I have just completed my first year working for King’s in Tianjin and am starting on my second. I will break down my thoughts on the job and the city so people can get an idea of what the school is like.

Classes, and Hours:

We teach classes from 6:30 - 8:00 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This is just one class, each class being an hour and a half. On Saturday and Sunday we teach from 8AM until 8PM with a maximum of 5 classes each day. Most teachers get at least one break a day (with new teachers usually having more breaks while they accumulate new classes), but not everyone does. While the hours are long, this still leaves us with 2 hours for lunch, a 1 hour break, and two half hour breaks between other classes. This time is necessary to relax and prep. The weekends are no joke… especially if you have no free period! The bright side is that after they are over, you have 5 days to recover!

During the 6 weeks over summer that Chinese children are on break from Chinese school, the foreign teachers teach an extra class on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (again, some teachers may get a break on one of these days).
Students range in age from 3 – 12. 3 year olds are very uncommon, I don’t teach any myself… perhaps my colleagues do, but at my center I don’t think we have any. Even 4 year olds are pretty few and far between for me. Out of about 70 students I have perhaps 3 or 4 kids that are 4. 10 months ago that number was probably around 10. Each class contains anywhere from 3 kids (usually older S’s in smaller classes) and 12 kids, with rare “classes” going over that number for a special event like a birthday party. In the younger classes we take two 5 minute breaks, in the older ones we take one 10 minute break.

If you teach demo classes (classes to showcase your teaching ability and the schools equipment to get kids signed up) any old kid can turn up. For those classes you might get a 2 year old showing up, however, when this happens our boss asks them to return in a few months when the child is old enough. Demo kids are tough, you get awesome kids, and awful kids but they are just kids and more often than not dead nice! (I don’t teach any demo’s… some teachers do 3 a week, just depends on your schedule).

Syllabus, & Equipment:

Each classroom is fitted with an interactive whiteboard in addition to the usual classroom gear and tools. Like anything else in the classroom, it is down to the teacher to use it or not. I don’t use it too often and rely more on being active and using flashcards with games to teach.

We have two courses available, one for younger S’s and one for older S’s. The syllabus for younger S’s works as a guideline for most teachers. Sometimes there is just not enough work for the kids, or I think it’s too easy. You will need to cut and tailor the classes for your specific class. A lesson plan that is perfect for one of my classes could be totally inappropriate for another class that is at exactly the same place in the lesson plan. The majority of the material for the older S’s is more appropriate and I find myself having to do less additional prep in general for my older classes.

The equipment at the school is generally in good condition. The computers sometime run quite slowly or break down. Every now and again it is difficult to get a hold of the materials for a class. For example there may not be enough large sheets of paper etc. This is one of the more frustrating things about the job.

Teaching! :

The kids are great! It’s important to like young children in this job. I really enjoy teaching and playing with the younger students. If lesson planning causes me some stress, working with a bunch of younger students perks me up again. I find teaching the 4-7 year olds the most and they are highly active. It allows me to be very creative, play games, shout things out, and generally go stamping through the class feeling like the pied-piper. I know a lot of teachers prefer the older students as those classes are far more laid back. It is certainly nice to have a balance.

As kids only have 3 classes every two weeks, don’t expect your students to go from “Hello” to “Hey teacher, I see you picked up a new shirt!” in a year. Its slow work and difficult, but still pleasantly rewarding when you see that they have picked up something you taught them.

We also have teaching assistants. Like everything else, they vary. Be nice to your TA and you are going to find things easier. There English is good. Sometimes it’s good enough and sometimes it’s outstanding. They help relay any messages too complicated for the kids to understand in English, gather flash cards and generally make life easier. I always lesson plan with my TA’s. Having worked before without a TA at a different school I have seen how much difference having someone else in the class helps.

Pay, Reimbursements, and Chinese lessons:

No one I know has ever been paid less than they are owed, failed to receive reimbursements offered to them (medical bills use to apply for the visa for example), or not received a bonus. EVERYONE always gets their money. Back around December 2012 we received our pay late… perhaps around a week late. The following month we received late payment again by a few days. At the time this was a real worry. I hadn’t been here too long by then and I was concerned about the company (I should say, a couple of teachers at the time that had run out of cash and complained so school paid them on time… everyone else waited the week. No one went hungry). However, since March we really haven’t had a problem. All the foreign staff get their pay. Last month we got paid a day late; not due to financial ruin, but instead because of poor accounting. Mistakes happen… but they get fixed.

I took 5 Chinese lessons a week. They helped to improve my Chinese to the point where I can get around and take care of myself. Recently I have lost drive to learn. The truth of it is that 5 lessons as week is HARD WORK. It’s a huge time commitment but if you are ready for it and willing to learn you will receive the lessons and see solid improvement. It’s difficult, and I don’t see eye-to-eye with some of the teachers but that’s a personal thing. Many of the other teachers enjoy their classes.

