me
- 2013-05-26
Funny how you say that the visas are not illegal. That the Chinese government changes it's policies and that best learning adapts accordingly. First off, if you work in China (teaching) on a F or L visa or student visa, that's Illegal. Secondly, it's a requirement to have at least two years working experience in order to get the proper temporary residence permit. Do any foreigners know how to report these companies? I know no one really cares, but I hope there comes a time when a foreigner can actually take these companies to the cleaners for illegal activities. Which in theory you can do with the proper permit (working visa) but good luck with that also.
[name]
- 2013-05-11
As for the owners of the company, I have not had much contact with Jacky and Larry. They do come around to the centers and like to know every employee. They are both very friendly and thankful for our hard work.
...When? Larry has spent the past 6 months+ out of the country...
John O'Shei
- 2013-05-05
This is such a badly written piece of advertising that I might print it off and use it as material in a writing class for my more advanced students.
The structure is just priceless... I used to help Chinese friends when I was studying at uni back home with a little proof reading of coursework. No matter how good their spoken English, there were certain things that they could just never get right.
Ha Ha
- 2013-05-03
They are both very friendly and thankful for our hard work.
Of course! You make them rich!!
The owners have been very nice and pure to us employees.
Pure!?
BL Employee
- 2013-05-03
As a current Employee who has been with Best Learning for two years, I feel it necessary to write a response to this inaccurate review about Best Learning. I have learned and gained a lot of knowledge from working in Best Learning. Best Learning is a Chinese company, so things are run a bit differently from how we, from the west, are used to. Best Learning is a fast paced environment which will give an employee experience in how to adapt and work in an international environment.
There is a fairly large amount of newly graduated employees that come to Best Learning. Most of these newly graduated employees have had previous work experience or internships in other companies. When a new employee comes to China to work for Best Learning, they do provide visas, help with resources on how to find an apartment, and a very comfortable salary.
These visas are not illegal. If these visas were truly illegal, the government would not issue these visas to Best Learning employees. The problems with visas arise when the Chinese government changes rules and regulations. These changes happen quite often, and are something that a foreigner in China needs to learn how to adapt and adjust with.
Best Learning has a special team that stays up with the constant regulation changes, and does everything to their ability to make sure every foreign employee has the proper visa according to the employee’s situation (education background, age, etc). In the three years best learning has been in operation, never once has an employee been deported or not been able to get the visa that he/she requires.
Concerning the curriculum and how Best Learning operates, it is true that the children are hard working and tired. This is why Best Learning is in business. In China the demand for a well rounded education is necessary. With a population of over 1 billion, the parents don’t allow much time for the children to relax and play in order to keep their children ahead of everyone else. That is where Best Learning comes into play. We teach the children in a way that is fun and active. The children should not be sitting in the same spot for more than 15-20 minutes. We have lots of activities and games that are all in English. The kids have fun and don’t realize how much they are learning in a Best Learning classroom. They don’t realize they are learning because they do not feel like they are studying but instead enjoying classroom activities! My students enjoy coming to Best Learning, because they feel it is an escape from their strict classrooms in their regular Chinese school.
The entire curriculum at Best Learning is from the United States. It is all McGraw Hill curriculums. The students here are studying what the students are studying in America. The students are able to learn the curriculum much faster here because they have already studied it in their regular schools. American curriculum is a little bit slower, and less intense than the Chinese standards. Therefore we re-teach the students in English. Most of the students at Best Learning have no problems keeping up with America’s curriculum standards in the 6 hours a week they are in our classrooms.
As for the owners of the company, I have not had much contact with Jacky and Larry. They do come around to the centers and like to know every employee. They are both very friendly and thankful for our hard work. They do will do many nice things for their employees. For example they allowed randomly decided to give every center free coffee machines where we can have coffee and hot orange juice for free at any time we want. This is a very nice perk, as it is a very Western beverage, and very expensive here in China. The owners have been very nice and pure to us employees. I do not believe they are liars and cheats.
In my opinion, whoever wrote this email clearly had a bad attitude and wrote this in order to “get back at the company” because this person was most likely fired because of their attitude. Judging by this review, this person is full of lies and not somebody that any company would want to be represented by. Best Learning has been very good to my coworkers and me. We get our pay on time every month. We get many bonuses. We receive paid vacations, and are treated much better than at other English companies I have worked for in China. I am sure if you have read this review and are unsure about coming to Best Learning, the person interviewing you will be happy to answer your questions.
Dragonized
- 2011-09-01
You do have a point. I was thinking more in the lines of people who are classified as being from "native" speaking countries. The teachers who are from the Phillipines aren't categorized as native speaking teachers, yet. To be fair this categorization isn't a good judgement on the part of people. However you are right with what you say about them in general, at least the ones in china. The ones I have worked with are always the quickest to run from a problem or issue, spread rumors at work about expats, and kiss up to the criminals who run these "schools". They may think it's a good excuse to justify being from a poorer country and how they must put up or how lucky they are, but they should look at the people in china who actually do stand up for themseles (Chinese and Foreign).
San Migs
- 2011-09-01
I have met a few canadian GW types, but also lot's of perfectly decent canadians. Ditto for americans.
I am still with silverboy the ones who annoy me the most are the phillipino female FT's who have a legitimate contract at one school, and then work for cash at a kindergarten thus breaching their first contract.
They justify it by being poor and needing to send money home, but most of them are far from poor, with galaxy tab's, a penchant for designer goods, and eating and living generally very well.
Dragonized
- 2011-08-31
As an American, I must say that the worst GW's in China are definitely Americans, with Canadians coming a close 2nd. I think that the "great" society that is the USA which drugs up and values traits for success as that incorporated into personalities of psychopaths leads to making a population that is absolutely spoiled rotten and self centered. It's so pathetic they have to go to china to leech off of unsuspecting college graduates.
