I found this through a Google search of "Meten English reviews." I worked there previously and can give some feedback. Meten is a bottom of the barrel training center with the most incompetent and dishonest management I've come into contact with at any major center in China. A thin veneer of "professionalism", heaps of fake smiles and utter mismanagement and dishonesty is what to expect.

They're fully ageist and racist in regards to salary. If you're a 20 to early 30's young white person who looks only semi-presentable, regardless of your experience, behavior or ability - you will be paid the highest salary. Even if you're coming to work high on narcotics (really I watched it happened).

In a small region, in a single year, we had 5 foreign teachers leave mid-contract - three of them were S. Asian Westerners with degrees and experience, and two were in their mid-30s - all found that they were being paid less apathetic 20-year-old white drunks - all tried and cared about their jobs. When it was brought up to management, they were told essentially to mind their own business, then punished with lower reviews (that SA's artificially give to people they like the most), observations and a harder schedule.

The only people I've personally heard say anything positive about Meten had serious life/emotional/addiction/family issues and were white and in their 20's because they were given a job (and a higher salary) when knew they were unemployable in even other centers in China, much less back home.

You can do better - EF or Wall St aren't perfect but they definitely aren't at Meten-level bottom.

This sounds like a pretty bad story. My experience with them was also bad but for different reasons and I believe they stem more from working in China as opposed to Meten itself. If you work in China you'll have the same problems people encounter at Meten or any other school. I don't know who Peter Cooke is, can someone provide with that info? I actually liked the idea of teaching only 16 years old and above but my manager didn't follow that. We had about 10 kids who my manager allowed. If you are a western person in China you don't have rights and many people don't like you. I can't teach there again cause I've been blacklisted. I was so miserable while I was there that it doesn't make much difference.

Hey how's it going I saw you post about the meten English teaching job I just went through the interview process and they offered me a job in Guangdong I was just wanting to know how you like it I'm coming from California please email me back I want to ask you some questions about the experience Motox15@yahoo.com

True that.

I can't speak for every center - Chengdu here - but this is the fourth company I've worked for in China (after DingDong, a private kindergarten, and WEB), and it's the only one I bothered to renew my contract for a second year with.

There's naturally going to be a degree of office politics at any job, minor annoyances in day-to-day life. But in my experience of working here for a year and a half or so now, I've never known anyone to "cheat" any of the foreign teachers or break the contract.

They basically bend over backwards to help you get settled in, and deal with most of the logistical hassles for you. It's honestly the nicest job I've ever worked, and after a while, you get to the point where you know the textbooks so well that prep time is basically zero (don't tell the head teacher. O_O ).

Like anywhere, it's the people who make or break it, not the system itself, but I've never had a bad experience here. Just throwing that out there.

The scoring system is a bit unfortunate in a center as large as ours (10 foreign teachers and about as many local ones competing for one prize ... meh), but it's just for a nifty bonus. I've never heard of anyone being fired over it (and the default score in the system is 5 anyhow; in practice most teachers get anywhere between 4.85 - 5 I've seen, and it's other things like meeting attendance and what not that actually tend to make and break it, rather than student ratings, which are only actually weighted at 5 points of a 25 point score but I digress). There's a fair amount of downtime, and most students are cool. A fair number I actually consider to be my friends outside of the school too.

Honestly this whole thing strikes me as someone being bitter over personal drama rather than any objective problems. METEN tends to be quite fair to the letter of the contract. It is what it is; but why complain about something you yourself signed unless you didn't bother to read it?

I'll vouch for METEN too. Best job of my life thus far. To anyone interested, if you choose to work for us in Chengdu, let me know and maybe we can meet up for drinks or something and I can show you around. Could always use new friends.

~ Tim

So can you blacklist me too please Andy! please! please! please!

I don't want to work for a school that thinks being raided by the police and having teachers deported is normal!

yes like he and every person on here who has reviewed Meten has said local manages always try to tell lies about people that don't listen to their crap and crapy system So Andy has just confirmed this well done Andy

Well,I dont know why you want to persuade people not to work in METEN by not using your own name.
This " Randy King" definitely is not using his real name because " Randy King" is still working in Chognqing Meten and has denied that this is written by himself first seeing this in June.
My name is Andy, i could possibly be the manager of the "writer " of this. Tec saying, after him. I‘d be happy to explain somthing here.
1, the writer of this is 100% not randy himself, so let's address him" Mr. M". (mark could be anyone).Mr. M is now in the list of " never recruiting again" of METEN due to some reports to METEN management from METEN female students of being sexually harassed by " MR. M". Besides, boasting himself does not change the fact that " MR. m" is the least popular teacher in the center. anyone interested could be provided by me a picture of feedback of MR. M during the time he was in Meten.

