Also, to “EF Rocks”, I find your comments are pretty much invalidated from the moment you chose your screen name.

It is also unfair to tell incoming teachers what to expect from an entire franchise based on one positive experience at one school. When I taught in Japan, I worked for a franchise that is one of the most respected in the country, yet I was placed in one of the worst schools they had, and promptly fired when I refused to work for my racist school director and asked for a transfer.

When it comes to most ESL, you’re playing with fire. It could end up some great, life changing experience, or it could be the worst year or more of your life. It all depends on sheer, dumb luck.

The teaching contract was very biased against the teachers. There were ten places that penalized the teacher for breach of contract and of course no place that penalized the owner of the school for breach of contract. The school owners were constantly trying to get the teachers to do extra work that was never outlined in the contract. The contract would never be tolerated in a western country. I know one teacher that refused to sign it.

Most of my serious concerns at my school are aimed at the school owners who managed it rather poorly. Promoting people with few qualifications did not help. Charging teachers four times more for rent than locals pay is another issue. Everytime the owners tried to pull a fast one, the teachers would always find out and this would lead to more friction. The DOS would swear at the owners on a regular basis.

If your an optimist you’ll probably like working at EF. Teachers were always paid on time in cash. I’d give them a score of 2.5 out of 5.

The staff of my school have been leaving EF like rats from a sinking ship lately because of the combination of incompetent, selfish, negative managment and increasingly difficult working conditions with no extra help or rewards for our efforts.

I think if you find a good EF school it can be a great intro to teaching; you can recieve a lot of good guidance from your DOS if you’re lucky, or at least from other teachers. Some schools are currently implementing a new system involving smartboards with pre-planned lessons on an intranet, which might be great, but is still in its early stages. one thing I can say is that I have learnt a lot about office politics and how NOT to manage staff from their example.

I would advise all teachers looking to come to china to do their research: there are other options, and all have their pros and cons. Do not allow EF to screw you over on visas, flights and housing- these are popular sore points, particularly at the end of your contract (as I am currently experiencing) they will give as little as possible and wave you off without even a thank you for the year of your life that you put into their school.

Dear all,
The EF China management team would like to wish you all a happy New Year and thank you for your service throughout 2008. The Year of the Rat was an eventful one for EF and we should be proud of what we’ve accomplished. It was a year of spectacular growth for EF in China and the world.
首先，EF中国管理团队预祝大家新年快乐，同时感谢大家在2008年的辛勤工作。2008鼠年对EF而言是重要的一年，我们一起见证了EF在中国以及在全球范围内的迅速壮大，对已获得的成就，我们感到非常自豪。
We have begun 2009, however, in a turbulent time with world economies in a very difficult state. We are certainly lucky to offer a service that is even MORE necessary in challenging economic times — people need education more than ever in a tougher economy. However, it is extremely important during this period for us to focus on one of our key core values — cost consciousness — and streamline operations in order to maintain our competitiveness in this challenging global economic environment.
我们已进入2009财年，尽管全球经济形势非常低靡，但同时市场对培训的需求也更加迫切，我们有机会为消费者提供他们比以往更需要的语言培训服务。然而成本控制做为EF核心价值观之一,和精简运作在这特殊时期显得尤为重要，它有助于保持在巨大经济环境压力中的有效竞争力。
As a result, we are making the following changes to our compensation and benefits programs:
基于以上原因，我们对现有的薪资福利等计划做出了以下调整：
Annual Salary Increase
In the last quarter, we have made significant savings by restructuring, reducing headcount and streamlining departments and key functions. Going forward we want to minimize any need to reduce headcount to the extent we can. At the same time, the inflation rate in China has dropped significantly over the past year and analysts project a 0% increase in China’s consumer price index for 2009. As a result, we have elected not to give salary raises this financial year. In addition, the senior management team has decided to reduce their compensation and benefits to help lower our cost structure. For EF teachers and Directors’ of Studies, new hires and contract renewals will follow a revised scale effective February 1, 2009. The academic teams will organize separate meetings to detail the changes. These decisions will allow us to maintain a stronger financial and strategic position.
年度调薪
在上个季度，通过重组、缩减人员、精简部门及工作岗位等方式，我们已卓有成效地降低了成本。在未来，我们将缩减人员的可能性减少到最低。同时，鉴于中国的通货膨胀率较去年有显著下降，及经预测2009年消费者物价指数增长将为零。因此，我们决定在本财年取消调薪。另外，高层管理层也决定减少他们自己的报酬以支持公司渡过难关。 对于EF的教师及教学总监，新进及合同续签的员工，都将参照自2009年2月1日起生效的新修订的薪资标准。学术组将会另行组织会议对此进行更详细的解释。这些调整将有助于我们保持一个更强有力的财务和战略地位。
Local Staff Social Fees and Insurance
Effective February 1, 2009, EF has negotiated with FESCO to revise the many components of the social fee and insurance package for local Chinese staff. As the Chinese social fee system is quite complicated and varies by region, we will inform those affected by these changes individually with the cooperation of FESCO after the Chinese New Year break.
中方员工的社保与商业保险
自2009年2月1日起，EF已与外服协商将对中国员工的社保与商业保险内容做出部分调整。因中国社保体系非常复杂且具有区域性，我们将在外服的配合下于春节后另行通知受此影响的员工。

