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For those of you who looking to teach in Hong Kong, there are plenty of schools to go to. However, one school, that you will notice has flooded the internet, is Monkey Tree English Learning Center. They have over 20 locations all over Hong Kong. You would think that with a school so big, with over 100 teachers, they must be doing something right? That’s what i would think.

Since I started in April 2013, there were only 8 locations and in the following months, Director Rick Sung, has more than doubled that amount. On top of that he employs his childhood friends in key positions who have neither the experience or education. The result: Extreme disorganization, poor management and no communication within the individual sites. I myself have been teaching english abroad for three years, two of them in the orient. I’ve learned that Business is run differently in this part of the world. Rick is a Hong Kong local, raised with wealth who studied business at a university in Canada.

With this information, i assumed that he, being educated in the West, would know how to manage the people he employs, westerners. This was logical to me, however this was not the case. Being educated in the west and a local hong konger, he knew how to manipulate the system to fit his agenda. Good for him, bad for us.

It would be alright if he was an honorable man, but he is not. He exploits his teachers and interprets the contract as he sees fit. For example, standard working visas in Hong Kong cost $150 HKD total. Rick charges his teachers $5,000 HKD. We’re not expected to know this, which is exactly why he does it.

For several other reasons, myself and others have found parts in our contract that aren’t in accordance with Hong Kong law. There is no HR at Monkey Tree, and the only people you can bring this up to is Him or his two right hands, Taz and Amelia. Not liking either option, Many of us have gone to the labor union for more information. Our only option was to file a claim, but it would not be anonymous and no one wants to bite the hand that feeds them. Five months into my contract over 18 people had left because of the stressful working conditions. A lot of people have tried writing on websites about Monkey Tree, websites like DavesESLcafe, but we learned that a school can pay websites to take down any damning comments made about them, for a price.

Soo Shady if you ask me. It was very difficult for me to work at Monkey Tree knowing what i knew, but like all of us, I wanted a reference and the year under my belt. But one month before my contract was up, myself and another teacher were abruptly fired over a personal conversation the two of us had on our break. Apparently, It was overheard by our manager (a childhood friend of Rick’s), who then told Rick. We were pulled out of our classes the next day and were instructed to go to head office to meet with him individually.

We were not informed why. I truly didn’t know what could be so important to have pulled me out of my classes. I considered the conversation, but in all honesty, it wasn’t that memorable.

The content of it were just personal experiences with the company, shooting the shit really. And im thinking ‘there’s NO WAY we’re being called in for that.’ Wrong. Upon entering his office, I could literally feel his emotional tension directed at me. I was floored when he told me the reason I was there and from Start to Finish, His manner was completely unprofessional and childish.

The moment he attacked my character and integrity was the moment i decided that enough was enough. I stood up for myself and laid it all out. All the things that I, and others, have been wanting to say to him for a long time coming. By his outrageous manner, i was already pretty sure he was going to fire me anyway so, why the hell not. As expected, i was fired and told i wouldn’t be paid any of the wages i had already worked that month.

I told him that unacceptable, and he said he would take me to court. He also said that he has money, so he would win. Real class act this guy. Despite the anger and utter disbelief i was feeling about what had just happened, the moment i walked out of the building, I felt.elated.

Like i dropped that sack of bricks and i could breath again. You would think that after being fired, that cold sliver of fear that creeps up your spine would take hold, and for a split second i thought about that. But the overwhelming happiness outweighed my doubt almost immediately and i knew i did the right thing. I am a firm believer that people will treat you how you let them treat you and most of us working abroad don’t have the time, the energy or the character to work under an employer that belittles and conducts business like a child. Ultimately, you will make you’re own decision, but before you move your whole life to another country, please take these words to heart and save yourself the inevitable grief.

Don’t let anyone make you feel less than you are. It takes a special kind of person to do what we do, be proud of that. Enjoy it, and don’t waste your time and your talent on people who don’t deserve you. With that said, I’d like to end this post with one of my favorite quotes by Henry David Thoreau.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I want to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” Good luck to all of you ❤. I just want to piggyback on your well-written essay.

