Best learning English in Hangzhou

[Lnterry1]

I got a job offer and I almost have all my stuff ready for the visa. However I am a little nervous about the company. I just do not want to get there not have the job I'm supposed to have or anything.  Any help would be awesome. 

[ChTTay]

seen this thread? 

 

Done any of the stuff I suggested in it?

[mungouk]

If this is the same company then there are reviews of Best English as a company on Glassdoor.

 

Reading reviews of ESL teaching employers can be somewhat discouraging though (try English First on there).  Maybe such sites attract more of the unhappy employees than the satisfied ones.

 

 

[roddy]

I am very wary of reviews of English schools. At the very least, look for what could be a real problem (We didn't get paid for three months) and what might just be normal-ish (the timetable keeps changing and nobody knows what's going on) and acceptable if the money's good and you happen to want to be in that city. 

[ChTTay]

2 hours ago, roddy said:

 

I am very wary of reviews of English schools

 

Most people who are motivated to write these reviews are the ones who are p€$¥ed off about the employer.

 

You can find out most of what you need by talking to the employee, current and past teachers (as I mentioned in above referenced page). 

[Dawei3]

A Chinese friend in Beijing just got burned by an English language company, but I don't know its name.  It was very expensive for her:  30,000 RMB  

 

Recently, it closed without warning.  The foreign teachers said they weren't getting paid and there is no way for my friend to get her money back.  When she initially paid, it seemed like a high quality firm (albeit, I think she got snookered with a high pressure sales technique.  She could not afford it).

 

Hence, caution makes sense.  

[ChTTay]

38 minutes ago, Dawei3 said:

When she initially paid, it seemed like a high quality firm

What the heck was she paying for? 

 

Oh, I realise you said “Chinese friend” there. You don't need to pay something to teach English as a foreign teacher. Never heard of that ever. No idea about Chinese teachers but sounds dubious as well. 

 

Best Learning English is quite a large chain. In the other thread someone links to a variety of centres. 

[Lady Leo91]

I worked for ABIE in shanghai. I got burnt too during the expo (economic event) in October 2019. The cops raided my center and took me and another foreign teacher. We were charged 20000 rbm a piece and the school was fined 20000 also. 
I wad working with a tourist visa and the other FT was working with a student visa. 

[ChTTay]

15 hours ago, Lady Leo91 said:

I worked for ABIE in shanghai.

What is ABIE? 
 

15 hours ago, Lady Leo91 said:

I wad working with a tourist visa and the other FT was working with a student visa. 

It’s important to work on the correct visa now more than ever. 

[Midnight Velvet]

ABIE is a private English teaching company. They had over 40 locations in Shanghai. 

The only good thing about my experience is that I learned a lot and met many ppl. ABIE did not survive the pandemic. 

I plan on returning to China but with a different company and in a different city. 

[Demonic_Duck]

Having typed this out, I realized there might be legal implications, so uhh... everything below beyond the concrete facts is purely speculative, and views expressed are entirely my own.

 

My former flatmate and ex-girlfriend both worked at Best Learning (Beijing, not Hangzhou) for a couple of years, and I met a few other Best Learning folks through them. Overall seemed like a nice bunch, if sometimes a little cliquey (I never worked there, perhaps wouldn't have had that impression of them if I had). And for the most part they seemed happy enough with the school and the work.

 

However, one rather large red flag was this one guy who worked there who straight-up sexually assaulted me within about 10 seconds of meeting him. As in he grabbed my genitals (over the clothes) when I squeezed past him to sit down. I'm a guy of around 182cm tall, not especially well built but I can handle myself if it comes to it, so I didn't feel physically threatened, just a little shocked. He also made a rape joke, which on its own could just be standard edgelord behavior, but combined with the groping set off alarm bells. Apparently this guy was known for various other creepy behavior as well, but had somehow kept his job for over a year. Now I know it's possible for predators to "hide in plain sight" in many places, but I find it hard to believe someone could be that blatant without complaints having been made to management, yet somehow he wasn't fired. Which suggests that management may have more of a focus on saving face than they do on protecting their staff and students.

 

Again... purely speculative.