Guess which part of China's history best represents the work environment at English First China?
After losing my job in early 2009, I began to seriously consider teaching English in China, something several college classmates of mine had recommended I do if I ever found myself professionally stagnant.
Initially, I applied to a children’s school outside of Seoul, South Korea — and was almost immediately offered a position starting April 1. I ended up abandoning that gig in the 11th hour, though, thanks to a massive fluctuation in the value of the Korean Won, which nearly halved the U.S. dollar equivalence of the salary I was promised.
It wasn’t until August that I considered applying to English First China. While browsing jobs teaching English in Japan, I clicked a sidebar as that read “Teach English in China” and arrived at the EF home page.
Unlike the majority of ESL job postings online, language school English First’s website was organized, informative and beautifully-designed. It explained in crystal-clear detail what I could expect from the application process, upon my acceptance as a teacher, after my arrival in China and on the job. Enthused, I submitted my application immediately.
I didn’t hear anything for the first several days, but within 48 hours of EF’s response I had a job offer and placement in Shanghai. I hope this isn’t too good to be true, I thought as I clicked the “Send” button above my acceptance email, signed contract attached.
As you can probably guess, it was indeed too good to be true. Although English First Shanghai is far from the worst place I’ve ever worked, little about the company — save for the clean, modern Swedish design sensibilities of its centers — separates it from any of its multinational competitors.
The Good
I like to start with the positive whenever I can, so I’ll begin by telling you what was good about my experience teaching English in China with EF.
English First was always on-time (sometimes even early) direct depositing my salary into my Bank of China account, which the school set up on my behalf. By contrast, many smaller English school have a reputation of being late paying teachers. These school sometimes even cease operations without prior notice.
Additionally, I was promptly reimbursed for expenses I incurred during the application process, such as obtaining my online TEFL certification and Chinese “Z” work visa. English First also facilitated the conversion of my work visa into a residence permit, providing me with a work permit, medical examination and a transfer to the office where I had to submit my paperwork and paying all associated costs.
EF’s “welcome package” was also excellent. My liaison Apple met me at Pudong Airport and escorted me to the four-star Rayfont Nanpu Shanghai Hotel, where EF had prepaid a two-week stay for me. Before Apple left, she provided me all the materials I’d need to start with the company the following Monday, including instructions as to where to meet her colleague, who’d be taking myself and my future colleagues to orientation.
Overall, English First’s strong suit is that it has money, which it uses to make sure teachers’ bare necessities are covered.
The Bad
Of course, this doesn’t mean that teaching English in China with EF pays well. Sure, the 12,350 RMB or yuan per month (about $1,850 when I arrived in November 2009) is enough to live a relatively comfortable life in Shanghai, and probably a slightly more comfortable one in Beijing, Guangzhou or Shenzhen, English First’s other main cities in China. You could also save quite a bit of that money if you wanted to. Unfortunately, this sum isn’t enough to both save and spend, which is one of the key reasons people move to Asia in the first place.
Unlike the majority of programs in Korea, Japan and, increasingly, in China, EF doesn’t offer you accommodation or reimburse you for yours. My modest, one-bedroom in central Shanghai ran me 3,000 yuan (or about $450 at the time) per month, coupled with around 700 yuan (about $100) worth of utilities. I spent about 200 yuan ($30) per week on groceries, 50 (about $7) on order-in food to the office and 100 ($15) filling up my Metro card. In other words, my recurring (and modest, I might add) expenses totaled 4,050 yuan, or about $625 per month — about one-third of my pre-tax salary.
It’s also important to consider the issue of tax, since China uniformly taxes expat employees in this income bracket at a rate of 20%. In other words, my take-home pay was only 9,880 yuan per month, which means that nearly half of it was gone before I even got paid.
Shanghai is much more expensive than the rest of China, unless you eat exclusively at local canteens and avoid drinking almost entirely. I had to live even more frugally than I had the previous year in the United States to meet the modest savings goals I’d set.
