Sounds about right I worked for WECI for six month then was fired. I was told I was to fat.
The funny thing is I was thinner than when I stated working there. I think they just hire people to fill a slot and while they look for another person.

I had 3 Skype interviews prior to flying out to Changchun from Glasgow and after 4 weeks, it was decided my accent was a problem. I have had a lot of experience teaching at different educational establishments and that also includes teaching foreign students, not only Chinese, but many other nationalities, so I found this to be a lame excuse. What is terrible is that they think that is acceptable to treat people like that after spending money on flights to and from China for 4 weeks and living off your savings without any compensation. I want this information displayed about this school as it will not help anyone thinking of teaching there as they have the morals of a snake (that actually is an insult to a snake, so you can't get much lower than that). There does not appear to be any authorities that can hep either. I have only returned to the UK just under 3 weeks ago, so this experience is just recent and would not want anyone else getting used by some volatile so called language school.

Its a blog post not a letter. Again, for you to think this must be formal English or subject to evaluation reflects some lack of reality on your part. I am stunned to encounter trolls on such a well-intended website. Appalling that someone would "judge" someone else's blog post on grammar, even when that blog post is quite good compared to the millions posted everyday.

i seen all kinda misteks in blogz*&%(! why dont you get busy with your real job Martin H and stop trolling. NO ONE has asked you to evaluate their work based on grammar or usage, so perhaps it is not very welcome. NO ONE has asked you to judge the authenticity of someone's writing on here, by which to make a determination of ethnicity or national origin. In some circles of the law, not that far away, such a practice is considered racial discrimination. You even assumed that Jeff was a female, which would be gender discrimination. if in fact your grammar and usage were excellent, i would bring some alarm to your lack of real world knowledge about the law related to discrimination practices. i guess you are just too busy on here to care or take the time to read about that!! so busy because people need you so much on here and ask for you to help them. hmmmm. nope.

its a blog post, and he does not have to meet your expectations. nor does bad grammar or minor errors in usage reflect immediately some imposter is at work. lastly, no one asked you to be checking to see if each contributor is actually whom they say they are, or of the race we assume them to be. you have overstepped your proper role for a website such as this. its a blog post not a letter, nor an academic assignment, let alone, a nationality or race test. whew. you are out a line!! perhaps a major ego! get a real life, and purpose. perhaps I should say, get a real job and get busy Martin!!

Been using forever bright, the service that most FTs and travellers to china use, for donkeys years.

http://www.fbt-chinavisa.com.hk/type.html

Take a look.Either they don't know their onions, or you know something they don't?

I think you might have a misunderstanding. You don't need to leave the country every 30 days with a 6 month visa. You need to leave the country only with an L visa, which is the tourist visa, but not if you have purchased a 60 day visa. If you purchase a 60 day visa, then you need to leave China, presumably for HK, and buy a new 30 or 60 day visa OR go to the visa offices in China and have the 60 day visa EXTENDED but its only allowed to be extended for 30 days more. After that 90 days, you absolutely must go to HK to get a whole new visa, usually another 60 day visa which you would extend in the mainland for 30 days after the 60 day period!!

Now, that was being done rampantly for the last ten years, but i was in HK in Nov. 2014, and while in the hostels, i found out that the Chinese visa offices in HK were told to stop renewing all of the repeat tourist visas. So, I guess you can buy one additional, but after one, they reject you, etc. And then, you cannot get the visa in HK anymore and they tell you that you must return to your own country, etc. as my friends told me at the hostels.

They are cracking down on that pattern now, as of 2014, and many people are not being permitted to get a new visa in HK, as they once did easily.

The same with the business visas and tourist visas also.

What is the point of a 6 month visa, if you must exit every 30 days?

Keep posting photos, David.
Meanwhile, can't wait for your assessment of your holiday once you are back at home with internet and can type freely.

This,fifi,is our bathroom as I see it from the bed haha! Can you imagine what the toilet is like? No armitage shanks involved_only a hole in the concrete .I find it amusing-you certainlt cant afford to be precious.

Nice to hear about you, David.
Good luck at the barber shop.

That's really awful news. A 14 day tourist visa is of no use to get a job sorted out in China. You'd need much more time than that. However,there are some shady visa agents in HK. Maybe you should contact them all. You never know what you can get via agents until you ask them.

thanks for the advice, but immaterial really. I will never again set foot in that godforsaken place.Now that Xi has styled himself as the new emperor, things are getting, and will get worse. More are leaving than going in, YET, they still require foreign teachers:-)

Sound advice martin, but EF know it alls will never listen. I do wonder what degree the OP has, probably sports science or something totally unrelated to English.

The Hong Kong Office of the Commissioner of the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “Applicants who do not enjoy HK resident status should apply for visas with the Chinese Embassies or Consulates General in their countries of citizenship or residence.” 2014

The U.S. embassy gives the same information: http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/acs_teach.html

As in all of China, if your employer has 'guanxi' in HK there are exceptions. Private schools in Jilin have no 关系 in Hong Kong. Recruiters throughout China have no 关系 in HK.

If you leave Ohio and to come to Changchun on a tourist visa, you deserve what you get. Recruiting other idiots to follow you is beyond reproach.

