English 1 reviews

-Low starting salary, and it goes up slowly -Teacher evaluations should be more frequent -Work on weekends and evenings -Managers at some centers act tyrannical, and there is not a good system in place to put checks on them. If you have a good manager, your life will be great, if you have a bad manager, your life will be horrible. -Management can be disorganized and has problems communicating throughout the organization, sometimes changes things too much or too often! (One communication issue: I was told that the work week is 40 hours, then I found out that our 1 hour lunch was not counted as one of those 40 hours, so you are actually required to work 45 hours a week, 9 hours a day, not 8 hours a day. It's a little thing, but it should have been spelled out more clearly, and I was a bit annoyed that I didn't find that out until after getting to China)

China can be a challenging place to work and live, so proper support from your school is essential. Cross-functional communication and cooperation can be a little tricky because the business and social culture is so different. The competition for schools is fierce in China and parents and children are under a lot of pressure to perform, which puts pressure on the staff and kids to show results that are sometimes unrealistic. Working weekends are the norm, but it's when the kids' are free to come to a private language school and therefore a business necessity; just check the schedule to make sure of start and finish times on weekends. (We are usually free by 6:00pm so can still socialise.) Six days a week in summer is difficult, but it's the busiest time for the school. You need a good DoS and senior management to make it fun and rewarding. Sometimes the local Chinese management will make poor decisions not realising the effect on international teachers and/or students. This can be difficult. Finally, the local management need to learn to plan! It can be really frustrating to be told of a new academic event within a day or so of it happening, only to realise it's been discussed and planned by the local Chinese management for weeks!