an e-mail enquiring about how many hours I would be working, and I was told this was not possible to be estimated.

Furthermore, I was informed that I would be given more adult classes and as few young learners’ classes as possible, which was particularly important as I wanted to gain experience with young learners, but my preference was with adult learners. I was informed that the normal procedure for most of the teachers at the school was to have mostly adult classes and some young learners’ classes; however, once I had arrived this was surely not the case – I had only one so-called adult class (RE10), and the rest were teenagers and mostly HF classes.

On arrival, I had one day off to settle in and observed only one HF class and a TB class the following day. I was informed that the normal procedure was to observe classes for two weeks, but due to a lack of staff at that time I would be starting classes after just two days of observations. As an experienced teacher, I found this situation acceptable; however, this would be quite daunting for someone with no experience in the classroom, who may have only completed an online certificate (which was the case for many of my colleagues). In addition, although I had not observed any interviews, I was almost immediately given interviews for placing students into classes.

The present DOS, Mr E......., also gave me the wrong book for one my VIP students studying for the talking trinity exam. I informed him that this was the wrong book, but he was adamant that it was correct. I assumed that the DOS would know better than I would, so I did not question him. However, one of my senior colleagues noticed this mistake and immediately pointed it out to him. Furthermore, my schedule was consistently inaccurate and for someone who was new to the school it was rather alarming and quite unsettling. On one occasion, I was apparently late to task and was informed of my lateness by my colleagues. However, it was listed neither on the master schedule nor on my own schedule. Despite this, I took the initiative to apologise to the DOS for my lateness but he did not seem to accept my apology, even though it was his mistake. To add to this, on several occasions I had to take the initiative to find out if my lessons were cancelled. Even though the front desk staff had informed the DOS and he was told to inform me, he would forget to either do so or inform me one hour prior to the lesson, which was not satisfactory because I needed far more time to plan the lessons.

In respect of my living arrangements agreement, when I first arrived there were three of us in the flat, but as one of the other two was due to leave that week it was fine. However, not long after, I was told at short notice that someone else would be moving in, which was not to my satisfaction at all. The two main clauses of my contract included that my living arrangements and classes were not the levels of students that I was told I would be receiving.

After only one week into my work period, I was informed that my grandmother had passed away. I informed Mr …........ about this and, although I did ask if it would be possible for me to take leave during the probation period of my contract, I decided not to and stuck with the job. However, I was already finding things difficult, and dealing with this family bereavement did not make things any easier, as you can imagine.

Shortly after this, I was informed by Mr ….........that my performance was not satisfactory in his eyes and that I had received the most complaints from classes. He also informed me that my other new colleagues had also received many complaints, but I was the worst, which meant that I might not pass my probation period as a result. He also informed me that, after his first class observation, in his opinion my teaching was not good and that I was not a good teacher. I was stunned at his bluntness and the lack of any form of constructive criticism that I could actually use to improve my performance. He also informed me that the two days sick leave I had taken was unacceptable, and that people in China came to work even if they were near to death. He made this statement despite the fact that many of my Chinese colleagues had taken far more sick days than members of the foreign team. He stipulated that I was not allowed to take any sick days – even if I were near to death, he would rather I come in – which is not acceptable to me, as I consider my health to be of the utmost importance. I had also heard of an incident regarding EF in Taiwan, where one of the foreign teachers had passed away due to no proper attention or medical care being given to him. I did not want to end up like this, and I informed him that I had been extremely sick with a high temperature. Consequently, particularly considering the swine flu outbreak, I felt that taking the time off was in the better interests of not only me but also my students and the rest of the staff at the school.

Three months passed before I had another observation. He informed me that he was happy with my performance and that I would also receive a bonus as a result of my VIP student being happy with my teaching.

I was pleased and thought I would continue progressing in the job. I received the end of probation questionnaire and was told to fill it in. I promptly completed it in and sent it back immediately. I was informed one week after I had sent it that Mr …..... and I would discuss it, but when I requested an appointment to go through the questionnaire, he said that he was too busy. Prior to this incident, I had been on interviews during the afternoon where Mr ….........had left his door open and the foreign teachers’ office door was left open.