It’s also worth noting that unlike many other schools through Asia, EF China doesn’t reimburse you for your flight up-front. Rather, it pays you monthly installments of a set, 8,000 yuan ($1,200) employee transportation allowance that doesn’t come close to covering the actual cost of a round-trip ticket from anywhere in North America or Europe to China.
The Ugly
You might notice that I haven’t mentioned much about my work environment yet. You know what that means: it sucked.
As a disclaimer, I will say that I loved my students more than you can ever imagine. I was lucky enough to teach adults aged 16 and up — I was placed in what EF calls a “SMART” center — so I actually had a chance to develop several personal friendships that I cherish to this day. My students showed me parts of Shanghai and China I’d never have been able to see otherwise. For this alone, I am forever emdebtted.
That being said, EF is surely not the only English school in China with good students.
Unfortunately, it is one of the worst managed places I’ve ever worked. I’m speaking about my work location in particular: The EF “Megacenter,” the company’s national headquarters in Shanghai’s People’s Square district.
Friends who worked in other English First centers throughout the city and country, teaching both kids and adults, had varying reactions to their workplaces. The vast majority of them were as disappointed as I was. This was particularly true for kids’ teachers, who were unwittingly forced into working two six-week sets of seven-day work weeks during EF’s seasonal “Summercourse” and “Wintercourse” modules, without overtime pay or time off in lieu of worked weekends.
Back at the Megacenter, several irregularities irked me. First and foremost was the issue of “Feedback.” About half of a given SMART teacher’s schedule is composed of four-person (or less) “Face-to-Face” classes. In addition to low student-teacher ratios and personalized instruction, the primary benefit students reap from taking these classes is individualized instructor feedback within 72 hours of class completion.
Being the overachiever and generally good worker than I am, I made a point of entering feedback immediately after each Face-to-Face class. I got zero recognition for my promptness — by comparison, all but a couple of the other teachers were chronically late. To add insult to injury, I was also made to stay in the office during unpaid “office hours,” even though I was finished with my work. Because of this, I ended up being “at work” approximately 50 hours per week, while getting paid for just 25.
The Megacenter being EF China’s national headquarters and all, I shouldn’t have been surprised how frequently corporate visitors from Sweden pressed their faces up against a given classroom’s glass walls and observed my classes like they were science experiments. Although my immediate supervisor was white enough to take a seat inside the classroom during each of his periodic observations, he used his quarterly conferences mostly to remind me that he didn’t personally like me very much. The subject matter of these conference only tangentially related to teaching or learning, and usually focused on matters of office gossip.
Curiously, he also scolded me for my wardrobe from time to time, despite the fact that I was the only male teacher to adhere to the dress code, which required a belt, tie, dress slacks and a shirt tucked into them. He’d chide me for wearing shoes he considered to be too “fashionable” with his belly hanging out from his open bottom shirt buttons.
To make matters worse, English First keeps the Megacenter unbearably hot in the winter and unbearably cold in the summer, making for an incredibly uncomfortable workplace. Technology-wise the center was also lacking, a problem I imagine is much worse at English First satellite centers. Computers both at teacher desks and in classrooms were sluggish, resulting in regular delays in class starting time for which teachers usually took the blame.
Hate sales? I don’t, but it got really fucking old have to put the EF logo on every piece of content I produced for my students, as well as having to use official product and course names whenever I mentioned any linguistic concept even nominally related to them.
Alternatives to English First China
EF’s main direct competitor in China is Wall Street English, a decidedly more corporate-oriented language school that have at least as many centers as EF nationwide, if not more. Wall Street has a reputation of working its employees even harder than English First — 34 classroom hours per week vs. 25 — but also pays significantly better, in addition to a rent-and-bills stipend each month. Like EF, Wall Street is a multinational company, so it’s conceivable you could take your job to another country if you make it long enough.
