Re Shane English School Dalian

For any teachers considering Shane Dalian - we loved it!

Shane was our second school in China, we worked there from 2015-2017, and had absolutely no problems!
I can't comment on the goings on before we arrived, but while we were there the management was great, always helped out whenever we had any questions or problems, paid for our hotel room for several days when we first arrived in Dalian, helped us find an apartment (we were shown several until we were happy, and weren't pressured into picking one, we just loved it!) and several times we needed to see a doctor or go to the hospital and each time one of the chinese staff came to our apartment to take us there personally in a taxi.

We were on completely legitimate and legal Z working visas, as was EVERY teacher there. We were on 16 hour/week contracts, and for the whole two years from the day we started the two of us had every Monday AND Tuesday off together. We had a great salary, housing bonus, paid national holidays, end of contract bonuses, and at the end of the first six months and then the first year, we received flight reimbursement bonuses. And our contracts were of course in English, why would you sign it if it was in Chinese?

Any extra time off after the 22 national holidays was unpaid, and we took several holidays with no issues - a week here, two weeks there, even a whole month - and our office manager was completely understanding and the other great staff members covered our classes.

You'll always get your oddballs and miserable mobs in any office, and yeah, some toys, flashcards or books may be slightly outdated, but it's up to you to take what you have and make it work, make it great. But our time at Shane Dalian was nothing but positive.

L&J

Re Shane English School Dalian

The.dude,

While you were here working with us early in 2015 you must know the school was going through a transition phase, you were already here before I started and we are in a much better place now. Salaries have now been boosted too! I don't know how the tax rate varied unless overtime payment was included?

Ouch, now Teacher Development time isn't always fun and games for the Host either (unless, of course, you're presenting a Fun and Games workshop). The training and development sessions were specifically designed to help the new/inexperienced/serious teachers hone their skills and discuss new ideas in an open meeting. It's also a great chance to practice group speaking and presentation skills which are highly valuable in most professions. Lots of work goes into designing these modules, but I am sorry that you would have rather been elsewhere, though we all have jobs to do. The formal TD training sessions are only held occasionally these days, we are more focused on being left to organize and prepare our class materials during office time.

Night classes can be a pain if you'd rather be elsewhere too. The absolute latest you finish class is 7:40 (5:10 on weekends), again, this is just part of the job you have to take into stride. I hope your new employer meets your needs, for us, this mid-week evening class scheduling is due to student availability and is a necessity.

I wasn't here when you signed up initially, so I don't know what was offered or promised regarding these 11 days you mention. I am aware that there was a 'holiday time' misunderstanding among some staff so you must know that this was discussed back then and hasn't been an issue since.

Back to the transition phase in early 2015. Yes, the school lost some local staff members due to conflict of interest and this was a shame as many of them were dedicated employees. On the plus side, it provided a chance to clean the slate and re-build from the ground up. After 4 months you really should have had a permanent schedule though as we were overstaffed at the time this left room for activity classes such as finger painting and book clubs. These classes were somewhat flexible which caused schedule changes.

The main branch is approaching it's 10th year, and sometimes kids write on things they shouldn't.. the TA's now all bring their computers for the listening exercises and the class limit is still 14 students. Busy and loud. Not all classes are this big though.. and we still have reasonably decent materials and resources, even more toys now!

All courses have books, course guides and cards. If we're missing any cards you can just make a note to have it made, the 'Flashcard Request' list is still on the wall where it used to be.

We aren't forcing office time to make up your contract hours anymore, this was done away with some time ago. There's no 'data capture' or typing either. If this was a thing then it stopped with the change of management early 2015.

Swirling vortex of hell. Dramatic!

I apologize to the Reader if I seem overly familiar, having worked directly with 'the.dude'. I also extend this apology to 'the.dude', you raised some legitimate concerns here though you must know that we've really worked hard to get back on track.

Best of all, things are pretty chill now.

Regards,
Academic Manager
Shane English School Dalian
dl_am@outlook.com

*Note, bugger, hitting 'reply' individually to each Poster doesn't format as I thought it would (i.e. not under/attached to the original post) - it appears that I am building my own long message chain in attempt to personalize my responses to each individual (Red, Irfas, FencingMad, The.dude, Silverboy, looking;). Must be time for a coffee. I'll just wrap it up here guys.

