Still some how this link has moved from the original thread to now ranting about "silverboy" and others who have come and gone, and yet no answer or backup to the question that has been posted about "since 2005 all language centre DOS's must be local Chinese", not really interested in personal opinion or person "rants" over the current government policy, but woul dlike to know facts, or has that become so far from the trut and point of this blog site that it is not relevant anymore.

I do argee that a few people "need" this to "let off steam" but sometimes having a purpose behind a message and being able to support that purpose with actions or facts is all that is required. Anyhow that is all of my "2 cents worth", and if anyone can find or confirm that statement made that since 2005 all language centre DOS's need to be local will answer a big question and also show the clear direction of the future of ESL in PRC.

The education, either private or public, in China is most certainly influenced by the government. Private schools/centers are often owned by party members or their relatives or friends. There are current or former millitary officers that also own a share. What is more bothering is that none of them cares about brushing up in the field they've invested in. Their priorities are; 1) to control the local market 2) to carry out the party's mission.

In the end, it's all about values, authority, influence, domination of some that must dictate the pace, or they will lose their warm office seats to some democratic movement. This nation's name is extremely ironic.

Cheers and beers to CCTV, local officials and business people that are chasing their own tails :LOL

I doubt they're running from anything. I'm sure many still feel they are doing a good job. It's fairly common for companies in the private sector (not just private education) to hold one or two of these things a year. I've been to a couple when I worked back in the uk although never anywhere as exotic as Thailand. It's just a chance to get drunk and slap each other on the backs saying what a good job we've done scamming students and teachers! Keep up the good work! See you next year!

I would have to agree with you on the part of shyte schools changing their brand names since there are so many stupid, gullible parents in that country. I would say that there needs to be at least hundreds of Beijing Blacklist types of organizations acting as the de facto union for expat workers across all industries and their main job would be to scare the shyte out of any scumbag businessman working in any industry anywhere in china in order for the chinese businessfolks to clean up their act.

I will say this again and again in the future, the best possible way to at least slow this culture of corruption down in china is to NOT CONTRIBUTE anything to it. That is don't go there to work for shyte bosses, don't do any type of investments in the country, do not share the best and most up to date technology (any type whether it be light industry, heavy industry, consumer electronics, etc.), and maybe even disavow china with marketing itself overseas since it's always sponsored or influenced in some way by the Chinese Government anyway. Sometimes purely ignoring and marginalizing the place can actually do more wonders than figuring out a billion scenarios on how to protect yourself when dealing with them. There has been enough damage done, no need for more!

This is about competition and a foreign company that's taking a large part of the pie away. Moreover, this is about the education that "ought to be strictly" managed by Chinese. EF employs foreign Directors of Studies and that irritates local officials. Since 2005 Chinese Directors of Studies have been mandated and some, if not many, especially locally owned and managed language centers/schools, have replaced their foreign directors for local ones. EF has been a clear exception which hurts the local image and control over what kids learn.

The CCTV report has got a lot of truth in it, although should it be praised for its integrity? I don't think so. EF surely is a large operation and revealing its weaknesses will most certainly assist people in their future choices. However, what will the locals' choices be? I do not doubt it'll just be another crap they'll pay for. What will happen to the local business people that own EFs or any another crappy operations? They'll write off their losses, change their brand names and offer another kind of crap. Don't forget that the education on mainland is a greatly slippery field and only the ones with loads of filthy cash and connections will survive.

Cheers and beers to all the shoppers that visit schools/centers for varieties of purposes :)

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/sd/2012-09-06/100825113169.shtml

Some of you may have already seen the original broadcast of this story on CCTV 2 a couple of weeks ago but for those that haven't and for those that don't speak adequate Chinese here is a brief synopsis of points covered in the consumer watchdog style show 'economy and law' regarding the business practices of EF English First the self styled largest private education provider in the world.

The show starts with several complaints by former adult students mainly surrounding sales staff over promising on what students can achieve. In one case a recent university graduate is told that ef has contacts with major international companies and that the student will have the opportunity to be introduced to and even find a job with these companies. These students quickly see through such rubbish and seek to get a refund (one student had paid as much as 30,000rmb in course fees). EFs adverts and contracts clearly state that students can get a no questions asked refund within the first 14days. However, as the show goes onto demonstrate getting your money back is rather more difficult than that. I'd strongly recommend watching the part of the show where the sales girl firstly gives a brief English class by trying to define the terms 'reason' and 'conditions' and then goes onto to tell the student that his reason for wanting a refund is 'bullshit'. As the student was well within the 14 day cooling off period he was quite right to tell her he needn't provide any reason.

EFs sales methodology seems to be
1. Over promise / lie to the customer
2. Fail to deliver
3. Breach the contract
4. Insult the customer

The show then moves onto examine teaching standards and the people that ef employs as fts. An undercover camera takes us into a classroom with a ft who during a 40min class is said to have spoken at most 10 sentences to his students. fair enough you might say if he is practicing some kind of observation technique that will allow him to provide feedback at a later time. At the end of the class you then see the ft giving feedback to the undercover student and telling him that his level is good and he should attempt a higher level class. The teacher then returns to the office where he is expected to provide feedback to the student via the ef website. When the student sees that the teacher has given him a very low score on the website he returns to the school to confront the teacher who simply shrugs it off by saying that he can't remember who the student is.
Criticism is then aimed at the qualifications and nationality of foreign teachers at ef. Again a large part of the problem seems to be with sales staff telling new students lies, in this case that all teachers come from England, the USA or Canada and that they all hold Cambridge teaching certificates (CELTA, DELTA, etc). A foreign teacher at ef is kind enough (via Skype) to put that load of old #### to rest. The same informer goes onto to describe a shoddy interview process and a lack of basic training for staff.

The final part of the show goes onto suggest that two EFs in shanghai are employing foreigners without having the proper licenses to do so. There are general references to the rules, procedures and expectations for hiring foreign experts that are laid down by the SAFEA and it is clearly shown that EF is in breech of these codes.

The link for the video is at the top of the page. I'd welcome any addition or correction at my attempt to translate the basic gist of the show