Once I’d finished with English First, however, I had no desire to work directly for someone again. By virtue of my friend Kyle, who worked for British Education Ltd. at the time, I was able to procure several high school-aged students as private clients, eventually making as much per month as I’d made with EF working only half the time. This kind of arrangement is ideal if you’re experienced or adept enough that you don’t have a problem making lesson plans from scratch. It’s also important that you be OK with working under the table since you might not have your residence permit any longer.
Canceling Your English First China Contract
If you’re unhappy being employed by English First language schools, you probably have a lot of concerns right now. Namely, that you’re “under contract.” First thing’s first: The only thing you need to do to get out of your contract fair and square is to provide your supervisor written notice at least 30 days before your last planned day of work. End of story.
But what about my residence permit? What about it? Although EF drones will tell you otherwise, you are under no obligation to allow them to cancel your residence permit, regardless of whether or not they paid for it as they did mine. Thanks to the country’s Stone Age information technology infrastructure, Chinese authorities are unable to cancel any entry document without physically having it in their possession. To this end, Chinese immigration officers are usually too busy with other issues to bother tracking down teachers who quit their jobs a few monthly early.
Of course, your residence permit will eventually expire. Still, you can stay in China if you so please. Simply obtain a Chinese tourist visa in Hong Kong.
After you’re out of EF’s grip, Shanghai (or wherever in China you’re based) is your oyster. Ample opportunities are available both within and outside the ESL industry. Or, if you’ve managed to save money, you can get on the next plane out and never come back.
About The Author
Robert Schrader is the author of 255 posts on Leave Your Daily Hell.
Robert founded Leave Your Daily Hell in 2010 so that other travelers would have an entertaining, reliable source of information, advice and inspiration at their fingertips. Robert has traveled to more than 36 countries since he got his first passport stamp in 2005. Want to travel more often? Subscribe to email updates today!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi ! Your article headline certainly cathes the eye , and led me to read your ´serious warning´ post. I am currently employed by EF in Qinhuangdao . I´m sorry you had such a harrowing experience in Shanghai , where i imagine the pressure is much greater than it is working in a smaller city . I had to honestly disagree with much of your post . Keeping an open mind that how everyone percieves a situation differently , i would like to make a few comparisons in our EF experience . I earn half of the salary that you made in EF . It is more than enough for me . My total expenditure on food / living costs is around 2000 yuan per month . We have a free well furnished and quite nice apartment with internet connection . The only possible grumble i might have to that is the apartment being a half hour walk away from the school , although there are frequent buses for 1 yuan (10 pence) which deliver you right in front of the school . The bus stop is a 5 minute walk away from our apartment . We certainly don´t pay any tax ourselves , the salary we were promised is what we get . Like you it is paid promptly on time every month . My immediate supervisors are fantastic . More like friends than bosses . We are often taken out for a meal and a few beers . It is true that EF have a reputation for working you hard , and it is also true that the place is as much a buisiness as it is a school . We carefully check our weekly schedules and are paid overtime for any extra hours . The only things that i personally don´t like are having to wear an EF shirt supplied by the school , and having to go out of the school to do ´demo´ classes in the local Macdonalds and kindergardens around the city . My supervisors are aware that i am not at all keen on this and keep it to an absoloute minimum for me (once a month if that for 20 minutes) I can´t speak for the other EF schools in China or elsewhere but all in all EF Qinhuangdao is a cool place to work , especially if you are like me and have no previous teaching experience , it´s a bit of a baptism by fire haha ! . I can understand that you were pissed off there in Shanghai . If i had had a supervisor like yours i would have kicked his ass hahaha .
Hi there:
I appreciate your detailed response to my article. I’d imagine that part of the discrepancy between our experiences is that you are working in a smaller city. It is my understanding that the EF operations in the large cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing are run by EF corporate in Stockholm, whereas smaller cities’ operations are franchised. In this way you are even luckier, as franchising makes business practices far less consistent, in general. I knew someone who taught for EF in Wuxi, for instance, and he found it even worse than in Shanghai.
