Dragonized
- 2013-02-28
Teacherman I wish you the best on your future endeavors, and thank you for keeping us updated.
Teacherman
- 2013-02-27
Ah, panic has struck them.
They have removed, from their on line advertisements in Cathay Teacher, all reference to their company's name and have now called themselves "COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION SERVICE INSTITUTION. Or RECRUITMENT SERVICE FOR ESL TEACHERS CANDIDATES". (Bad English- but that is what they have written.)
DO NOT EVER, EVER consider employment by EITHER of these two companies:-
Boao Tong Wen International Culture Exchange Centre and its subsidiary company Zhuo Wen International Cultural Exchange,
Interestingly enough they cannot compete with the finances offered by other Agencies and expect you to work for peanuts, and now they are now promising a "Part Refund" yes only a PART refund of your airfare if you complete 2 semesters. Really!! And don't forget a 'Part Refund" can be lower than 1 RMB; it is still a part refund!! **NOTICE *** and they can still not pay the staff their wages and nor pay the teachers their commissions, and now they are offering Part Airfare refunds.
The ploy behind that is that there are a lot of teachers that once employed by these companies, and find out what they have to put up with, actually run way from the schools. Many of their teachers have absconded from their schools and have disappeared into China's vastness.
It is known also that some of the schools that these companies send teachers to, will not let the teachers leave the school ground by themselves, even to go shopping, I know of one school where they would not even give the teacher a key to the main building as they deemed it a security risk.
Some schools that are accepting teachers from these companies treat the teachers well on the first day and from them on in it is one downhill slide.
And it is especially difficult for lady teachers, as the schools that these companies deal with after the first semester is over and the gloss of working in china has been removed from the lady teachers eyes, these company schools treat the lady's worse than 2nd class citizens. (I have been personally told this, it is not hearsay it is true).
So further to my last post, (1) Confirm which company your dealing with. (2) If it’s either of the above, forget them, and (3) forget to work in ANY schools they deal with.
When you ring a company in response to its advertisements, and the company name is not listed, surely that will raise concerns, well it should, and you should ask them and confirm why they do not advertise their names.
Be careful, and feel free to tell your teacher mates, no matter which country they are in. Every teacher and school should be aware of these companies.
AVOID and Take care.
TM.
Teacherman
- 2013-02-25
Hi folks.
I have been investigating these two companies for the last two years, and I can tell you ALL, stay well clear of them.
1) The owner has a mining company that is deep in debt, approx. somewhere between 3 and 8 million rmb.
2) He uses Boao Tong Wen International Culture Exchange Centre and its subsidiary company, Zhuo Wen International Cultural Exchange, which are all proven l financial disasters, as a means of repaying his mining debt.
3) He always has trouble transferring funds from his personal and his mining account to the companies so that they can pay the teachers.
Now I know that the staff have been asked to pay head office so the teachers can get paid. How’s that for bad financial control. In fact the finance officer for these companies is not able to carry out that function, I have seen 15 year olds working spread sheets that would leave this so called Finance officer in the dust.
I also know that there are people in those companies that are owed thousands of RMB in unpaid wages and unpaid bonus's.
They also ask current teachers to recommend their friends to come to them, on the promise of a bonus, which will not be paid if the teacher absconds, pre end of contract, and I also know that having sent teachers from Denmark that they have not been paid their bonuses as well.
The teachers in these 2 companies are NOT looked after; their care and concerns are never upheld. They will recruit any one on the promise of getting them a TEFL certificate, after 1 weeks lesson HA HA HA. No one can be a qualified TEFLer in one week. And they make you pay for it.
The contract that the teachers sign is not worth the paper it’s written on, and has no legal substance.
Neither of these two "Cultural exchange companies” are authorized to import Teachers, hence the name "Cultural Exchange".
These companies were offered assistance and development to rectify their problems, and all help was never thanked nor paid for.
They steal intellectual property and post it as their own.
Oh Dear, if only I had a friend in the Chinese legal department. But alas I am hoping that this article, and others I have and will continue to post, will eventually remove these two companies from anyone's list of agencies.
