Hello Internet. This will be my first, and likely only post. I'm writing to share my experience with EF DALIAN (School 2) during the 2013 year:

While my time in China was spectacular -- an experience I will never regret -- this certainly was due to the other people I met there, and the after-work laowai community. EF, itself, was heavily bureaucratic, and stifled the teacher trying to plan their own creative lessons. While the workshops could be seen as 'helpful for professional development', often times it was just corporate bullshit that we needed to listen to as employees (not teachers). Yes, the "school" was, as I found out the hard way, actually a BUSINESS, FIRST. Classroom management and student learning came second, at EF. All that mattered was "students yelling English"; a loud classroom was seen as a good classroom, regardless of whether students were actually learning anything at all. The atmosphere that was created was of a very colorful and fake production line -- Disney at the factory -- where students in small colorful rooms (with cameras watching, overhead) would be encouraged to yell English erratically.

Further to this, students with drastically different English skills were placed in the same class -- some of my High Flyer kids couldn't speak a word of English, and others could have conversations with me. In one of my Small Star classes, children as young as "almost 3" were put into a classroom environment and expected to participate.

Besides the horrible and money-driven classroom composition, we were also expected to teach repetitive demo classes on short notice, and engage in all manner of sketchy marketing campaigns -- such as lurking outside local state-owned schools to try to get kids to come get "tested" in our van. Often times, it was clear that I was a gimmick; I was a white-faced entertainer to attach to the EF logo -- a curiosity, or a showcase exhibit, at a zoo.

The most harrowing experience came, however, when I had a violent and uncooperative student in my class. The student would jump on the desk, punch other kids in the head, and run around and cause mischief. I talked to my British DoS, and he told me "good luck with that" with an apathetic, smarmy chuckle that was presented as a joke, and yet clearly not a joke at all: nothing was done. The next week, I invited the mother of the student to come into the class while it happened (in hopes she could help discipline him), and even while she sat behind him -- perhaps this even empowering him more -- he would continue to misbehave, aggressively. I gave him three strikes, and on the third time he jumped on the table, laughing at me -- so I removed him out of the class, telling his mother "when he's ready to play by the rules, he can come back into the class". His mother was angry at losing face, and after my class my now-very-professional DoS wanted to speak with me. This is when I learned that I was to take the student back into my class (that I didn't, in fact, have any actual agency with my classes). EF was a business, first, and EF wanted that horrible student's parents' money. And that was that. Classroom management and learning of the other students didn't mean a damn. A similar instance with another uncooperative, highly disruptive student happened again. I, once again, received no support from my DoS (whom, in fact, reprimanded me, again!). I realized that I was not supported at EF, and so when the opportunity came for me to leave, I did so on a moment's notice with no hesitation; I no longer had any loyalty to the school, the DoS, or EF, as they didn't have any for me. Overall, the corporate, bureaucratic, and business-first aspects of my time with EF left a very bitter taste in my mouth about English teaching. I've now gone back to school to become a real teacher, and not just an employee of an English factory.