Hey, i’m currently an EF teacher working at a children’s school in Shanghai and I 100% agree with your post. I came to work for EF from a smaller city in the northern provinces with the hope that working for a larger corporate institution would offer more teacher support. Instead i was subjected to the same office politics that you endured at the Megacenter. My school director makes us stay in the office during unproductive periods in which there are no students or work to be done because she constantly has to assert her authority and remind us that we’ve been paid for a 40 hour work week even if it’s a waste of our time and the school’s resources.
Furthermore, , I’ve played witness to the racism that EF management turns a blind eye to when it comes to their darker skinned employees. If you work, in Shanghai or any other major city in China as a teacher, it is no secret that white, blonde haired teachers with European or American passports are preferred. I’m coming to the end of my year with EF and in that time i have watched 2 African-american female teachers be passed up for promotion while another African-american male was let go at a children’s center due to parental complaints of “poor teacher quality/ accent” (he was assumed to be from Africa and thus having a poor accent). – While i stated what i have witnessed, i will say that some of what took place was in fact due to poor school management. There are some EF schools in Shanghai that have the rare leaders that enable their teachers/employees to have a beneficial working relationship in Shanghai. Unfortunately, these EF schools are rare. Since I’ve been a part of this organization I’ve watched 10 of my peers end their contracts before their year was over because they became infuriated an frustrated by the management and organizational system that is EF.
In the end, the job itself is very easy. The kids are manageable and the classes can basically teach themselves. The major problem is EF’s organizational management. You come to Shanghai for this company thinking that they’re organized and supportive, and very quickly you’re reminded that this is a FOR PROFIT COMPANY that does not care about its students or its teachers, just about its REVENUE.
Mars: Thank you for your long and detailed response! It’s good to know that I’m not alone in feeling critical of EF’s tactics. Please pass my article along to any former or current co-workers!
I have just joined EF Shanghai as well. I’m not really enjoying my time with the company. I feel stuck already as I’ve taken their 10,000 loan and used it on an apartment. I might have a job lined up in a country I actually want to be. If I disappear and leave China, what are my odds of getting sued or getting myself into international chinese law trouble?
Thank you for any information you could provide.
If you leave China and never come back I doubt you’ll have a problem, but the question is this: Do you want to never be allowed back into China? It’s not guaranteed that this would happen, granted, but EF has very close ties with the Chinese government, particularly in Shanghai. If I were you, I’d pay the loan off any way I could, then GTFO. As I recall, during the first three months of employment, either the employee or the company can cancel the contract with or without reason.
Robert, thanks for the response. I’ll do just that and roll out of here.
I’m with iahan here. I work for EF in Shenyang, and have done for years. A totally different experience to the one you guys are describing in Shanghai. I would suggest changing the title of your post to ‘EF Shanghai: a serious warning’.
I sympathize with you, having gone through a hard time there, but I also feel that posts like this might put off potential teachers from joining schools like ours outside Shanghai, which is not really fair.
I assume, by your article, that you did not request current teachers’ contact details from the school to which you were applying. Had you done so, you would have been able to find out before making a move, about the working conditions, cost of living, staff turnover (I know it is very high in the schools in Shanghai), professional support, etc.
Amidst so much conflicting information that can be found on the internet about EF (and other language schools), I just wish I could extend this advice to anyone considering moving abroad to teach: Contact current teachers at schools to which you’re applying. This will allow teachers to make a much more informed choice about a particular school/city.
Duncan,
I appreciate your feedback! In fact, I did request information from a teacher at EF — and he never replied! I suppose I shouldn’t have gone on the brand recognition of EF alone (that’s what I did) and maybe that’s my fault, but I didn’t have any other option.
I was training as a PE teacher (in the UK) and wanted to teach English abroad instead (long story), although I’m not looking in China and I understand like all things reviews will be different, but your post here actually hasn’t put me off. I would love to know your usual line of work before then.
