Is the foreign education industry that is “black smoke and suffocating” really so unbearable?

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “deeply” (ID: deep -echo), author Rize, editor Ding Zhiren.

There was another incident in the red, yellow and blue kindergartens. This time it was a foreign teacher: in January 2019, a Colombian teacher in the Red, Yellow and Blue Vanke City Kindergarten in the North District of Qingdao City, during the lunch break, no other teachers were present. A girl is carrying a donkey.

This is not the first time a foreign teacher has been involved. Just in the past July, there have been another crimes related to foreign teachers in China.

This is very different from the general perception of the public.
  For a long time, foreign teachers usually represent high-quality foreign language teaching and high fees.
  In the same kindergarten, the pure foreign teacher teaching class and the Chinese teacher taught the class, the price per month can more than double.
  In order to give children the best English teaching, many parents do not hesitate to invest heavily.
  However, the problem of foreign teachers who have taken the lead has torn through the looks that look glamorous.

Two years ago, Alice was preparing to enter the domestic and foreign education intermediary market. Because she wanted to know the real foreign teacher classroom, she spent a year conducting industry research through field experience.
  She chose a well-known English training institution in China. In the experience class, the blond and handsome foreign teachers were pure in pronunciation. After the experience, Alice purchased more than 200 foreign teaching lessons at one time.

In the first few lessons, the organization basically maintained the level of foreign teachers in the experience class, but quickly released themselves – as long as they are different from the Chinese, they can stand on the classroom platform.
  This is of course very different from Alice’s original idea, so she found the head of the agency to complain about the foreign teacher problem, but the person in charge said that he did not respond positively, asked, and finally blocked:
  “Classmates, if you want to improve your English listening ability, you have to listen to which country.
 

The reason is ridiculous, Alice is speechless, she gradually came to understand, using high-quality foreign teachers to experience the class to attract users to sign up is a common means of sales.
  The person in charge of the organization said:
  Add a little more money and make sure that the “whites” give you classes – only the price will be three to four times the original course price.

But Alice didn’t dare to save any more, she could only go down on her scalp, so in the following course, she saw a black foreign teacher from South Africa drunk into the classroom and experienced some Some from Russia, ServiThe foreign teacher of Asia came to class with a quilt.

“80% of the classes I signed up were from black foreign teachers.
  I am not discriminating against them. It is just that these foreign teachers are not very standard in pronunciation. The basic literacy of the teacher is simply not relevant.
 

This experience directly affected her choice of work afterwards – the line is too bad, she chose to invest in the online camp.
  Today, her intermediary company only serves online training institutions, because in Alice’s eyes, “the offline is not good for foreign teachers.
 

Is this really so unbearable?

“Who is pursuing a foreign teacher?”

Liu Mei, who has been in the English teaching industry for ten years, previously served as the principal of an adult English training institution. In her view, the “foreign teacher” course is indeed a magic weapon to attract users, and it is a signboard. If you don’t do well, you will lose your word of mouth.

Can you do a foreign language course, the quality of foreign teachers is one of the most important aspects, but when it comes to recruiting foreign teachers, Liu Mei, who has rich experience in the industry, will also feel that “eat a meal, grow a wisdom “.

“The foreign teachers are really mixed. Some foreign teachers who have applied for jobs have been masons, carpenters, and some are retired sailors. We are afraid to recruit them here, but we can imagine that these have foreign appearances. Foreigners are still very marketable.
  Liu Mei said frankly that the foreign education market is huge, and different levels of training institutions will employ different levels of foreign teachers.

Overall, the training institutions in first-tier cities can attract higher-quality foreign teachers because they can provide higher salaries. Some foreign teachers with poor quality can’t find their favorite jobs in the first-tier cities. Go to second and third tier cities or even county towns.

Although these foreign teachers may be of poor quality, the institution has institutional appeals – a “foreign teacher” can be worth a thousand dollars.

According to the “deep sound”, the “three Chinese teachers + one foreign teacher” course is more than double the course taught by a pure Chinese teacher, and an excellent Chinese English teacher is paid hourly. 100 to 150 yuan, foreign teachers due to differences in nationality, background experience and teaching level, hourly salary between 200 to 500 yuan, high can be 800 hours, but most of the 200-300 yuan an hour.

Therefore, in most cases, adding a foreign teacher course will not significantly increase the cost. The doubling of the offer can greatly increase the profit margin of the organization. Regardless of the quality, the foreign teacher is naturally sought after by the organization.

