Currently there are many great teaching opportunities in Xi'an China. I'd like to tell you about one to stay away from at all costs: Gallop International English. I worked there part time and would like to share my story with you so that hopefully you can avoid this school. The school is located on 10th floor, Tiancai Building, No.169 North Jinhua Road.

The owner of this school is a husband -BBC (Big Boss Chin) and wife-Mrs. Wang team. The husband used to sell motorcycles, then switched his career to training schools. Overall the school itself is run pretty well, salaries (read below) are paid on time and classes are taught with a Chinese teacher to help with the language barrier. The school has a dark secret though, how the owner actually makes his money.

The school grants what is called a foreign experts certificate. It gives foreigners certain rights, such as you can be payed in your country's currency. The big advantage has to do with cars though. If you are a foreigner with this certificate you can buy any car you want in China TAX FREE. Cars in China are heavily taxed, especially luxury automobiles, sometimes by as much as 150% of their sticker price. This is why for example, in Canada where I'm from, an Audi A6 might cost you around 60k ( I don't know exactly), but in China the same car might cost you 200,000 Canadian! So you can see, with this certificate you can basically get a mercededs benz at half price in the Chinese market. It's a good deal.

This is how the owner makes his money. He issues foreign expert certificates to his teachers, then buys cars with them. I know this first hand and I'll tell you how I know. I was issued a foreign expert certificate by Gallop International English and I was told that I couldn't have it, that it was the schools property(for those of you who work there, go ask BBC, he wont give it to you). I later found out that this is completely false. It's issued by the Chinese government to the foreigner. It has nothing to do with the training school, they dont issue it (I'll expand on this below if you are interested). So what he then does, is take your foreign expert certificate and purchases cars for people in the south of China WITH YOUR NAME ON THE REGISTRATION. THIS MAKES YOU AN ACCESSORY TO A FELONY CRIME IN CHINA.

I know this because I, and several other teachers were approached and asked if we wanted a cut of the money (10,000 RMB) for the transaction. He explained how this whole deal worked to us. When the teachers declined, he just said it was a joke and laughed it off. See, word had gotten out and he was getting nervous someone would squeal. So remeber this, you are ingaging in felony activity that will get you prison crime if he ever gets caught and you are implicated. Trust me, this guy would sell you out in a second if it would save his own arse.

Below, I will discuss the other problems with the school (And expose the many lies they will tell you).

Salary:

Now he pays his teachers about 4,000 kuai a month with apartment and a bonus of a plane ticket at the end of the year. This is teaching about 25 hrs a week but includes office time (5-10 hrs/week)and different advertising events and speech competitions. That's what they won't tell you. Is that infact you will work much more than 25 hrs there, much more. Say in a non exceptional week maybe you will actually work 35 hrs total. All the non-teaching hours are not paid.

Now an average contract there will look something like this:
1)4000/month salary
2)Bonus after year contract 8000 kuai
3)Apartment(with room mate)500 kuai per month.
(3a)Apartments he rents for you cost about 1000 kuai per month in Xian =1000 kuai/month then divide by 2 because you will have roomate.

(Per Month actual total pay)

Equals to 4000(salary) + 667 (bonus divided by 12) + 500 (rent : 1000 x 12 / 2)= 5167 /month

Now with a 35 hour work week you are getting 5167(salary) /140 hrs (month) = 36 kuai per hour.

This is absolutely awful pay in Xi'an or China. The low-end, average wage in Xi'an for part timers is 100 kuai with no experience. You are absolutely getting robbed!

Teaching jobs are so plentiful in China (and Xi'an), there are so many training schools, you can get work anywhere, there are very few foreigners living in Xi'an, so you are in high demand. So if you take a contract with Gallop international English you are being screwed.

What will happen to you there and general lies told by the school:

Fines: Now, Gallop English loves to fine their teachers. At the end of the month you will simply get your paycheck, minus a bunch of fines. You can't argue with the validity of them, you just get the money taken from you. These fines can range from 100 kuai to 1000 kuai. This is a cost cutting scheme they have put into place so they don't have to pay you your full salary. They do this every month with even the Chinese employees. So you can subtract that from your salary as well.

Overtime: In your contract it is said you will get overtime pay for extra hours. This happens sometimes but very often they find a way to get out of it, and say some of your work wasn't overtime. But really, remeber, you are already making substandard wages, even with a small increase you will be making far less than the average wage in Xi'an. And often fines are given to take away the overtime on top of it.

Threats and Lies: Now the owner BBC has instituted a system of lies and threats to keep his teachers in line when they begin to get dissastisfied. Below are the most common ones with a rebuttle.

1) BBC (The owner) can blacklist and deport you. This is absolutely false. First of all there is no black list. This is a common lie school owners will tell ignorant teachers in China. Gallop International English didn't let you in the country (see below), the Chinese government did. He runs a fine line with the visa office, they can revoke his status of having foreigners work for him at anytime. The Chinese government is allowing you to work and live in China, not the training school. Especially if the teachers begin to complain to the Visa office, it's the school owner's ass, not yours. If he had the power to blacklist anybody, he's be in the Politbureau in Beijing talking to Hu Jintao everyday.

2) Gallop International English owns your visa : This is a total lie once again. As stated above the Chinese government grants you a visa. It is a contract between you and the visa office who grants it to you. Gallop has absolutely nothing to do with your visa. They just ask for a visa for you at the Visa office, thats it. Gallop and the owner BBC absolutely cannot revoke your visa. They are not the visa office, only the visa office can do that.

3) BBC and Gallop can revoke your visa : Absolutely not true. Again, the Chinese government granted you that visa and only they can take it away. Here's something to remember: The only way your visa can be revoked is if the visa office who issued it has it in their hand and you are there. This is the only way It can't be done with a phone call.

3a )There are two reasons, and two reasons only that the Chinese visa office will take your visa away: 1) you engage in criminal behavior in China; 2) You get your visa under a false identity (your name is Bob, you say you are Rich). Quitting your job is not a crime! BBC will tell you it is.

4) Gallop International English has blacklisted teachers before. Again, absolutely false. They can't do it (see #3 and 3a). and also there is NO blacklist. This is a story to intimidate the teachers and make them fearful. There have been several teachers who have rejected Gallop, and quit and are still in China. Several still live in Xi'an!

5) Gallop International English will send the police after you if you quit. You guessed it, false. The police only come after you if you murder someone. Several times, The owner has had the "police" come in and tell the teachers that if they didnt finish their contracts there will be problems. See in China, what the owner does, is he pays off a buddy who is a policeman, to come in and scare everyone. Remember, police in China are not the same as in your country. Infact, they are there to make sure there are no problems for foreigners.

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful both for present and future Gallop employees and all teachers in China for that matter. You can see the type of environment Gallop International English is and the truth behind what the crooked recruiters and slick advertising really is. There are good training schools in China and Xi'an, don't get suckered into working for this one for all the reasons stated above. And for those of you there now that want to get out: go ahead, it's ok, you'll be just fine. People quit hty're jobs everyday in China.

Have a great 2010!

-Mitch