I had just given out my student questionnaires to my RE10 class when I overheard Mr …..........talking very loudly to the CR of my course. He shouted and asked her why the parents wanted to complain or change teacher, but that he would be happy to discuss this problem with them if they had a good reason. He shouted very loudly and said that, at the end of the day, Chinese people do not like dark skin and, although they would never admit it, this was why they were complaining. I immediately realised that this conversation was regarding me and I was extremely shocked and hurt to hear these comments.

Moreover, immediately after this I was called to cover for an interview. I was not scheduled to be on interviews at this time, but I was happy to help. The sales girl who sat in on the interview decided to tell me that my placement of the student was wrong and that my judgement was poor; she wanted me to re-interview the student. I told her that she needed to discuss this in private with me and not in front of the student, so I took her into my office. Mr ….......... overheard the conversation and immediately came running in to the office, asking what was going on. He completely undermined my decision of what level the girl should be in, even though I gave him justifiable reasons and professional opinion. I found this to be highly distasteful considering he had never even given me interview training, as well as highly unprofessional on his part.

I informed two of my colleagues about what I had overheard regarding dark-skinned people, and I was very distraught and emotional. It was extremely hurtful to hear these comments and I was not happy about it. Nevertheless, as I still had one more class that evening, I pulled myself together and continued teaching as normal. I did not discuss this situation with him or make it into a big deal. I decided to be professional about the situation and carry on as normal.

A week later, Mr …......... invited me into his office and asked me how I thought I was doing and if I thought I would make the year or not. I informed him that everything was fine, that everyone has their ups and downs, and that I have mine. I then decided to be frank and informed him that I had indeed heard the conversation that had occurred on the Sunday a week prior.

He told me that he had deliberately left the door open in order for me to hear his comments and that he had wanted me to come and speak to him about it, but I had not done so. I found this to be extremely unprofessional and rather childish. As a man of his age and in his position, he should have called me in privately if he wished to discuss any matter with me.

He then told me that he thought I was a very poor teacher, but he and the sales manager were nevertheless happy to keep me on at the school and that I had, indeed, passed my probationary period. I then asked him if I had received any more complaints recently, to which he answered that I had not, apart from the RE10 class that I overheard him discussing and one other TB class. He also told me some good news that my HF kids plus class was very satisfied with me and that I was actually an improvement on their previous teacher. I had also given free VIP classes for one and a half hours in my spare time to help two of the weaker children in that class. I always had good intentions with the school and my job. I know I'm a good teacher and I have worked for British Council accredited schools prior to this job, moreover, I also helped during British Council inspection at my last school, and was observed by an examiner without any problems or issues.

He then informed me that my teaching was also of a better standard than that of some of my colleagues. However, because I do not have white skin I would have to work twice as hard and need to be an excellent teacher – not just a good teacher – to succeed, an opinion based purely on my race and due to the colour of my skin. He also told me that I was the first gay teacher to work there, which I found highly inappropriate, as my sexuality was never disclosed to my students due to its total irrelevance. I found these comments to be highly distasteful.

I had previously completed an ACR for my kids plus class, where the two weaker students had received pass grades. However, in previous weeks I noticed that they would most likely fail the course. I informed the CR of this, who was not happy, because she had just signed up the students for another course in order to meet her sales targets. I was then informed by Mr …....... that, although it was usually the teacher’s call on passing a student, I would have to pass them (regardless of their ability) in order to meet their sales targets. I judge this a high level of corruption and, as a teacher, I do not agree with it. However, in order to keep my job and Mr ….......... happy, I just agreed to do as he said.

Overall, I would like to make a significant complaint regarding how I was mistreated at this school and by your company. Mr ….........'s behaviour towards me was extremely unprofessional inasmuch that I feel that he had tried to bully me psychologically on many occasions. I sent a photo prior to my arrival at the school, so during the application process the school was fully aware of my race. This was not disguised in any way, shape or form. My sexuality was never a problem with my colleagues or students, but it did appear to be an issue for Mr …..............; otherwise, why would he have mentioned it?

As an international company, EF should be aware of working with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds – I expected more support and was not given it. As a result of the bullying I received, I had to leave urgently, as I felt that I was a victim to severe sexual discrimination and racism in the workplace and I expected much more from a large and, as I formerly believed, prestigious organisation. I believe the matter could have been dealt with with much more tact. Nobody should have to endure what I went through because of their race or sexual orientation. I myself did not find China to be racist or discriminatory towards me and had a pleasant experience and interaction with the Chinese people. They were never rude or discriminatory towards me, and this can be said of all of my Chinese co-workers as well. However, the treatment I received from Mr ….............. was pure discrimination and I felt like I was being treated differently when I should have been supported. Although I state on my CV that I prefer to work for in supporting and stimulating environment, this was not the case at EF Hangzhou East School.