As long as you are a foreigner, can you be a foreign teacher?
  The answer is obviously no.

According to relevant requirements, regular foreign teachers need to meet two conditions at the same time:
  Have a legal work visa;
  Have relevant teacher qualification certificates.

First of all, foreign teachers need to hold legal cultural and educational work visas.
  (Z-signed or R-signed, but the R-sign is generally only for “high-level talents” and “immediately needed talents”)
  And holding a Q visiting relative visa, L tourist visa, M business visa or student residence permit, etc., are illegal employment. Therefore, students and business travellers in China are not allowed to work in foreign teachers. According to the regulations, they will be immediately returned to the country if they are found.

How to get a cultural and educational visa? There are two conditions that must be met at the same time: Bachelor degree or above, must be from a native English-speaking country
  (At present, it is widely recognized in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa.)
  English is not available in the official language. It does not mean that this country is a native English speaking country. According to the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China
  (hereinafter referred to as the Foreign Experts Bureau, mainly responsible for managing foreign experts working in China)
  In principle, applications for non-native language foreign teachers will not be approved in principle.

Second, foreign teachers need to have two years of teaching experience or have TESOL, TEFL or CELTA teacher qualification certificates.

Uncover the foreign education industry chain: a balanced game that swims in the gray zone

TEFL certificate (picture from the network)

These certificates are equivalent to our “Teacher’s Certificate of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language”. The qualification certificate is to ensure that teachers have the corresponding teaching ability.

A teacher from a training institution said to the “deep response” that for foreigners, the TESOL and TEFL qualification exams are not difficult. Many foreigners with diplomas are naked, usually two weeks. can pass.
  But CELTA is very difficult, more content, and more professional, issued by the University of Cambridge, with more than 1,000 people passing the exam every year.

However, according to data released by the Foreign Experts Bureau in 2019, at present, the total number of foreign teachers teaching in China is about 1 million, and only 10% of the legally held relevant certificates.

An industry person said to “deep response”:
  “The ratio is probably this. People who teach outside the lectures.”I am afraid there will be more, the offline foreign education market can be said to be chaotic.
 

“Secret Grey Industry Chain”
 

In the face of huge market demand, various roles have become prominent in the Nuggets, and foreign teachers, intermediaries, and training institutions have jointly shaped and influenced the domestic foreign education industry.

Intermediaries are one of the important roles that connect foreign teachers and institutions.

According to the “deep response”, a top-ranking language training institution in the industry has more than 1,000 foreign teachers in Beijing alone. Due to its large scale and mature model, its foreign teachers are mainly recruited by themselves. Direct recruitment overseas.

Not every institution has similar brand influence and channel radiation, and the quality of foreign teachers is difficult to control, the turnover rate is high, and the management is very difficult. Ordinary English training institutions cannot afford such complicated. Therefore, the recruitment of foreign teachers, even training, payroll, etc., are handed over to intermediaries.

Uncover the foreign teacher industry chain: a balanced game that swims in the gray zone

The service displayed by the official website of a foreign intermediary agency

Publishing recruitment information on foreign recruitment websites is an important way for intermediaries to obtain potential foreign teachers. Most intermediaries have no time to consider quality. Most of them simply build a platform to hang foreign teachers’ job search information on the website and show job-seeking foreign countries. People’s information and domestic foreign teacher recruitment needs.

Some agents also set up WeChat groups to post self-introduction videos to foreign teachers in the group.
  The foreign teachers in the video come from all over the world. Many English accents are hard to hear. The accomodants from Russia, the Netherlands and Ukraine are already standard.

Nationality determines the price of the foreign teacher:
  Foreign teachers from Pakistan, Morocco and other countries and regions have set a target monthly salary of between 10,000 and 15,000, while job seekers from the United States and the United States generally have a asking price of more than 20,000.

If you look closely, you will find that most foreigners who apply for jobs only have business visas or tourist visas. This does not comply with the relevant regulations, but they are still hot in the face of huge market demand.

Similarly, for foreign job seekers, the intermediary will also establish a communication group, release different levels of foreign teacher recruitment needs, and some recruitment information willClearly write:
  As long as you can speak fluent English, there is no teacher qualification certificate such as TEFL or TESOL. There is no requirement for nationality, education, teaching experience, certificate, background, visa, etc.

Under the strong market demand, the “gray industry chain” has gradually formed.

