Robert
- 2014-12-12
For your info., it's Godzilla.
Give it up TT., your making an ass of yourself again.
Beth
- 2014-12-12
Yes, I worked for EFDL. Under good management it was a good place that set the students education as a priority, hired good, qualified teachers and treated them well. New students were correctly level tested and placed in to the correct classes for their ability. It was well organised and a nice environment to work in. After that management left, to be replaced by someone more interested in making a quick buck than the long term educational progression of the existing students, who hired under qualified tourist-teachers who didn't have a clue (or cared to learn) what they were doing, it became a dreadful place to work. And so I finished teaching the courses I was already teaching and terminated my contract. During this period I had regular, loud and heated exchanges with the new management over their shoddy practices.
The point being that for several years under good management who cared about the students, EFDL was a good school. After the change in management it was not. It varies from school to school, manager to manager and as such each centre should be judged on its own merits, not the actions of differently owned centre within the same franchise.
I am a fully qualified, experienced English teacher. How exactly does the fact I worked at a good EF and left when it became a bad EF "say it all" about me? If you are a new poster it would be very arrogant to assume you know everything about somebody from just the fact they spent a year working in one particular place... Unless, as I suspect, that comment comes from more a more personal, more biased, viewpoint... Turnoi, if you're going to make a big fuss about leaving, returning a few days later under different names really does undermine your 'grand' exit!
yu2fa3
- 2014-12-12
bottom-of-the-barrel
You can't use that expression in quite that way.
Gozilla
- 2014-12-12
EF is a bottom-of-the-barrel operation and nothing else but a scam. You worked there? That says it all.
I worked at EF Dalian under a really good DoS and while he was there is was a good place to work, when he left it wasn't and I left as soon as possible.
Beth
- 2014-12-10
Well I didn't get paid by a German construction worker in Miami years ago; but I don't assume
I would have had that same problem with all German builders who ply their trade in USA.
Since then, I have worked for a few TC's in China and have always been paid. Sounds like
you just had bad luck as I did with my German.
I've always said pretty much the same thing. If I have a bad Big Mac in London, I don't assume the ones in Scotland are just as bad!
I worked at EF Dalian under a really good DoS and while he was there is was a good place to work, when he left it wasn't and I left as soon as possible. I would no longer recommend it as a good place to work.
I have a friend who worked at an EF in Xian and loved it. They treated the staff really well, he's teaching in Germany at the moment, but he's planning to go back to EF Xian next year.
As with any franchise operation, it really does depend on what management they have in place. Unfortunately, since the departure of Alan De'ath from EF DL at the start of 2012, EF DL is now just another money first operation.
yu2fa3
- 2014-12-10
Excellent. They didn't pay me.
Well I didn't get paid by a German construction worker in Miami years ago; but I don't assume I would have had that same problem with all German builders who ply their trade in USA. Since then, I have worked for a few TC's in China and have always been paid. Sounds like you just had bad luck as I did with my German.
Flowerpower
- 2014-12-10
Excellent. They didn't pay me.
And if so, what was your experience exactly?
yu2fa3
- 2014-12-09
Absolute rubbish! The Chinese would have done nothing, and would still do nothing in 2014. [edited]
Have you worked in training centres? And if so, what was your experience exactly?
training centres are rubbish!
- 2014-12-09
Absolute rubbish! The Chinese would have done nothing, and would still do nothing in 2014. [edited]
Beth
- 2014-12-08
I think you're confusing private schools with the Catholic church. Any FT being inappropriate with a student would have been fired and turned over to the police at both of the schools I worked at during my years in China.
John O'Shei
- 2014-12-08
What's worse... When they really catch a deecher with his fingers in the choir, they cover it all up. If they get caught, they'll probably get their license to hire foreign teachers removed. No dancing monkeys equals no profits, right?
Said deecher is free to go, he will then disappear to a poorer, more rural area where he can easily just pay off their relatives, if he gets caught. Much like our Chinese grammar friend, hey?
training centres are rubbish!
- 2014-12-08
I wonder why the OP just didn't tell them to get stuffed! You are also right that in the UK or Australia if someone was stupid enough to engage in that sort of behaviour it is likely a lone vigilante ( or group ) would latch on to it fairly quickly, with a severe beating being the outcome for the offender.
That van story and your anecdote show just how twisted, sick, and depraved the minds of many Chinese people are ( I mean those Chinese involved in corporate education, not Chinese in general )
Seriously, when people come on this board trying to defend EF or any other sicko training school it makes me want to throw up!
John O'Shei
- 2014-12-07
It's a good thing that there are apparently not that many paedos in China. If you went outside schools in the U.K, trying to get kids into a van, you'd probably get your head smashed in by vigilantes within 15 minutes of parking up. Hope it didn't have a mattress in the back, Jimmy Savile style 
.
If I had been told to do that, I'd tell them where to go. Sure, I'd probably get fired, but some jobs just aren't worth keeping 
. Here's a tip for training centre teachers, upon starting give them the impression straight away that you don't really need the job (if you have any skills of any sort, then you actually don't need the job). You'll either get fired within a couple of weeks or they'll give you relatively little shit for the remainder of your contract. Just don't let them bully you, lol.
Here's another training centre horror story... At one TC's Halloween party, a mate of mine was told to hide under this table and jump out at random intervals, dressed up as some kind of monster. He told me that after about 5 minutes, he came to the conclusion that this was not acceptable behaviour for a happily married man because they were 14 year old girls in short skirts sitting at this table to play a game or something.
He got out from under the table under the pretence of going to the bathroom, grabbed himself a drink and some snacks from the table, sneaked off into the centre's movie theater, watched Scary Movie 2, had a little nap, then got up, signed out of work and went home like a boss.
Needless to say, his contract wasn't renewed a few weeks later, but I think that zero f**ks were given as he just walked straight into another job.
AnotherEXEFDLteacher
- 2014-12-07
Here is something that I wish to share, something that I was made to do during my time at EF Dalian. What I am about to tell you really highlights the sick minds that are at work in the management/marketing department of the 'school'.
The center was losing money and were getting desperate, so in a hopeless bid to get more students they set up this little scenario.
Basically, they asked me to sit in a van and wait outside schools and ask children who were passing by to do a placement(interview) test for the EF center in the back of the van. The van was just a regular van, it didn't have any special EF logo or anything.
This was one of the most humiliating things I have ever done in my whole existence on this planet.
Don't work for EF Dalian!
I thought I'd add my own thoughts to life teaching for English First in China since this forum seems to be full of people saying bad things about their employers no matter which school they work for....so here's some GOOD NEWS. I actually LIKE working for English First and since some of the teachers here have been working at EF Dalian for a few years I'm not alone.
I started my career at English First Chongqing and it was hard work and by no means a perfect experience...like all jobs, you have a boss who demands you work hard to high standards, you have demanding parents and very tiring working weeks...but frankly, I loved it and became a more mature, organized and calm person for my experiences. One thing about English First is that while I'm sure the MANAGERS have to worry about making the school profitable, the teachers are left alone to TEACH...and no just follow a text book but encouraged to analyze how and what we teach and fit it to the learners needs. But there were times where I wanted to quit because it felt like some classes just never went well no matter how hard I tried. But thank god I didn't, because I got better.
At EF Dalian, my wife and myself were welcomed and since new management took over in 2013 its a much nicer place to work. It's still hard, demanding and at times exhausting but if you really want to become a better teach and love the job this is the right school, I've honest never felt more supported and important. English First isn't for everyone, but very few people are going to come online and sing their praises, because the happy teachers are too busy being happy...