I was unfairly fired by them, technically forced to resign, after only three weeks for the simple, childish reason that management didn’t like me personally. I have years of esl teaching experience which was never recognized by them. (The author forgot to mention the 10,000 HKD fee for ‘training’ Ricky may incur if you leave the contract early, which is also absolutely fraudulent. The employee is already underpaid that first month of ‘training.’) When I was teaching English in South Korea, I learned never to work for a hagwon, a business rather than a school. It was a lapse in judgment to come to Monkey Tree, but they did a good job of recruiting for positions from abroad, part of the plan to take advantage of foreign teachers. I wrote this first as an email, then as a google review which got deleted by them. Their promise of a supportive environment and a comprehensive network of centers is a lie.

They left me stranded in China and were still advertising me in three different places. ******* Please remove my biography paragraph and photographic likeness from the Monkey Tree website. It has been almost two months since I was forced to resign from the organization and left stranded in a way I have never been in any of the previous countries where I taught English abroad. It is disingenuous for MTELC to continue displaying this personal information and inferring a continued association. I never even went to the Laguna City center, as I was placed in Telford/LKW for training/probation. I have remained in Hong Kong and secured another full-time teaching position in an established school where I am actually supported and able to develop my skills.

Former MTELC employee for 3 weeks. Amen to that Grateful!!! Teaching is such a noble calling and there are so many out there ready and willing to exploit us for their greedy personal gain. When I was offered a position here, i scoured the internet for any information/story/experience and found nothing. This was why i felt compelled to write this.

I’m so happy that it’s reached so many and has deterred them from an absolutely twisted experience. There’s enough bad out there, it’s important for us expats to help our kind navigate through it. Thanks for sharing 🙂. My girlfriend and I worked at Money Greed as well. I fully agree with what this blog has to say about it. Ricky Sung feeds off of inexperienced teachers. He also offers housing which seems like a good idea, but an evil boss being your landlord isn’t a good idea, especially when your also rooming with a head teacher (Amelia).

From day one he threatened to take away our deposit or fire us. One day, he did fire me and forced my girlfriend to resign. He gave us 24 hours to leave his apartment. Honestly, this was a blessing. I finally was able to get some rest and felt good about life. Got back our deposit and he only screwed us out of $500 USD.

I’m glad you posted this. I hope it stays up and isn’t taken down. Not all of these are from people who’ve been fired.

I didn’t get fired, I finished my contract. I just saw tons of people get screwed over. And yes, there are a lot of people who work for Monkey Tree who may not be pissed off enough to post on blogs, but I guarantee more than half of them will say “Monkey Tree is Shit.” I guarantee most of the people who aren’t that bothered by the place never asked them for a favor or didn’t have an unexpected emergency arise.

I’d also be willing to bet that most of those people didn’t work abroad before either and are just happy to be taking whatever shit job they can get to live in a new place. The fact is, at this point, Monkey Tree can’t handle firing anyone because they’re having too much trouble keeping/hiring teachers. They just screwed my friend out of part of her final salary and then had the balls to ask her if she wanted to come back and extend her contract! American Teacher be careful if you are plannin go going to teach in Hong Kong especially for Monkey tree they favor those with other accents.

If you are an acutal teacher they don’t respect that or your training or you as a Teacher. I had people say that it wouldn’t be good if you were an experienced teacher becuase you would not be open to teaching other ways. Since very few of them have studied education and gone through that training. They don’t know that teachers are trained to learn all the different ways to teach and for people to learn not just one way. I also had a bad experience I moved from the USA left my place of residence drove my car everything to my families home far from where I was living. Then had to get my own ticket to Hong Kong and flew on a flight that got changed and the airport lost my luggage when I arrieved it was not good. Then I was left with only some peoples phone numbers emails and the address of where I was to go with no way of knowing where I was or how to get there.

The numbers where no help because when I arrived my phone did not work and I could not use it Asia because it was a locked phone from the America. Then when I finally found my way to where I would be staying after hours no one was there to meet me and I walked around looking and had to ask strangers on the street where this was. As a women alone in another country this was a complete nightmare and I thought I was going to get hurt.