In July this year, Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court declared an illegal organization of unqualified foreigners to enter kindergartens for foreign teachers. One supervisor of the education company illegally organized several foreigners to enter the country, and the other party was employed. The form of dispatch was sent to a number of kindergartens for illegal work.
  The three men were sentenced to penalties ranging from one and a half to two years for organizing others to sneak into the border.

According to publicly disclosed information, between August 2016 and September 2017, three defendants joined together with foreigners “ALEX”
  (alias, another case)
  A group of Serbian and Ukrainian personnel who are interested in coming to China for foreign teachers have been recruited overseas. The team involved fraudulently obtained a short-term study visa or trade visa with fictitious entry. Finally, they contacted someone to enter some international “Beijing”. “Kindergarten.” In just one year, the agency delivered more than 80 people by this means.

Training organizations that try to reduce costs and increase profits have also made a contribution to the foreign education market.

Ms. Li, who has worked as a foreign intermediary for many years, will encounter professional training techniques in business negotiation skills:
  First, at the relatively low price, the intermediary is required to provide the best quality foreign teachers, and then further price reduction, asking for the lowest price. For the price, the foreign teacher resources without the teacher qualification certificate can be accepted.

Multiple factors have created a chaotic foreign education industry. In reality, an industry insider who is working as an intermediary is quite pessimistic. He said to the “deep response” that “this industry is highly opaque and highly unprofessional.
  There will be no improvement in the future.
 

“Where does the poison come from?

The foreign education industry is full of chaos, where does the poison come from?
  The shortage on the supply side is one of the main reasons.

There are thousands of educational institutions in China, and each of them wants to expand their quality foreign business.
  But in fact, the real quality teachers in foreign countries simply do not move.
  Teacher Li said, “Our company is located in the central United States. The salary of standard teachers here is about 50,000 to 60,000 dollars a year. Chinese schools and enterprises can’t afford it. Teachers are not willing to throw home to start again.
 

There is a lot of situation, maybe only “disregarding talents” can meet more needs, but this practice is very controversial.You will even touch the law as in the case above.

Liu Mei has encountered similar troubles:
  “We have interviewed a high-quality doctor, and all aspects are very good, but they have not passed the teacher qualification certificate, but I think most training companies will still hire him under the trade-off.
 

Too little power to discipline foreign teachers is one of the reasons for the frequent scandals of foreign teachers.

A teacher from a training institution said to the “deep response”, “I have to admit that some foreign teachers are coming to China after they have not been able to mix in their country.”
  Some foreign friends told me that after arriving in China, these foreigners are surrounded by strangers. They don’t have to worry too much, and they don’t hurt the possibility of ‘honour’, so some foreigners have less moral sense.
 

The deeper reason is the opacity of regulation.
  The founder of a foreign education training institution believes that it is difficult to handle the first school license. The current relevant departments are still not clear about the specific operation. The conditions are very harsh and the classification is unclear. In addition, the policy is vague and the implementation is not in place. The specific requirements for handling are very Difficult to find on the website.
  The relevant provisions have arrived at the place, and different offices in different departments and even different people in the same part have different interpretations.

It shared his actual experience with “Deep Rings”:
  Due to the presence of foreign employees in the institution, it is necessary to apply for or renew the work permit for foreigners. The materials do not require the qualifications for running the school, but the actual application is returned. The reason is that the company’s business license is language education, so it is necessary to have a school license. Previously, the Education Bureau stated that they did not need a school permit.
  “Some people in the industry say that in some cities, one to two million yuan must be prepared for the school license.
 

Introduction by industry insiders, it usually takes two months for foreigners to apply for a Chinese visa overseas. Intermediary platforms often handle it on their behalf.

Uncover the foreign teacher industry chain: a balanced game that swims in the gray zone

Relevant requirements for foreigners to apply for a work visa (Z-signed) in China

“China’s work visa is actually more and more standardized.
  We were applying for a visa for an American, and found that he had a driving violation record. The final work visa was not completed.
  James, the head of the agency, said frankly that it is generally impossible for foreigners to apply for visas themselves and want to use fake materials to get through.
  And the domestic leaky network with criminal recordsFish should be illegally organized to obtain a visa.

In this regard, James expressed the hope that the country can relax the conditions of teachers with kindergarten experience. “The kindergarten teachers in the United States are basically graduated from colleges and do not meet the undergraduate conditions for Chinese visa requirements.
  The income of American kindergarten teachers is generally not high, so people who work in this line really love children.
 