2, " Being raided by police" is a mere inspection from the police, and it happend in every training school in that district( Meten is not the target of that inspection).

3, the payment of meten teacher differs from place to place because of the different living cost in areas.( not that much, but Shenzhen could be a little higher than Chongqing for example).

4, the payment is taxed by the government, not Meten. To make sure i am not working for a " legal shcool" at least, I asked some former coworkers who are now working in a different place about this, no one said its tax free for housing allowance in Chongqing.

5, Meten has been going on with" teacher of the month evaluation" for a long time. the feedback from students says indeed a lot. and it really happened before that some students may not be a nice " scorer", but they could be " bad" to every teacher. Meten, like any other training schools, is in need of good teachers at any time, but not those so called " experienced teacher" with the lowest students score on line.

6, Meten course has three branches" A, teen program which aims at improving the comprehensive English skills of kids aged from" 10-17"

B, overseas program is one that improves the academic English performance of students' in tests like " IELTS, TOFEL etc.

C, 4 D program that imroves the basic and survival English at first few levels and goes to higher needs in the last few levels. why can't a lesson like" conversation in a restaurant". " what happend when you first go to America" be taught.

any reader who's still interested in METEN could contact me on the EMAIL provided . No school is a perfect one, meten is trying to make herself better anyway. like any teacher in the world. You are trying to make a new and better yourself every morning. So is Meten.

Meten English in YJP Chongqing was raided by the police in April 2015 and Shapingba in Chongqing in 2014

Douglass H[edited] a British national was caught working on a Wuhan visa in CQ

Also Meten has a teens programme which only uses part time teachers so all are illegal and 3 part time teachers were caught working illegally, one american , one african and one other

The teacher caught in Shapingba was deported his information is on the police website

Meten now hires young teachers with no degree or work history because it can pay them less and make them dancing clowns. I was getting 2000 more than other teachers in the centre I worked in because I asked for more! And said I wound not sign unless I got more!

However when I left I checked with the tax office and there is no record of my tax being paid and my housing was deducted tax which is tax free!

Also i was never given a wage slip and my final salary was wrong, I think my flight allowance was taxed but that is tax free too and they don't send any tax to the tax office

Meten also made us work in a local high school once or 3 times a week which is illegal . In China now you can only work for a school if your work visa is from them directly.

You can sue Meten for one months salary for every year you have worked for them a teacher in Chongqing did this and the local manager was fired and no teacher was sent to the high school again

You should go to the local court pay 25 RMB and sue them for up to 10,000 or report the illegals or just tell their rivals

They are so stupid they put every students phone number on the class list!

Meten has teachers working in Shenzhen, Xian and other cities on Chonqging and Wuhan visas this is how they expanded so quickly

There is an American called Taylor corrently working in Shapingba Chonqing on a Wuhan visa and many more

their teen course is a copy of English Firsts courses and uses illegal teachers

I was paid 11,000 plus 1500 housing in Chonqqing don't work for less they are desperate to hire skilled teachers

you should also get 500 more for every year you work there

But they work you to death you can earn more money working for a university and doing part time work

The students feed back is all fixed and head-office knows it, local managers or messengers between the boss use it to get rid of teachers who try to improve things and make them look bad. Local managers were fired in Chonqqing. They fixed teacher of the month and even gave Chinese teachers all the coffee coupons to boast their scores. And now students don't even bother to score teachers the SAs do it at the end of the month so ignore those things. Its just about ego stroking and controlling teachers

Meten in going down hill fast, adults don't want their condescending , let me tell you how to eat, think , bla bla , let me talk about America for 50 mins terrible classes

meet a foreigner classes are for farmers not so called up market schools selling english to middle class educated people

They insult Chinese people and teacher be glad you got out of there

And remember to report them in person to the PSB or go to the court and sue them

How do you know they are not?

Ignoring the racial debates and so forth, I also worked in Meten English before. I actually very much enjoyed my brief time there, but I did definitely notice a lot of internal communication problems and a little war between the foreign teachers and the Chinese staff.

Could someone elaborate exactly how they have been wronged by Meten? Have you not been paid or something? It seems, from my perspective this is just a communication barrier between what the teachers want and what the Chinese staff feel needs “improving”.

