Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

Damn, you just know that a company is bad when the mods on this board lose patience with them .

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I thought our readers should know: Dozens of posts, in the last week or so, in this Guangzhou Worlda thread, trying to deflect the topic by bringing totally unrelated matters... This type of tactics is now well known on the internet.

Our Moderators are instructed to delete these posts.

Re Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I'd like to know how that "friendly and happy" translates into educational. Does the company develop you into the fine teacher you are to be? Or, do you teach the company/students how to use the language they want to learn? I wonder whether this company serves as a third party that sends you to places of their choice and whether it arranges a work permit for you too. The reason why I am asking is that there are scores of "companies" that act as if they were escort services with people who travel from far away under the assumption to teach English in a legal school which provides them with a legal work permit.

Re Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

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Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I have been working at Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services full-time for more than a year

Guangzhou or Shenzhen Worlda don't tell you the whole truth when you apply. You need more money than they tell you to move to China.

I would not recommend this company to anyone, don't work for Worlda,

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

Not to throw any shade your way, but it's "You can't make a SILK purse out of a sow's ear." Considering the size of the sow, one could definitely make a purse from it's ear - to carry coins, perhaps. So...

Kong pa ni bu wan quan dui de...

Quite right, I'm afraid i am not just not entirely right as you say, I am not even a little bit right- 'silk' is the essential word- well picked up...you wouldn't want to pick up the other posters expression though would you...not even if it did shine? hahaha.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I think you meant to say "You can't make a purse out of a sow's ear" eh? Is the above one, what you teach your students?

No, I like comparing shit organizations with turds. "Like trying to pick up a turd by the clean end" is another personal favourite. There's actually some things that I don't share with students by the way.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

And there's the problem: it's not even a cultural challenge. You know, like the challenges a FT would face just from adjusting to living/working in a different country - being surrounded by a language you may not understand or subject to habits that may be taboo in your home country. Stuff of which a company wouldn't have to make such superfluous specialty. Worlda does things that even Chinese locals would openly disprove. Worlda offers a challenge of maintaining peace of mind and dignity without giving too much thought of the dry reality of Worlda's dealings and what might be happening behind closed doors or under tables.

(This is one of the reasons why FTs dating or engaged to locals who work at Worlda are particularly kept under a concentrated watch. The company makes "casual" efforts to find out if you're a legal risk because to the company, their worst enemy is a someone who knows the system AND the language.)

It sounds shaded in negativity almost to the point of morbidity, but the day Worlda is able to cover its tracks better will be the day the happy teachers pop out of nowhere.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

If you have a school or a company where you know for sure you will not have to struggle or face any problems, of course I would advise you to choose that one. If not, why not try WorldA? If you're hard working and have good interpersonal skills you're up for the challenge - because a challenge it is!

Is this actually Worlda admitting that they are shit, but now portraying themselves as a company for tough teachers that like challenges?

I'm sorry Worlda, but you just can't polish a turd.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

Granted the reviews were written by actual Worlda FTs, they're quite fake in nature, yes. Notice how they all follow a similar structure: What's your name? How long have you been working for Worlda? What do you think of the pay system/options? What do you think of the staff? How do you like Guangzhou? - in that order. If that doesn't spell duping, I don't know what does. The writers were just laowai blissfully unaware of the six points I presented in my previous response.

Not many FTs have heard of Dan other than his co-workers and people, including myself, that only know of him through his co-workers. Knowing Mary, if Dan's to make any presence in the office, it won't be until the next wave of FTs arrive to China for the next term. Dan has yet to do anything for any of the FTs that are currently working for Worlda; there's a good chance the ones that stay will be deprioritised. Here's why: Worlda's one of those companies that operates like a teenager watching dirty movies on a public computer - deleting the history and clearing the cache ignoring the fact that small, but very traceable and highly exposing pieces of information of the little tiger's dirty past still remain. Likewise, Worlda will play itself to be a "brand new [innocent] company" especially now that Dan's aboard, possibly even changing its name... again... as a means to "erase" its past in hopes that his services will pump out more happy teacher reviews.

Dan said his job will be to "find, train and keep FTs happy," but that may have been another one of Mary's reels to get him to agree to the position. I don't know Dan personally, but from his original post, he has the aire of a guy who revels in the potentiality of single-handedly giving Worlda a makeover. Worlda already has partner companies like FindWorkAbroad and others that target FTs going to/already in China of whom they sell the CVs to Worlda. (Very few, if any, FTs apply to Worlda directly.) Finding FTs won't be an issue. Also, considering how most [private] Chinese schools with foreign English classes have such a low, love-hate-hate view of the English language and prioritise foreign English classes at the bottom of the barrel, "training" may very well revolve around "suggesting" the teacher be funnier and, of course, a better dancer - not something an HR Director would want to boast about especially noticing that he hasn't either teaching experience or exposure to pedagogical theory prior to teaching in China with Worlda.

