As foreigners wanting to move abroad and teach English, we are faced with a variety of different options. One is bombarded by numerous offers making you feel special and overwhelmed at the same time. I remember my first few offers made me feel amazingly special. A few days later I had numerous offers from many different schools. The difficult part was deciding which school or company would match what I was looking for. As the ESL industry grows, the demand for native speaking teachers increases too. A powerful sales pitch can easily lead new and inexperienced teachers to a job that did not particularly expect. It is important to choose the school that meets your needs and personally I decided to go with EF and I am incredibly glad I did. I have successfully completed a full year, and also signed an additional contract with more responsibilities.

This made me think. Why do people choose a company like EF? I spent a few days doing some research about why people chose to work with the company. The research indicated that further data was required. I extended my research to include all departments of local staff, students and parents too. So my quest began. I set about finding out why people chose EF and more importantly, why they stayed with EF.

Our Customers…

From a customer perspective most parents chose EF because of its strong brand name. EF has been operating from 1965, has developed a strong heritage and continues to develop and grow using innovation and creativity. It is a brand that is very recognizable and has very strong customer loyalty. Parents feel comfortable that EF will improve their child’s English. This has been achieved by offering highly successful educational development programs that deliver on their promises. The research also indicated that parents felt that EF offered the best learning environment available. At EF, and at all different ESL schools, we offer really interactive ways of learning a language through communicative approaches. Parents value this, and pay lots of attention to the Western teaching style influence. At EF, we do regular exams and training to improve our teaching quality. They are transferred into the classroom and students are responding favorably to this approach.

Our Students…

Of course it was important to know what students felt about EF. Students enjoyed coming to EF because they see EF as a great environment to practice their English while learning about different cultures. As foreign teachers we offer the students exposure to Western culture and experiences. Our classes are vastly different to those of their public schools. Our older students expressed that they come to EF for this purpose. Some of them also have dreams of traveling and studying abroad and they seek the practical aspect of language we provide in the classroom. Many of the younger students join our classes from an external motivating factor, perhaps being their parents dream for them to have a better future. Students under the age of 8 years were not asked. Students between the ages of 8-12 said that they enjoyed interacting with the teachers as well as the activities we do in the classroom with them. This reiterates how we as foreign teachers influence and change how these learners learn.

Our Team…

A strong driving force in our schools is the team of local employees. They are the gears driving the schools forward. I thought it essential to find out why our local staff wanted to work with EF. As mentioned before, EF is a growing global company with over 200 schools all over the world. This creates increasing career and personal growth opportunities for our employees. Every single employee, foreign or local, with the correct attitude and drive, can create a successful career with EF. The Chinese local staff feel that working here will provide them with growth and opportunities to improve their future. Being an English school, it is essential for local staff to use English, many of them see working at EF as precisely that, an opportunity to improve their English. EF also offers satisfactory benefits for all of its employees.

Our Teachers…

This leads me to the teachers. As the above mentioned reasons pertain to local staff in general, I would like to speak about our local teachers in slightly more detail. Many of our local teachers’ reasons for working at EF are very similar to the ones stated by the local staff. There are slight differences. Local teachers stated they loved teaching and felt responsible to pass on their knowledge to the youth. This is quite different from that of a foreign teacher, especially new ones.

Of course this leads me to the faces of the company and the people who are generally reading this article, the foreign staff. I split my questions over two categories, new teachers and teachers who have stayed for two or more years. Teachers who have been here for two or more years all stated that they found an opportunity in teaching and see growth in their future being with EF. This feeling and enlightenment was only realized after about a year of teaching with EF.

Most teachers starting ESL, started their journey in a very similar way. They were looking for change, took a chance and hoped for the best. We are very open minded people and we are seeking something different, something ordinary life in our home countries cannot give us. Many of us wanted to travel the world while working, experience different cultures, start a new career or even further develop a career in teaching. The reasons why we chose EF were because EF offered the clearest and best terms of employment. From the on-boarding process, right through to the end of a contract, things are done professionally and conveniently. The reason why we stay with EF is because of the opportunities and development we can gain on a professional and personal level.

And me…

My personal experience with EF has been great, it has completely changed my work ethic, personal goals and ideas and how I think about life and myself. I truly hope that this article will clear things out for new teachers wanting to travel and work in China. That it will give them a clearer idea of what to look for when choosing a company. Whether it being a gap year of travel and work, or looking for a completely new career path. EF will be able to offer something that you are looking for.