Then someone finally came up from Monkey tree to me when I was walking around and asked if I was me and then finally let me in to the place. The security would not let me in without them and did not know english or how to talk to me. Then I asked them how do I get to the training building the next day they said it is easy just take this bus. I did that and it didn’t take me anywhere near the job training building.

I had to figure out how to get there from the other side of hong kong island and then I was hours late. I walked around for more than an hour looking for that one building it was hidden and the room is in the back of the building where you can’t see it when you go to that floor. Then I found a pay phone called someone they had to get me to show me how to get to training. Then the next day I had to find my way from the train which is the right way to go but I didn’t know which stop to get off. I ended up far away again and walked around and then was about 15 minutes late again. They were upset about this and called me into the office to talk to me about it.

Then I went to the training day and the second I got there and said hello and was trying to be friendly they all ignored me and the girl was looking at me like she hated me and rolling her eyes I have no idea why. I was early all the days to that training center. My phone did not work and I tried asking them about it and they said you have to get it unlocked and get a card. So during break I tried to find out how to unlock it and was on the program for that. I asked the head teacher can I use the computer she said it was ok. The other girl that was very rude said this is for work purposese only and took it from me and started doing her lessons. Which was fine for her to do her planning but she was just doing it so I couldn’t use it.

Then I went to do there classes you just sit and watch them all day. I went in I was trying to set up my phone so I was looking at it while watching the class trying to find out how to set it up. All of sudden she just starts yelling at me about using my phone in class and if I don’t put it away what she will do.

There was no rule about not using your phone or having it out in class or looking at it while watching them. I normally would not do that at a job but this was another country I had never been to and didn’t know how to do things here. No one was trying to be any help to me from the moment I arrived they were all very rude and cold. I thought it would be more friendly and when I got here they would be helping me out to find things and set up everything I need to live here for the next year.

Many more things that happened in that training school that were not ok toward me but I can’t talk about everything on here. Then I went to my main school I was suppose to be placed and wow the teachers there were not very good and one of the guys looked so unprofessional hair not fixed pants down seeing the but and tight tee showing his very large belly. His class was not that great either. They allow guys like this to work and be alone with children in rooms. It is not ok to have unqulified men in rooms one on one with kids that have not been trained and certified to teach. Just because he has a british accent he can do whatever:[. Then based on this guy and office worker opinons who met me one day they decide I am not ready to teach and they don’t want me to teach there.

Head office listened to them and made me go all over hong kong and train more with other teachers. I was so tired I could barley stay awake walking for hours adjusting to time change and culture change. I was so exaused then they said be more theatrical and crazy acting. I could barley walk another step how can you expect me to be so upbeat while trying to adjust and have me running all over hong kong. They would email me around 8-8:30 in the morning with where to go and want me to find my way and look for directions by 9:30 some of these places were a long walk. With streets I have never been on with words I don’t know.

The first place the guys said it took them an hour to find it there first day they were very late also. I was only a few minutes to 20 minutes late each time not even an hour trying to find these places.

I did everything they asked taught the way they liked did there stars and pictures and games lessons. Then at the end of the week Taz Taryn Thorn calls me I thought she would have been a nice person to know on her pictures and video I saw on the website. Not at all very cold person when you work for her. She asks me to come into the office at the end of the week.

I find my way all the way back to that office again which was more than an hour from where I was living. She tells me That she will give it until the end of the week and if she and her teachers don’t think I am ready then I will just have to be a subsitute or something for a few months.

That she will cut my pay another month and I can not go back to my center or work there. I called the center I was supposet to be working to ask them why they think I am not ready and don’t want me to work there. They guys flips out and starts screaming don’t put all of this on me. I say I am not all of you what did you say why am I not ready.

They are suppose to fill out papers for you and let you know how you are doing what they think etc. They didn’t tell me anything or give me any feedback and I know I am a good teacher. They just all said negative comments about me. I got to help teacher one class there and the kid probably learned more then a week with that guy in my one class. I went on there wild goose chase all over the city walking going different places and at the end of the week she calls me in again. Bhula Dena Mujhe Female Version Mp3 Download Skull.