So, I'm sure his job will be more along the lines of taking all the hate mail and negativity in place of Mary, making sure teachers don't become aware of Worlda's web of plastic smiles and back-biting, and pumping out more happy teacher reviews.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I agree fully... Despite the fact that one of my previous comments might have sounded too positive, I must say that reading your comment has just brought back so many bad memories. I'm so greatful that my last school was perfect: especially the fact that I had 26 hours a week, but given that they were junior 1 and senior 1, I only had 2 lesson plans to submit per week. That made the whole difference in the world.
Preparation time is never considered by the company. That is a real problem. I remember being in a kindergarten and - due to summer schedules - having 3 classes in the morning, and the 3 same classes in the afternoon!!! Do the math: that's 6 different lesson plans A DAY or 30 A WEEK. Eventhough I only submitted 3 a week to the company, it was tough planning due to the fact that you just have to be ready with young children... There's very little room for improvisation. I still wonder how I did it.
As I said it in my other post: read the contract carefully and sign knowing what to expect. There are many surprises and if you think or analyse what's happening to you too much, you might just be heading towards a burn-out. For me, it was Carpe Diem... One day after another.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I purposely don't mention things as negative in giving reviews. I'd rather the FT just know the greater extent of what they're getting themselves into with Worlda and gauge it from there. Dan weighed in details; I chimed in with everything I couldn't help but notice he missed.

But, talk about poor souls.

I can't say about other education companies in China, but the thing with WORLDA is:

1. Every foreign face that walks through Worlda's door enters with a couple RMB attached to it, as Worlda buys CVs from other companies like FindWorkAbroad, China ESL, Commonwealth Learning, etc. Rarely will a foreign teacher apply directly with Worlda.

2. Because of #1, Worlda will never let FTs just walk out the door. FTs who walk are positions now empty and money down the drain. FTs who threaten to leave are either coddled into staying, offered positions like the one Dan will soon begin or "professionally" bullied with a contract that - at third glance - binds FTs' hands and feet. However, in a more positive light (to "rant about happiness," if you will), teachers that fail their teaching jobs are either moved to a different school (while Worlda arranges a Heavyweight to rescue the company's reputation), become substitute teachers on a pay that's meant to be hush-hush, or offered positions like the one Dan will soon begin.

3. Some FTs are thrown into situations wherein they are "required" to achieve high standard demands or be subject to under-the-table criticism (granting the FT can't speak Chinese) all because of misrepresentations forced under their noses by Worlda's Chinese staff. FTs are expected (by contract) simply to be cooperative and understanding. This means that cornering them about it will get you ignored. Cornering them again will get you intimidated and placed on the company's naughty list. An extra time will have you subject to contract fines.

4. Worlda's teaching staff is shamefully opportunistic and deems mundane opportunities highly advantageous when it comes to exploiting FTs. One teacher was asked the night before to prepare for a random musical performance at some school... all because one of the teaching department staff heard him humming to music on his iPod.

5. Because of #4, teachers who end up in schools with programs outside of just oral English (particularly at Worlda's top money-makers) who excel in those programs as FTs are grand avant-centres to exploitation and demands without negotiation of pay, as the contract says that FTs only get paid to teach. Anything extra that is arranged by the company will only be considered as an addition to your hours if Mary likes you. Even then, if it doesn't cross the 20 class-clock hours mark, it won't necessarily be "extra" pay.

6. Speaking of Mary... I won't say that Mary's the devil, but I will say that this game called Worlda, be it by Mary or other forces, was craftily put together. If you're not versed in turning chess boards, you could easily be fed a couple of bold lies and some half-baked stories (no pun intended). She may even interrupt her own train of thought in conversation to attempt stroking your ego a bit just to lead you back to your quiet corner and then dare you to speak up about it. To be honest, I think that's a very spicy quality of Mary's, no doubt.

While it's very possible to "rant about happiness" with Worlda, unlike other instances, the negative points that stick out, STICK OUT. They blare and pulsate: it's like seeing a head shot of model with a giant boil on her face and a bogie hanging from her nose. Once you notice it, you can't ignore it, and it becomes a detail you'd be doing others a misdeed to neglect.

For example, it's difficult for me to say that I got the opportunity to teach at different grade levels without mentioning that before even arriving to the school, I was told basically to be a dancing monkey for the students and not to implement rules or enforce classroom routines. Or that I was nearly late arriving to the schools the first day waiting on my supervisor to show up at the metro station. Or that while I taught there, I was subject to the politics of the company - being told to lie about my past experiences and nationality, etc. See what I mean? One positive is easily shadowed by the not-so-positive realities behind it.

I could say Worlda, for the most part, paid me on time, but they're SUPPOSED to pay you on time! If the only happiness a FT can find is in ANY company's already established obligations to the people they hire, that company has some integrity issues to iron out. If that's happiness, it's calculated happiness. Just saying.

