Why working for a language school teaching English sucks!

I have had just quit my job teaching English in a language school here in Wuhan, China. The pay in comparison to the average is actually pretty good, the working environment is convivial, colleagues friendly, all in all just a nice place to be collecting a 9 to 5 check.

But once you get to know the numbers behind its operation, you start to understand how much you are 'exploited' when you start taking into consideration how much profit the school is generating for itself.

Now granted, this may not be applicable in many other countries, for China has always inherited this Confucius philosophy that education for the young trumps all other things in life, and though Asian people may be stereotyped as calculating and frugal when it comes to money matters, education is never a rational expense.

This, compounding with the fact that those who have mastered the English language not as a mother tongue is pretty accomplished in and of itself, making the industry ravaged with high gain and loss of employees; it'd be rare to find a school in which the majority of its employees have stayed in it never changing a boss for over 2 years. But this phenomenon, or business model if you'd like to take the deterministic element out of it, has worked out well for companies; for long-term employees would generally ask for a much higher salary due to their teaching skills well aligned with the company's philosophy through virtue of working there, as well as a more thorough knowledge of the school's operation that in many aspects is a valuable asset to the company. It's just that being able to provide so much value may not be what the company desires in the light of capitalist gains.

Many colleagues I worked with are proud individuals eager to be known of their achievements, whether its their teaching techniques or language proficiency, and as is right with them their ego is pretty big. When you work in China and in relation to the general public being much more aware of things happening on the outside of the border, you'd become unsatisfied with your present pay pretty easily. I'm one of many who are affected by this. And it is as if answering to a calling, I decided I must do things on my own, albeit the risk, and it's the only way I can truly achieve success.

Dongyu