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Post by con's fly is open on Aug 26, 2004 0:20:30 GMT 7
This is a new startup chain. Anyone heard anything? I need a gig for next year, preferably in Shanghai.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 26, 2004 2:12:05 GMT 7
Modern English is not a new start-up...quite a big company and has been around for a while. What you saw, Con, is probably a recent expansion...they've been pushing out across China. By the way, I think Modern English may well be the biggest publisher of non-public-school English textbooks in China.
I worked at the big original center in Beijing briefly, and at least as of this writing it is the only contract I've ever punted. The curriculum was poo, but I had the finest students I've ever had there, and am still in touch with many of them...some on a daily basis. I also encountered the finest Chinese teachers of English I've ever seen there.
What drove me away was the support. After being forced to spend a month in a cheap Beijing hotel, I was placed- at my expense- into a filthy. nasty poohole of an apartment in the middle of nowhere. There was virtually no furniture beyond a bed. There were roaches living in the refrigerator; the walls were a river of roaches. The landlord collected six months of cable TV fees from me and never turned it on. I whined, begged, pleaded, threatened, screamed, complained to senior management, etc. for 3 months, and all I ever got was "Oops! I forgot! I'll get on that by Wednesday!" from the idiots who were supposed to be helping me. In addition, the same idiots kept telling me that my Z visa was no problem and would be there any day. And they kept telling me this...until 48 hours before my old visa expired. I had to make a mad dash for Hong Kong to get a tourist visa, spending every penny I had in the world in the process.
Finally, after 3 months of this, I finished my term of classes, took another job in another city, and I bolted. I made sure my computer was the last thing to get packed, and I sent my resignation letter while the movers watched and waited. I used to think that punting a contract was a despicable act that marked one as the lowest of the low, but after a few years in China I've come to realize that there are times when one has no other choice. This was one of those times. If I sound really bitter and cynical when I write about schools in China, Modern English Beijing is one of several reasons why.
At least when I worked there the Modern English curriculum was a knockoff of Crazy English- which should tell you a lot. It was one of those schools where the emphasis was on fun and energy and enthusiasm, the theory apparently being that if the students left the class happy and smiling and all funned up, nobody would ever notice how little English they were actually learning. The books had no structure whatsoever- simply a collection of phrases and idioms around some central theme. It would have been a decent approach for very advanced students wanting to make their English sound more natural, but the courses were sold to anyone with money. Low-level beginner students were getting lists of useful, authentic English phrases like "Been healthy lately?" in lieu of vocabulary and grammar.
I think Modern English has since cleaned up its curriculum act a bit, so there is some hope that beginner students are being placed into an actual English class now. I was well into writing a grammar book for them when I left...I forgot to give it to them, but will get on that by Wednesday.
I suspect that like other chain schools, local management will largely decide the quality of your experience. I'll go on to venture that again like other chain schools, the further you are from corporate headquarters (in this case Beijing) the less likely it is that the school will totally suck. Again, I had wonderful students there, and it's possible that some of Modern English schools are decent. If indeed there are any decent schools in China at all.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 26, 2004 2:21:14 GMT 7
By the way, Con, there is a chain in Shanghai called "Canilx Modern English" that is no relation to the other school. Not sure, but my theory is that Canilx added to their name in order to keep ME from expanding here.
I know some people there at CME...seems no worse than anyone else overall. Apparently they bank 1000 RMB of your salary each month as security- you get it when you complete your contract- so you know a congenial atmosphere of mutual trust and respect prevails for all.. Beware the Pudong branch run by a guy named Aaron.
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Post by Nate M on Aug 26, 2004 5:11:51 GMT 7
Well, one minus for Canlix in my book was the fact that they tried to write a bogus review on my site. The 'review' they wrote was obviously a veiled job advertisement, in terrible English no less, and after searching a bit I found out it was in fact the school recruiter who posted the review. In my opinion, that doesn't bode well for their honesty. As for just plain old ME, I've read more than a few horror stories from Dave's. Like Raoul said, I think Shanghai is probably a new expansion on an old chain. If you want more info, just try trawling through the Job Info Journal at Dave's and I don't think it'll take you long to find stuff on them. Google Hits for Modern English on Dave'sEdited to shorten url. |
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Post by Nate M on Aug 26, 2004 5:17:17 GMT 7
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 26, 2004 12:20:53 GMT 7
Whoa, not good signs. I sure wish there were some actual Good Guys here.
As I've heard it, this all started in Wall Street English. A group of Chinese owners/managers stole the Wall Street methods/materials and founded Canilx. Eventually a group of Canilx's owners/managers stole the Canilx methods/materials and founded a new chain, currently expanding out from Shanghai, called Web International.
I'm starting to think there are only about 3 original schools here; all the rest are unauthorized clones.
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Post by con's fly is open on Aug 26, 2004 22:44:53 GMT 7
In China especially, original=unproven, i.e. dangerous.