Overall thoughts:

This is my second ESL job. I enjoyed my first one, but this one is superior in many ways. It offers a lot of free time, good pay, and a supportive staff. You get out of the job what you put into it. If you don’t try in your job you will find it far less rewarding or interesting. However, if you work hard and try in your job you are going to reap the rewards.

This is a good ESL job. There are some real grim places out there you can go and work at that will promise you the moon on a stick. King’s has come up with everything they offered. After talking to people that work at other centers around Tianjin I am confident that this is the best ESL job over here when comparing hours and pay. My colleagues that have worked at other schools in China all prefer this one.

We have anywhere from 20-25 teachers in Tianjin now. No one I know or I have heard about has left before the end of their contract. And many like myself sign on for an additional year. Most people pass through the school without leaving a message on a board like this or sharing their thoughts but I think it’s fair to say they are content with the job.

Living here can be tough. China can be a difficult place to live; it’s a very different culture. Some days you will find yourself getting stressed or tired with the job or even frustrated with the behavior or some of your students. However, overall I would be happy to recommend this job to my friends.

This is probably a bad idea jumping into this discussion, but the post has so many factual errors in it, I may as well give the side of the school and allow people to make their own mind up.

I may as well take the complaints point by point:-

1) Demo classes - these are part of the way in which the school advertises the products we offer. Along with many other language schools in China, we invite children and parents to these so that they can get a feel for the way in which classes are handled. The language and content is kept purposefully simple - the children attending the classes have often had no exposure to English or Westerners before, and it can be quite a big deal for them. It doesn't happen many times per week - new staff are expected to conduct two or three over the working week as they don't yet have full timetables. Once an individual foreign teacher's timetable is full, they no longer conduct demo classes.

2) I find your point that the managers being useless and clueless as teachers, and them being '99% Chinese' not only inaccurate, but borderline racist. It's a Chinese-owned school, in China, employing a predominantly Chinese workforce. All of the Chinese Management in Academics have a minimum of CELTA qualifications, and the Head of the Academic Department has a Master's Degree in Education. There are actually 3 foreign managers at the school - one for HR, one for Academic Development, and one who liases with the Marketing and Sales team. None of these three have any ability to 'screw' staff out of money, as they are not involved in payroll. Teachers are only deducted for absences in which they are sick, or do not attend class. All of the managers are directly contactable by phone, email, or at the office, and regularly are by staff.

3) Resources - lesson plans are provided, and each centre has full resources for the lesson plans. There are occasional errors (this is China after all), but the lesson plans are more than enough for teachers to use during class. We have staff who have been with us for more than 3 years, and all of our foreign staff have a minimum of 1 year experience and a TEFL. It simply isn't realistic to assume that all staff will have teaching qualifications (this is ESL, not working in a Western school).

4) Money - again, this is simply not true. The school restructured it's business at the start of the year (there are currently 9 King's centres, a high school, and an adult training centre) which affected cashflow briefly at that time, but staff have been paid in full each month.

5) Overtime - this has never happened at all. All staff are paid in full for any work done outside of their contracted 21 hours per week at the designated overtime rate.

6) Medical insurance - the school has full state medical insurance, identical to that of the Chinese citizenry. We have bilingual staff who escort those unable to speak Mandarin to doctors to receive treatment, if so requested.

7) Shanghai and Tianjin - quite a pointless argument. If you want a Western city, why come to China in the first place? The subtle hint to view YouTube is with reference to the poster's deluded and again borderline racist 'music' video he posted on YouTube about Tianjin.

Knowing the poster personally, I am extremely reluctant to enter into this discussion for fear of it turning into a slanging match, but I will not accept this kind of smear against the school. Part of the interview process with King's consists of the HR Manager for the school providing contact details for members of staff who currently work at the school - as many as the prospective candidate wishes to contact. Many of our FTs have been with us for more than 2 years, and 4 of our current staff have requested to extend their contracts just recently. It is incredibly easy for an individual to damage the reputation of a school, whilst those who are content here are overlooked.

King's English isn't perfect, and there are many things that should be improved, but for most staff who work here the time is productive and enjoyable. Please feel free to make your own opinions.

Hi, I've been working for the parent company (Compass) for four and a half years, the most recent one of which has been with Kings English for Kids. To start, I've lived in Tianjin for more than 6 years and while Tianjin is a bit dirty (as are A LOT of cities in China, a sad fact but true), it's not horrific. Over the past few years it's gone through rapid expansion, pushed the factories to the outer districts, and developed a lot of the city. While it's not as exciting as Beijing it has a nice mix of old China and modern China, and if you're ever up for travelling Beijing is literally only 30 minutes away. Shopping is incredibly cheap, unless you go to big name brand shops as always if it's a real western shop you're paying a premium but you never really to buy from them as there's always a good knockoff or Chinese brand store within a close vicinity.