It will forever bother me that all these years of Worlda standing that other FTs haven't been encouraged to "rant about happiness." Why is that? You'd think that if Worlda didn't just get lucky one year, that Mary thought of a crafty idea to cod the teachers into writing the reviews and then had them posted online - like an email a few FTs from Worlda received that was basically those online reviews but in survey form. Clever, I say. Just genius.

While Dan did a fine job of clearing up the suspicions of other FTs who didn't work for Worlda and dispelling all the hearsay therein, meanwhile there are teachers yet working at Worlda who are subject to some if not all of the six points mentioned above. More than likely, the company will assign Dan to distract defensive FTs from Worlda's outstanding balance of negativity that they may only "rant about happiness" - a plan that reeks of subterfuge if you ask me. However, Dan feels he's up to the challenge, so I look forward to a good report.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

Looking at this forum, I see the OP is reveling in the fact that he's the only one who can actually say anything about Worlda. Well, I worked for Worlda as well. I'll let everyone know now, this is TL;DR. Read it when you have the time, or if you just enjoy reading stuff like this! :)

People don't go often online, find a companies [company's] message board, and rant about how great it is. People vent their frustrations online, rarely brag about happiness.

(Now that that's out of my system,) Well, people also go on message boards to expose half-truths and whole lies. So, how about I assist you, Dan, in enlightening our readers about the company, yeah?

(I've taught in other countries including my home country before coming to mainland China, and if there's anything I can say about other foreign teachers in China is that most of them take advantage of China's shoddily superficial standards for foreign teachers - coming here with nothing to offer yet demanding everything. Of course, this is already mentioned in the forum's ReadMe. I therefore digress.)

Granted, Worlda got me a decent apartment in a fair location (although, pretty darn far from the schools where I worked) with rent and utilities paid, in actually working WITH the company, many times I couldn't help but feel that I was being exploited (or "pimped" for lack of a better term) for the sake of giving the company a good name. My experience was basically a battle of not taking this company's approach to me as a teacher personally.

If I didn't like a school, I asked, and was granted a change.

*a-hem* Drop the comma after 'asked'; otherwise your sentence would suggest you were quoting yourself, and right after your conditional clause, instead of continuing with your main clause, you ending with a period thus making this a fragment. Local Chinese teachers are all over this. But, since I know better...

To be honest, I highly doubt it was because you asked. The contract already mentions that the foreign teacher will be bounced around at least once during a one-year contract and that the teachers aren't allowed to "complain about" or "refuse" the arrangement - "foreign teacher shall be understanding and cooperative" - lest they be subject to breach penalties. If it WERE because of you asking, chances are it was out of you already having a year or so under your belt with Worlda.

Both schools I worked at were extremely stressful experiences - An hour and a half to two hours commute one way both semesters plus being constantly heckled and harassed everyday by students and even some teachers for superficial reasons. At the first school, the moment I stepped into the office for the first time, two of local teachers labeled me as "another foreign jerk at our school that I have to share an office with" and thenceforth would drag their feet to even CONSIDER helping me if I needed it with something class related. Other times, they would have an exasperated attitude about it to the point where I'd just let them go and try to manage it myself. Company didn't change me despite my discomfort - wouldn't even help me at least get a new place closer to the school to at least shave off the stress of commuting through public transportation because it was apparently inconvenient for them and "a waste of time."

The other school had such a hostile environment towards me all around, it wasn't until I went against company regulation and actually complained to the leader of the curriculum department at the actual school that anything was even considered.

I would always mention these things to my Worlda supervisor - about how random students would purposely yell rude things through my classroom window at me, or bang on my windows and door and then run off or throw garbage into my classroom WHILE I WAS TEACHING - and at first, my supervisor would just blow me off with, "Ah, you don't have to worry about that because [that school] is our highest paying client. Forget about those guys. That's not important; just have a happy teaching at this school." Eventually, I was told that Mary Casey Wonderly (which, by the way, is NOT a translation of her Chinese name - not even if one were to consider English names with etymology equivalent to her Chinese name... just saying) was already aware and would handle it. ... Yeah, I finally got fed up and talked to Mary, and Mary acted like it was her first time ever hearing about the situations.

This was one of many instances of discomfort for me, and I'm more than sure that while there was some face-giving in this instance and others, there wasn't much of a regard for my situation. Just saying. Worlda's attitude about it was, "Well, you're just gonna have to deal with it. If you don't like, then I guess you'll just not get paid! Tell ya what, how about you just finish the rest of this semester out, and then afterwards you won't have to worry about it anymore... I 'promise.' Yeah? If you leave, you won't get paid. If you complain, you will be in breach of contract. If you try to handle this yourself, you might embarrass the company which will lead to you not only being in breach of contract, but you also won't get paid. You like that idea, huh?"

