Re: Broken Dreams, Broken Promises

I had the unfortunate pleasure of working there and found every post here to be true. It got so bad that I booked from there. The first time in 5 years of teaching. A colleague who is still there told me that all the "Foreign teachers" have been told they are disposable. Little do they realize, the same can be said for them.
Anyone considering working there should read every thread here and think it through. I would hope that if enough teachers continue to post about Meten, the word will spread and they will be left little or no teaching staff. The demise of the beast.

Re: Broken Dreams, Broken Promises

Well angry esl teacher, it sounds like this school has enacted a lot of checks and balances to protect themselves against irate, unhappy teachers. Steps they would only have to take if they were creating angry, irate teachers. Test taking to prove you can teach? Who is the judge, and who is writing the test. Seems purposely biased in their favor. I would assume that you don't have to jump through all these pre designed hoops unless you do something wrong in their eyes, raise a fuss, or object to some ill treatment you have received?

This kind of crap reminds of how Chinese bosses will praise how good you are at your job, until you make a stink about something, then your a lousy teacher. I do so love the Chinese.

This Meten place should be shut down. I will admit I have no love for training schools, it seems a 100 to 1 the number of bad stories compared to the good that you hear about them. This place sounds worse then most, so bad that they have created checks and balances to weed out what they consider trouble makers. Awful place. Be sure to write the name of the school and it's location many times in every post you make, so future teachers will find out about this school when they do a search.

Truly an abyssmal place, with the Chinese doing the usual job of stacking the deck heavily in their favor, instead of simply playing fair.

Re: Foshan and DongGuan Meten English Centre /Metro English

After reading about Meten/Metro English, ING, Com-Com, EF, Web and other such so called Training Centres I would like to add my 2 cents because I have worked at all of them in one time or another.
Also after hearing names such as Tony Yu, Helen Zhou, Audrey, Frank Zhou, that are synonymous with these companies I came to realise that it wasnt their fault. As a teacher who still loves China and has lived here for 6 years, it became clear that it was my fault.
I failed to realise a quintessential fact. A training centre has absolutely nothing to do with education. Not before, not now not ever. Anyone who believes otherwise is naive at best or stupid as I was. They are solely money making enterprises and those who are working for such places are there to support that effort. Foreign teachers are not there to teach. We are there solely as a promotional tool to attract students. Chinese are used in distinct capacities. Overseers who- and I use the word loosely, manage the place and spin doctors who promote, by any means necessary the business. All are there to serve a single function and that is to amass as much money as they can for the owners or until the place goes bust.

A brief history of some training centres.

ING International English.
Originally this was an EF franchise with 5 branches in Shenzhen. As franchise they were required to pay a monthly fee to EF and to promote EF material. During 2006 the powers that be decided that they didnt want to pay EF anymore so certain financial figures were fudged to make it appear as if the schools were going in to negative profit. It was actually the opposite. A decision was reached to separate from EF and rebrand the centres ING international. At the time 4 of the 5 schools had foreign centre managers who ran the centres well considering the many unreasonable requests made by the senior management.
In 2007 it was decided that the foreign managers were no longer needed and that the Chinese staff of Sales managers were to assume control of the centres. Within 3 months 4 foreign managers had left as well as the general manager. Within 4 months after that time, ING centres went backwards. The reason was simple. The incumbent managers had no experience in managing the centres.

Metro/Meten English
This is a Chinese branded franchise modelled after Web international and Wall Street. Headquartered in Chongqing the school branched out to Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and Suzhou. As with centres of this type, slick advertising, empty promises, unqualified management all go to promoting a scenario of organised chaos. Prior to the Olympic games PSB officers were stepping up checks on foreigners. As a result 4 foreign teachers were arrested for visa violations related to Meten. At the time of the arrests Meten officials were on the case. The foreigners were released pending further enquiries by the PSB. Their passports were seized BUT later returned to the school upon a payment of a fine but the passports were not immediately returned to the teachers. Eventually it was revealed that Meten had no rights to hire foreign teachers outside of Chongqing so all foreign teachers outside of Chongqing were working illegally. As a result all foreign teachers stood down until the situation was resolved. It didnt get resolved and subsequently many foreign teachers left or were afraid to go back. Metens official response at the time was they could only get the visas via Chongqing and then they would tell the PSB that the teachers were transferring from a centre in Chongqing to Shenzhen. The management of Meten have no managerial experience and even less educational experience.