[edited]
Spring Flower Lotus Blossom
- 2011-08-31
This is what I expect that all private ESL businesses in China do, and of course by that they are not decent schools but garbage pretend "schools"!
"He has also arranged a fake TESOL certification course for which he charges US$300 from each of their new victims. HE splits this with her but takes the lions share. He and Jacky together with Michael K are complete scum, theives, immoral, lying, cheating, malicious, and viscious (I have seen this from personal experience as they do hurt people and refuse to pay salaries if you are not 100% subservient and obediance is not open seen). They fired a very highly qualified man with a PhD who seriously cared about the teachers and students and challenged them. THey stole his salary, made life very difficult in documentation for him to get another job, were malicious, and tried to get him arrestred by the Police... who they pay regularly"
I totally and completely agree with the following from 'The Whistleblower' and I would also like to add that Larry (one of the owners) makes regular visits to Allestra Recruiting to see the owner with whom [eidted] (not commonly known but I am inside their company and in a position to know!) and has a [edited] agreement with her (for the moment I will not reveal her name) for recruitment. He has also arranged a fake TESOL certification course for which he charges US$300 from each of their new victims. HE splits this with her but takes the lions share. He and Jacky together with Michael K are complete scum, theives, immoral, lying, cheating, malicious, and viscious (I have seen this from personal experience as they do hurt people and refuse to pay salaries if you are not 100% subservient and obediance is not open seen). They fired a very highly qualified man with a PhD who seriously cared about the teachers and students and challenged them. THey stole his salary, made life very difficult in documentation for him to get another job, were malicious, and tried to get him arrestred by the Police... who they pay regularly (I'm an eye witness to this) and threatened him with gang/hired violence. I hope he's okay as he is a great teacher anbd someone with a soul and morals. I have not heard from him since so I cannot tell what has happened. The information about Mikey K an exemployee of Disney English (who fired him for dubious practices and he was generally hated whilst he was 'working' there) is all true.I have seen this pathetic mans viscious nature and malicious and psychopathic behaviour.
Please stay away from Best Learning, they are very bad people. They prey upon the new graduates and those who are desperate for a job, then then catch them in their traps. The result is that these new employees have to be bailed out by their loving parents of suffer paying a lot of money and living on the next to nothing that remains. They don't even get their full salary as it is claimed that the deductions are Chinese Government Tax, these deductions never get paid to the Chinese Government they go into the pockets of the owners who, of course never declare them.
Parents, Colleges, and Universities DO NOT LET YOUR NEW GRADUATES HAVE ANY DEALINGS WITH BEST LEARNING OR ALLESTRA RECRUITMENT. THEY WILL GET HURT.
BEST LEARNING SCAMMERS - JACKY (Chinese), LARRY(Chinese) AND MICKEY K (US Citizen from [edited], I believe)
Do NOT apply for or accept an offer from BEST LEARNING Schools
especially from the corporate office in Beijing.
This school is a scam: They prey upon new US graduates with very little or no work experience and offer them suposed legal visas, a salary, help with accommodation, and a move into a lucrative career in ESL Teaching. This is a contrived ploy to sucker the unaware into signing with them and coming to Beijing. Once in Beijing however...
The visas they do provide are NOT legal, you are NOT allowed to work in China, they trick you (young people, new graduates) into coming with "we will help you with a loan to get a beautiful apartment, don't worry we'll take care of you" it is a loan that will be taken back straight away leaving you with nothing from your already small and inadequate first salary and you will be asked to sign legaly binding documents that are enforcable in China that will cause you to be arrested upon breaching them, if they so choose. They pretend to offer education to Chinese Students through their parents of FULL USA Curriculum which they claim they successfully teach to non-english speaking Chinese children (young learners) in an amazing 6 hours per week AFTER they have studied all day and are tired from their own REAL school work. BEST LEARNING (Jacky, Larry and Mikey K[edited]) lie, cheat, trick, decieve, swear blind that they are legal and in the mean time are paying corrupt Police Officials to stay quiet about their illegal immigration and work/illegal company operations. Their ONLY goal is to make as much monrey as they can and sell out fast ! (Words from the horses mouth!)
If you get caught in this scam you stand the risk of arrest (highly likely!) detainment, and then deportation (at your or your familiy's expense or be jailed!). They also take 'TAX' from your salary which quite clearly as you are an illegal immigrant are not declared to the Chinese Government and so pocket it themselves.
The ownwers are called Jacky (Chinese), Larry (Chinese) and an American called Mickey Ko_hn who claims to have committed crimes that he has the connections to get away with as Larry's [edited]. This is probably verbal diarrhoea but the simple fact that he truly believes he can get away with anything and any crime makes this Mikey K[edited] a very dangerous and pathetic [edited]. Information about Mikey K (4 letters): An extrucker who has pulled a lot of scams by his own admission and hurt people with his friends if they don't obey him. He likes to tell everyone, "Hey, this is China we don't care we can do what we want as we have the connections". Also, "Hey, this is China who cares about copyright, we'll just get all our books copied and everyone can go 'F**k' themselves, we can do whatever we want!"
STAY AWAY FROM BEST LEARNING COMPLETELY
PS: IF ANYONE KNOWS MIKEY K AND IS LOOKING FOR HIM, INCLUDING THE FBI, ETC. HE'S AT BEST LEARNING, DATUN LU AND ANLI ROAD, BEIJING. SEE THEIR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS!I SINCERELY BELIEVE HE IS WANTED FOR [edited] ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES!