English Language Schools in Hefei -- Which ones are good employers?

[cbm010]

Thought this might be a good forum for information about employers of english teachers/tutors.

Good point made in other thread about going rates for English tutoring with native English speaker -- 150 RMB.

I taught a semester of english at Wanbo Academy on the western outskirts.  They paid 100 per "teaching hour" --
45 minutes.  This they said was a special rate and in consideration they would pay not transportation or taxi fees.

Wanbo is a long commute if you live in town.  60 minutes or more during rush hour. 

I had to get this job through "guanxi" without a contract.  Everything verbal.  I suspect they are not allowed to hire "foreign experts"
according to new rules laid down by the labor bureau.

Wanbo paid on a strange schedule (to me) which applies to
all of their teachers:  no pay for the first two months!  Then the "floodgates" open and they start paying your
salary with the 'satellite delay' of two months. 

This scheme, for the MBAs in the house, is a great one for the employer, who gets to 'float' the receipts from the
students and collect interest etc without having to pay teacher's costs.  Also the teachers cannot split at the end of
the semester (at least not too far away) because they have to keep coming back for two months to collect their pay in person.
No scarpering with the overhead projector etc.

The only other tip in my brief career teaching English:  watch out for the euphemistic "ke shi" or teaching hour
as opposed to the hour that every rational person thinks about -- 60 minutes.  For example:  "we pay 100 RMB per hour". 
After decoding this statement, they mean:  we pay 75 RMB per hour.  In other words, to gain your 100 RMB
you have to teach 4x15 minute time periods.  But a class only lasts 3x15 minutes.  Hence only 75 dollars. 
During the shuffle between classes (10 minutes or more) you do not get paid.  Cheapness thy name is China.

Anyway -- anybody have similar stories and information, I invite you to share it on this thread.  Cheers!

[majiren]

Yeh, all I can say is always take care of your own visa. You never want to be in the pocket of some english school!

There were many stories on the old hefeiexpat, now gone - i think we can start a fresh. Though fuck english corner and a man called "lou Li" !!! never work for this company rczegi knows what i am talking about

Now stories;

lets have them...

[rgeczi]

About working for Li Lin (English Corner), I'm 4 1/2 years and still going for that company.  No problems concerning salary or passport (I do my own thing).  Others had some problems with him though.  My experience has been mostly positive.

[kaibo 开 博]

Kaibo's Quote of the Day: "Faithfulness predetermines rewards".

If you prove yourself and provide excellence in customer service, then they have little to argue against you with.
We may be a minority, but we are not above any common business denominators.
Business is business after all!

A teacher after all is a servant and not a master, as some may think. If you think you are a master, then perhaps you have forgotten what it was like to learn and therefore, may have great difficulty to communicate the learned functioning.

If you maintain a humble attitude it can go a long way and then when you have been screwed for a year, it is then time to screw them because you then have proven credibility and performance based records.

The Chinese expect that, I may run my race but my customers vote with their pockets, they sign up based on my committment to excellence and to customer service. The school provides the business medium, whereby I may demonstrate my level of committment & service.

In my experience, that is a battle which is fought not only on the international ESL scene, but also on the international employment scene. When you have the proven track record you have a negotiable quantifier, until that moment you have very little or even nothing.

Furthermore, to add to that, there are 'teachers' and then there are 'teachers'; teaching being more than a profession, is a 'gift to communicate one's experiences', be it academic or appplicative & experiential knowledge, that the receiver may thereby gain some intrinsic value and improve his or her chances to succeed in life and in career.

The teacher must be realistic to his or her abilities and rather than proclaim his or her expertise, let the demonstration of applicable logic speak for them and in-turn the appreciation of the receiver reward them with subsequent better and improved contracts and conditions.

This has been my experience in China and I ascertain, perhaps also Mr Regeczi's.
I could always hope for a little more, but generally speaking the servant is not above his master, even though in life we would like to think so.

If we were the master, we would not be knocking on the door asking for a job.
Isn't that the truth!  "Here! here!" replied the independent masses.

The best organisation is the one you formulate in your own heart and soul and if you serve that to the best of your ability, then the rewards will come monetarily and socially.
If not, find a better arena that rewards & appreciates effort.

I agree with Mr. Rgeczi's (strange name-nice bloke) implied comment; 'service commands respect'.
Stick at it and good things will come and a happy medium will suffice the day.
After all, nothing in life is perfect!

Stay tuned for more of the "Philosophies on Life" & "ESL Social Protocol in China" by Kaibo

It's gotta provide a little entertainment value at least!