I can only hope that you can make changes in the future so that this does not happen again. I am sure that the mistreatment I received could be very favourable on my side in a court of law, so I would like to call your attention to these problems immediately and request that you investigate this matter seriously and in greater detail. If you do not take this matter seriously, I shall have no option but to instruct my solicitors to start legal proceedings.

Yours faithfully,

Mr …....

As can be expected, EF Shanghai did not reply. I also forwarded my letter to the head of EF in Sweden or wherever they are based. What wasn't included in my letter, was the students, they were awful, they would shout racist comments against me, and the parents told their kids to call me black, and that I am a farmer or slave from India. They were so ignorant and pathetic, that I could laugh at them for the next 100 years. The parents were from nouveau riche backgrounds, but the funny thing is, that no matter how hard they tried to make their kids hate me, kids could sense I was nice and genuine and just liked me.

The worst thing we hated, besides the bullying I received, was that one girl was allowed to work 10 hours, and the rest of the staff had to work for 20 or more, and you all get paid the same. This created a really bad environment between the team. I would not recommend anyone work for EF anywhere in China. Most of them don't pay you on time, but I was lucky in that respect, they never repair your apartment, and they treat you like a dog. You will be a dog with a collar and treated like their property, for the duration of your contract. You have to do summer courses, and winter courses, which are not explained until you arrive there. This means you work 7 days straight with no break, for 2-4 weeks!

Sometimes you have a full day of teaching, and on top of that you have to spend all night up to 10pm running a kids party. This is the case for any holidays, such as Easter, Christmas, Halloween etc.. This is also not explained to you.

When I got in the office, and all the staff had left, and we had a whole new team, it really made me wonder why. But it didn't take long to figure out why. The longest person they had there stayed 2 years and that's it, except for the DOS. The senior teacher was underqualified and inexperienced compared to most of us, but he had the position, as the last senior teacher left and he asked to be promoted. All in all it was the worst company that I've ever worked for and one of the worst experiences of my life. The best part was the social part, most of the co-workers I had were amazing, and the social life itself, and China was good. It is the companies that think they can get away with these things, as they operate abroad and it's disgusting.

Their budget for resources is absolutely zero. They have knackered resources, that are tattered and falling apart. They had two computers, and a printer that is suitable for a 5 year old and not an office with a teaching staff of 30 plus people. I have a better printer at home, which is not too expensive, but reliable. It was hard finding basic stuff in the office like selotape and scissors or card. Everything was locked away and the cleaner even hides the toilet roll, but that would be the least of your worries.

They have an open door policy, every month, which means parents can walk in on your classes and watch the classes. Then all hell breaks loose, because clearly this policy was devised to help the sales team ensure they keep their commission and to keep their customers happy. The parents make trivial complaints, such as you did not give the opportunity to my child to speak. My child cannot pronounce a certain word correctly. You turned the air conditioning on and now my child is sick, no wonder they are always sick. You sat my child next to Peter, who keeps talking to my child. You taught them how to say “what time is”, instead of “what time is it?”. They become huge issues and management come down on you hard. In reality they are such trivial issues, because you may have just started a new topic, so the children may not have picked it up yet, but the parents don't consider that aspect at all.

It's all a show, and you have to put on presentations for the parents, where you only have a week to prepare. They have a half book presentation and a full book presentation, and you have to show that all the children know the entire book. It is extremely tough on the children, and extremely tough on you as the teacher. The parents don't turn up for parent teacher meetings, and if they do, they just want to meet a non-Chinese person. Classes are cancelled at short notice, and you don't get more than 30 mins notice, so sometimes you have wasted your time planning, and you could have been at home already.

The stupid rules that hardly anyone followed included: no dating of co-workers, which was retarded, as a couple came over to teach together. Other rules were that we should have some sort of dress code, but most teachers wore their stupid EF jerseys. We also had to be in the school at least 1 hour before our classes, however, this rule was different for some people and different for others. Others would come to work at 9am, when their classes started at 4pm, and others would turn up at 4pm for a class starting at 5.30pm. If some people did it, they got shouted at and others got away with daylight robbery.