Under the enthusiasm of Chinese people learning English, foreign teachers are still a profitable business. This is the consensus in the industry.
  As for what foreign teachers can teach students, it is not the most concerned issue for players in the industry chain. If there is doubt, one reason is enough:
  The student’s own level limits the effectiveness of teaching.

Experienced Liu Mei concluded, “According to my experience, foreign teachers recommended by intermediaries cannot fully believe.
  We also recruited students who worked hard at the beginning, but later they did not seriously teach foreign teachers.
  We will warn three times, and if we commit another crime, let the intermediary transfer.

Compared to offline, online platforms have a better reputation, which is related to the online platform model.

A person in the industry who works for a foreign media intermediary platform said to the “deep response” that “online teaching is like a part-time job for North American teachers. They can teach Chinese students without paying a high price.” .
  Therefore, no matter what the unexpected situation, the timely deployment of teacher resources can ensure the normal course.
  Part-time work methods can attract more high-quality foreign teachers, so in this industry’s view, the quality of online foreign teachers in the domestic foreign education market is generally higher than offline.

At the same time, online language training is easier to classify according to student needs, and different levels correspond to different levels of foreign teachers.
  The minimum level of $20 a class is mainly attended by foreign teachers who have studied undergraduate but are not educators;
  The $25 class is the most common grade, taught by a teacher with a teacher qualification;
  The advanced course is $30 for a class and is taught by a foreign teacher with more than 5 years of teaching experience;
  The top-of-the-line custom foreign language courses range from $40 to $70, and are taught by foreign teachers in specialized fields, including research papers, presentations, workplace English, and more.

Uncover the foreign teacher industry chain: a balanced game that swims in the gray zone

Foreign teacher services provided by a training institution

But is the online mode a good solution to the problem of foreign teachers?
  answerThe case is not so optimistic, and cost is the biggest factor limiting the effect.

Mr. Li introduced that when he recommended jobs for foreign teachers, some foreign churches listed blacklists of English institutions and pointed out that they should not arrange courses for the above institutions.
  There are many well-known online educational institutions in the blacklist. Some institutions have been owing wages. The teachers have wasted their time and energy, and they are more pitiful than migrant workers. There is no place for complaints.
  “

The more core challenge is that online teaching is more difficult, and there is no realistic support for the scene. How to connect two screens with effective means depends on professional teachers designing the classroom.
  However, the cost of obtaining domestic online education is high, and the cost of “selling by time” has been reduced and there is no supervision.

“The scorn chain is everywhere”

In the vast foreign language teaching community, there is a complex chain of contempt.
  At the bottom of the scorn chain of the teacher group, they are local Chinese teachers.

Jin Ting works in a youth English institution that is mainly taught outside Beijing. She is one of the few Chinese teachers.
  When she first entered the workplace, she was stressful and self-confident.
  Because “you don’t know, those foreign teachers are paid at least twice as much as you, and they are still held as a toon.”
 

However, in fact, the Chinese teachers who are able to enter the training institutions with foreign teachers are of relatively high quality, basically returning from studying abroad.
  However, their treatment is not high, the curriculum is full, and the income is growing at a rate that is “invisible to the naked eye”.
  In contrast, foreign teachers work for about 3 months, and their monthly salary will reach more than 20,000, and most of their workload cannot be compared with Chinese teachers.

The preferential tendency of foreign teachers promoted by the Chinese people also caused a serious “contempt chain” within the foreign teachers.
  The scorn chain is not much related to the “teaching level”. More importantly:
  Whether it is young, whether it is white, whether it looks handsome, whether it comes from the United States, the United States, Australia and Canada.

The existence of the scorn chain will hit some teachers who really want to work as foreign teachers.
  Jin Ting said that her institution has visited a black American doctor and has extensive educational experience.
  But the company did not give him too many opportunities, and those show and experience classes would not let him go.
  In the end, the black foreign teacher left China with great disappointment.

Intermediaries responsible for recruiting and screening foreign teachers also have their own scorn chain:
  James believes that among the foreign teachers in all countries, the quality of the British is the most balanced and stable, and the foreign trade market in the United States is extremely polarized.weight.

