Ni Hao!

I thought that I should chip in with my Enfly experience, in the interest of a balanced perspective- and because last year, I was in a similar position to some people reading through the forums; trying to find out some impartial, real world experience from the company Enfly Education.

Generally, whether it's TripAdvisor, at a restaurant, or on Glassdoor.com (like TripAdvisor for businesses), people will only feel compelled to write a review or voice an opinion if they believe they've been mistreated or received sub-par service:

Whilst I'm in not disregarding the experiences of other individuals, I can only offer the primary and secondary perspectives and experiences of myself and my colleagues.

I'll preface this a little advice to anyone looking to start teaching in China, with Enfly or any other company- In China, you get out what you put in.
If you’re looking for a decent bursary/pay packet, relaxed hours, and low effort, then you can probably tread water for a while until someone calls you out on it.

However, if you want to make the most of your time here, you can enjoy the first 2 options, but also remember that you’re here to give students a valuable insight into how the West really is, without any filters/rose tints etc. You’re mainly teaching them how to use English well, whilst maintaining enthusiasm and enjoyment in your lessons.

The benefits of this are pretty cool- your students adore you and make your job a real pleasure, your co-workers respect you and make your life easy, and you can go home after your lessons and feel proud of what you’ve achieved. There’s also the added benefit of performance based-bonuses each month, in case you needed more incentives.

I only run between 13-16 classes per week, including my sketch club which I run as a fun extra thing on Friday afternoons, there's a ton of free time to get your lessons planned and prepped, learn some Chinese, do your TESOL qualification, see the sights, try the cuisine, hit the gym and still have time to hit the well priced bars. It's the dream.

Remember, though, that this isn’t the West, the concept of face matters a great deal in this culture- you must put your best foot and your kindest/positive attitude at the forefront whenever you are out and about, if you’re not in the city, it’s very possible you’re the first foreigner that these locals have seen in months, years or even their entire life.

Don’t be a nob, and you’ll flourish.

I’ve been living and working as a middle school student teacher in a town roughly 45 minutes from Chengdu since August 2015, there are 5 other foreigners living in this small town (300k+ people), so we’re still quite the novelty (I occasionally get to pose for pictures, asked to play sports, join people for drinks etc.)

The apartment that Enfly/the school have set me up in is grand, it suits all of my needs and more- a real bonus!

We all work for Enfly, for a variety of ages, and the general consensus is that we’re very happy with the company- most of us often recommend them to our friends and family (I’m still working on converting my English friend, he teaches Maths at A level with his head of History wife; we often compare our lifestyles, and whilst it’s often a case of apples and oranges, I totally prefer my apples for now!)

The teaching itself is often a pleasure, I can’t speak for people in other parts of Sichuan, but the students in our town are really cool- the high school students will offer to help you find places to eat, and join in your football (soccer) match if you join one of the local teams. I’ve noticed that quite a lot of my students are really interested in English, and their ability often outpaces that found in the textbooks that some of us will teach from.

Personally, I was given textbooks for both my grade 7 and 8 classes- though I make an effort to plan my lessons in such a way that the core content is covered, but in a more engaging way so that the students can experience the different learning styles that Enfly covered with us briefly on the training week.

The training week was a positive experience on the whole- it felt like quite hard work at times, but by the time we’d finished, I felt ready to try my hand at teaching. However, it has to be noted that what was lacking was actual hands on experience teaching children, as opposed to running demo lessons for an audience consisting of Enfly staff, the trainers and my teaching peers.

I’m under the impression that Enfly is already looking into improving the training week further in preparation for next year’s new arrivals.

On the whole, I’ve found that Enfly are very accommodating, especially if you approach problems first with a can-do attitude and if you make a real effort to get a solution before asking for help- Josh, my initial point of contact, was very helpful, positive and knowledgeable; he set the stage for the excellent local staff in Chengdu.

I get the feeling that Helen and the other Enfly staff really do care about our wellbeing, and they’re often happy to chat and catch up on things, and are just generally cool people!

I can’t really recommend this company enough for someone in a similar situation to me, if you want to hear more, ask for advice, tips etc. my email should be attached to this post somewhere..

Good luck!