If you look to the right of this page, under classifieds, you'll see a Ninaxu advertising for a job "Full Time English Teacher at i2." Don't bother.
First and foremost, the teaching experience is awful. You're class will be a revolving door of students, as upper managment constantly swaps students in and out of classes. You'll start to build a relationship with a student, and students will build relationships with eachother, only to be swapped to a different class with a different teacher. Not to mention, you'll be asked at the last minute to fill in for students you have not prepared to teach, because management would rather not cancel a class when a teacher is sick, because that lengthens the amount of time until the contract ends, thus depriving them of more money.
Are you sick? If you call in, you'll get a string of abusive WeChat messages from your boss complaining about your attitude. That is even if you have a medical excuse.
Leave the job, you'll get threatening messages after you have left.
Promises? What are those.
That leave they put in the contract, they have many ways to weasel out of approving your leave. My suggestion, take it ASAP.
The classroom materials are awful. You always are told that the private company needs you to sacrifice for their (profits) difficult needs. No in-classroom computers, in-fact just one computer for the entire office. A couple of broken down CD players, a box of disorganized CD's, and yours is almost always missing or being used by another teacher.
They insist that you use their book, but they don't provide the materials, such as flash-cards. So you spend a great deal of time doing tedious work to get ready for class. The books themselves are garbage. You'll be handed kids who don't know hello how are you, and the book has no phonics material, and really no vocabulary building exercises.
Also, the staff office of the Greenlake Campus was covered in human waste from a broken sewage pipe, and was not fixed for months. This is not a metaphor for life at i2.
You're Chinese colleagues will tell you to work harder, or give you lots of advice. But, when a child freaks out, and you need a Chinese staff member, they will be several floors away, gossiping at the reception desk. But, they are always able to inform on you, and tell you how you can do better.
You'll be asked to "volunteer" for the children at holiday parties. They'll try and guilt trip you. But, you are volunteering for a "for-profit" party, as the school charges parents quite a bit of money for their children to attend.
The marketing department is immoral to criminal. They play on the desperation of parents of children with learning disabilities. Lying, and telling them that their teacher (only 1 or 2 teachers there actually hold a certificate) not only holds a teaching certificate, but specializes in learning disabilities. There were autistic students, dyslexic students, and many other types of issues. They will be lucky if their child is taught by somebody with a generic TEFL certificate. Then, after signing the contract, they will make fun of the family and students they just signed up.
You'll notice that no veteran Kunming expats work at i2, most are imported (many from Russia, Boris from "Chicago".), or at least from other Chinese cities. Just, don't work here. It is an awful and immoral company, that will screw you and the cusomter over in the name of profits.
Getting Away: Solo in Siem Reap
Posted byYou can also take a train from Bangkok to the Cambodian border and a bus or 20-30 USD taxi from the border to Siem Reap.
My wife and I took the train, and it was quite lovely, you are rolling through the Thai jungle for most of the journey. I generally find that train>>>>bus.