Agents. Recruiters. Job placement. These words strike fear into nearly everyone who has taught English in China. These are the guys to avoid at all costs.
To enjoy your time in China its important to know who you are working for. Look on any ESL web page and you will come across recruiters. They are easy to spot as they usually offer too good to be true packages. But there is confusion about how the agents operate and what they do.
There are two kinds of agents out there: Personal Agents and Contract Agents.
A personal agent (I call them ‘easy prey agents’) sets up schools/students for the foreign teacher and takes a cut out of their hourly pay.
What they usually do is work on behalf of Chinese primary schools and kindergardens. They will offer part time work, with a decent pay rate. However, once the teacher starts he realises that its not the case.
Example: an agent comes up to you and tells “Hi, Ive just got a school that needs a part time teacher. Its a well paid part time job, teaching 3 hours a day at a down town school. The pay rate is 150rmb an hour.”? That sounds ok, until you are at the school. You will be teaching for 40 minutes, have a 20 minute (unpaid for break) then another 40 minute class, another 20 minute break, then another 40 minute class, then another 40 minute class and another 20 minutes at the gate of the school so every parent can say “wow, this school has foreign teachers!”. Then the agent will tell you: ‘yes, you get 150rmb and hour for teaching hours. So as you worked 40minutes, that is 100rmb. So in total you will be paid 300rmb for 3 hours, not 450rmb’.
The schools they work for are usually government high schools and primary schools. Classes have about 40 kids who look at you as the substitute teacher. Remember when you were a kid and you had a substitute teacher? Its not fun. Also the hours change easily and close on short notice for classes to ‘prepare for upcoming exams’. Or to prepare for ‘upcoming police checks’
And if you complain? Well, unless you don’t turn up next lesson nothing can be done. They don’t have a contract with you, the school doesn’t have a contract with you and in the end you wouldn’t be bothered taking legal recourse over it.
These guys just go for new arrivals. They will hardly speak any English and will be very vague on any details of your work. They also wonder why they have such a huge turnover rate. Hmmm…
The Second Kind: Contract Agents
I guess they are similar to personal agents. Most jobs on ESL websites are from recruiters/contract agents, who tell about how amazing ‘their’ school is, how great the conditions are and how life at their school is such a bed of roses. They also give themselves professional-sounding names such as ‘China ESL Network’ etc. so the foreign teacher comes to China, is met by this ‘representative’/agent, taken to the school and suddenly the agent is never to be seen or heard of again. Why? Because the school pays these agents big money to get the foreigner to their school (in some backwater city) , the agent receives the money and is off finding the next sucker. And how does the school boss claim the agents fee back? From YOUR salary!! They will tell you that your first few month’s salary is reduced because of training etc. RUBBISH! That was the agents cut.
And why the hell would the agent want to help you there? If you leave then the school needs another teacher… and how do they find that teacher? The agent of course!!
Monthly salary
These agents specialise almost exclusively in government middle schools and kindergardens (its illegal to work in a government school) and will give you the crappiest accomodation possible. As you will be working in numerous schools around town you’ll spend most of your money on taxis (which would never be paid for), and work for way less than someone in an English training centre.
What’s Fair
China is a big country and has a never ending number of teaching positions. You should never feel pressured into signing a contract or hear someone saying ‘this position is so great, you got to sign otherwise it will be taken!’.
In the big 4 cities in China (Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangdong) you should be earning 7000rmb a month, with free accomodation. That should be a 24 hour week (no ‘extra’ hours). That is the norm and is ok but for a new arrival a contract of 8000rmb a month will put in in good stead. Part time work should be 130rmb and up FROM WHEN YOU START TILL WHEN YOU FINISH!
In second and third tier cities: I think in a very small city 5000rmb is a lot. A small town in woop-woop land, on 5000rmb for 25hrs of teaching would be huge. For a second tier city (Wenzhou, Nanjing, Xi’an, Harbin etc) 5000rmb is also decent, but try to look for 6000rmb. Anything more would be a steal!
All of these positions must have free accomodation.
Protect Yourself and Your Income If you really think a school is dodgy, leave it. But if you want to pursue a school here are some good questions to ask:
Paul Gibson
8/24/07