Their dragging their feet to at least call some kind of small meeting about it or something (which never happened) convinced me that the well-being and peace of mind of me, the teacher - or in this case, the product to be sold, if you will - was a distant third in Worlda's [Mary's] priorities to pleasing the school and ultimately getting that nice lump of private school cash.

So, I'd say that if you don't like a school, you'd better hope you're not at Worlda's top money-makers, or you're stuck there to truck it out unless you just up and leave. The clients are the company's priority - and you, foreign teacher, are NOT the client.

Recently I have been promoted to the International Human Resource Director, meaning that I will be in charge of finding, training, and keeping the foreign teachers happy.

Sounds like the job Mary usually pitched to guys who were either A.) on the verge of leaving/quitting or B.) totally sucked at the schools they worked. (Not to throw any shade at YOU, of course. I'm sure you're more of a C.) candidate: an individual of artistic talent, well versed in pedagogy, has expertise in handling people-to-people affairs in the professional realm and culturally diverse standards of management that would obviously make you quite the addition to the tour de force that is Worlda... I doubt you'd make this point if you were anything otherwise. Props to you, Dan.)

You will be placed at one or more of them. You might teach as young as kindergarten, or as old as university, depending on whats your preference and what's available.

I just got through bragging (maybe?) about you and already you're getting things arse-backwards. The company checks what's available FIRST, and after looking you up and down, will then put you into whichever one has the most digits flaring after it rather you like it or not. It's what Worlda calls a Survival Situation. Of course, this isn't necessarily the teacher's survival we're talking about. (And THIS is what we call e-x-p-l-o-i-t-a-t-i-o-n.) AFTER you've taught at the school they put you in, you're preferences might actually stand a chance at influencing the decision to change you again at the start of the next semester.

You will teach for under 20 hours a week. Maybe you'll get lucky and work 14, maybe 16, but never more then 20. If somehow you work over 20, you get a nice overtime pay. The hours are normal school hours, usually after 8AM and before 530PM.

Emphasis on TEACH. That means that on average, you'll have to teacher 30, 40 minute classes a week (6 classes a day average) plus maybe a weekend thing arranged from the company for overtime pay. This doesn't factor in the commuting, planning periods or weekend classes that were moved because of a holiday or event. And even though you may end up at a school that requires you to be there at 8am and not leave until 5pm, you will only get paid for teaching time in the classroom and penalised for anytime you set foot OFF campus otherwise, unless approved by a standing figure.

Following that stream, teachers may want to be aware that the gap between 16 class-clock hours and 20 class-clock hours is actually and entire extra full day of school. Two teachers could be making the exact same amount every month but working different hours.

From my experience, I needed some extra stamina to get through large classes (30-50 students) of 7-year-olds, 26 times a week along with living an hour or so away from the school. Meanwhile, another teacher would brag about living down the street from the school, only having 18 classes a week while still getting full pay for being "on call." Eh, what can you do...

My first semester, the company/contract told me that I'm subject to every arrangement made by the company, but no one actually told me that the arrangements had any specifics. I was under the impression that whatever I was told to do either by Worlda or by the school that has a contract with Worlda, I had to do it. Come to find out, I was doing things for the actual school that I didn't "have" to do because it wasn't "for the sake of the company." So, even though I did extra class hours at this Worlda-contracted school on top of the classes I was already teaching, I didn't get paid for it - (refer back to those priorities I mentioned earlier.)

But I can tell you, the growth and change in the last 3 years is tremendous (have you seen the new office?!)

Yeah, the contract is longer. There are more ways to penalise teachers to the point where the contract binds your hands and feet as the Chinese version demands maximum availability, maximum flexibility and maximum work effort lest you be subject to breach of contract. There are new local faces (with recycled English names - 'Locke' and 'Sophie', for example, were English names associated with Worlda staff, but have now taking on an entirely different physical form. Magic? Plastic surgery? Methinks not.)

New location, same mess.

And that office? You can walk into that new, fancy office and see nothing but the company showing its name to clients: advertisements to schools, brochures for clients and pictures from years ago - none of which show anyone from the past 3 years. Such a warm and inspiring environment for a foreign teacher, yes? No.

Think of it like this. If you're selling a product in Canada or America, and you wanted to find a factory in China, would you book a ticket to China, try to find a factory, and use your iphone translator to negotiate a contract? No, you'd probably hire someone to help you. That's Worlda, connecting China to foreigners.

Great, so I guess teachers ARE products in Worlda. That... explains everything. Just like a factory in China pumps out products to be sold to Canadian or American busy-folk, Occidental countries pump out white faces to be sold to Chinese schools to meet the needs of bourgeois local Chinese parents. That just made my day - thanks a heap, International HR Director Dan!

The hours taught are during the day, not nights, not weekends. Pay is always steady, and you get paid for holidays except for winter holiday and summer holiday.

