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Why Choose Journeyeast.org? Contact Us
If you're the due diligent type of person wading through the countless job adds, bulletin boards and recruiter postings you're probably asking yourself the very basic and important question, "How do I know which organization or school to trust?" There's no such thing as a free ride to China, you're going to have to make an investment. If you've done a good job vetting your options, it will be an investment you are sure to cherish for a lifetime.
While most foreign English teachers enjoy trouble free enjoyable experiences teaching abroad in China, there are still many who find themselves in illegal working situations or having been cheated out of money and the basic provisions of their contract. Review This Article About one Such Example.
There are several varieties of ways you can get to China and begin teaching English, each one poses a certain element of risk, pros and cons. Click on the links below to explore the pros and cons for each option.
1) You can directly cooperate with the Chinese school.
2) You can go through a Chinese recruiting agency.
3) You can be referred by a friend or a poster on a BBS
4) You can go through your university or college program.
5) You can choose journeyeast.
Journeyeast.org is a program provider that guarantees your quality of experience. With offices in Connecticut, Chicago and China we're available to support you 24-hours 7-days a week. We're selective about who we choose to be our teachers holding applicants to the same standards as we hold our schools. Journeyeast.org was created by teachers seeking the best possible quality teaching program for China. You can earn your TEFL and tour with us while getting paid to teach English, and you can earn college credit through our internship or independent study program.
| Pros | Cons |
| Usually Higher Salaries | Contract restrictions forbid third party employment while in China. |
| You avoid the pitfalls of third-party recruiters | No compete agreement in contract. |
| Full service program provider - All aspects of travel and visa processing covered | More difficult to be accepted into program. |
| Fun Staff and Great In-Country Support | Lengthy interview process |
| Risk is minimal, Quality Guaranteed | Little choice in placement, placement determined by phone evaluation and headmaster review |
| Family Orientated, can bring children | |
Direct Cooperation with the School:
The most important determination when seeking employment is deciding on the age level, school type and location where you want to work. Schools come in various flavors and the newbie ESL teacher should have a good understanding about the differences of school types and risks between public schools and private schools.
| Pros | Cons |
| Usually Higher Salaries | You have to negotiate all contract terms |
| You avoid the pitfalls of third-party recruiters | You have to plan all travel aspects and visa processing |
| Hard to find information about school reputation | |
| Little or no In-country support | |
| Hard to discern if your contact Is a school employee or agent. | |
| Risk of sudden cancellation if the school locates another teacher already in China. |
Time and Effort for Securing a Good Job:
Considerable
Risk Considerations:
Does the school have a history of keeping with its contractual obligations? Is the location of the school nearby public transportation and located near a town where you can easily access groceries, entertainment? Do they have adequate living conditions and communication technology available?
Where to Find information:
Journeyeast.org maintains an internal database of school reputations, employment history, negative online postings. We offer free pre-trip consulting with no obligation to use our services. You'll have to search several online sources, search engines and topic specific ESL boards before you can get a reasonably accurate picture if the schools reputation is good or not. No information is often a good sign as teachers who feel cheated from their experience are more likely to complain and post their bad experiences than those teachers who have had wonderful experiences.
Suggested Advice:
1. Know the different employment options that are available to you: There are a great many school types between private and public schools. Private schools are by far the most risky, particularly the franchise schools such as English First, Kid Castle, WallStreet. The franchise concept is good, however most franchises have no real control over the Chinese headmaster operating the school. Private schools depend solely on their recruiting numbers and private investment to survive. Usually one person is in charge of recruiting. If that person is not competent at their job and recruiting numbers fall, the first thing to suffer is teachers salaries being paid in a timely fashion.. The next level of failure usually results in the school insisting that the foreign teacher pay for utilities and other amenities usually provisioned for in the contract. Most private schools have difficulty obtaining the legal permission required to host foreign teachers so it isn't surprising that most problems associated with visas are associated with teachers working in private schools. With all these considerations, it should also be noted that there are a number of private schools that operate just fine without incident. Public Schools are usually well funded by the local government and have the guanxi (relationships) to obtain legal working permissions for foreign teachers. Salaries are usually paid on time.
