Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

For general discussion between teachers

Moderator: Joe

Grizzly
Rising Star
Posts: 48
Joined: 29 Nov 2015, 03:12
Status: Teacher

Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by Grizzly »

I was lured to China to teach and a few years ago and I have to admit there were a lot of things that the recruiters NEVER told me and when I asked certain questions, they changed the subject. After reading the post about the 10 ten lies of ESL recruiters in China, I decided to post these three links to save you all the aggravation and money I went through before I found a safe and genuine employer in China where I was not in danger of being deported. If I had seen these links I would have saved 6 months of my life and earned at least 20,000 rmb more. One of my employers even tried to extort me for 5,000 rmb to get my "release letter" which is needed when you want to upgrade your job. Anyway, this below is knowledge meant to be shared to reduce the number of expat scam victims in China. Now that I have an honest employer and no longer use shady agents, I am content in China except for the air pollution which is horrible during the winter months.

http://www.opnlttr.com/letter/300-china ... blacklists

http://reddit/r/chinascamcentral

https://www.scam.com/showthread.php?704 ... -BLACKLIST (Read page seven at this thread)

China is a fun place to work if you can avoid the scams and split-shift work schedules.
Hulk
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Mar 2019, 03:45
Status: Teacher

Re: Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by Hulk »

I wanted to share my experience in Shenzhen because it might be helpful when choosing a school. I worked for Meten at the Hongfa location.
Lets start with the pros:
I loved teaching and I loved the students. I lost more than 26 pounds while I was there. Ok that's about it.
So here's the cons:
I was never given my release letter, reference letter, or work permit cancellation at the end of my contract. Even after I gave reminders several times. I also never got my bonus even though I met the requirements and on a couple occasions they didn't pay me for overtime. Sometimes payday was delayed too. Also, texting me at 11:30 pm to change my schedule or just not telling me at all. Doing 4 to 5 ishows a week when we're only required to do 2. Some staff refused to help students after enrolling them. Unpaid mandatory meetings on my days off and always denying my vacation requests. No A/C in the building half the time. The HT would never say thank you for all your hard work etc., etc., etc. A couple of the FT's broke their contracts and left early. I've seen some of the LT's work just a few days or a week and quit. It has a high turnover rate. That raises a red flag. Just bad bosses. It could be a great school but it's not.
And some additional comments:
By the end we were all just going through the motions. There was always a dark cloud over our heads. It was hard to be positive and optimistic. I'd hope it's only the location I was at. Is every location this way? Maybe that's the business culture.
Choosing the right school will make or break your experience in China so think twice.
Mrdaudiqbal
Rising Star
Posts: 31
Joined: 30 May 2019, 11:22
Status: Teacher

Re: Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by Mrdaudiqbal »

I thinks its difficult to work with chinese .
Kradion
Member
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Jun 2019, 08:19
Status: Teacher

Re: Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by Kradion »

Thank you for sharing the links, I am sure it will be useful for a lot of people who plan to go to China to teach. But the funny part that Chinese people will really need to know English as based on this article golden visa in Greece or other countries and buying properties abroad is their main interest for the past 7-10 years. And to do so you really need to speak English.
tanya_tanya
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: 23 Feb 2019, 12:15
Status: Other

Re: Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by tanya_tanya »

Hello everyone, in addition to the mentioned links at the start of this thread, may I also add https://esllist.com/schools. There are existing reviews here from teachers about their experiences as well. You can easily search for a school to check for reviews.

Check out the site to leave your own reviews (it will really be helpful to other teachers or aspiring teachers) or just read some of them. :R:

Let's work together on helping each other avoid difficult situations because others are taking advantage of us, teachers. Hope this helps! :D
User avatar
Atlas
Rising Star
Posts: 96
Joined: 15 Nov 2020, 11:31
Status: Other

Re: Beware of China's blacklisted schools & TEFL job recruiters

Unread post by Atlas »

Image

You can find all the known China scammers (about 2,200) at https://reddit.com/r/ChinaScamCentral BUT, the emphasis is on the word "KNOWN" because after the bums get exposed a few times, they start changing their names and using fake alias names to advertise so when job applicants go to search them with SAFEA and CFTU database tools, nothing shows up on them! These "ghost employers" can all be traced to some veteran China fraud masters and most of them can be flushed out with just 7 questions that must be asked before you even send a resume https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkAbroadFrau ... ns_to_ask/
Look Before You Leap at https://reddit.com/r/teflscams
Post Reply