And here you go again. You only get paid for "holidays" if the missed days due to the holiday are arranged elsewhere. That way, the foreign teacher can satisfy the required number of work days per month. And the company can easily require the teacher to work 28 days in a month that only has, say, 22 days available in the month with the holiday. I was told that this was part of Chinese Law; I guess I'll have to research that more. Of course, this rule (which by the way, is in the Chinese part of the may-or-may-not-be-even-90%-legal contract... maybe you read over it?) is highly bendable if the money-holders really like you or are intimidated by you (*cough* that is to say, if you're dating a local who doesn't work in the company *cough*).

O Guanxi, ye force that ne'er sleepeth nor slumbereth, nay for e'en a wink.

As part of ongoing training, sometimes Worlda employees (including myself,) will come to your school to watch you teach and give suggestions. We don't sit on the roof of the next building with binoculars.

The standards are so low for educators in China as it is, I thought about leaving this one alone altogether. But I will say that most of the training is the blind leading the blind. Teaching another language is a highly organic art and requires lateral thinking, an open understanding of culture and the ability to close the proper gaps between L1 and L2. Can't just assume that because you're an English teacher that your lesson will be perceived as though it were by Western, native English speaking students who are exposed to English even outside of class. That simply isn't the case in China.

Errrr... the last thing I need is some random "trainer" randomly waltzing into to my classroom, disrupting the environment I worked to orchestrate (no pun intended... especially if you knew what my "teaching job" was with Worlda), suggesting that I have my highly-competitive Junior 1 students play Simon Says instead of Sentence Racing because the students "maybe will think it is fun and interesting and you can teach them to dance well."

You may as well sit on the roof of the next video. There are many teachers with whom Worlda doesn't even have to come to your class. No one does. They just talk to the students and gauge your progress on the feedback of a 9 year old.

People talk about how Worlda posted their own positive reviews, but those are just a typed copy of what REAL Worlda teachers hand wrote, as you can see on their website.

Right, "10 years business leader experience" and "over 100 positions available"... and only 3 reviews. None of which, just noticing, were yours.

NEXT!

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

i just found worlda's and its partner findworkabroad's new propagandistic posts :

http://mpfg.co.uk/china/reviews/

what the hell is it ?

Worlda Are Okay For Your First Job- Findworkabroad Are First Class.????
Worlda Are Good ？？？？
Find Work Abroad, Is It A Scam? Apply@Findworkabroad.Com???

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

2nd. Dan, who are you? I never once heard your name while I worked there nor met you. You are either A. One of Worlda's many fake posts on this forum or B. a testament to Worlda's major efforts to keep foreigners away from each other.

Worlda makes a massive effort to spilt up friends who come together and people who start to become friends. They ran interference constantly on me when I was trying to meet new people.

Worlda are notorious for doing that. I was once at a barbecue dinner in Huadu district with two British guys and an American who all worked for Worlda. The older British guy warned the new guys not to tell a girl called Jessie (Their supervisor/TA or something) about knowing each other as Worlda likes to spy upon people by asking teachers questions about them etc. Jessie is known to pretend to be nice and another victim of Mary, but is really just an arse-kisser who performs her dirty work.

In what world were you granted a school change? I asked and I never received. I wanted to stay with my school I taught at, and my school wanted me back, yet at the semester I was changed to a school that would bring in more money for them. I know this because Worlda thought I didn't understand any Chinese yet I constantly told them I was learning the language. They them proceded to talk about my pay in front of me.

Yeah, they even told one of the guys (Who speaks Cantonese fairly well) who used to work at Worlda, that they will speak in Mandarin in front of him because they don't want him to know what they are saying. That smacks of pure arrogance really.

Growth at an amazing rate? You call having a total of 30 teachers in Guangzhou an amazing rate?

Of course, they only have 30 teachers in Guangzhou... Reason 1: Crap private schools fail to pay fees to Worlda - previously mentioned friends in Huadu had to move to Tianhe and Panyu respectively because some HK company that owned the school realised the exact level of corruption taking place at the school, thus cutting off funds. Worlda took those guys out of the school and moved them without them getting a say in things.

The more important 2nd reason is that they usually farm teachers out to other provinces. This is highly illegal as the teacher's visas are obtained in Guangdong province, yet many teachers are sent to places like Hunan or Guizhou. This was even proved in the link in my earlier post.

AHAHAHAH, PAID ON TIME!!?!?!??!? In what world? Maybe you were lucky, but I never received my paycheck on time. It was always late. You remember when "the bank had issues so we couldn't pay you today" Yeah the bank didn't have issues, I checked, they just forgot to pay us that day. And in reference to your overtime pay below, its a load of crap. I had to fight for a week once to get my overtime pay recognized and ultimately had to threaten to leave the company just to get the overtime pay I was DESERVED

Yeah, my friend threatened to get a lawyer involved, pointing out that $2000 contract breach penalty works both ways. He magically got paid instantly after that.