Thanks for reading.
DP

Re: Re Shane English School Dalian

Well, i'm writing as a school representative, this isn't personal.

If you need my name please email me!

Furthermore, I don't need more Nigerian princes offering me cash.

The first one worked out fine... just waiting until the 4th payment fee processes correctly.

Re Shane English School Dalian

Dear Reader,

I am writing on behalf of Shane English Schools in Dalian. I am the current Academic Manager and I have held this position for the past 12 months.

These negative comments are from early 2015 or prior, and while I cannot comment on any incidences that may have taken place before I started working here I would like to address our current situation as we do not stand for anything like what the poster has described. Even if you take the online comments as complete and unbiased truth, you should know that the new management team has turned the corner and we had an amazing year in 2015, the school really is thriving and we are very thankful to our staff for all their hard work.

Please understand that I am not posting here to start an argument, nor call out OP on any of their comments asking for proof and to post the other side to the story. I can understand how a disgruntled employee feels the need to exact revenge through trashing an organization anonymously via online bulletin boards, though I just hope that the Reader can appreciate that out of a medium sized school (10+ foreign staff) you eventually will have an individual that feels the world owes them more. Thankfully these troublesome staff members don’t stay around for too long.

Here’s the differences as to what the Poster said, and our school as at 2016:

“The management for this school is beyond incompetent, the lying and deception from all management is absolutely unbelievable”
Wow, harsh. If it matters please note that from about the time this comment was posted, around 12 months ago, the school has been under new management, both foreign and Chinese.

“most teachers are working there illegally the school says they are unable to get the correct working visa due to regulations in Dalian”
All teachers are on a legitimate working visa. No exceptions. If a school is unable to apply for the correct working visa due to regulations this means that the individual did not meet the necessary requirements to obtain a Z-Visa. If this was accurate in the past, it is not anymore.

“you are earning 9200 RMB for 18 hours work, once you get there they tax you so your salary is only 8700, but how can they tax you if you are working illegally?”
There isn’t and has never been an 18 hour contract option. I am no expert on income taxation, nor should you have been working illegally. Our teachers teach 20 class hours per week for 11,200 minimum (baseline salary, before reviews and increases).

“You get no housing subsidy or any other benefits”
Actually, due to an amazing 2015 our teachers will now get an extra 1000rmb/month on top of their regular salary for housing! Regular benefits also include an end of contract bonuses, retention bonuses, insurance, and flight reimbursements.

“Once you arrive the manager will actually tell you that it is not the Chinese staff members job to help you and if they do its " out of the kindness of their own hearts". So you will be left to fend for your self in a country where you can't speak the language.”
Without more details this is difficult to comment on. I know how difficult it can be stumbling around in your first month without support, and I have always done what I could to assist new teachers over the years. I have noted this well and will be sure to provide more help our new staff while they settle in. Please remember that the TA's have personal lives and separate work duties too.

“One girl will show you 2 apartments and you will be made to choose they are some of the worst living spaces I have ever seen.”
It is difficult to find a perfect apartment within a budget, though our most recent arrivals have all lucked out with some beautiful apartments! In the future please be sure to speak up at the time if you aren’t happy, not bottle up resentment and be miserable – it’s your personal space and you need to feel comfortable at home. Please note that apartments aren’t forced on staff, as teachers are free to choose their own place.

“You will be asked to sign a contract in Chinese ( this is after they have sent you a totally different one ). Unless you can read Chinese you will be unable to decipher what you are signing but the contract states that you are only earning 6000 RMB, if they ever with hold your wages and you take them to court the most you will ever get is 6000.”
This sounds fishy. I’ve never seen a foreign work contract written only in Chinese and it’s my job to offer, maintain, and update the employee contracts. Did you ask for translation? Are you talking about the apartment lease?

“If you try to take some of the 11 days holiday they offer you you will be told it is not company policy to give staff weekends off.”
We get 22 paid holidays per year, though these are to cover the National Holidays. Any other form of personal leave is considered as unpaid leave, and you are correct, it is not company policy to give staff weekends off. Weekends are our busiest time! Taking a weekend off for no legitimate reason sometimes throws your colleagues under the bus to cover your classes… and you still want to get paid for doing this?