2. Request the schools permission document to be faxed or emailed to you proving they are legally able to employ foreigners. They will likely want to see your Diploma as having a 4-year college degree is required for most employment. It is also worthy to note that is has become increasingly difficult to obtain the proper working visa without a college degree.
3. Be sure you know who you are talking with and their relationship to the school. Is it an employee? A Chinese recruiter or independent agent? All too often teachers experience frustration from suddenly being dropped, or arriving to China only to discover that their contact person was not affiliated with the school, but rather was an unlicensed agent operating to make personal commission.
4. Have the school send you the signed contract FIRST. Do some research online and find out what is typically standard and be sure that ALL the terms suit you, and the school "chop" or stamp is where the signature is supposed to be. SAFEA (State Administration of Foreign Experts) offer a standard contract, but many schools and especially private training centers prefer to use their own contract. You will have to sign and fax the contract back to the school. Standard Contract Sample
5. In order for contracts to be legally binding, both Chinese and English versions should be drafted and signed. You may have to sign the contract again when you enter China as both parties should have original signatures in order to be properly binding. (NOTE: This is according to the contract law of the PRC but in reality most teachers sign and fax contracts and never sign or obtain original copies, it is also not an excuse to break a contract claiming that the contract is not legally binding as copies have been proven to be valid in some Chinese courts. )
6. Your passport should be valid and legal, and you should prepare a number of documents for your host school in order for them to process the appropriate invitation letter for you to obtain your Z-Visa. Any school or recruiter saying that you can come to China on a tourist visa (L-Visa) or business (F-visa) for 1-year contracts is likely to be misleading you.
7. Know about Visa Regulations: Visa issues are complicated and outside the scope of this article. You will have to process your own visa which requires you to complete a Q1 visa application form, and submit the ORIGINAL invitation documents that the school provided to you. If you live far from a Chinese consulate and don't want to go through all the work for obtaining the visa, there is a great visa service called www.ChinaVisaService.org that specializes and obtaining Z-visas for ESL teachers. You can expect to pay anywhere between $110 - $300 depending on the type and urgency of your visa situation.
8. Plan and secure air transportation. Airfare is quickly becoming more and more expensive as souring fuel costs push consumer prices to new extremes. Plan your travel months in advance. Schools are evermore becoming risk adverse to teachers who cancel at the last minute. There is a lot of time and money that goes into preparing the documents for your arrival. Plan your airport pickup with your school contact and come up with a contingency plan in case your flight is delayed or cancelled. Be sure that your hosts will be sending someone who is proficient in English to greet you at the airport and find out if you will be traveling immediately to the school or if you will be staying overnight in the major city of your arrival.
9. Count on any plans that were made changing frequently and without warning. This is a sure sign you're in China. Its normal and you should expect to have to roll with these oftentimes frustrating, seemingly whimsical changes on a regular basis. No matter how often the schedule changes, you should arrive at the school that you signed the contract with.
10. Cancellation: Although it seems unlikely a school would change their mind about hiring you after the tedious process of obtaining the proper documentation has been accomplished, teachers should be aware that at anytime throughout this process should a qualified teacher (already in China) be discovered by the school, the school may suddenly stop communicating or answering your emails leaving you in the lurch. This is especially true of Summer Teachers and the simple reason is saving their cost. If they can save themselves the added cost of a one-way airfare ticket you can be sure the school will choose the person already in China even if that person is far less qualified. This situation works in reverse as a number of teachers each year change their mind once a contract has been signed leaving the school - and worse - the students, without a teacher.
