who's worked for WEB International? your experiences?

[pwilliams89]

I now teach at a public school but I'm considering applying to work at WEBI next year. Basically cause the pay is better and there's 25 teaching hours as opposed to something like 30 teaching hours for Wall Street English which is basically the same pay.

 

If you've worked there before, what are your overall experiences? I've heard some mixed things.

 

I'm trying to do the math and see how much of my pay check I'd be able to save, for people who worked in the big cities, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, how was your housing situation? Could I get a decent place, close to work, for $2000, or even $1000? And I'm talking about a single too, I'd prefer to live alone. If it ends up that $4000 of that monthly $14,000 salary goes towards housing I might as well stick to public schools. On that note too, how helpful is that apartment search they say they help you with during your first week? I've always had housing with my school so I didn't need to worry searching for my own place before. 

 

Basically in terms of teaching hours, public schools are really nice, but I'd trade for longer hours if it meant no lesson planning and smaller classes. I'm not looking for a phenomenal experience, if working at WEBI is ok, fine in general, then I could do it. I'm mostly trying to pay off school loans and improve my Chinese at the same time. That reminds me, last thing, how were those free Chinese lessons? I already go to a tutor twice a week and my Chinese is upper intermediate, so my questions is, are those classes just like survival Chinese, or would I actually be able to pick a tutor for my level and they would pay for my classes?

 

Thanks for your time guys.

[Stefan91]

WebI, stay away.

[Guest scooby]

Sure, the salary usually is higher at private language centers but that's where the benefits stop. I get it that at a public school the amount of students is enormous compared to little classes at private centers, but it doesn't definitely mean that it's going to be easier.

[歐博思]

http://www.chinaforeignteachersunion.org/2012/12/china-foreign-teachers-union-posts-esl.html

Private schools even of the same brand can have different management staff - affecting your experience. Search in this link for information about Web International in the cities of your choosing.

[dnevets]

I didn't work there myself, but I know some others that did. They liked it. Very small class sizes, no lesson planning (all pre-done for you), better than average pay.

 

One major problem with googling language schools in China is that the good reports will invariably be vastly outnumbered by bad reports - which I don't think is a true reflection of the balance of experiences teachers had. As with all topics on the internet, people who are angry about something are for more likely to want to rant about it than those that have had a good experience.

 

Another problem is that WebI is a large company with lots of schools in various cities. To a large extent, the amount of enjoyment you get from your working life there will be down to your boss and other colleagues. In one school they might be amazing, and in another they might be a bunch of idiots. I know that if I google the school I used to work at (not Web) I can find lots of unpleasant comments about it, but they are a horribly inaccurate illustration of a school where the vast majority of teachers are actually really happy and that vast majority will continue renewing their contracts of work there because they don't want to leave.

 

My advice: give Web a go. If you don't like it there, leave. But don't rely on the opinions of strangers on the internet. Except me, of course. You can trust me.

[metal.lunchbox]

This is a late reply, but I hope it might benefit others with the same question. I work at WEB and I like it. I worked at several other schools in China before and was constantly frustated by the poor managment, and the constant nickel and diming. The basic answer to the question is that like English First and Wall Street its a franchise. Many of them are under unified ownership, but they independently managed. I have heard bad things about Shanghai Web schools, none of those complaints have any relevance to the school where I work or the other schools under the same management. I would probably stay away from the big-name English private schools in the biggest cities, They have the easiest time replacing their teachers and seem to take advantage of their teachers the most. I've heard some real horror stories. There's no real pattern to it. WEB schools can be good, but some are a nightmare.

 

Don't rely on the name or location of the school and don't believe anything an agent tells you. All you need to do is speak to a visiting teacher at the school. I was thinking about working at one school until I called one of their teachers who said to me, "You don't want to work at this school," before promptly hanging up. I went to a different school and asked the teachers there if the management ever tried to cheat them or hassle them. They had no idea what I was talking about and said, "You mean like when they change the schedule and sometimes they only tell you like five or six days in advance." That was when I decided to work at that school.