EF Dalian is a nasty school.

They recently fired me because my wife is 7 months pregnant, and the school worried I would need paternity leave.

They fired me but want me to stay for an extra month, so they would have time to find a replacement, but promised they would take 4000rmb out of the next month salary for ‘outstanding fees’ (these were made up).

I explained I could not afford to work for nothing and walked out. They then threatened police action on me multiple times and gave my wife and me just 48 hours to get out of our apartment. I am English and my wife is Mongolian (outer Mongolian, not China) so we have no family around here. We had no money and no home. Thankfully a friend found us somewhere to stay for a while.

We had to move tons of stuff at short notice, and my wife was so exhausted by the upheaval that she had to spend the next day in hospital.

This was my first experience working at an EF franchise in China, and it wasn't a good one.

First a few comments about EF franchise schools in China. The hours suck. There are two 'intensive' periods during the year (combined total 3 months) where you are required to work 6 days a week. You are only entitled to 14 paid days holiday a year and the school seriously resented it when I took time off (Like when I took three days off to get married!).

The salary is also low. My salary started at 8100 for the first 3 months, and then increased to 8600, however the cost of an apartment in Dalian is very expensive. Mine was cheap-1650rmb- meaning that I was taking home less than 7000rmb a month. You could negotiate a slightly higher salary, but not much higher. Basically when you go out to bars you will meet people who work at university's, and get paid a few thousand a month less than you but only work 3/4 days a week, half the hours, and get 4 months holiday a year. Not great, is it?

I taught kids. The working conditions weren't great. Dalian kids are spoilt brats. EF China classes are 2 hours 15 mins, and the school refuses to give you a TA for most classes despite the fact the kids are only 8,9 and 10 years old.

In the very young learners classes, you get a TA but they are generally weak. To complicate matters, they have a proviso to keep every kid in class, despite their bad behaviour, so as not to upset the parents and lose money. This is particularly absurd during 'small star' classes, EF's very young learner course where the kids are 4/5/6 years old and many of them are incapable of handling a classroom environment. One kid in my class cried for 30 mins and still wouldn't be removed!

Also, for SS classes, there are cameras in class and parents can watch the whole thing outside on a TV monitor. Talk about being exposed!!!

EF can hire you out to different schools. I was sent to a Japanese school (all kids and teachers are Japanese), miles away from EF. I taught 10 hours a week there and it was ridiculous. The Japanese guy I taught with didn't want a foreign teacher in the classroom and had me do as little as possible. Basically I was hired out as a white manikin to stand in the classroom, and it was agonizingly boring.

Another thing about EF is the lesson plans. You have to write your lesson plan on the computer and save it on the system. The EF Dalian lesson plan template is extremely pretentious with boxes such as ‘lexical’ ‘phonological’ etc that have to be filled in. It is ridiculous and a massive waste of time.

EF Dalian

The first thing I noticed about this school was that the office had a very tense and paranoid atmosphere. The teachers were on edge and seemed fearful. I hated being in the office. If anything, the atmosphere got worse over time. It isn’t conducive for ESL teaching, which mostly consists of playing games with kids.

After EF Dalian had sacked me, and kicked me out of my home they demanded I pay 800 yuan (£80) to change my visa. After the stress and worry and nursing my wife back to health, the school contacted me one more time. They needed to give me my passport and apparently I had some outstanding bills from my apartment.

The girl from the school came with my bill for my electricity and water for 1 month. It should have been, like usual, about 120 yuan but it was 362 yuan ($50). The name of the landlord and the address of the apartment on the receipt were incorrect. My wife can read Chinese and exposed the fake ticket. The girl shouted in her face and kept threatening to walk away (with my passport) unless I paid. So I had to. Classy, eh?

Avoid this school like the plague.