After working with Worlda and coming to China without knowing any Chinese I can tell you it is not hard to negotiate with the schools. It was actually a rather easy process because I was able to do it with the Chinese I picked up over the course of a semester.

To be honest, if nobody at a school speaks any English at all, it gives you a good idea of the establishment that might be dealing with.
Good public universities tend to feature Chinese staff that speak excellent English, poor private schools tend to as the language requirements aren't important, they just want a dancing white monkey.

This part is true. I never had an issue with them taking my passport nor heard of any of this while I was there.

Unfortunately, I have many stories to suggest that they will try if they think that you are not smart enough to realise that they are conning you. They told my friend to hand over his passport as they thought he was a flight risk. He threatened to call his consulate. Thus passport was never taken and he was safe.

Sigh, don't get me started on Mary. She is racist and ignorant. She doesn't know how to deal with foreigners. The mention of her name gets my blood boiling. I will leave it at that

I have heard so many stories... She is a bit shy and reclusive on the internet as she knows that she can not defend what she has done to various teachers.

This is acceptable to you? I haven't met one person who thought what you just said was acceptable. You can't just show up unannounced while I am teaching. Teaching is a very controlled process and your interruptions are rude and can throw me off while I am teaching. The apartment I was at was actually great, but not all the other apartments. I have seen a HORRIBLE apartment. I throw up a little in my mouth when I think about that apartment. I don't think Worlda even examined it.

One of the Worlda guys got put up in an economy hotel room for the few months that he stayed in Huadu, it was clean and everything, I went to house parties there but... I think you are not really supposed to stay in such places if you have a residence permit, but then again I know some engineer guys in other cities that stay in 4 and 5 star hotels for months on end.

Of course nobody is going to post about how great their company is? What the hell are you talking about. You know you have a good company when people DONT post bad things about it.

Well said, sir.

HA, you're full of it. Worlda pay is the worst. I know someone getting paid 5,500RMB a month. Also 20-25 what an hour? USD RMB CAN????

Unfortunately, I think that they target new foreign teachers that don't know their market rate. I knew one that was making 6,800 who got his apartment from them and the other guy was getting 10k but had to rent his own place. One got told by a rare case of a nice person at one of the schools, that the schools pay about 10,000 a month for Worlda's services, yet the teachers don't get all the money. Teachers can often easily get 13 to 15k in GZ, even at places like EF.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

1st let me state that I worked at Worlda the last semester and a half. I say half, because due to the piss poor treatment I received. I upped and left.

2nd. Dan, who are you? I never once heard your name while I worked there nor met you. You are either A. One of Worlda's many fake posts on this forum or B. a testament to Worlda's major efforts to keep foreigners away from each other.

Worlda makes a massive effort to spilt up friends who come together and people who start to become friends. They ran interference constantly on me when I was trying to meet new people.

You will see my comments in red down below. But if you don't feel like reading everything, let me simply state that Worlda is the worst company I ever worked for.

There's a lot of mixed reviews on this site about Worlda, a lot of lies and a lot of weird comments, so I decided to weigh in. I've been working for Worlda for 3 years now, and I've gotten to teach at about 6 different schools, for all students aged 3-17. If I didn't like a school, I asked, and was granted a change. The hours are steady, pay is always reliable, the visa process is perfect and the company continues to grow at an amazing rate. Recently I have been promoted to the International Human Resource Director, meaning that I will be in charge of finding, training, and keeping the foreign teachers happy. I'll be the first foreigner working only in the office, and I plan to bring a lot of good additions and useful changes to the company.

Facts about Worlda.

They have many schools they cooperate with. You will be placed at one or more of them. You might teach as young as kindergarten, or as old as university, depending on whats your preference and whats available.

You get a legal Z working Visa, and Worlda will help you do all the paperwork for it.

They pay you on time, every month, the pay you expect - tax. If you don't work, you won't get paid for it. Paid sick days in China is basically unheard of. I hate it too.

You will teach for under 20 hours a week. Maybe you'll get lucky and work 14, maybe 16, but never more then 20. If somehow you work over 20, you get a nice overtime pay. The hours are normal school hours, usually after 8AM and before 530PM.

What I've read about Worlda reviews online that needs to be clarified... I tried to ignore comments from 3+ years ago, as I wasn't in the company then. But I can tell you, the growth and change in the last 3 years is tremendous (have you seen the new office?!)

Worlda is not a tutoring center. It is an agency that connects foreigners to public and private schools in China. The reason simply being that many schools here do not have the ability to get foreigners themselves, due to government regulations/paperwork. Think of it like this. If you're selling a product in Canada or America, and you wanted to find a factory in China, would you book a ticket to China, try to find a factory, and use your iphone translator to negotiate a contract? No, you'd probably hire someone to help you. That's Worlda, connecting China to foreigners.
The hours taught are during the day, not nights, not weekends. Pay is always steady, and you get paid for holidays except for winter holiday and summer holiday.