This said, throughout last year, 2015, I had the pleasure of approving every single personal holiday request for our foreign staff. It was a nightmare at times calling meeting after meeting, so many extra hours of work for so many people to reschedule the teachers, balance hours, informing the TA’s, have them notify all of the parents, arrange handover notes, etc… the list goes on! But we did it. Every time. The teachers covered each other without complaint because of the awesome team we have, all looking out for each other.

“Then when you leave they will with hold the money for the days you were not allowed to take, they will also try to not pay you your over time that you worked or your flight allowance.”
I don’t know about this as it is standard policy to pay staff for any extra holiday days that weren’t taken at the end of each 12 month contract. There is no exception to this rule. You mention they ‘tried’ not to pay you? Meaning you actually got paid… I appreciate you probably didn’t need a conversation about it if you were leaving on a sour note, though at the end everything was above board, so I choose to take this one with a grain of salt.

“While other schools are giving their staff usually a couple of days more than the government minimum national holidays Shane will give you less.”
We are closed for the National Holidays, and offer 22 paid days per year to cover for these. I cannot comment on any other schools or offers.

“You think the contract isn't so bad cause its only 18 hours, well, your scheduled will change weekly including your days off which are never together,”
Ideally your 20 hour class schedule shouldn’t change weekly, this can be so frustrating! Currently, there are very few changes as everyone is working regular, permanent classes. Other times this cannot be avoided, such is the nature of having a dozen families trying to agree on availability or scheduling make-up classes for absent students. Days off are now consecutive for regular weeks, if they aren’t we have a chat first as to why, and for how long this will affect your schedule.

“you will be unable to pick up extra work as you will be unable to tell clients when you are available.”
We both know you shouldn’t be working extra classes as per your visa regulations..

"There are thousands of schools in China don't work for this one."
To each their own. Shane English schools are a global franchise, and a reputable one at that. Not only do Shane schools offer a great foot on the door for new teachers but also plenty of opportunities for experienced teachers to gain some management and training experience. We have a solid syllabus and course books for all ages, homework books, listening CD's, phonics courses, flashcards, realia, etc.

Regards,
Academic Manager
Shane English School Dalian
dl_am@outlook.com

Re Shane English School Dalian

Shane has changed their contract to 16 teaching hours and 4 "teacher development hours" a week for 9200 CYN a month but they don't tell you that they will be taxing you a varied amount every month, most months I'm lucky to get over 8800. The teacher development is such a load of bollocks and the biggest waste of time on the planet, I would rather scrape dog shit off my shoe, it also means some teachers have to work from 10 in the morning through to 8:30 at night. Money is constantly deducted from peoples salaries, even when the government holidays come round and the school is closed they still deduct money from you for not coming to class! how can you come to class if the freaking school is closed! Its around 500 CNY a day and if you are sick, only miss 1 class that's still 500, we are only paid 125 an hour so how does that work? Apparently we are not allowed to take weekends as holiday and the school will decide when we get to take holiday despite them telling you when you sign up you have 11 days of your own to choose. I have been here for 4 months and have yet to have the same scheduled for even 2 weeks running classes are constantly given and taken away I have also had 3 teaching assistance in 1 class, they all keep quitting saying that that are having arguments with the raging bitch that runs the school, then when the parents are unhappy its my fault. All the parents are unhappy and always complaining I don't blame them the classrooms are falling apart, there are no computers or even working speakers to do listening exercises, they raised the fees but doubled the class sizes, there are 16 4 year olds in a classroom that only fits at most 10 kids, the older courses have no books or syllabuses, the younger courses have no flash cards, managers will tell you that you are not teaching what is in the book, which would be fine except the books have so many grammatical errors its a joke. When you sign your contract they say that if the school doesn't give you 16 teaching hours then the you'll just have the time off until they can fill your scheduled, they also say that most teachers aren't doing the full 16 hours so you'll get extra time off. However in reality they give you "office hours" to make up the 16 hours and it is such a bunch of shit, doing tasks such as scanning all the books and typing documents (data capture) are handed out at the managers discretion and if you don't do it they fine you. If I wanted to do sit in an office and do monkey work I could have stayed at home and got paid more to do it. This school is a swirling vortex of hell and I don't plan to stay much longer.

Re Shane English School Dalian

Was just about to apply here, thanks for the heads up