If I was a greedy, unethical, sales rep for a TEFL or TESOL Training company or one of the 500+ China teacher recruiters and visa agents that they hire to sell on commission basis, here is a what I would never tell my newbie teacher prospect:
* According to Chinese law, You really don't even need a TEFL or TESOL certificate to teach in China unless you want to work for EF
* Only 393 schools and learning centers out of almost 20,000 that hire foreign teachers actually require that you have a TEFL or TESOL certificate (less than 1%).
* With a TEFL or TESOL certificate you will not earn any more or less money that expat foreign teachers who don't have them. (Less than 5% of Foreign teachers in China actual hold a certificate)
* You absolutely MUST have a four degree from an accredited university.
* You really MUST hold Z visa to enter and work in China and if you get caught teaching without one you will be arrested, jailed, fined, and deported with a 5 year reentry ban.
* The TEFL or TESOL certificate you get from my company is only recognized and accepeted in Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia, Croatia, Zimbabwe, Estonia, Uzbekistan, and Guatemala!
So after hiding the truth, I would then direct my sales prospect to all my fake testimonials, or real ones after I censor or edit them a little bit. Of course I would send them the links to reviews that I paid for at another "independent " web site like gooverseas.com, or teachabroadreviews.com, etc. Once I have them all starry-eyed about working in China, I would deflect all their questions and even resort to the following lies if I can get them to sign my contract that will put $500-$2,000 in my pocket...
Lie #1: Naw, you really don't need that two years of work experience if you have my TEFL/TESOL certificate.
Lie #2: Schools care more about your TEFL certificate than your bachelor in History degree.
Lie #3: You can't even get a job interview in China without a TEFL/TESOL degree!
Lie #4: If you want to earn more than 20,000 yuan a month teaching in China, you MUST have a TEFL/TESOL certificate.
Lie #5: If you want a housing subsidy you should know they are very limited and only teachers with TEFL & TESOL certificates get them.
Now if they get difficult and start telling me about what other teachers in China told them or even the lady at the embassy, I will stay calm and cool and try not to panic. Then I will smile and say "Oh those folks probably haven't seen this recent announcement in The China Daily about all the changes that are coming soon."
So if YOU can memorize this sales pitch and say it with a straight face and a big smile, you too can earn $10,000 yuan a month swindling young people with limited funds who are excited about coming to China to work as an ESL or TEFL teacher.
Don't worry, the cops don't worry about this sort of thing because the victims "are only foreigners", and those victims are too embarrassed to even admit they were tricked and swindled. For those that were, there is a little comfort to be found here, although you will never get your money back. DIY... Breaking Out Of A Scam Contract In parting we strongly advise that you ignore all those "wonderfuls" and "great-paying" China job ads offered at Echinacities.com, ESLcafe.com, and ESLteachercafe.com as they are all passive accomplices that accept monies for paid ads of the scammers they know full well are preying upon their users. Beside all the "great-paying" jobs they advertise are bogus fakes designed only to obtain your resume and person in China. Once here you will be "regretfully" told that your job was already filled and then be given another hard-to-fill job at about half the pay. It's called "bait and switch".
The the best jobs in China are never advertised - you get them directly from the school FAOs. Finding teaching gigs on your own is easy if you use the many China school blacklists published online by the CFTU, Wolf Watch, ESL Watch and others. Consider yourself warned.
Don't worry, the cops don't worry about this sort of thing because the victims "are only foreigners", and those victims are too embarrassed to even admit they were tricked and swindled. For those that were, there is a little comfort to be found here, although you will never get your money back. DIY... Breaking Out Of A Scam Contract In parting we strongly advise that you ignore all those "wonderfuls" and "great-paying" China job ads offered at Echinacities.com, ESLcafe.com, and ESLteachercafe.com as they are all passive accomplices that accept monies for paid ads of the scammers they know full well are preying upon their users. Beside all the "great-paying" jobs they advertise are bogus fakes designed only to obtain your resume and person in China. Once here you will be "regretfully" told that your job was already filled and then be given another hard-to-fill job at about half the pay. It's called "bait and switch".
The the best jobs in China are never advertised - you get them directly from the school FAOs. Finding teaching gigs on your own is easy if you use the many China school blacklists published online by the CFTU, Wolf Watch, ESL Watch and others. Consider yourself warned.
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