we have to be competitive in our market. here as in the west, the laws are often written to make it difficult for the little ones to compete with the big ones, so little ones have to start cutting corners too. if you dont have CNY5mil to invest, you are unlikely to get the necessary licences to operate 100pc legally, does it mean people who care about teaching have to carry on working for organisations who don't care just because wwe can't afford to compete legally?

I applaud your honesty and I agree with your appraisal.
Foreign citizens that choose to work at private English Language schools in China should be aware that they usually have accepted employment with an organization that is not operating "100pc legally" and often does not have the necessary "licences" to hire foreign employees.
These prospective "foreign teachers" of English should also be aware that neither the school nor their agents will disclose these facts to them.
Despite your refusal to give Turnoi "much credit", this is precisely what he has been saying on this board for the past few years, albeit sometimes with a surfeit of emotion.

First, i'd like to warn everyone against giving too much credit to any of what "turnoi" writes on here, he is obviously a sour individual with too much free time on his hands and comments on people and companies he has never dealt with personally. Most of his comments are general and dismissive of an industry and people that are indeed more interested in money than anything else, still not everything should be dismissed in block with no regards for the integrity of some.

regarding meten, it is admittedly not a very serious institution. but their methods and standards are in tune with the other 3 in the "Big 4" group; hard selling, little expertise, cutting corners, etc...

after you have spent a few years in china, you ll be able to put things into perspective and think that overall meten isnt the worst place to work at. i did enjoy sitting with students before lessons, most of their teachers are decent individuals (regardless of their teaching ability) and it's up to you to do your research and understand the law before you get involved with any organisation and people.

we have to be competitive in our market. here as in the west, the laws are often written to make it difficult for the little ones to compete with the big ones, so little ones have to start cutting corners too. if you dont have CNY5mil to invest, you are unlikely to get the necessary licences to operate 100pc legally, does it mean people who care about teaching have to carry on working for organisations who don't care just because wwe can't afford to compete legally?

I did part time work at Meten--I would never attach myself to them via a Z visa.

The Good:

--Unlike many training schools, Meten paid reliably. The salary was laughably meagre, but it came in the promised amount, on the promised date. It's funny how I would never have considered this as a 'pro' for any job before traveling abroad (they paid me! They really paid me!)...but this is actually a remarkable level of professionalism for a Chinese owned & operated organization.

--They can and do sponsor Z visas. You probably have to twist their arms to get one, though. I refer you to my earlier comment.

--The books are, from a pedagogical standpoint, 'okay.' It's not EF. You do not just click through an idiot-proofed PPT.

The Bad:

--So. Freaking. Cheap. What do I mean by cheap? On my first day, I sat down, looked up my classes, found the corresponding book lessons, and decided that I would mix in a filler involving improvised activity cards. Off I went to the printer to grab some scrap paper. Alas, there was no paper in the bin, so I asked a staff member where the paper was kept.

'You have to ask Trisha for it,' she answered. I assumed Trisha was in charge of inventory...so off I went to find her. She smiled, reached into her desk, and produced a key. I followed her to some cabinets, where reams and reams of paper were locked up like gold bars in Fort Knox. The following conversation took place:

'How much do you need?'
'Excuse me?'
'Papers. How many pieces of paper do you need?'
'Um, four, maybe.'

She then slowly counted out four pieces of paper, no more and no less, and handed them to me.

That is what happened within my first 15 minutes as a Meten employee. I later learned that 2 black markers are entrusted to every Meten teacher every month (usually, neither of them has much ink), and that my students and I would freeze our butts off in the winter because no one was allowed to switch on the heat until about mid-January. This is a company that charges students 400RMB or more for a class with a white monkey, and the management is meticulously doling out every piece of paper the teachers get to use in their lessons. It's not as if there isn't a hilarious BS 'line of reasoning' for it, though:

It is all to save the environment. Meten really does care about Mother Earth.

--To go along with the cheap comment, the salary isn't even peanuts. Also, you work 'office hours', so you will end up sitting around all day just to kill time.

--Unprofessional sales staff. This is pretty much true for any training school in China, so its probably not entirely fair to throw this barb at Meten. I really did want to strangle a bunch of them, though. Imagine being halfway through a 50-minute lesson with 4 beginner-level high school students. Now, imagine the damn door opening, and your idiot 'colleague' from the sales department marching into the tiny room with two people, announcing that they will sit in the class. No, she didn't think to bring in chairs for them (durrr), so there is at least 5 minutes of people running in and out of the room while chairs are collected, followed by the shuffling of your class (who's parents are, again, paying 400RMB+ for the lesson) in order to fit everyone into the TINY classroom. Oh, yeah, and the 2 observers have advanced-level English, so (a)they glean nothing meaningful at all from crashing your lesson and (b)
ruin it for your students by shouting out the answer to every question you ask ('You can conjugate 'to have!' I am so freaking proud of you!!!!').

Excluding one-on-one courses, I can count the lessons I taught at Meten where this DIDN'T happen on one hand. Also, expect those stupid fishbowl classrooms.

--I met one ESL teacher who flew to Meten from the US to work for them full time. They first flew her into Shenzhen for training, then had her fly--at her own expense--to the city where she would teach. She had to pay for her own accommodations while in Shenzhen, and was given no allowance for hotel stay in the city where she relocated. As Meten also lied to her about how much her start up costs in China would be (3-6 months rent up front, agent fee, deposit), made her pay for her medical check, did not tell her that she would be responsible for FUNDING HER RELOCATION ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY, and did not give her the first paycheck until she had been in China for 6 weeks...well, she ran up some real credit card debt. I would be POed if that happened to me. I might also add that her residence permit was illegal (she was registered in Shenzhen, and worked in another city. This is a common tactic among ESL franchise schools, but that doesn't make it legal, and it doesn't mitigate the potential risks to YOU if the authorities crack down on it.

Meten isn't the worst training school in China, but it is a pass.

No perhaps about it.We have it on good authority that they are indeed the work of a german islamic linguist who knows (or thinks he does)how to bend his writing style at(one for o,shei) the drop of a dumpling.

Perhaps "one and the same poster"? In fact, they are not. But who the hell should care what you, Mr. Nobody, believes?

that John O'Shei and the Punisher are one of the same poster.

Meten has been known for being a shit place to work in the past 8-9 years, and anyone who knows China quite a bit also knows that it's highly unpleasant to work for a rubbish training centre like this and that you will hate your life if you sign up with them.

Nothing seems to have changed there, so you better stay clear of that place as other posters have advised as well.

I have been interviewed by Meten in Guangzhou and offered a job, sadly I cant really seem to find any recent reviews about Meten on here.
The majority seem to be about 4/5 years old.

So I am wandering if anyone on here currently works there or has worked there in the past year and what their experience was like. Sadly with the reviews I am inclined to decline my offer and wait it out for another opportunity.

Really hoping someone can help me in this area. Thanks.