Have a nice day folks!

[Aussie Mike]

You guys know my pet gripe with Blunderverse (aka Bluniverse).
Well they're still screwing with me.
To get a Z visa renewed, you need a reference form completed by your previous employer, especially now with the big O coming up.
I had my new employer approach Blunderverse for the reference I required.

3 points they need to comment on.
1. Teaching quality; My reference here was good.
2. Teaching Experience; My reference here was good.
3. Co-operation; My reference here was not so good.

This caused the process to be delayed and stopped.
I needed to get another reference from them so I contacted Yellow directly who passed it on to the HR girl who wrote it.
I went directly to their office and asked if they really believed that I deserved this rating especially considering I promoted them for so long until they started to play stupid games with me as well.  They played on getting foreigners to break their contract so they didn't have to pay airfare, travel allowance and a months pay which totaled to approx 24,000RMB.

Well, I wasn't going to let them do that to me and stuck out the contract to the end.  I did get a 500RMB fine for not turning up to a class they rearranged but didn't tell me about, but I did get everything else. It took till the last day before I had to catch my plane to Australia though.  That was a tough battle.

Of course this was the reason I was labled "Non-co-operative" even though they continued to change every agreement we negotiated in the contract.

Finally, my new school was allowed to take full responsibility for employing me and had to submit their own letter of recommendation to the FEO.
I'll let you know what happens.
They gave me another reference

My advice is, AVOID them at all cost, go to another country if you have too, they are not worth the hassle.
If you don't believe me, ask any of the 20 foreigners they employed last year or any of the few foreigners they've had this year.
The average time for native speaking foreigners this year seems to be about 3 months.

[Tim S. Mercurio]

2006-early 2007 expat teaching rates

university : 4,500-10,000 rmb a month
college : 3600-6,000 rmb a month

private class: 60-80 rmb an hour per student/child,adults, 70-100 rmb


late 2007-2009 : 110 - 140 rmb an hour
early 2010 -- 2012 : 120 - 150 rmb an hour

all these are on average based salary and market rates for expats in or around anhui,Hefei

all other provinces and major cities differ,



IF you are asked a job for 80 rmb or 100 rmb an hour ,LAUGH at THEM!
tell them that the going rate as of 2010 has risen to 120-150 rmb while any if not all major companies 200 -300 rmb an hour also,depending on qualifications,environment and circumstances , this does  not include taxi fee how ever, negotiable on classes and terms.

HEFEI will try to screw you and cheat you all newbies esp.

I AM WARNING TO NEVER TAKE THEM .plain and simple , any person in hefei who had been living here as long as i had should know or atleast done their research.

[mtm]

Has anyone heard of Hazel Yin ESL?

The advert reads as following:
About Employer:
Employer Name: hazel yin esl
We are an excellent and professional education organization in ESL field run by an experienced English teacher called Henry Zhou in a key high school to provide one-stop service for native speakers who want to find an excellent job vacancy across china.
Work Location:
hefei
Job Description:
Teacher needed in Anhui ,Hefei city

[Aussie Mike]

I've never heard of her but i did a search.
A few things came up but basically it seems that she is just a new recruiter for schools for anywhere in China.
I only found 4 results, so she's likely to be very new.

All her adds are the same introduction.

The jobs are probably legitimate but contact the schools to be sure.

[rgeczi]

I want to re-visit something Tim mentioned a couple of posts earlier.

I agree that the going rate for foreign English teachers should be higher than what it was before.  Just to lay it on the table for everyone, when I first came to Hefei, my per hour rate to teach in schools was 100RMB/hr.  After that first year, I changed schools and went up to 120RMB/hr.  A year after that, 130/RMB/hr.

Then a few year later, it was bumped up to 150RMB/hr.  This seems ok or whatever, but actually it's not.  If you factor in inflation, the salary is actually less than when I first came here.  The reason why is because food prices have soared since then, and housing prices have pretty much doubled.  I remember paying 700RMB/month for a 2 bedroom place in Hupo, which at the time was a nice place (now kinda dingy in my mind), and it was loaded with furniture, multiple air con units, and so on.  Not to mention it was first floor.  Now, there is no way to find something like that in the rental market.

What I am trying to say is many of "us" are simply underpaid now, when you consider what we first started at.  It doesn't help when schools lump foreign teachers into one pile, regardless of experience, in terms of pay.  And private classes, forget about it.  You won't get what you are worth, AT ALL.

Ranting over, thank you for listening.