You can go through a Chinese recruiting agency
It is important to discern between a Chinese recruiting agency and agents. Agencies, or "Educational Consulting Companies" as they are often called are usually licensed businesses in China owned by one or several individuals. Agents can be teachers or individuals foreign or Chinese having access to school decision makers who attempt to recruit others for the purpose of earning a commission from the school. These individuals also frequently pose as teachers on BBS boards and eslcafe's offering advice by proxy.
| Pros | Cons |
| Greater Exposure to Job Market | Salary Garnishing is Common |
| Good for minorities, non-native speakers | Lower wages |
| Often Illegal Job Placement | |
| No liability for your well being | |
| Confusion over contract disputes and party responsibility | |
| Farming out of your services for companies / agents profit. | |
| Little or no legal recourse should things go wrong. | |
| Web pages are often misleading | |
| You have to plan all travel aspects and visa processing | |
| no language classes or orientation included |
Time and Effort for Securing a Good Job:
At the discretion and reputation of the recruiter or agent.
Risk Considerations:
Does the recruiter have a history of keeping with its contractual obligations? What is the recruiters liability if something should go wrong? Does the recruiter offer written guarantees enforceable by law? Is the contract with the school -or- recruiting company?
Where to Find information:
Journeyeast.org maintains an internal database of recruiter reputations, employment history, negative online postings. We offer free pre-trip consulting with no obligation to use our services. Bulletin boards offer a host of information about recruiters albiet most information is negative. Most experienced teachers will advise a "newbie" to steer clear and away from agents and recruiters but often do not discern between recruiters and program providers which can lead to confusion between who is a recruiter and which is a program provider. No information is often a good sign as teachers who feel cheated from their experience are more likely to complain and post their bad experiences than those teachers who have had wonderful experiences.
Suggested Advice:
1. Research the web page carefully! One of the easiest and most useful tools for discovering information about a company is through their web page.. No, not just the content of the page itself, but rather the registration information. You can discover a wealth of information about who actually owns the web page by performing a whois search. A whois search will tell you who owns the web page (a company or an individual) and how long the web page has been in operation. A company claiming to have been in business for many years that has a registered web page as of 6-months ago is probably lying.
2. Scrutinize Job Advertisings and Email Contact Details Carefully Anyone posting an advertisement online for jobs in Asia having a hotmail, gmail, yahoo, msn or other typical email address not associated directly with a .edu or an organization is probably a recruiting agent.
3. Where is the Recruiter Located? If the recruiter is based in China, they will have far less liability over your placement than an organization based in the United States or in your country of origin. If choosing a recruiting agent, try to chose one that is local to you and in your country. Should there be any emergency, you'll have an able ally back home ready to help you out with things while you are in China. Should things go wrong with your placement you will have some legal recourse.
4. Beware of Salary Garnishing! Salary and earning formulation should be based on several factors, 1) Your education, 2) Your experience, 3) The number of periods you will be working, 4) The geographical location of your school in China. If you don't have a college diploma and you are offered a job for a lot of money each month you are likely to earn that salary the hard way. Yet, if you do have a college diploma, and you are offered substandard wages there is a chance that your recruiter is garnishing a portion of your salary for their own pockets. Directly inquire of the company if they are garnishing your salary and if the contract you will be signing is with the company or with the school.
5. A Note about Commissions: Schools often hire recruiting agents or get other foreigners to recruit because they don't want to have the headache of doing the intricate tedious work involved in finding new teachers and then collecting and processing all the required information. By this note, recruiters serve a useful purpose to the schools and are rewarded by commission. Usually, once the recruiter has received their commission their job is finished and your relationship with the school truly begins. This often means that whatever promises and conditions were illustrated to you by your recruiter will likely be different than what the school expects. Having this understanding will serve you well when misunderstandings arise (as they often do.) It is absolutely fair for recruiters to earn a commission that is proportional to the work they have done for the school. Teachers who have chosen to use a agents services have no right to complain, or even speculate about what details have gone into bringing them to China. Commission agreements are a standard practice and made between the school and the agent long before the teacher is introduced.
