English 1 reviews

Where to begin.... - Overworked from the beginning. They give you a week 'training' but its a lot of talk and not much else, then you're thrown into the deep end with a full schedule from the beginning. They don't seem to factor in that you also have to plan these 16 classes a week. In theory, it should be 42 hours weekly AVERAGED out over summer and winter course (we'll come to those) but it is not. I worked 45 hours average regularly. - If you're a somewhat good teacher who cares, you will be given extra work and no thanks. If you're a bad teacher, don't worry! You will get the paid as others (if not more) but you will be given only a few regular classes a week and absolutely nothing else. - Discrimination. If you are the "perfect foreigner" (white, blonde, blue eyes) you will be given extra marketing activities, demo classes, life clubs etc regardless of your teaching capability. If you are anything but, believe me, the PAs and CCs are working their hardest to stop you from doing that. - Discrimination II. As with most schools in China, there is a LARGE pay gap between Chinese and Foreign staff, not to mention that Chinese staff do A LOT more than foreigners. (Be aware if this when you start complaining about low pay, their pay is a fraction of yours.) Many Chinese staff in my school were held back from progressing to senior levels too. If a Chinese teacher acted like some of the foreign teachers, they would have been fired MONTHS before. -Under-qualified management. Do you want to make it to management instead of teaching? How do you do that? Literally stick around long enough, make it clear that you're here for the long haul, and you will be promoted to management in no time. Yep, that easy. Half of management are under qualified, and have no experience, and the school suffers because of that. The other half of management make stupid short-term decisions, and then blames everyone below them, instead of reflecting inwards. - Using the work visa to trap employees. You heard it here first, if you try to leave early because you are underpaid and overworked (other training schools pay a lot more), your visa and permits will be held against you, they will threaten to cancel them if you don't complete your contract or if you don't resign. Basically, regardless of when you leave, they will try to bully you into staying. Probably better to not be employed by them in the first place. - Money grabbing. EF may be a business, but it should be a school first and foremost. Every month the sales team are given unreachable and unrealistic targets to get new students to pay, even when every teacher is on a full schedule. Most students are on waiting lists, and classes won't open until parents group together to bully management into opening new classes (there's that short-term goal mindset). Teachers are physically unable to plan quality lessons - High turnaround. In the year that I was with EF, PAs, CCs, teachers, management, front desk all changed regularly. People came, people went and its a stressful place to work in. EF need to sort it out and figure out why people leave. - Working hours. Maybe this should come higher up. You should know that all training schools are predominantly evening and weekends. Others however, offer one weekend day off. However, during summer and winter vacation teachers are expected to have classes in the am, regular classes in the pm, and here's the kicker.... NO OFFICE HOURS. At first, you might think wow how great. But actually, lessons aren't going to plan themselves. Oh no. So what really happens is you work 12 hour long days, for no extra money at all. - Bonuses. EF offer a gazillion different bonuses. But when it gets down to it, you have to spend money on getting receipts, to avoid tax, and then they still manage to figure out how to reduce the amount anyway. TRUST NOTHING. Always check your paycheck and ask questions. Even better, don't work here. There are better training schools and jobs out there.

EF does not care about Education. They are a corporation concerned with profits and appeasing a bunch of ‘teachers’ looking for a traveling experience. If you are placed at a new school you may be the only foreign teacher there, and you may be an hour train ride away from any friends you made at orientation. EF barely lets you read the contract before you sign it once you arrive. They basically force you into a start up loan so you have to stay to pay them back. Many of the people who work there, particular the managers, are incredibly unprofessional and demanding. They took credit for my work after basically throwing me in the deep end when I went there with limited teaching experience. Watch out if you’re not American or British, because they will constantly tell you that your pronunciation and the way you use English is ‘incorrect’. A lot of the people who work there are incredibly rude and horrible to work with. They spread rumors about anyone and everyone. It was made almost impossible for me to have a social life there. Over the summer school period I sometimes worked 40 teaching hours a week (this did not include office or planning hours), which I was barely paid extra for. The other teachers at my first centre worked a lot less hours than me. I worked up to 28 teaching hours during the regular teaching times. The training is often repetitive. My first manager repeatedly said offensive things to me. I put in two complaints when I worked there and these were taken out of context, made to look ridiculous and passed on to other companies I applied to. The company does not like to be criticized. They place other EF teachers in apartments around you so you will have little to no privacy. The teachers that have been there for a while treat the offices like their own personal playgrounds and the foreign teachers often verbally abuse the Chinese admin staff and harass any staff they consider beneath them. The Chinese staff repay the favor to any staff they think it’s okay to harass. I was harassed, belittled and bullied during my time there by sections of both the foreign and Chinese staff. They are a corrupt company with abuses of power and no check and balance system in place. They conduct their own reviews on themself and no surprise, they always find that they are right and have done nothing wrong. They cancelled my transfer to a different city weeks before my contract ended, which meant that I had not organised another job in time to avoid a period of unemployment.