EF, Wall Street,
These are all run in a similar fashion with the appearance looking good but the reality is far from anything other than slick con artists who masquerade as educators. The focus is get em in and tell em anything to get their money then move on to the next victim.
Training centres whatever their guise are all parasites and leeches run by unscrupulous people who pray on naive customers like sharks and pray on foreigners the same way, in the name of education. For them education is a big bucks business where anyone who works for them is expendable and replaceable. It is naive of us as teachers to think that this practice can be stopped because these centres are not bound by the same codes as real schools nor are they in the least bit concerned with ethics. Newbie teachers are not going to stop coming to China or be recruited by these parasites because their game is too good. All we can hope to do is to stay away from such despicable organisations that use education as a tool to feed their greed and lust for money.
If teachers decide to teach at these places then do so knowing that you are just a piece of meat, a promotional gimmick that will soon wear out and be discarded just as easily, as unfortunately there will always be someone to take your place.

Shenzhen Foshan and DongGuan Meten English Centre /Metro English

Another link talking about the situation in Shenzhen. A number of the management at Meten Headquarters are ex Com-Com employees - go figure. See blue link below.

Keep sending me the good stuff....

Re: Foshan and DongGuan Meten English Centre /Metro English

After spending some time with Metro English School / Meten English School (also having the dubious honour of working with Frank Zhao - manager of both Foshan and DongGuan Meten Englsih Centre - previously Metro English Centre - to whom I am sure Andrew is referring about his failed sacking attempts) I feel I should put some more information out there for those considering. Especially about this guy Mr Zhao - he is hated by all staff because he is a petulant child concerned only about his salary and his ego. Nothing else. Unable to think logically he carries many grudges.

If you are considering my best advice would be don't. DON'T. ABSOLUTELY NOT. If you still aren't sure - ask them to provide you the contact details of a couple of the Foreign Teachers still stuck working there. They will tell you very clearly. The illegal visa I talk about below is a vicious circle and they will use this against you.

These guys do look good from the outside and the contract and salary appears good. But you must fight all the way to get even close to what the contract offers. They consistently ignore the contract and they tell you there is little a foreign teacher can do about it as all of their visas are illegal. Leave entitlements, sick days, overtime the school is constantly trying to take things away from you and they change the rules to suit themselves whenever they feel like it.

Last year the two most senior foreign staff members working in the Shenzhen headquarters did "midnight runners" on these guys because they were so concerned for their safety. One of them, a university professor from the USA, was ARRESTED previous to this because the school had provided them with visas but not for work where they were - Illegal Working Visas from ChongQing. This is common throughout all of METEN / previously METRO schools. Managers and recruiters will blindly lie to you about anything and everything to get you, but once they do... BEWARE. I was told a story by another teaching working with me in DongGuan at the time that they offered him a job with contract and salary in a different city (Chengdu I think) and when he arrived there from Australia they told him that they were sorry but this job did not exist and there was no contract - but they offered him a job in another city for lower salary.

Working conditions there also include unspecified "company rules" that involve large fines for infringements such as forgetting to punch in or out (time clock) or leaving computers or powered devices on overnight. At managers discretion ofcourse - and no recourse for the teacher. They just take it out of your pay. Foreigners working there have absolutely no say whatsoever in what goes on in the company and are never listened to apart from the usual "we are improving" or "we are trying to do something about it" which I experienced for some time but nothing ever changed or happened.

While I was there the students (rightfully) complained constantly that they had been lied to and the school did not provide what they said they would. There were also stories about the school in the local newspaper with students complaining about the same. Many of the students were, again rightfully, very angry.

It really is a sorry place to work and the management team a bunch of crooked thieves trying to suck up every RMB they can. Nothing for anyone else.

Also beware of their head recruiter Ms Helen Zhou and her assistant another Helen. I have heard many stories from teachers at Meten of the about of lies and deceit that was peddled to them during their recruitment and initial employment - these two are nasty.

Follow my link below for further stories form others in the past. Check it out!

Re: Meten/Metro English

It would help if you said exactly WHICH Metro location. I've been in China for more than 2 years and I've heard they're OK in SOME places here.

But be careful. Ask yourself, "Have I ever stayed at a brand-name hotel that just didn't live up to my expectations or previous experience with that same brand name?" That's probably because the hotel was just using the brand-name "flag" which is really just a franchise agreement. Sure, they've got Holiday Inn ashtrays and bath towels, but the walls have unidentifiable encrustations and the drawers aren't clean and the carpet looks like your room might've been the scene of a murder-suicide...

And this is the case with a LOT of schools in Asia: some investors grab a franchise and use the crap out of the name until (MAYBE) the franchiser gets dissatisfied with the complaints and they (MAYBE) get the flag removed. But the school could, under a new name, continue as usual and go on with their shady practices. This is just the tip of the iceberg where "ownership" is shuffled through sleight of hand so they can avoid liability. I once saw a school sign more than 50 new students, close their doors without giving more than 3 classes, and then reopen under a new name in the SAME location with the SAME bosses!

I recently had an interview with another relatively popular company franchise. The office was nicer than most and everything seemed up-and-up, but the facts that they had one classroom, an unstable whiteboard, that they admitted they hadn't employed a foreigner in more than a year and their reluctance to let me keep my passport and work permit got my attention.

I declined.