6. Be wary of signing a contract with a company: Some private training centers send invitation letters from registered manufacturing companies or other types of companies and these contracts are usually for 6-months or less. This is because they operate under the umbrella of that company and it is not the same as signing a contract with a Chinese Educational Consulting Company. If you are signing a one-year contract with a Chinese Educational company than chances are very good it is not a standard SAFEA contract, you will have far more restrictions imposed upon you. Another important consideration is how you will go about resolving issues should salary or benefits be late. If you are signing a contract with a company, the typical model for this type of cooperation is that the school has paid your agent all of your salary for the semester and the Chinese company is paying your salary (and likely garnishing your wage) so if the recruiter goes out of business, has money problems and cannot afford to pay your salary on time it creates an enormous problem. Here is why: The school technically paid your salary to the agent already. If the agent doesn't pay you, the typical reaction after several times would be for you to threaten to stop teaching until salary is paid. The school of course will tell you it isn't their fault and you will be put into the middle of a very uncomfortable situation while your students will be the ultimate victims. No matter how bad you feel, you should not teach until the salary issue has been resolved. Whatever arrangement the school made, you should leave it for them to resolve with your agent. An agent also can mean more opportunity for problems as conflicts between schools and agents can involve the teacher and disagreement over the right for your recruiter to use you for their own promotions.. You will often have far less legal recourse and confusion on which party is the responsible party should things begin to break down. Moral of this story, is sign your contract directly with the school whenever possible.
7. Historical problems with Chinese Middle Agents & Recruiters: Keep in mind, many schools have limited resources and access to obtaining foreign talent. The school is the customer of the recruiting company and relies upon their service to maintain foreign teaching staff. If forced to choose between you or the agent that introduced you, most schools will opt to cooperate with the agent using Chinese negotiating tactics you are unfamiliar with. Middle agents have corroded the integrity of ESL teaching programs all across China by their profit motivated greed often offering substandard tours and lodging, lying to foreign teachers, and attracting unqualified or even dangerous people to China with their lack of due diligence and background checks. Many recruiting web pages are very attractive and offer reasonably good information on the surface. Deciding to live and work in China is a precious investment of your time and your life. If choosing a recruiting company based outside of your home country you should speak to the recruiting agent and have a well prepared list of questions.
You can be referred by a friend or a poster on a BBS
Some of the best and worst information about teaching in China can be found on bulletin boards or on eslcafe's. If you ever want to get a snapshot off everything negative about living and working in China then point your browser to the flaming and degrading of peers on www.eslcafe.com If you have a friend who has worked and lived abroad before - speak with that person about your interests and see if they can refer you. Be wary of strangers offering you jobs on BBSs as many recruiters pose as fellow teachers on these boards. If you are the adventurous type than the risk may be well worth taking, just keep in mind that alot of the folks making negative posts have likely come to China illegally and have endured troubles working in China. Advice can be and is often biased, recruiters often libel and slander their competition leaving you to scrutinize the integrity of the poster.
| Pros | Cons |
| Friends offer great opportunities in China | You must scrutinize the integrity of the poster. |
| You get to see the dark side of ESL teaching | You have to plan all travel aspects and visa processing |
| Easy to find information about school reputation | Hard to discern if your contact Is a school employee or agent. |
You can go through your university or college program
University programs are probably the safest way to get to China while offering course credit that is 'transferrable' and can be used to complete degrees. These programs usually bring smaller groups to China and are the most expensive option afforded to potential teachers seeking temporary employment for college credit.
| Pros | Cons |
| High Standards and Safety | The most expensive option available to teach in China |
| Medical Insurance is usually included | salary is typically very low stipend |
| Easy to find information about school reputation | housing may not be included |
| Teachers can obtain college credit towards their degrees. | |
| tours are usually included in price | |
| excellent orientations and Chinese classes |
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