“The proportion of British people we recruit is higher. Relatively speaking, they have higher ethical standards.
  The candidates from the United States, they are very good, the difference is very poor, so there are many problems when recruiting.
  More than 90% of our candidates are from the United States and the United States. Other countries do not consider it for the time being. For example, in South Africa, they usually spend more time on visas, including their average teaching level and low credibility.
  “

James’s intermediary platform works with UK universities, and about 60% of the candidates are fresh graduates.
  James said that British graduates are not the same as China. They are not eager to get involved in their work. They will choose “gap year” after graduation and use their time to recognize their career interests and goals.
  “Today, there are more and more young people in Britain who want to come to China.
  Compared with the development prospects of the British and American countries, China can provide more opportunities.
  There are markets and potential.
 

In the eyes of foreign teachers, training institutions also have a scorn chain:
  Small institutions are better than large institutions.

Take a large institution as an example. According to the “deep response”, it provides the following treatment for foreign teachers:
  Two months of free training, the opportunity to obtain a corresponding teacher qualification certificate, and a safe and legal work visa.
  This is why they can attract many foreigners to teach in China.

Relevant personnel revealed to “Deep Response” that “the cost of recruiting a foreign teacher, including visas, training and bonuses, can reach 30,000 yuan, and the average foreign teacher’s monthly salary is around 20,000.
 

This is the case, the organization’s foreign teacher team is very mobile, basically will leave after one year, and as a large institution in the industry, it still exposes the scandal of foreign drug abuse – July 9 this year. On the day, seven foreign teachers of the agency Xuzhou Center were arrested for taking drugs.

Small training institutions with easy work and high wages are the first choice of foreign teachers. Large organizations like wages and general management and relative systems will be used as springboards.

“Face of superstery to be broken”

Although there are many problems in the foreign education industry, foreign teachers still have their existence value.

After many years of education, Jin Ting has a clear feeling:
  “Chinese children are afraid of making mistakes unless they have a perfect answer in their hearts, otherwise they just can’t say it.
  After co-existing with foreign teachers, she gradually discovered some problems in “Chinese education”:
  Students are alwaysLearn to grow in a single high-pressure environment.

“In the beginning, my lecture was like teaching my teacher, asking for discipline, and then establishing the authority of the teacher.
  “Coexisting with a foreign teacher makes her change.

In the work, Jin Ting was surprised to find that every foreign teacher basically “plays tricks”:
  Small instruments, dancing, painting, etc. These tips worked well in the classroom. To this end, Jin Ting began to try to make friends with students instead of establishing authority to help students find their true English interests.

“We are teaching in English and we have to let the children understand and integrate into the classroom.
  In fact, foreign teachers are good at this aspect. They have exaggerated body language, strong performance ability, and the atmosphere in the class is particularly active.
  Some children are still unwilling to leave after class.
  “The change in personality, Jin Ting thinks this is the most obvious change for students.

“One Teach, Two Learn”, some foreign teachers like China very much, and feel that they are not only teaching, but also learning.
  James, the head of the intermediary platform, said, “Chinese has a profound foundation, and many idioms have their origins, including Confucius and Mencius.
  English is a very precise language, and it strives to be straightforward in describing or expressing things.
  But many foreigners actually don’t understand the original text of Shakespeare’s plays.
  “The complementarity of logic behind this Chinese and English is very helpful for students to understand things.

An insider working in a well-known online educational institution told “Deep Ring”, “Foreigners Spoken pronunciation and grammar issues are just the underlying hardware conditions.
  What really helps the students in the foreign language class is actually the culture behind the language.
  Some students will go to California to study in the future, and we will match California’s foreign teachers, not only the hard-core knowledge, but also the cultural rendering of customs and customs.
 

But all of this needs to be based on a healthy and functioning foreign education industry chain.
  In the current situation of the foreign education industry, in order to avoid “stepping on the thunder”, the user does not seem to have a particularly good method in addition to “examined” with a cautious eye.

As a gatekeeper for the foreign education industry, some intermediary platforms are trying to build more smooth and high-quality resource transmission channels, such as directly establishing companies in countries and regions such as the United States, recruiting and screening quality teachers locally – from business From the point of view, this is a more beneficial option. Compared with the cost of dealing with foreign teachers, the investment in pre-training and adjusting the mentality of foreign teachers is relatively small. This is a more cost-effective transaction.

James believes that a confused agent can only make quick money..

However, perhaps the more important change is the renewal of ideas. For foreign teachers, perhaps the Chinese should also break some superstitions:
  Education is not a face project, and a foreign face does not solve the problem.

Efforts to protect the privacy of respondents, some respondents used a pseudonym.

– Today’s topic –

What conditions do you think the ideal foreign teacher should have?