Maybe, just maybe, I can get a 12-month visa from this school when I return, and shop for a job from a position of srength. I do NOT want to end up with a company's fist around my nuts.
What's a cat do look out for when negotiating? Do public schools offer more honest prospects? Is a company less likely to shaft a part-time FT?
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motis
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Post by motis on Aug 28, 2004 20:48:16 GMT 7
I'm currently teaching at the Modern English branch in Chengdu... I have no problem with them. The woman who runs our branch is very nice, quite fair, honest, and not a penny-pincher. They treat me with a lot of respect, give me advance notice of everything, and pay quite handsomely. Please note, though, that I haven't gone the whole hog and taken whatever accomodations they offer for foreign teachers, so I don't really know the whole story with these folks. I'm sure I never will, either... my days of being some wai ban's pet lao wai are OVER. I don't even let my boss know where I live anymore... I just give 'em my shao ling tong number and charge by the hour, with payment due before I leave each day.
I've met a couple of guys from the Modern English Beijing office, and they seem alright. The one who calls himself Henry in particular seems like a good enough fellow.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 28, 2004 20:57:06 GMT 7
Hey Motis!
Glad you got a good one. This is the great conundrum of chain schools...it all comes down to who's in charge locally.
Have they indeed improved their curriculum?
There were a lot of really nice people in the Beijing office. Even the people who really caused my problems- the FAO geeks- were nice enough fellas. They were just completely and utterly useless. 'Alright' never produced any results...in 4 months.
I'm with you on giving contact info to an employer...no mas. How do you get through the Residence Permit application without their seeing it, though?
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motis
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Post by motis on Aug 28, 2004 23:03:32 GMT 7
Have they indeed improved their curriculum? Hmm. I don't know what the curriculum was like before... but I will say that while I haven't yet seen an English textbook in China that wasn't TEH SUXOR, the Modern English books are pretty mild in their sucktasticness. I only use the book as a rough guideline, anyway, and spend at least two-thirds of classtime doing my own thing. I'm a good enough teacher (and entertaining enough) that the students rave about me, so nobody bothers me about not sticking strictly to the book. I'm with you on giving contact info to an employer...no mas. How do you get through the Residence Permit application without their seeing it, though? Ack, I hadn't actually thought of that. I just started with Mod Eng recently, and that hasn't become an issue yet. In the past, I've been handling my visa through other channels, taking the school right out of the loop. Eh, no problem... I figure the solution is to stay calm, stay friendly, but behave unfalteringly like the unimpeachable Captain of my own destiny. If they bother me at home, I'll politely rip their faces off about it. I figure, in a society that is still as fundamentally feudal as this one remains, you can be a slave or a master depending solely on what you are perceived to be... so call the shots! Act like a master, and a master you shall be! To this end, I strive to be friendly but firm, I don't hesitate to lay down the law, and I always rewrite my contracts before I sign them. I've had to learn to keep my cool in some situations, but now that I know that getting visibly angry = YOU LOSE, that's not a problem. |
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 29, 2004 0:36:18 GMT 7
Motis, good answers.  I really want to look into a D visa and get this process entirely independent of the schools. I've been married to a Chinese citizen for a year now, proving that I can handle madness, and am technically eligible to get one now. As I wrote in the screed above, Modern English once had a curriculum entirely devoid of grammar, vocabulary, and other such fiddly details...and were throwing student with very low ability levels into it. When I left there were some signs that the basics were coming, and I was curious to see if it had actually happened. |
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Post by motis on Aug 29, 2004 2:38:20 GMT 7
When I left there were some signs that the basics were coming, and I was curious to see if it had actually happened. I haven't seen the materials for their beginning class yet. I'm teaching the advanced students. I gave some demo classes for them before they asked me to hire on, and they threw me in with one of the Beijing guys for that... and yes, he displayed that overly-energetic Li Yang style I dislike so much. Doesn't matter... I teach the way I teach, and the students like it, so the school likes it. The first thing I clarified with the staff was that, in the classroom, *I* am the boss teacher, and the relationship between me and my coteacher is a dictatorship, not a democracy. |
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Post by Raoul Duke on Aug 29, 2004 3:03:48 GMT 7
I did the same thing at ME...used the books as a guideline but largely rolled my own. I even managed to smuggle a little content into the classrooms. I taught a fun class but I certainly wasn't a Dancing Monkey.
I think I mentioned this above too...most of the Chinese co-teachers I worked with at ME were the best in the business. Absolutely no conflict what any but one of them. The best ones seemed like they could read my mind...they were always where I needed them to be, when I needed them to be there. Excellent folks. The only one I didn't like had sort of been promoted into supervision and was really cocky. We hooked it up a number of times.
Not sure if ME Beijing has hit harder times, has a glut of teachers, or just gotten greedier....they were paying 10,000 per month when I was there, but the last ad I saw a few days ago only specified 8,000...
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