All the people who say you can't get a Z visa in HK on this site are dumb children who don't understand what a Z visa is. Yes you can get one in HK. However you need to actually have a school in China provide you with certain documents. The idiots on this board probably just walked into the consulate and tried filling out the form without even a job lined up. Knuckle heads. Then they go and spread the rumor on the internet that you shouldn't go to China on a tourist visa. In some cases that is true, however some local governments require you arrive at the school first before you can be given the documentation necessary for a z visa to then be taken to consulate outside of China. LOL HK is outside of China in this regard. Haha

Not really that simple. 10 years in China on and off, and this time round NO VISAS in Hong Kong. I begged and pleaded to get any visa to let me go back, what did I get?A 14 day tourist visa, yeah, thank you China, f**k off China. That is how I got repaid for all my years of loyal teaching. If prospective FT's follow your advice, they will land themselves right in it, wallop.

That's really awful news. A 14 day tourist visa is of no use to get a job sorted out in China. You'd need much more time than that. However,there are some shady visa agents in HK. Maybe you should contact them all. You never know what you can get via agents until you ask them.

Most places will fly you to hong hong or south korea for you to get your z visa. This way you have no contract signed and you can just leave if you don't like it. So simple...

Not really that simple. 10 years in China on and off, and this time round NO VISAS in Hong Kong. I begged and pleaded to get any visa to let me go back, what did I get?A 14 day tourist visa, yeah, thank you China, f**k off China. That is how I got repaid for all my years of loyal teaching. If prospective FT's follow your advice, they will land themselves right in it, wallop.

Martin, you are now the board's new official bullshit detector.

Another Chinese writer masquerading as a "white American" in order to promote the recruitment efforts of a private school.
Her misuse of articles is characteristic of all Chinese writers of English. "the gorgeous facility" "the fancy whiteboards" "a apartment" "the homes" "the light rail" "the Yunnan province". Unfortunately, teaching determiners is nearly impossible.

I'm not sure who Lannie is talking about in his reply - the owner of WECI is a woman and she has very little contact with foreign teachers. The director of the foreign teacher department is also a woman, though they have a foreign teacher supervisor who is a man.

The general consensus is that WECI is not a horror-story school, but it's not very good either. They will pay you on time and handle the visa paperwork reasonably well (though they do have teachers working on marriage visas, tourist visas, etc.) but beyond that, don't expect much. The school is growing very quickly and is having difficulty adjusting - schedules change often, and sometimes they will not give you the full time off stated in your contract. Generally, you can demand that they give you extra time off at a later date, but I'm not sure if this ever actually happens, and they will only discuss it if you bring it up first. Classes are longer than what is implied in the contract, because it says "50 minute classes" but what they do is string 2 or 3 of those together as one class, so you actually need to be prepared to teach for 3 hours. They may hire you to teach children, or adults, mornings or evenings, etc. but don't take any promises to heart unless you have it in writing. Most teachers at WECI are teaching outside the area they were hired for and are often stressed because the school will hassle teachers who are not meeting expectations, even if it is in an area they are not experienced in.

There is very little support at the school for foreign teachers, despite what they might tell you. Problems are left unresolved for months, teachers are placed in apartments with no water, very little heat, leaks, mold, etc. When teachers complain, the management will often ignore it, tell them to fix it themselves, or threaten to fire the complainant. The management also makes an effort to separate foreign and Chinese teachers so they do not become friendly. Chinese staff are often afraid to speak with the foreign teachers in front of their supervisors, and generally refuse to get lunch together or assist the foreign teachers with problems lest they be punished. This is only true at certain school campuses (there are 6, and I'd say 3 or 4 of them have this problem). Also, the foreign and Chinese staff have 2 separate management hierarchies, and often have conflicting rules and guidelines.

The marketing staff at the school are seen as the most important group. Because of this, the marketing staff will add students to classes which don't even have enough chairs, tell you to change your class in some way, forbid the Chinese teacher (whose job is partially to translate for you if the students can't understand) from speaking Chinese, and try to force you to work on your break time. Overall, WECI has an atmosphere of defensiveness on the part of the foreign teachers. They generally wait for the school to try and overwork or cheat them in some way, then complain. Several staff members have actually gone to management to say what they like about the school, only to have it taken away or removed from their schedules. There is very little initiative and most new ideas die out quickly. Many staff stick it out for their 1 year then transfer to another school or leave China.

Now for the brighter side - because the school is disorganized and unprofessional, you can personally have a lot of freedom if you are willing to put your foot down. You can tell almost anyone "no" and as long as your class ratings are high the management is generally not interested in punishing you. Though it can be difficult to talk to them in front of the supervisors, the Chinese staff are actually very friendly, gracious and intelligent. The students at this school are generally very eager to learn (as a cheaper alternative to EF, WECI often gets poorer students who truly want to improve themselves) and a significant portion of the foreign staff is very welcoming and helpful, though some of the older teachers seem to look down on recent hires.

In total, I would not recommend working at WECI, but they won't completely screw with you.

Hi, does anyone have any experience with Weci English School in Changchun, China? Or have you heard about it?