On another note, please don’t be so harsh on ESL teachers in Meten, some of them are fantastic. Robert and Andrew are incredibly smart guys and the rest of the team I found were fun, interesting and delivered what appeared to be fun and great classes. I thought they had a great team going there, so I hope nothing happens to flip it up. However Meten materials do need improvement. Some lessons make little sense to English speakers let alone Chinese people learning English.

And some of us worked damn hard for our TEFL, I was doing mine during my second year of University and I worked bloody hard for that baby. Grammar is important, but English isn’t all auxiliary verbs and present continual etc.

Well after working at Meten for 2 long hard years I can say get a job teaching kids at a kindergarten you will work less and have less stress. All they do is try to find something bad with the teachers so they don't need to renew their contract. I gave my notice to leave and they were still grading my classes on the last day that I was there. The students there don't learn shit as the whole system is designed to push the student through so fast they don't have time to learn, and then they say things like you have reached the next level to learn more you must sign on for more classes.

As a teacher I got two days off each week, not the weekend. They would have a mandatory teachers meeting every week on one of my days off, so I would need to loss 4 hours of one day off to go to a meeting, I stopped going to the meeting of course, then they used that against me for the next contract negotiation saying that I was unwilling to work with management and expected me to take a cut in pay. I threaten to leave and resigned a new contract for the same money, this time only a 6 month contract.

That is when the witch hunt started, they made my job harder and harder everyday adding on extended duties and having SA monitor my classes and making up things that I was not doing or was doing in the class. They would bring up false complaints by students and tried everything to make me quit. So I was only there for the last 6 months, until I got a real job offer that paid twice as much for less stress. I put in my notice.

My last day they were almost bagging me to stay offering me more money and less hours so it really felt good to tell them to pound sand.

When I left 30 students left with me demanding full refunds saying that they would not be happy there with out me teaching. I am guessing this is why they tried to get me to stay. I am still in touch with those students who have been on a campaign get their refund back from the school.

During my time there I got busted for working on the wrong visa, that Meten got for me, if it wasn't for my wife talking to the PSB I would have been shipped home. During this raid when the student asked where the foreigner teachers were they told them that one of the foreigner teachers had AIDS and that they were all being tested for it so they would know which one had AIDS when they didn't return to work. I was the only one that didn't get shipped home by the PSb so the students figured all the rest had AIDS.

Stay a way from them at all costs, all the rest are just as bad, better to work for a public school and university then any training center.

".........wouldn't it be nice not to generalize when we post negative comments?"
miffed

Indeed it would. Putting aside perceptions, though, it may be more effective to simply state the facts. In your case, I think the facts speak for themselves; you consider yourself a qualified teacher and that's what should mean the most to you. If you continue to improve yourself as a teacher, the false perceptions of others are irrelevant.

Moreover, as Turnoi noted, there are many, many, Caucasians here who, shall we say, are somewhat less than qualified to be in the classroom.

But lets keep in mind that, though there are a lot of unqualified EFL teachers in China and, though some of them have agendas that have nothing to do with teaching, there are many who have found a way to improve themselves as well as their students. And, too, there are many who have not.

At any rate, sometimes, once the hornets nest has been stirred, it's best to walk away smiling.....or maybe pondering. Or both.

Sorry if my posting was construed that way!

I have met many filipinas, and as people they are fun loving and I like them dearly.

This is racism from chinese recruiters in the recruiting process!

I am a regular reader of this board. I am a Filipina. I just want to say: wouldn't it
be nice not to generalize when we post negative comments?
How would you feel about this: I was paid higher than a former colleague
(in the school I worked with before) from the UK
who is a speaker of the English language but cannot teach it, he cannot
explain to his students what modal verbs/verb modals are, verbals and its
kinds,the properties of verbs, and the specific rules of subject verb agreement
(thanks heavens, he knows the general rule). He cannot control his students and
just walks out of the classroom when bombarded with questions about his lessons.

I am currently in another province and I am paid higher than a colleague from one
of the English speaking countries. I maybe even being paid higher than you.

If the point of my post be misconstrued, then I stand to be corrected.

And oh, about the posts on Filipinas being cheaters, liars, gold-diggers etc.
NOT all of us...I for one come from a family described in the song by the
CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival) "Food on the table" that goes like this:
My dad was a big man, with the will that was tough, he was at his best when
the goings get rough, he made a living for the family and never have to cheat
to keep food on the table and shoes on our feet.
We sat down at the table and thank GOD in prayer coz we have plenty to eat
and plenty to wear, mom and dad and all us children were steamed to summer
heat to keep food on our table and shoes on our feet.

Nice day to all!!!