We also had a weekly meeting, which was crap, as the DOS was completely inexperienced and not a native speaker of English. Most of the team found it hard to respect him. He knew nothing about management and messed up the schedule regularly. We suddenly had 2-3 hours training added onto our schedules, as the previous DOS needed a job in China and didn't know what to do with herself. So instead of escaping to Hong Kong, or going back home, she went to Hong Kong, sorted out her visa and came back. She was so blaise about everything, it was hard to respect her at all. The training was only good, as we had some experienced local and foreign teachers- so we actually learnt from each other. However, it was a complete waste of time, and everyone was not happy about it. People were too scared to speak up, and we even had a questionnaire. Some filled it in honestly, and the Chinese staff were too scared to be honest, so they just put excellent on everything. Even though that was vehemently not their opinion or feelings on the matter. Unfortunately, due to the results of the questionnaire, the training continued on for a very long time, other schools didn't have this special training at all.

On the contrary – I found work with other companies in China, and not all were not as near as bad as EF, they did not sit in on your lessons and ask the student how it went and will ask you and just leave it at that. One of the main questions I will be asking for any job in the future is: “what is your staff retention rate?” that usually throws the interviewer off the ball, as it shows you know your stuff and you can gauge the authenticity of the answer, by gauging the tone of the speaker. No employer will be honest and will explain how people leave due to personal reasons, but then you have to consider why people are leaving if it sounds so fantastic and too good to be true.

We had several new arrivals, the whole team was replaced and it was just new people, as all the old staff were leaving and we were coming in to replace them. This was even more strange, by this point I knew why people are leaving and wished I was leaving too. One American girl arrived, and she was a girl with big connections, her sister was a DOS of EF in another school in China, and she had been working in a nearby town. She also new the area manager, so this allowed her to have her own apartment, but it came at a cost, as the area manager would invite herself to stay over at her place and kicked her out the apartment to another one, when someone new was coming. There was an entire hierarchy between apartments. Whoever stays the longest, gets the best seat in the office, and the best apartment that EF has to offer. As some apartments were newer than others. One of the apartments given to a couple, was newly built in fact, which was not so far. They could have easily given us our own apartments. This was one of the things that I specified to them, however they said that nobody will be in the apartment and I will be working different shifts from my colleague, so it shouldn't be an issue.

This was the case until another new girl arrived from England. She stirred up a lot of trouble in the workplace. The DOS fancied her and soon all the rules were going out of the window. She had been spending time with him outside of work, and I found her in bed with one of our staff, almost every week. She almost slept with the whole team, except for me and another guy, because he was gay. We told her that we had a cleaner, and I was told that I will be paid to be nice to her, no bonus, but it's part of my job, so I must show her around. I did so anyway, as I didn't mind doing that, but she was a total pig. She didn't know how to wash her dishes, and throw her rubbish in the bin. She took the fact that we had a cleaner, a bit too literally. Albeit the cleaner only came fortnightly.

She befriended the area manager and this helped her, but she soon screwed it up, as she had a fight with her as well. I soon found out that several of the teachers, hadn't even completed an onsite CELTA course, and that it was only me and my other colleague, and this explained why we had the most classes. Most of the teachers had online courses, and some of them completed their online course, on arrival, during their first month. I was told that I must have all my certificates, in order to be eligible for immigration, but EF clearly did something dodgy in regards to this. It happens often, and mostly people were underqualified. Favouritism and friends in high places exists everywhere, and I understood that, but this was on another level and completely disgusting. The new English girl was allowed to refuse classes she didn't want and days she didn't want and nobody else was allowed to do such things. Even though we had full schedules and she was the only one that had space on her schedule for a new class, it was given to someone else. She just had to wave her breasts at the DOS, bend over for him and do her fake crocodile tears and it wall all perfect.

