Miles
- 2011-05-04
Derek is absolutely spot on with his views of Walton or Huadu International Academy or whatever they call themselves now...he failed to say about the shiny plaques they have outside saying who they have as customers....KFC, FEDEX so funny...i was there when they were put up, the truth is that 2 employees from both companies came for evening training ...and thats it. The boss is evil...she used the photo's of 2 previous employees Marc and Jason who had left about 12 months earlier to sell the place...it transpires they were the only two with valid z visa's and one of them had a CELTA but Walton said he had been to CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY...what a crock. No Xmas day was given..even though the Foreign Teachers asked for it, was given it, but lo and behold Walton create some bullshit rule to put fear into the guys. Remember this, the more we can bad mouth de fame or anything about places like this, the harder it is to recruit there, the students do not miss out, they would rather have happy well treated teachers than exhausted cheated ones. Just avoid Walton .
Derek Nicholls
- 2011-01-12
AVOID THIS SCHOOL LIKE THE PLAGUE. IT IS THE WORSE SCHOOL I HAVE WORKED FOR IN 4 YEARS OF TEACHING IN CHINA.
THE FACTS AND ONLY THE FACTS, NO PERSONALITIES.
Contact, is incomplete they have hidden rules they do not tell you about.
if you are late to a lesson, you will loose money big time (yes you should not be late, but life is full of tricks)
Depending on your salary if you are over twenty minuted late it will cost you in access of 400 RMB.
I was given a students book to teach, not teachers book, no big deal. accept the book needed an audio / video classroom. Guess what no audio video class room
Even worse for two classes I taught 4 times a week, no text book.
Will not process a Z visa for you, you have to work illegally with a L or business visa.
They will not give you a tax certificate , that means depending on the country you live in, you may have to pay double tax.
Expect extended travel time to and from your university. If you teach at the Primary school you have to pay for your own travel. This can be as much as 100 rmb a week for taxi.
Expect class doubling so you are teaching 60+ screaming, uncouth, uncontrollable, 9 year old's. In China you cannot send badly behaved children outside.
The TA's are young, cheap and have only a little English.
You are asked to work overtime, but do not get paid for the 1st 4 hours.
You are asked to work overtime at less than your hourly rate. (I refused to work O/T that really pissed them off)
There is no teaching co-ordination. They do not have a trained teacher on the head office staff.
You are not guaranteed two consecutive days off per week.
You cannot take holidays when you want to, only when it suites them.
You have to be available for work 5 days a week at anytime between the house of 8am to 10pm.
You can be asked to travel 20 minutes to a class that last's 40minuted, then 20 minutes home again.
The accommodation is quite good, you get no heating appliances, no sheets etc, no cooking utensils or plates. You have to buy these yourself.
You are asked to vacate the premises on the day your contract finishes, they will not let you stay on even if you offer to pay rent.
So there you are if you want to work for this school, good luck to you, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED