There is no argument here, we are looking at facts and facts alone will dictate people's decision to come and work at your school. Now let us look at the facts and compare and contrast the experience of working at EF and a typical university in Dalian.

EF facts, please correct me if I am wrong:

- 20 hours per week real teaching time.

- Student interview time added to schedule, maybe 1 hour per week, not included in teaching time.

- Possible 30 minute demo classes added to schedule at weekends, not included in teaching time.

- Maintenance of student files on company intranet system. This includes attendance sheets, student reports.

- Schedule changed at last minute with little notice due to a public holiday, for example they will cancel the weekend to give you the public holiday, but then add your weekend classes to your days off the following week.

- Being observed by managers, but not having the chance to observe them yourself, mainly due to having no time to observe (too many classes).

- Sub standard teaching materials that do not meet the teacher’s needs. Teachers fighting over paper, computers, books, pens, balls, colored pencils and last but not least an interactive whiteboard that hardly ever works.

- A business with the premise of being 'educational driven', but in-fact is very money orientated. This means that they will try to get their money’s worth out of you at all times, including salary cuts, trying to bump you out of flight bonuses and changing the contract when it suits them.

- No free apartment offered. They do give you a housing allowance, but it barely covers half of the rent for an expensive Dalian apartment

- Non competitive salary. A basic salary is slightly over 7000 RMB, in Dalian this is not enough. An apartment in Dalian is over 3000 per month.

- Summer and winter periods where you are expected to teach 6 days a week. This roughly covers about 3 months of your contract. Don't expect to go on a nice holiday in the Summer time. Even if they don't have enough classes to give you during these busy periods they will still expect you to come into the office and do nothing. For some people that might be fine, sit in the office and get paid for nothing, but the point is you don’t get paid any extra for that day!

- Possibility of not having consecutive days off.

- No weekend. All your friends are out having fun and you’re in the bar complaining that you have to teach the next day.

- Teaching all different levels of children on the same day. Some teachers have said that they taught one class of three year olds then 15 minutes later had to teach a class of teenagers. If you are a new teacher this can be very challenging, but not the good kind of challenge.

- Classes of uncontrollable children who when misbehave are rewarded for it! Want them out of your class? Think again, these kids are paying money and will be with you for life. No matter what they do they will always be given priority. Money talks!

Now let’s have a look at a typical University job:

- Maximum of 14 teaching hours per week.
- Marking student exams. Quite rewarding because it actually counts towards their final grade.
- Working for a place with one agenda and that agenda is education.
- Free apartment offered on campus.
- 8000 RMB per month.
- Lots of free time, so if you want to find some extra work to make money then you have that option.
- Weekends to do what you want. Let’s face it, all the best things happen at the weekend.
- If a student fails then they probably will not be coming back.
- Paid summer and winter holidays. You can go home, visit your family or even go on that dream holiday in China that you always wanted to go on, or you can even study Chinese, which is essential to your daily life in China.
- Respect from your students and the academic staff.

Conclusion:

Teaching is a job that I am hugely passionate about. I am a happy teacher regardless of where I am. With that being said, I would rather work somewhere where I can feel completely comfortable and be allowed to teach to the best of my ability. It seems that most EF teachers I have met have had unnecessary stress mainly due to contractual obligations that should not have been there in the first place. The original poster does have some valid points; however, I can only conclude that he is not a teacher at the school and is a manager. He really seems like he is trying to attract interest to his school and I feel that it is my duty to point out the facts. Now, take a look at the facts and tell me which place would you rather work for?