This was the same case for a Polish girl working there, her English level was lower than the intermediate level of teenagers at the centre, and that is pretty low, as it's China and not an English speaking country. She just had to flirt with everyone and got whatever she wanted. She only had 10 hours or less of teaching, so whilst the normal teaching team had two days off, she would have three on many occasions. This caused utter annoyance between the team. The local Chinese staff and foreign staff were separated. It caused many problems, as it was very difficult to form a bond with any of them. In the past it was one room put together and everyone had to get along. I don't know why it was separate. You felt like an alien when you walked into their office and nobody acknowledge you. Some of the Chinese staff were friendly, but I guess they were hesitant to make friends, as they know people leave so often.

The Chinese staff would regularly mess up the resources, and then we were all given one hour per week on our schedules to organise and clean other people's mess. Funny how when it came to the DOS's day to do it, he didn't do it and neither did the girl he was partnered with, who later on became the senior teacher at another EF school. He thought nobody would notice, but everyone did, but we just carried on, as you just couldn't say anything. You weren't allowed to speak up, you had no voice there. They didn't want your input and they just wanted money and that's all you were there for. So the parents and kids can come and stare at you like a zoo for humans.

EF's main ethos works on sales. The sales team must be the strongest in China. They do not work on repeat customers, but on pushy, well-trained sales staff who work on a commission basis. The quality of teaching is low, due to poor management and recruitment, however their sales team does extremely well. This is the only thing they are good at. They cold call residents, and get them to come in for a free assessment and tour around the school. Foreigners normally conduct the interviews, but there is no reason why the sales team can't mark the tests, as they never listen to your opinion anyway. They just push for what class they have sold to the customer, and work on pricing. They have no interest in choosing the right class for the students. Moreover, some students end up not learning anything, as they have a lack of interest, this is sad to see in a private school.

Unfortunately Chinese culture does not recognise disabilities and children with learning disabilities are included in the class, most of the teachers are not experienced in dealing with children with ADD,dyslexia, or other mental disorders and the management does not care. One of the student's tried to stab another student with scissors, as he suffered from extreme mental illness. Moreover, I found another with knives in his bag. I gave the knife to the receptionist, and told them that this is unacceptable for the safety for everyone and something needs to be done. I also spoke to the DOS about it, but he just laughed in my face, and seemed to enjoy it when he found out that another student had kicked me in the face. This was normal. We were just entities and had no rights whatsoever. I have not exaggerated this in anyway and this is 100% true unfortunately.

My time there at times was a living nightmare, and I was too busy or stressed to be upset. I had to force myself to go to work, knowing that each day will probably worse than the last. Eventually I passed my probationary period and decided to leave. After I left, they tried to contact me and tell me that they are going to cancel my visa to stop me from leaving the country, but I managed to escape without any problems. Chinese immigration need the visa to physically cancel it and they did not have it, therefore they didn't have that chance. This was also told to scaremonger other staff and stop them from leaving, and from what I heard from my colleagues- it had worked. They did lots of emotional blackmail. Your apartment was provided by them, as was your phone, so they controlled you completely. This worked in their favour, but I was fearless and that didn't bother me. My return ticket came in use and I breathed a sign of relief as I landed in Dubai.

As for steps, I would just say you should do the following:

1. Do research on a specific place first. Type the place on google or bing and try to find any negative reviews. Read into them.

2. Look at the business model of these places. A McDonalds chain like EF, Aston, Web, Global IELTS, New Oriental, Shane, etc. wouldn't care about the quality of the people they allow to carry their name. So you are putting yourself at risk.

3. When in China, always make sure you have your home country's consulate contact info. written on a small piece of paper tucked away in your wallet. Also make sure you have enough money stored up for a one way ticket out of china at anytime, expecially if you decide to go to a training center.

4. To be honest with you, if the boss of a private training center makes you live with his/her relatives it probably should tell you that this person is despicable beyond belief and doesn't have any regard for the well being of others anyway. Common Sense does help.

5. Trust your gut feeling about people.

6. Establish a support network with other expats. Be ESPECIALLY WEARY of any expats who have nothing but good things to say about china or particularly their own bosses. Probably Grovelling Weasel types.

7. Apartments do get broken into, so be aware.

8. Be careful with making friends with locals, as some of them have hidden agendas.

That's all for now.

I myself can add EF Linyi (in Shandong) to the list of EF's with already official bad reputation as they made a former colleague of mine homeless before she found employment at another place.

Dragonized, what were the mechanics of that despicable deed? Please elaborate. What steps would you recommend us taking to make it as darned difficult as possible for Chinese employers to sucker us in that way?

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.