Just curious, I've heard from my Uni students that the tuition at New Oriental is exorbitant and that they pay their teachers really well in order to attract top quality teachers, to a point where the teachers there are seen as something of a celebrity snob. And yet, here is an ad from XDF offering 100/hr for native speakers. I don't get it.

Does anybody have a FIRSTHAND experience with them?

Cheers~

Is NO a franchise?
With any franchise you are at the mercy of the attitude of the franchisee.

In business you can increase profits by cutting costs, or by offering something of higher percieved value (and charging more money). The two don't really work together if you want growth. The aims and results of both strategies conflict. Trying to apply both is just thoughtless greed, it cannot be sustained.

However, irrational greed is the business model that seems to prevail in Yunnan. I see it all all levels from the shop floor up to the gum int. More so than in the other cities I have done business in. Perhaps why Kunming is so far behind other cities in SW China, despite its proximity to ASEAN countries.

Either that or they are on the brink, skid row.

@Tonyaod
Everything is negotiable. If you are considering working with New Oriental, but their offered remuneration is too low - counteroffer - worst they can do is reject your counteroffer or rather impolitely just not bother to respond at all, in which case, an expiration date on your counteroffer is appropriate - and standard fare for legal negotiations in developed countries.

Although the rules of "good faith negotiations" are rather unknown in China and developing Asia in general (to the best of my knowledge), this is standard procedure in legal negotiations - which include verbal or oral negotiations (sic - expiration dates on counter-offers).

As for whether or not New Oriental or any other "for profit" educational institution or business is good or bad, fair or unfair, etc etc etc - this seems to be a rather free and relatively loosely governed market segment of China's society and a textbook case of simple supply and demand economics...Enjoy and caveat emptor!

I had a negotiation on pay. They made a low offer. After pingponging we settled on a figure 25% higher than the original.
The day before I was due to start, I was told they would only pay the original. I said goodbye and did not start at YunDa.
Verbal agreements are worthless, there are no 'gentlemen's agreements'. Contracts are pretty worthless as well, you can't get a case to court. If you do you buy a verdict, or they side with their own.

@laotou

I am pretty content with my career prospects at the moment so not really looking to teach at these training schools. I was just curious since my uni students have been telling me how well they pay the teachers and then I see an ad for 100/hr, it seems to go against the perception of the level of quality I keep hearing about.

While I realize everything is negotiable, if were in the market to look for a teaching position, the posted offer would make me think twice about the company since what they are telling me is that they are not looking for quality teachers, only a clockwork orange.

Imagine walking into a Ferrari dealership and telling them you are looking for something in the $20,000 range. They wouldn't even bother try to convince to up your range. They would tell you to walk down the street to the Ford dealership.

Anyway, the ad simply put them in the category of a meat grinder training school in my mind instead of a top quality school that actually cares about their students and the quality of education like in the recent movie that was loosely based on their story. No big deal.

Cheers~

@Dazzer
Regret to hear your unpleasant contract negotiation experience with Yunda - however it should be pretty obvious that both public and private schools tend to hurl cannon fodder at issues as Kunming has a rather large glut of fodder.

I've heard there are elite schools in Kunming - so if one is looking for a long-term career - these are probably the schools professional educators should be targeting - the top 1-2% (or less) of Kunming's elite - but I don't know if they can pay the premiums you seek.

@tonyaod
I've always contended that Kunming's professional educators look for a similar group of professional peers within the city - then eventually band together to start your own biz, when the group can achieve critical mass - but that also requires your potential students and parents to value quality of education over high test scores - and the name of the game in China - high test scores.

It all feeds in to a larger meat grinder...

I taught a demo at New Oriental a year ago and was offered to work for 60/hr, which after negotiations was 100/hr and a week after negotiations 120/hr... which I politely refused because I didn't want the job anymore. I've seen no foreigners there whenever I came. I think they can afford one foreign teacher at a time!

I find it a bit strange that parents would value test scores over quality of education. If the education is of sufficiently good quality, the test scores should follow with it.

A few years back I met with one of the directors at Henderson. He said his "language school" was not interested in teaching the language - just in achieving the test scores. That may be fine in the short term, but when the little boys and girls grow up and want to attend a foreign uni, they can't speak the language!

Perhaps those should be the selling points for quality education:
1. Language properly learned = good test scores, and
2. Language properly learned = ability to function in foreign schools and get good test scores there too.

These schools make a lot of money and are just plain greedy.
Here the list of some:
XDA
Henderson
Haina
Web International
Wesley

These school a just plain greedy. They think that a fair wage in 2013 is 80 yuan to 100 yuan. What a joke! As some have pointed out, those wages were from 6-7 years ago.