Work only in the public sector in a backwater, the best way in my view. Employers there have far fewer options - that's great for us!

I would agree...but also disagree.

Why do they then need to pay us 5,000 rmb a month when they can get a filipino for 4,000 rmb a month?'

Lots use recruiters, so they do have options...sadly.

Good-day mates.

First, I would recommend you to never work at this school, oops I didn't mean school nor Training center. I met a company, yes a company. It looks like a school, feels like a school. but once you start working there you will soon realize how famous you are, working at Meten is more like an acting job rather then a teaching job, you must teach their way and not really using your own brilliant teaching skills. They want you to act so they can get more students. So good acting attracts new students, its very very clever. So the point is you're not a teacher here, you're an acting recruiter and the funny thing is you never knew until after the first month or so.

Second, Wooo this is when everything changed for the worst, some of us are preparing to go on strike after we ask the PSB about a few things about our visas. Why are we going on strike? Because of the new scoring system. A scoring system that they now use to intimidate teachers. Allow me to share with you the conversation word by word as it was told to us:

Manager: Good afternoon everyone, hope everyone is good. We will start this meeting by talking about the new scoring system for Foreigner teachers and Chinese SA's. All teachers MUST keep an average score of "4.8", if you fall below 4.8 2 months then your contract will be terminated and you'll be released from Meten English with your Resident permit canceled and with 14 days to exit China. Any questions? ( The students will score you after every class.)

A teacher: Ohh, guys did you hear that, we're working in a real life video game now where if the students give us low scores we are terminated after 2 months. How is that fair to any of us? Why would any teacher come all the way to China, spend a lot of money on a new apartment and Z visa just to play a company game that is designed to intimidate teachers to try harder, this won't make teachers try harder, you're making us laugh, and your new scoring system will encourage us to work less rather then harder. No foreign teacher will accept this long term.

After that we all walked out of the meeting and didn't say a thing to the Manager, we never met this guy, only saw him for a few weeks but never was formally introduced, he's been floating around all Meten centers for a while from what I hear. His name is Terry. Chinese guy, short and a little fat.

So there you have it, you are on a scoring system, it's all most like the game Bejeweled, on the timing game option, if you can't find the match then your time is up, same in Meten if your score doesn't go up, then it's going down and your time is running out, that's a lot of pressure and it doesn't do anything good for the students.

Third, Sick leave: No no no you are not allowed to be sick at Meten, you will lose money, a lot, my mate got really sick and took 3 days off, he came back, had a doctors note, but he lost Y1200.00 for being sick, for being human, oh only one sick day off guys, sorry. So those last two days cost him Y1,200 and was deducted from his salary. Well he was pissed off. He is one our hard working guys and he sacrificed so much time and effort for Meten, so I think he's leaving next month, he got a real good offer in a High-school. They will also make you feel guilty by saying hey we had to use a Part-time teacher to make up for your classes.

Forth, This other guy Jason. B (American) is also causing us headaches, we all know he doesn't like his job or working with us, so he takes it out on us, He wants us to love his Meten books M1, M2, M3 and M4. These books will make you laugh, it's the worst set of English teach books you have ever seen, just ask any teacher there. Haha We have Peter Pan and Micheal Jordon having conversations that make no since in these books, the students have no idea that they are being cheated. I feel for them. But we must use the Meten book, remember it's the acting way of Meten that's important, not the teaching method.

Fifth, The training centers are completely outdated, the computers must be at least 6 years old, sometimes we can never prepare a class on time due to the slow internet and slow PC's. Have you ever played hide and seek paper before? no? well you must play this game at Meten, they reduced our use of paper to save money I guess, so we have to sneak around and steal paper from where ever we can find it. It really makes our job a lot harder. We really try to start a class on time, but we can't if we can't find any paper.

Managers to watch out for, Jason B ( American ), Terry (Chinese) and Tina (Chinese) and Stone (Chinese), Flora (Chinese) and last June (Chinese). I've been here for 3 years at Meten, don't let any of these guys fool you. After we finish our plans for the strike we all plan to leave and move on.

So the point is to let you all know that if you want to work at Meten, you MUST keep your score high,there will be days when your tired or sick and just can't get the energy to flow in a class, so if the scores are low, then you're closer to termination, is that fair? No it isn't. You must be the perfect teacher to work here. But none of us are perfect, we have some good skills that make us good teachers, but it's not useful in Meten.

It's a game that is your choice, if you want to play into their Teacher scoring system, then be my guest.

Good Points:

My own desk.
Housing allowance Y2000.
Salary Y12,000.
2 hours to rest.