As for the job, like I said I've been here for over four years and I really enjoy it. The hours are light, the pay is great compared to the vast majority of others, and management is pretty good. Any time I've had issues or needed something management has always been open to listening and tried to provide everything they could. Initially when a new teacher comes they're given training for a week or two based on their experience and confidence which includes observation, co-teaching, and proper training from a few teachers who have been doing this for years.

As I said I've only been working for the kids center for only a year, but during this time I haven't had any 2 year olds in my actual classes as they have what are called warming classes (Chinese teacher run classes which prepare kids for being a class without parents until they are of age, or for children that need a bit of time to adjust to being in a class without their parents (it's a big step for kids)).

As the school is part of a business they do have demos for prospective customers which most teachers will do so the parents can see your teaching abilities and in general introduce their children to you. For the most part it's usually between five and ten children but it can reach up to a maximum of twelve children. I've never had or heard of more than twelve children in a class, but like I said I've only been here for one year so I'm not sure what had happened prior.

I hope this answers some of the questions raised. I think it's a really good school, and the city gets a bad rep due to it constantly being compared Beijing which is so close, but all in all it really isn't that bad. If anyone has questions about the city or the school in general I'd be more than happy to reply to any questions you may have.

Right I can tell you straight about King's English for kids Tianjin because me and my partner used to work for them!

Let me give you the facts. DONT WORK FOR KING'S!!!

King's say they have a friendly working environment in their schools, an easy schedule of 25 teaching hours with no office hours and foreign management. All of these are false.

There is one foreign manager for the entire company. He's an ultra arrogant pom guy called J[edited] P[edited]. You will probably talk to him in your interview and when you arrive but you will NEVER see him after that. Each branch of King's English has a chinese principal and academic manager who have no sympathy with you at all. You only have a couple of foreign teachers per centre so you hardly ever see other foreign staff.

The schedule at King's is really bad. Teachers work weekday evenings then on saturday and sunday for 12 HOURS and teaching up to 5 classes! Much more than your contract says. You only teach a regular english class half of the time. The other half is spent doing demo classes with 20 kids and their parents. Most of the time these kids are between 2 and 4 years old. The english classes have mostly 2 3 and 4 years old but you also have to teach maths and science to 5+ year olds using a really bad curriculum. So basically it's just a complete nightmare to teach at King's! The chinese staff and the rest of the school don't care about their students at all, it's just about getting money. Plus if you have a sick day it's unpaid and they take about 10% of your salary for that month. They only give you time off in the chinese holidays so no vacation at all.

With Tianjin- it's not bad but it's expensive to live there and the people are not as friendly as other parts of China because they are all in the city to do business and make a quick buck. If you want to see real chinese culture you need to go somewhere else for that!

Hey Travis Tianjin is cool. I've lived here for 3 years and I'd say it compares well to most chinese cities. For sure there's bad air but that's everywhere in china and asia! I don't know about king's english but they seem to have many schools around the city and an adult school called compass. If you wanna play it safe, stay away from the medium sized chain schools! They care more about money than anything else. Go and work for a university- it pays better and besides its much easier than running around with little kindies all day!

he said some crazy stories about teaching 2 year olds

The vast majority of 2 year olds do not have the social, emotional or cognitive development to handle a classroom environment particularly an ESL style environment. However, it is increasingly common for training schools to offer pre-school classes (2-4years old), primarily because they can get parents to pay for them. I've even heard of some training centres trying to teach 2hour classes to groups of 3 year olds - stay well away from anywhere that displays such an obvious lack of understanding in regards education, it's likely to be just the tip of the iceberg!

As a teacher considering working in a place that offers pre-school classes i think it's best to ask yourself the following questions

1. Do i really want to teach kids of this age group? This age group is going to be a bit like marmite - you either love it or you hate it!

2. Do i have the relevant qualifications/experience to teach this age group? CELTAs, TESOLs, etc. are all sound qualifications that many ESL teachers have. However, they are aimed at teaching adults. While a lot of the skills from these courses can be transfered to young learner classes (6-12 years old), teaching pre-school students is much, much different. To quote Sir Ken Robinson "a 3 year old is not half a 6 year old".

3. What training/support will the school give to you for this age group? Again, it's very different from teaching "kids". If the school won't admit that in the first place then they have already failed you and the students.

I would exercise some caution on this one. One guy I know works (or did work) for them in Tianjin teaching kids and he said some crazy stories about teaching 2 year olds and that the management are so rude and unhelpful. Also Tianjin is not such a great city. If you want to see the real China you should go to the heartlands!