Worlda WILL take your passport... to the immigration office, so that you don't have to do it yourself. The process takes about a week. They return it to you quickly afterwards. If they take your passport, you get paperwork proving that it is in the immigration office. It's harmless, and you get a legal residence permit when its returned.

The boss Mary isn't the devil. She's just a Chinese female boss who has worked her ass off to grow Worlda to a giant company. She's not going to be your best friend, but she's not mean as long as you're not a failure of a teacher/person. For new people to China I recommend this site to learn about cultural differences... http://www.terminaljunkie.com/wp/2010/10/19/western-vs-asian-culture-a-pictorial-perspective/ "Westerners: The boss is part of the team. Asians: The boss is a fierce god."

"Get spied on both in your class as well as having visitors come to your home unannounced." As part of ongoing training, sometimes Worlda employees (including myself,) will come to your school to watch you teach and give suggestions. We don't sit on the roof of the next building with binoculars. As for coming to your home, I'm assuming you're renting the company apartments, which means it's not your home. The only negativeI have about Worlda is the apartments. The apartments are fine, it's just the locations of them are not always near your school. Sometimes new schools sign contracts with Worlda that are not close to the Worlda apartments. I lived in the company apartment for 3 months, and had a lot of problems. All the problems were about the apartment though. After I moved out, everything was good. My suggestion, pick option B unless you are tight on cash.

People talk about how Worlda posted their own positive reviews, but those are just a typed copy of what REAL Worlda teachers hand wrote, as you can see on their website. I'd trust a handwritten letter about Worlda a lot more then random people online (Which by the way, is sometimes other companies/agencies that are just trying to get you to go to their agency. Just like if I work for Nike, I'll post negative reviews about Adidas.) If this websites slammed with negatives, of course any company would try to improve their image using facts, just like myself.

Remember, "On this forum you hear only a fraction of opinions." - from "dodo" on this site... People don't go often online, find a companies message board, and rant about how great it is. People vent their frustrations online, rarely brag about happiness. I've known a lot of happy Worlda teachers, and some not happy. The funny thing is most unhappy ones re-apply or want to come back after they quit/get fired. Maybe Worlda isn't so bad after all?

If you are interested in getting $20-$25 an hour working for Worlda, please check my email here and send me a resume ;)

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

You know you are useless, when you can't even lie properly.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

And their web site
http://www.worldaedu.com/english/about.php

I think their web shyte sums them up quite nicely.

They will probably be cooking the virtual books at the moment... Rebuilding it, writing new letters with new styles of handwriting or something. But we've already seen what they've done.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

People vent their frustrations online, rarely brag about happiness.

I am very, very happy about not having to work for your company.

Just like if I work for Nike, I'll post negative reviews about Adidas.

Hardly anyone cares about shoes on an ESL discussion forum. You'll be limited to buying bootlegs of both anyway where you're working.

"Westerners: The boss is part of the team. Asians: The boss is a fierce god."

That "article" you linked was a bit insulting to the intelligence. You seem to assume that we are all inexperienced, jaded folks who like being spoonfed information in black/white terms. I would agree however that if there was ever a temple erected to the fierce god of incompetence I for one would love to go and see what the carved face on that statue would be like. Probably the stupid look that all bosses who work in this sham of an industry have when they hear that yet another foreign teacher has legged it due to crappy treatment.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

Worlda is not a tutoring center. It is an agency that connects foreigners to public and private schools in China. The reason simply being that many schools here do not have the ability to get foreigners themselves, due to government regulations/paperwork.

In other words, they illegally farm teachers to schools that don't have a licence to recruit foreign teachers. There were stories of the police threatening to deport teachers for this. Also there are reports of some teachers being sent as far away as Hunan... There was one heartbroken sounding girl, who'd been promised that she could live together with her friend, not a cool thing to do to newer, younger teachers, I think. Also, sending teachers away from Guangdong is probably rather suspect as Worlda is a Guangzhou based company. But that's all just hearsay, maybe.

Or, is it?

Actually there is evidence out there to suggest that you have done precisely that... http://laurachinatown.blogspot.com/2012/11/when-wind-of-change-blows-some-build.html - No mention of processing a visa in Hunan province whatsoever. However, Guangzhou visa processing was mentioned. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you get a visa to teach in one particular province, it is illegal to teach outside of that province. So, already with a quick search on google, we have possible evidence of Worlda breaking the law as the result of a post from one of the happier sounding teachers! I really hate to think what you did to guys that you actually pissed off!

