Hi Maureen,

I haven't been on here for a long time, so, sorry for the late reply. The purpose of this forum is to communicate to foreigners who are thinking of working at a particular school what the conditions are like. Actually Shawn and I had a decent relationship until it came to the end of my contract and it was time to pay the bonus. I was shocked that he would do something like to me, someone who tried to always do my best at work and always treated and regarded him as a friend. That being said, he's still your brother and I wish you luck in finding him. You could probably find ENLI School's e-mail address and contact him that way--I believe most of the e-mails sent there will go to his wife, Lily.

Nathan

Well, as I admitted, it was my big mistake to not get him to specify on the contract. I didn't think of it for 2 reasons, 1--lack of experience, 2--was a little nervous just meeting the new boss and didn't want to create and negative feelings or feelings of distrust.

The part that was rough was simply how that boss wouldn't tell me what he was doing and I didn't even know if I would be able to work without the release letter. Also, from the school that I was talking to (and that was expecting me to come) told me that the management of ENLI told her on the phone that they were going to cancel my visa. They never mentioned that to me however. Had they canceled my visa and not told me about it, I am pretty sure it could have caused me big problems. So, to protect myself I just left China.

Another thing I should add, when I was talking to ENLI about leaving 1 week early so I could make it to the new school by the start of the new semester (by request of the new employer), Shawn said, "Sure, that's fine. Just write down your name, your passport #, and the date that you're leaving."

In later arguments with Shawn when I asked him for a release letter he said, "I don't need to give you a release letter because you decided to quit one week before your contract was up." Keep in mind, my lessons were finished and I'd been sitting at home with no income for a couple of weeks by that time. So, due to that I also expected him to come at me looking for a breach of contract penalty fee. He got me good on that one--he got me to quit the job without even realized that I was essentially writing proof that I left the job early, all under the mistaken idea that ENLI was doing me a favor. Shawn is a slick old fox, and a smooth talker. Shawn's an intelligent man and he's been in this game long enough to know what to do. He's tricky, so if you work there just lookout for situations like this. If you go there, do your job, make sure to get anything and everything in writing, then you should be okay. My situation turned bad after trying to file a complaint on the school with the Labor Bureau (lao dong ju) after realizing Shawn was conning me out of 3000 RMB. After doing that, ENLI came after me with a vengeance.

I'm not going to insult or trash talk anyone here, I just want to provide a heads up. On a positive note, I was making decent money at ENLI and had Saturdays and Sundays off every week. Just want to say, don't trust so easily like I did or you can get screwed and cheated very easily. There are plenty of other stories I know, but I'm only going to share mine. I don't need to talk them down. Their reputation in the Tianjin area is getting worse and worse.. not just amongst foreign teachers, but also among many schools and other businesses in the Greater Tianjin area.

Nathan

Nathan

I have never posted anything but now I will. I'm Nathan, from the USA and I'd like to know who you are. Are you refering to me in your post? Please specify, and don't be so afraid to share your identity, after all, we're all adults here, aren't we?

Let's share our identity and share openly who we are refering to in our messages. This is healthy for our online discussion. Anyone can say anything online, so if you are willing to share who you are maybe others will take you more seriously and trust you more.

Who are you and who were you refering to in your message?

Nathan

Hi all. I am the original poster of the warning against ENLI. Just a quick response to the information posted by "Balanced View of Enli". I don't know who you are so I cannot say if we know each other or not. What I can say is that you are mistaken in who you think posted the warning/complaint. My name is Adam Hopes. I have never been to DongBei or Liaoning. Furthermore, I have been teaching in China for over 5 yrs and have never been involved in any fights or altercations with the police. I am not a troublemaker, in fact, there have been several times where I probably should have posted a warning about previous and potential employers and have just let it go. My warning was actually quite reserved. I have heard many incidents of ENLI utilizing their uncle's power as head of Tianjin PSB to really screw people. These involved false allegations, cancelling of visas, etc. but I chose not to include this information as to me, it is hearsay. I feel I did give a balanced report on ENLI that was not fuelled by emotions but merely stated SOME of the more important facts related to my employment experience with them. I can add 2 more important facts that I refrained from mentioning previously. I was having breakfast with Shawn O [edited] (owner of ENLI) and we just talking about the business. I was curious because I was entertaining the idea of opening a language school myself in the future. We were discussing income and risk. I told him I think it would be better just to tutor and arrange tutoring for other teachers with less initiative. He then got a look in his eyes and told me. "IF ANY OF MY TEACHERS DO PRIVATE TUTORRING AND I FIND OUT I WILL CANCEL THEIR VISA WITHOUT NOTIFYING THEM" Now this is a very malicious act which will at the minimum have you detained at the PSB until you can pay the penalty of 500RMB per day for overstaying your visa. Moreover, you would likely be deported and never allowed to enter China again which puts an end to your ESL career in China. Now the 2nd malicious act I know for a fact too. A colleague who had completed his contract and was offered renewal of that contract but declined was refused his letter of release and reference letter by ENLI. They were involved in a dispute over the airfare allowance. Shawn had verbally offered an allowance of 3000RMB for a 6 mth contract but did not amend the contract accordingly. This guy told me himself he had said some unfriendly things to Shawn. He had a nice job lined up but had to leave China due to the fact that ENLI would not give him the required documents to transfer his visa. He is back in China now and teaching but this was an expensive inconvenience and absolutely a malicious act by ENLI. Now back to what you said about suspecting you had previously employed the original poster of this warning. It is my opinion that if you are unfortunate enough to employ a troublemaker you pay them what you owe and fire them. If an employee is giving you constant headaches you still must pay him his salary as agreed. If he has broken contract you are well within your rights to dismiss him or her. I am not offended or angered by your response in any way at all. On the contrary, I commend you for taking the time to try and improve the industry. I just felt the need to clarify your incorrect suspicion. Simple logic will tell you, by the length of time it took me to respond to this thread. Posting complaints is not a hobby or interest of mine. This case was just so severe I felt a moral obligation to inform the wise. On behalf of all teachers I sincerely thank you for your invaluable input. People such as yourself have prevented so much anguish to innocent teachers. I am not ashamed to hide my face. Everything I have stated is true. Feel free to contact me at adis356@hotmail.com Adam Hopes