There are two EF schools in Dalian, but both part of the same franchise. The owner is some rich woman who is obviously using the schools to [edited]. She doesn't know the first thing about education and I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't have an education herself. During the ten years the school has been opened she has made bad decision after bad decision and I am genuinely surprised the school is still open. She hired some marketing guy to be the Center Manager of her school and he used all of his skill to get the customers in, which worked at first. Unfortunately, his marketing skills were substandard which were only useful for getting the customers through the door and totally neglected the customers once they had paid. This substandard marketing focused mainly on fancy demos and events and forgot about the most important thing in a training school and that is customer retention. Keep your customers happy and they wont need all these marketing events, word of mouth should be enough. So that was the owner's first big mistake and believe me it's only the start of the problem.

EF Dalian before 2011

Originally, the owner hired an Englishman (not Englishmanabroad) to be the Director of Studies who did a marvelous job. He was very helpful and did a lot of things for the school and students, spending much of his free time at work. He was an approachable guy and always solved many of the communication problems that are often encountered at training centers in China. This guy was good! So what do you do with a good manager? You usually try to keep them happy, right? Well... The owner of the school didn't seem to think in this logical manner and decided it was time to get rid of MR good manager and did everything she could to make his life difficult. She undermined him at every opportunity and consulted EF HQ in Shanghai for advice on how to get him fired. EF HQ really didn't like the fact that this guy cared more about his teachers and students than marketing events and making the school short term profits, he was just begging to be fired, which he was!

EF Dalian 2011 - present

EF HQ needs yes men! Are you the kind of guy who will agree with everything, even when it is immoral, unethical, dishonorable, corrupt and more? Will you lie, cheat and steal? Will your best interests lie in making financial gain for your investor without any consideration for your customer's needs? If so then you are the man for the job.

I am so sure that this is the ad that EF placed to find the next DoS, because this is exactly what they got. Not one, but three of them! Let's take a look at the profiles of these fine young men.

DoSes, dossers.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet DoS number one. A fine citizen of South Africa who isn't in the slight bit racist and promotes equality throughout the work environment. He is such a nice guy that he gave the senior teacher job to his wife, he must really love her, how sweet. This guy has a great grasp of the English language and is always spending time researching grammar and spelling online. He is getting used to using comparatives and his English is certainly more better than yours. If you really want a laugh you should go to one of his workshops on a Wednesday and see how many spelling mistakes he makes on his PPT presentation, maybe you could make a drinking game out of it. This guy is such a family man that he even got someone fired so he could give his son a job, what a guy!

Let's give a warm welcome for DoS number two. He's come a long way from England to join us, you could say he's an English man abroad. Where to start with this guy? I think most of it has already been said on here so let me just reel off a list of adjectives that really sum this guys character. He is an oily, slimy, disgusting, vulgar, sycophantic, sorry excuse for a human being. Want to know more about him then read the other posts.

Okay ladies and gents, on to the finale, and I know you have all been dying to meet him, so please put your hands together for the head honcho of the teaching staff, the man with a plan MR Production Manager! Originally from England this man has only one agenda and that is keeping his sad ass in China. This guy is possibly one of the most awkward and unapproachable managers I have ever met, he is sarcastic beyond belief, even more so than I, and he thrives in an environment where he can be top dog with a bunch of sycophantic suck ups laughing at his unfunny jokes. This guy is not suited for this position or any managerial role. The amount of mistakes this guy makes are amazing. One of his more recent blunders involved hiring a British Chinese teacher and his black girlfriend. He knew that these teachers wouldn't last 5 minutes in a school full of racists (the teachers and customers) yet he still hired them. The end result was one of the teachers was dismissed after the two weeks of working there and the other will probably be leaving soon.

So to sum up, all these managers are awful and you would have a better time peeling off your skin and jumping into a bath full of TCP than you would working with any of them. I hope my character dissection was useful in your decision to not join the EF Dalian team and in case you were wondering...yes I have a huge axe to grind, but i'll leave that for my next post.

Thanks for reading!