There is a thread further down in this article that says, and rightly so, that one complaint doesn't cut the mustard, so to speak. May I ensure you that all in this article is true and somehow, these two companies MUST be removed from the Chinese Education Bureau.
I can tell you all, that having personally seen teachers fighting on the phone with them and threatening to stop teaching if they did not pay them, and every pay day trying to get the miserable money that these companies offer, it's enough to bring tears to your eyes. Also I know that having to get the schools involved in the heated conversations between the Main Company office and the school, on behalf of the teacher, is a frustrating monthly occurrence.
To think that all the teachers in these companies are here on a fragile life line of, no support, no care and "Now that you’re in a school, we do not care" is a pathetic statement for these companies.
My research has revealed that the Main Office will spend all the income on itself and NOT pay the staff. Some of the staff have not been paid for months.
It is also widely known that these companies, while promising you everything, will send you to schools that have absolutely nothing in common with your desires.
The books that they use to get money from the schools... Ahh there is a sore point, these books are cheap, glossy, bad publications with no teaching guides not plan, no thought and thousands of mistakes in spelling and grammar and wrong pictures with wrong explanations.
These books are for 10 to 12 and up to 17 year old students, there is racial content swearing content, and you know what? They have the audacity to charge the schools a premium price for these $2.00 glossy paperbacks.
The teachers from the company have complained and complained, there was a small effort to fix all the problems but after the “Qualified English Person” corrected the books, a Chinese Know it all, decided to re rectify the books, so you can imagine the problems.
As a result, the books for last semester arrived 6 weeks late, and with holidays and teachers day and sports days and the list goes on, the main office kicked up a stink that the books were not being finished by the end of the semester. I know that the teachers only use the books a guide, because they are worthless instruments for teaching English. These Offices have no time management or project control; they have no funds to support the teachers.
Do yourselves a favor.. FORGET THESE TWO COMPANIES. In fact the situation is so bad that one Chinese manager whilst still working for them, has started his own, so far illegal teacher company. How do I know, because he was asking for Y3000.000:00 RMB to pay off his bank loan, he has no business plan and no means of paying the teachers, he is using other company’s books as teaching material. It is another disaster waiting to happen.
Yes I could go on. But if ANY ONE, anyone at all, has any influence in the Chinese Education Circles, schools or Government, please do what you can to get these two companies banned.
We need to RESCUE the teachers. ASAP.
brad61
- 2012-07-27
One complaint doesn't hold much water...30 or so posts on here and not one with any actual information about then..just speculation as usual...has anyone actually got any relevant FIRST HAND not hear say info on this company
Foxy
- 2011-06-30
A search of this Forum will show many issues with the method of entry being proposed by ZhuoWen Int. Culture Exchange,
Widen your source of information by doing a google search of the company name.
It turns out it is a recruiter. Another thing you and I don't know is whether the original poster holds a bachelor's degree! That may well make it very hard for that person to get an FEC, mandatory for the issuance of a Z visa.
The google search I mentioned above leads to the following link.
http://china.eslteachercafe.com/topic1189-boao-tongwen-international-cultural-exchange-avoid.aspx
Its content:
I came with them, two months later I was repelled by the Police from the city I had been sent to as apparently the school had no permission for foreign teachers, they left me with no job and accepted no responsibility, and didn't pay me for my work; in the beginning I thought it had been bad luck until I heard of more and more teachers in the same or similar situation with this agency... VERY DANGEROUS AGENCY, they can put you in serious serious trouble...
They have a twin company named Zhuowen International Culture Exchange Corporation, I wonder why they use two names?
Dodgy employer, this one, that's my conclusion. So avoid him.
But not all employers who ask foreigners to come over on L visas are dodgy. That said, any employer can get out of offering you a job just as easily if you had arrived on a Z. A Z is merely a visa to enter China for taking up employment. That's all it is. Without a valid RP you cannot teach legally here. And an RP won't be issued without a stamped and signed contract. Better off with an L if an employer won't sign a contract with you. More time to find another job opportunity while in the country!
[Edited by Administrator (admin) Thu, 30 Jun 2011, 08:18 AM]