Buckland International Education Group

I have recently returned from Tongzi in Guizhou, China where I completed 6 months teaching with Buckland. I was initially drawn to Buckland as it was it was the only company I could find that could offer me a placement in a rural location as well as a 6 month contract. The induction week is held in a town called Yangshuo which is about a 2 hour drive from Guilin. It is a truly stunning location with amazing scenery, good nightlife and plenty of activities to keep you busy in your free time during the week. I found this induction week highly informative as I had never done any form of teaching before and was straight out of university. It also was a great chance to meet and get to know the other new teachers joining with you (many of who I am still friends with).

After the induction week myself and 2 others were sent to Tongzi in Guizhou province. It is a small town by China's standards and we were the only foreigners in the entire place! It has plenty of nice restaurants, bars, a few night clubs, coffee shops and is surrounded by mountains. I was amazed with just how welcoming and friendly all of the locals were. I was teaching around 1400 high school students (70 per class). This was a little overwhelming to start with but you soon get used to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the teaching and the hours I worked enabled me to have a great social life. The students were brilliant for the most part and were very appreciative of anything I did with them outside of school (football or hiking for example).

I would happily recommend Buckland and teaching English as a foreign language to anyone! I actually intend on returning to China for teaching with Buckland again at some point next year.

Buckland was great! Other people contracted through other companies didn't get paid on time and I was always bragging about how I worked for Buckland and so I knew everything was gonna go smoothly. You can email me, cause China is huge and tricky, but Buckland really helped with the whole, being in China experience. The downside, buckland didn't pay quite as well. But at least they made sure you got everything on your contract fufilled and you got paid on time.

I was posted in Tongzi, Guizhou Province. This is a small city that is rural at heart. I was posted here by Buckland because I said I wanted to be away from heavy pollution. It is significantly less polluted here than the larger cities of China. Thank you, Buckland. I haven't encountered any major problems with Buckland. And the minor problems are almost unmentionable because most of them were related to messy Chinese bureaucracy, which cannot be prevented by Buckland. I think Buckland can improve, like any good company, but they have shown that they are willing to listen to advice and complaints and adapt. I don't know if they are the best ESL recruiter out there, or the worst, because I haven't experienced any others. I can, however, tell you a bit of what I've enjoyed.

First, I will say that if you get posted near a major city, your experience could be entirely different from mine. But, for what it's worth, here are a few slices from my daily affairs that have impressed me the most. To begin with, the people here have been nice to me, though the staring did turn a little stale. Next, I enjoyed learning about China, Chinese customs, Chinese education, etc. I also appreciated the opportunity to travel. Tongzi is located close enough to the major city of Chongqing to make any destination in China feasible. Finally, working 15-20 hours per week and getting paid a living wage is hard to beat no matter where you are in the world. So, overall, I'm happy about my experience with Buckland.

Thanks. I hope this is helpful for anyone out there pursuing this option. And if your skeptical, just think, with your B.A. or B.Sc. degree, it sure beats unemployment in your home country!

PS I just remembered one last benefit of the experience -- with Buckland, I was able to sign up for one semester (4.5 months), which was not an option with other employers that I encountered.

I'm extremely happy with my time spent working for the Buckland Group. I've actually just started my second term with them. It's a really great option for those teaching overseas for the first time. I had never left the United States before coming over here and they were wonderful for transitioning to China. They have a week long orientation with other Westerners to get you settled in. The orientation is in the lovely city of Yangshuo which has a fair amount of Western food and English speakers so it makes it easier.

They are very good on communication. If you have any troubles, questions, or concerns you can send an e-mail and they reply fairly rapidly. I've been lucky and nothing has really come up in my time here. I always receive my monthly wage on time if not early. The town I ended up in is incredibly lovely with many scenic spots within a few hours by bus.

It's hard to sum up my whole experience in this review but the one thing I will say is if you're thinking of coming abroad to teach English for the first time, don't hesitate to go through Buckland. My experience with them has been nothing but positive.

If you want to travel to China, and stick around for a while, and get paid, then Buckland rocks.

Within the first couple of weeks after arriving at their training center, they help you set up a bank account in China, personally take you to the required health checks, train you how to teach English to Chinese students, educate you about the culture (and even a little Mandarin), and have you teach a practice class to a real group of students and give you feedback afterwards. After that, they arrange which school you'll be going to. After you're at the school teaching, if any issues arise between you & your school that you can't solve, they've got your back. Plus, at orientation I made a bunch of friends from all over the world that I got together with on the weekends or during school holidays.

The gig is pretty simple - teach oral English to students (ages at potential schools range from like kindergarten to 17 year olds) using games. You don't need advanced grammar knowledge or anything like that - just talk, get them to talk, and have fun! Class was a blast, and the kids are generally very well behaved and excited to see you. In fact, the discipline issues that did arise emerged from that excitement! :)

The workload is part-time (not including lesson planning), and no papers to grade in most schools. The pay is good - in fact I think we got paid like 4x more than the native teachers (not to mention the bonuses).

The best thing about Buckland is that they just make the whole China experience relatively hassle free. I heard of some people having some issues, but it's like 2-3% of teachers if that.

The only real complaint I have is that I wish more positions were located in Hainan or in the deep south of China! The other areas are still awesome of course, especially Hunan or Shanxi.

Highly recommended if you feel like getting to know an amazing people & culture. Also, the girls are really hot & cute. Just sayin' ;)