Foreign Staff Benefits
We have recently been informed of a significant increase to medical insurance costs for foreign staff. As a result, effective February 1, 2009 for all new hires and contract renewals, medical insurance coverage will switch to a co-pay system, bringing us to the insurance standard consistent with most multinational companies. The co-pay amount will be deducted from each employee’s salary on a monthly basis. Spousal and child benefits for foreign staff will also require a co-pay. In addition, the standard EF flight-home allowance will be capped for all new hires made from abroad and contract renewals including a flight home. Further details will be provided for staff impacted by these changes.
外籍员工福利
最近我们得知外藉员工的医疗保费将有大幅度的提高，所以自2009年2月1日起，所有新进及合同续签的外籍员工将转为与公司共同承担医疗保费的模式，这也使得我们有了与大多数跨国企业一致的保险标准。保费共付的员工部分会从员工每月工资中扣除。同时外籍员工的配偶与子女也将转为医疗保费共付模式。另外，对所有在海外招聘的新进员工及享受探亲机票的续签合同员工，其可享受的探亲机票津贴标准将会被设定上限，具体情况会单独通知受影响的员工。

Non-essential Costs
We are reducing all non-essential work travel and are asking traveling staff to economize on their accommodation choices. We are also reducing office costs, non-essential phone costs and other discretionary costs. SKYPE is now our messaging and international calling platform and we should make an effort to use this low cost and useful communication tool as much as possible. It is important that we spend in line with the needs of our business so that we can continue to grow, but we must pull together to reduce costs where appropriate.
非必要费用
我们正努力减少所有非必要的公务出差并且要求出差员工降低住宿标准。同时，我们也在降低办公室成本，非必要的通讯费以及其他一些可控制成本。SKYPE目前作为我们日常工作沟通和国际通话的平台，我们提倡所有员工尽可能多地使用这一低成本及有效的沟通工具。依据公司业务需求合理花费是我们能继续发展的关键因素之一，与此同时我们必须齐心协力共同缩减非必要成本。

Chinese New Year
In the spirit of balancing cost reduction with good spending, we have elected to hold our Chinese New Year celebrations this month. They are much more low-key events than in previous years, though we still want to maintain the spirit of EF’s “work hard, play hard” ethic.
春节
公司陆续在本月组织庆祝新年，本着开源节流的精神，庆祝活动会较为简易，不过我们还是希望员工能够一如既往地保持EF的精神“努力工作，享受生活”。

We thank you all for working tirelessly towards creating excellent educational experiences for our customers. By focus on cost-consciousness and streamlining the organization, we help ensure that EF will remain the leader of our industry, gain in market share and ultimately emerge from this challenging global economic situation an even stronger company.
在此我们再次感谢各位全力一致为客户赢造最佳培训体验而努力工作。 通过关注成本控制与精减机构，将有助于我们确保EF在产业中保持领先地位，占有更多的市场份额. 经历风雨, 才见彩虹.相信经历过这场全球经济危机,EF将变得更加强大。

Best regards,
Melissa Lam
On behalf of the EF China management team

Melissa Lam
EF Education First
3/F Jinling Hai Xin Building
666 Fu Zhou Road
Shanghai, China 200001
office: (86 21) 6133-6018
mobile: (86) 138 189 84771
email: melissa.lam@ef.com
skype: melissa.lam.ef

Dear all,

(此信的中文翻译后附)

The Chinese New Year is upon us, and for those outside of China this means we’re moving from the Year of the Rat to the Year of the Ox. While the Rat is clever and quick, the Ox is industrious, hard-working and straightforward, and I suspect this will be symbolic of the year ahead of us.

While the economies of the world are going through a challenging period, we believe this will end up being a great thing for us for the following reasons:

1. Weak companies will fail while strong companies will gain market share. When sales fall a lot you need an extremely strong balance sheet to survive. Most small companies don’t have that, but EF does. This week a company operating under the Linguaphone brand in Hong Kong went bankrupt and made front page news. But the reality is that Linguaphone was using a famous brand name to support a failed business model with a handful of schools in the world. The Linguaphones of the world will go under and the market will become less crowded. Big companies with diversified businesses and solid balance sheets will prevail. We are in a great position to expand given this crisis.

2. Weak companies that do survive will not invest in the future. There will be some clever companies out there who manage to survive a period of depressed sales by cutting costs, shutting schools and laying off staff. But very few will have the long-term strength to continue to invest whole-heartedly in service and product development. EF is not cutting such development costs. This means that our services will improve at a dramatically faster rate than these other companies. Our online courseware upgrade, our social networking system, our new books and technology for our kids’ courses, and all other projects put into motion in 2008 are still in motion in 2009. This will mean that EF will emerge a much stronger company once sales return to normal levels.

