I actually kicked off my ESL career in China with EF, the centralized organization (not the franchise). I was young and stupid and thought that EF's online reputation came from dodgy, Chinese-owned franchise schools, and that I would be fine with the Western-run company. To say that I was wrong would be an understatement...I basically got one glorious marriage of Western and Chinese ways of screwing employees.

In the first place...I did not get my own home from day one. EF had me live in a gross apartment with two men I had never met before for a month, then shipped me off to a 2nd tier city in Southern China to work at one of their minicenters. That center was more of a summer camp than an actual school...they even had me go to bars with my students during my work hours...which is royally unprofessional. I basically just had to watch my students get drunk around me. I finally quit after EF refused to reimburse me for my travel expenses. Which brings me to the best part...thanks to EF's 'indentured servitude' policy, they do not transfer permits to new employers when employees leave. They cancel it, give you an L visa, which would have forced me to go to HK for a new work visa. I flew home instead. All in all, it was an expensive waste of my life.

The one nice thing I can say about that company is that it turned me off of TCs forever. I will only teach in universities now. I get paid on time, I don't have to do a song and dance in lieu of actual teaching, I get great vacations, and I have set up my own online business in the COPIOUS free time I have that nets me far more than I would pissing away my week trying to make my students like me.