I am not exaggerating but in comparison to a regular day on a teaching practice here in England that seems not too bad. They use to consist of work literally from 8am to 10pm and weekends seemed non-existent due to lesson plans, unit plans, lesson evaluations, standards evidence, resources to make. And regarding respect, mentor are generally nice (although I can think of a few, one even put me off teaching PE entirely by the end) but even then there are jokes about how far down the hierarchy trainee teachers are compared to everyone else. I also relate to you about working hard and getting nothing for it as we use to do so much and they would just say it is an expectation of us anyway. Oh and to note we didn’t get paid, in fact we paid them for having us (hint for why I’m in £29,000 debt).
Oh and as for technology I learnt before the end of my first 6 weeks teaching practice that anything involving technology you make about 6 back up plans
And that is in England, I would have absolutely no expectation in a developing country I’m half expecting just a blackboard and chalk lol.
So thanks for the heads up and it is food for thought, and I most certainly will do a full check up on the school before signing (that was fully recommended on my TEFL course anyway), and I put it to you… trust me I’m sure it could be even worse
Interesting insight, Carly! By comparison most U.S. teachers work 7 a.m. – 3 p.m., only work 9 months per year and have relatively state-of-the-art technology — the ones not affected by recent budget cuts, anyway. I didn’t actually personally work as a teacher, though.
I suppose for me, tangible circumstances notwithstanding, the worst part was the coldness and the attitude, which was difficult to deal with. Glad you’re still interested!
Hi Robert.
What was the selection process like for you? Did you have teaching experience beforehand? They seem to demand the experience, and say it is a government criteria, but I don’t think that can be true.
I suspect that chain schools like EF, WSE, Shane etc.etc. are all much of a muchness. Business first, a deeper love of the process of learning etc. a distant second!
Mama
Mama, I had some teaching experience but not ESL — GRE/SAT test prep! They demand experience, but I know plenty of people who had none!
Thanks Robert. Great website by the way!
Well I’ll do an interview with them next week, and see how it goes! I’m a linguistics major, and I kind of worry I’ll succumb to the workplace politics that goes on in such organisations, and be forced to kiss the asses of people who are very effective at delivering TEFL lessons but really know jack about English. Desperate to go back to China, but a Chinese friend of mine in Shenyang wants to start her own English school, and have me as an investor/teacher. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea! Anyway, thanks for your response. Toodle-pip!
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I so wish I would have found this article before willing signing up to come to hell for a year! I work at EF Jinzhou and it is really pure hell. However, I will say the positives are that we do get paid enough to save and live very nice on, and we are always paid on time.
BUT THE BAD!!!
I actually have a sign posted above my desk for all the management to see that says MY SIGNATURE IS NOT A PAW PRINT (basically meaning that when I signed my contract it was not with a paw, I am not a dog. I signed it with my hand) Our management is disorganized. I feel as though there are alll these different entities working under one building and no one wants to try to work with the other. There is serious favortism to other teachers. Our school barely has enough desks for the staff, not enough cupboards for everyone to put their stuff. I gave up part of my cuboard just so that two new teachers that came could get part of desk space back. Computers are constantly breaking down, with no hurry to get them fixed, and we finally just got a new printer to replace the black and white one that was refusing to print!!!! I have NEVER been more dissapointed in a job then I have working at EF Jinzhou. I would never reccommend anyone come to China to teach at an EF school. I know there are other school (non EF) who are a lot better to work for. Without all the office hours. Which I don’t understand at all. If we have our lesson plans done what is the point of making us sit in the office for no reason! I do agree with the people who said the kids are great I love them. I, also like Robert put forth 110% in the beginning. I would talk with parents go out of my way to make classes enjoyable, and they never had to fight with me for lesson plans. You can work your heart off and nothing will be done to show appreciation, except to make you feel like when you signed your contract you put a paw print there instead of a human signature!
Marna:
That sounds terrible, but it is not surprising given how EF operates in China. Please pass my post on to anyone you know who is considering employment with this awful company. I hope you get out of your contract soon!
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