Note: I have already posted this in another thread about DD Dragon, but it did not have much visibility, I am hoping as a new thread, I will be able to inform more people of the dangers of this school and prevent the perpetuation of this school. And here is why.

If you have found this thread on Dave's ESL that should already be a big red flag that you picked yourself a poor choice of English school. There is a never ending list of problems with this school and you will have the fine pleasure of dealing with all of them if you so choose to become employed at the Longgang or Lingxi DD Dragon. Which reminds me, if you see job descriptions or are told you will be employed in Wenzhou or the Wenzhou area, that is a laugh, that is what we were all told at first, but you will be out in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from Wenzhou. There is nothing wrong with working in a small town English school, I myself am quite fond of the town, but this is just one in a long series of lies you will be fed, all of which will be of much greater consequence. One of the first lies will be, if you bring this post on Dave's ESL up to Liam (the sort of foreign liaison to foreign teachers even though the Chens fired all of the head foreign teachers because they found them unnecessary, even though hardly any of the Chinese employees speak the smallest scrap of English, thus complicating things at the schools even more so to an even greater degree of headaches and frustration), is that I am a mad, deranged employee and should be brushed off as such, but there are many who are, shall we say, less than satisfied with DD Dragon, and some have very good reason to be. First of all, getting paid is always a big hassle and these people will try to cheat you in any way possible. I know for a fact you can ask almost any teacher that is not new to the school what they think of it and they will all tell you the same answer, it is dreadful, or a derivative of such.

This school is guilty of the following just off the top of my head, just within the past few months:
-wrongfully threatening foreign teachers
-unlawfully threatening to call the police
-forgery
-breach of contract
-underpaying teachers (also in regards to breach of contract)
-not paying on time
-lack of vacation (I know of no other school with less vacation than DD Dragon and you have to make up most of the vacation you do have)
-trying to extort money from foreigners
-uncooperative about fixing any disrepairs within the apartment (we were without water for over a week recently)
-uncooperative in class
-having the TA's running the school when they have no clue themselves what they are doing
-apartment checks to make sure you are "clean enough"
-breaking into your apartment, even when you are not there; a small anecdote, during my final week at the school, they broke into our house no less than 5 times, within the span of one week
-no sick days
-if you quit before your contract is up, you are banned from working in the area, the place where you have met all of your friends and the place you have been calling home, and they will magically appear with all these monetary figures and you will owe the Chens far more than you can pay. One teacher in particular had to max out all of her credit cards and borrow a few thousand from a friend just to pay the school so she could leave. She had to leave in the middle of the night, but the Chens found out and they called some pseudo thugs of theirs to stop this girl at the airport so she could not return to America before being sucked dry.
-your teaching will be non-constructively criticized, regardless of whether they are right to give it or not, as even the most senior of teachers are given the most idiotic of advice from brand new TA's and it is all the time, relentless
-the TA's are not at all helpful for class
-if you want any help learning Chinese, you are on your own, and while this is not a huge negative because there is nothing wrong with that, many schools offer free Chinese lessons or are at least willing to help you out a little

There are so many schools that are so much better out there and I urge you not to waste your time and experience in China at this school. There are even better schools in the area alone. Many teachers realize this and try to work in the same town, but the owners, the Chens (who are a whole other story altogether but you only need to know they are terrible, disgraceful, greedy human beings whose sole motivation in life is money, and never mind with anything that may obstruct that goal) will try to deceive and scam you in any way they can. The last three teachers to leave the school have been threatened with deportation or the calling of the police. They have flat out told teachers they will forge documents for the sole purpose of getting to you. There is no good will or respect for teachers at these schools and the other lower-bosses and the TA's (the Chinese-English speakers that are supposed to help you in class) do not even speak English to a reasonable degree. Go ahead and request to talk to Mary (the head of the Longgang school, although she is so woefully lost and confused at her job altogether I think she is just there for show, these exact words "I AM NOT THE BOSS" have come out of her mouth when the simplest requests have been made to her) or Snow (the head of the Lingxi school, and also another monster entirely) or really any of the TA's, and ask for more than just one because you will probably be provided with the absolute best they have, which will still be rather disappointing. I have worked at the schools in both areas and this place is going down hill fast. If you get out, stay out, if you want to come, don't.

Feel free to email me with any general comments or concerns. I can corroborate all of my stories (and trust me when I say this is just the tip of the iceberg) with current or past foreign teachers who do not have an agenda to lie to you, so as to trick you into coming to a school you had previous, better, misconceptions of only to be blind sided and have the claws of "Wenzhou Area DD Dragon" sunk in deep. If you are a new teacher excited to come to China and you want to sign that contract and finally get over here and start your own adventure in China, you will be grateful to yourself later if you slow down and take the time to properly research each school. There are plenty out there.

This school is not what you are looking for, whoever you are, and if you had the foresight and initiative to find this thread, that should be warning enough that your wants and needs to be an English Teacher are best met elsewhere.

Contact me with further questions or concerns at: DDwinner2003@gmail.com