People talk about how Worlda posted their own positive reviews, but those are just a typed copy of what REAL Worlda teachers hand wrote, as you can see on their website. I'd trust a handwritten letter about Worlda a lot more then random people online

Oh... So why did you post the same review twice with different names? What a coincidence that two different Worlda teachers used exactly the same words in their letters! That stays on the internet forever, lol.

Not to mention that you have posted in the 'Teacher Discussion' part of the website, so it appears that you want to avoid a grilling from the 'school and recruiter reviews section?'.
I think that the admins should really delete or move your post.

Re: Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

I just read your post..

Looks like a whole mob of excuses being covered in one go.

Can I have my 5 minutes back please...

Guangzhou Worlda Cultural & Educational Consulting Services CO.LTD

There's a lot of mixed reviews on this site about Worlda, a lot of lies and a lot of weird comments, so I decided to weigh in. I've been working for Worlda for 3 years now, and I've gotten to teach at about 6 different schools, for all students aged 3-17. If I didn't like a school, I asked, and was granted a change. The hours are steady, pay is always reliable, the visa process is perfect and the company continues to grow at an amazing rate. Recently I have been promoted to the International Human Resource Director, meaning that I will be in charge of finding, training, and keeping the foreign teachers happy. I'll be the first foreigner working only in the office, and I plan to bring a lot of good additions and useful changes to the company.

Facts about Worlda.

They have many schools they cooperate with. You will be placed at one or more of them. You might teach as young as kindergarten, or as old as university, depending on whats your preference and whats available.

You get a legal Z working Visa, and Worlda will help you do all the paperwork for it.

They pay you on time, every month, the pay you expect - tax. If you don't work, you won't get paid for it. Paid sick days in China is basically unheard of. I hate it too.

You will teach for under 20 hours a week. Maybe you'll get lucky and work 14, maybe 16, but never more then 20. If somehow you work over 20, you get a nice overtime pay. The hours are normal school hours, usually after 8AM and before 530PM.

What I've read about Worlda reviews online that needs to be clarified... I tried to ignore comments from 3+ years ago, as I wasn't in the company then. But I can tell you, the growth and change in the last 3 years is tremendous (have you seen the new office?!)

Worlda is not a tutoring center. It is an agency that connects foreigners to public and private schools in China. The reason simply being that many schools here do not have the ability to get foreigners themselves, due to government regulations/paperwork. Think of it like this. If you're selling a product in Canada or America, and you wanted to find a factory in China, would you book a ticket to China, try to find a factory, and use your iphone translator to negotiate a contract? No, you'd probably hire someone to help you. That's Worlda, connecting China to foreigners.
The hours taught are during the day, not nights, not weekends. Pay is always steady, and you get paid for holidays except for winter holiday and summer holiday.

Worlda WILL take your passport... to the immigration office, so that you don't have to do it yourself. The process takes about a week. They return it to you quickly afterwards. If they take your passport, you get paperwork proving that it is in the immigration office. It's harmless, and you get a legal residence permit when its returned.

The boss Mary isn't the devil. She's just a Chinese female boss who has worked her ass off to grow Worlda to a giant company. She's not going to be your best friend, but she's not mean as long as you're not a failure of a teacher/person. For new people to China I recommend this site to learn about cultural differences... http://www.terminaljunkie.com/wp/2010/10/19/western-vs-asian-culture-a-pictorial-perspective/ "Westerners: The boss is part of the team. Asians: The boss is a fierce god."

"Get spied on both in your class as well as having visitors come to your home unannounced." As part of ongoing training, sometimes Worlda employees (including myself,) will come to your school to watch you teach and give suggestions. We don't sit on the roof of the next building with binoculars. As for coming to your home, I'm assuming you're renting the company apartments, which means it's not your home. The only negativeI have about Worlda is the apartments. The apartments are fine, it's just the locations of them are not always near your school. Sometimes new schools sign contracts with Worlda that are not close to the Worlda apartments. I lived in the company apartment for 3 months, and had a lot of problems. All the problems were about the apartment though. After I moved out, everything was good. My suggestion, pick option B unless you are tight on cash.

People talk about how Worlda posted their own positive reviews, but those are just a typed copy of what REAL Worlda teachers hand wrote, as you can see on their website. I'd trust a handwritten letter about Worlda a lot more then random people online (Which by the way, is sometimes other companies/agencies that are just trying to get you to go to their agency. Just like if I work for Nike, I'll post negative reviews about Adidas.) If this websites slammed with negatives, of course any company would try to improve their image using facts, just like myself.

Remember, "On this forum you hear only a fraction of opinions." - from "dodo" on this site... People don't go often online, find a companies message board, and rant about how great it is. People vent their frustrations online, rarely brag about happiness. I've known a lot of happy Worlda teachers, and some not happy. The funny thing is most unhappy ones re-apply or want to come back after they quit/get fired. Maybe Worlda isn't so bad after all?

If you are interested in getting $20-$25 an hour working for Worlda, please check my email here and send me a resume ;)