3. Customers will buy brands they trust. Because weak companies are failing, as noted in point #1 above, customers will focus on buying trusted brands. With 40 years of history, millions of satisfied students and a diversified business that covers every language learning need, customers will choose us over less-established companies.

4. Customers need English more than ever in a tough economy. Once this period of insecurity ends, maybe 3-6 months from now, people will realize that they in fact need English more than ever. With more competition for fewer jobs, job applicants will need that little extra edge to help them get the job. For our young learners and their parents, it’s even clearer how English is vital to engage in the global economy. For many, English is that little edge. And customers will come running back into our arms as a result.

5. Customers will look for the cost-effective method. Human behavior is slow to change but external events sometimes force us to change more quickly. Our business model is based on a belief that the combination of great teachers and technology is a more powerful learning model than the old-fashioned offline model. This is no longer a question, it’s a fact, and we have 1000s of companies and hundreds of thousands of students who already know this. This adoption process will accelerate now that all customers are looking to get more for their money. In fact we see this very clearly in our corporate sales – there is tremendous demand for our e-learning services simply because they are more cost-effective than traditional methods.

So, please keep these facts in mind while you fight to keep up our sales despite the thinner wallets of our customers. While we’re facing some challenges with sales, we’ve still grown our company over-all vs. last year and several businesses are growing at a very impressive pace (our e-learning business at 50% per year, for example). Our balance sheet remains healthy and solid. Our product pipeline and product development team are best in the industry. And our customers need us more than ever.

But as the Chinese proverb says “Much talk does not cook rice.” We need to make it all happen. So let’s tighten our belts and start pulling forward to commemorate the year of the Ox. It will be a challenging and memorable year, but I am certain we will emerge a healthier and more successful company because of it.

Happy New Year,
Bill Fisher, CEO China
On behalf of the EF China management team

The EF in Shenyang is a great place if you’re not a complete twit. The teachers here are awesome, the staff are awesome, the owner is really awesome. The only thing you have to deal with here is adjusting to the fact that the air is not the best, the temperature is sometimes really hot and really cold, and that is about it.

I have been working in Shenyang for sometime now and I thoroughly enjoy it. My experience here has been top notch. For one, you get free lunches on the days you work. Second, there are enough teachers here that you don’t have to worry about overloaded schedules except during “warmers”, but those only happen when kids are not attending regular public/private school. We all get Monday off and one day during the week. During warmers the schedules are different you can talk to the staff about that if you decide to come here. We seem to have enough staff here so you’re sure to find friends. The kids and the adults are awesome. Be forewarned though, you should have a lot of energy these kids love creative and energetic teachers. As for the one of the owners that I know well she is a very kind lady. If you’re a good teacher you should get along very well.

So if you’re looking for a good experience, stay away from the EF Steve spoke of and check out the EF in Shenyang. Oh and bring really warm winter clothes for the winter and light clothes for the summer. Good Luck on your adventure!

The schools are a part of a franchise network within China and therefore each school is run independently and sometime contrary to the EF Mission statement.

My observations are as follows:

Marketing at the EF school where I am is the primary function . Education takes a distant second.

Teachers are given a 38 hour schedule with morning and evening classes.
The Director of Studies, (DOS), believes that all lesson plans should be a maximum of 30 minutes per class. Some days you work 13 hours including lesson planning.

Teachers are bused 5 days a week to contract schools as early as 8.10 AM.
Teachers at these sites teach three 40 minute consecutive classses,
seperated by two 10 minute breaks . the class sizes average 25 pre- schoolers. teachers have a Chinese Teacher’s Assistant, but it is still overwhelming.
The DOS likes to say, “the parents at these contract sites pay more than the on site classes!” , and also states: “we should not worry if many of the students learn anything!”.

Teachers then go home for 2 -3 hours before returning for night classes.
Last class ends 9:30pm. In other words you work a split shift.

Visas. For the first month I worked without a Z visa. I was constantly reassured that this was OK.
I understand from reading Chinese Govt rules regarding foreign workers. It is illigal to hire a Foreign worker, unless they have a current work visa. If stopped by Police I could have been deported.

Saying one thing doing another.
Teaching schedule is changed without due notice.
Misleading the working hours.
Being asked to sign a contract before working and without a true understanding of the hours,

Teacher skills were not considered.
Most of the teachers at this school have little or no teaching experience including myself. I am a trained Social Worker.
The common feeling from Foreign Teachers who have left this particular EF franchise is: “We are just a body to fit a time slot!”
ForeignTeachers with no previous teaching experience ar less likely to complain.
Foreign Teachers with no experience are less expensive.

Teacher materials @ this EF Franchise.
Some outdated flash cards. The slowest computer on this planet. A bad printer , and a horrible xerox machine.
This tells me that this franchise is more interested in making a “Fast Buck!” than giving children and adults a good understanding of the English language.

After all the DOS said it best when he stated:
“I can use the same lesson plan for children and adults. it only takes 5 minutes!”
I rest my case.

If you decide to pack up and leave, you will be hit with non-contractual expenses. Your final salary will be withheld and you will be asked to reimburse the school.