She says all these very disrespectful things to me and that they have great teachers and she will listen to them and whatever they say about me. I was like has anyone said anything positive Yes but she didn’t want to talk about that only the mean stuff they said. She said stuff to me about using my phone wanting to try to learn some chinese and because were I was staying you need to know it to communicate they lived on the island so they wouldn’t know how it is to be around people who don’t speack english.

Any excuse they can come up with and said so we want to terminate your contract and you can go. I asked her to watch my class and so she had another head office girl go and watch Amanda.

Then at the end of sitting and critising every tiny thing I do they said well during snack time you didn’t talk to them and it was to quite. They were eating and I was getting there craft ready to do. So she still terminated me and did it in the center just so all of the teachers could see. It was crazy I was staying in there housing. I had spent all my money moving there and didn’t have a ticket back. I talked to teach in asia who got me the job and they got them to pay me for the days I had worked. I had to wait a week for that.

She told me come pick it up Wed. I waited for wed. And then I got an email you need to leave housing right away or tomorrow and we won’t give you the check until you do and we will be taking out bills of your already cut pay. I asked don’t I have 30 days for eviction or to leave can I at least stay until the end of the month which was just another week or and a few days.

No you can not and the property manager threatining to come and make me leave. I was trying to figure things out to get back home or find another Job there. Finally got them to agree to let me stay a few more days. Then I got a place to stay at a hostel I found that was scarry for me alone in this Country. I asked my room mate can you keep some of my bags so I can find a place or job or get a ticket home or decide what I will do until then. She agreed to let me leave my things and I can just take one bag all over this city. Then I got an email from her the day after going crazy on me about leaving my things and saying all types of mean things and I only said good things to her that she was a good room mate and thanks for helping me out.

I had to leave things behind that I had been buying to live there the next year. Thankfully I didn’t go art shopping yet and leave behind lots of money. I finally got the check they took more money then they paid me took rent bills that were too high left me with almost nothing. It was suppose to be at least 1000 so I can pay for my ticket home it was less then 500 US and that wouldn’t even put a dent in it plus having to move without notice and still taking rent.

I had to pay for a place to stay while waiting to get the check and then they made it where I couldn’t cash it for days. I had to wait even longer to leave. Finally I got the small amount I got and a ticket and finally got out of there. I just can’t believe they would do this to someone coming there to teach for them from another country.

I just came for that job if I wouldn’t have known things like this would happen I wouldn’t have come. I didn’t know they could even do that I thought they had to give you at least a month. If they did terminate you they would give you time to go home or somewhere else and pay for your flight or something.

No they wouldn’t even pay me enough to help cover it. Please do beware if you don’t have a European accent they may pur you down treat you badly and terminate you over anyting with any excuse they can. This that I have wrote which is a lot isn’t even all the things that happened while there so many mean rude, cold people working there I can not believe it. I thought they would be nice friendly helpful people not at all. Everytime I would try to make friends with any of them they would just get meaner and meaner. I don’t know what they problem is but there are big issues with this company and they people running it are to young and don’t know how to do thing properly. I just wanted teachers especially licensed certified teachers to know what could happen if you go work for them so be careful and be prepared for anything like this to happen.

I am so sorry this happened to you!! What a nightmare!! When i arrived in hong kong, i had a similar experience. Luckily i bought a SIM card in the airport before so i was able to call, but when i arrived i had no one to greet me, all i had was an address.

I somehow got the cab driver to understand where i was going and had to wait 3 hours before anyone was there to greet me and let me in the building. When you’re in a brand new country, it can be terrifying ESPECIALLY when you’ve been left to your own devices with no help from anyone.

MONKEY TREE is a scam, and anyone looking for a positive experience teaching abroad needs to stay far away from this school. Thank you for sharing your story. This is the reason why i started this blog in the first place. They put on a very pretty face, but once you’re there, it’s a whole different story. People need to know what this school is about. It’s been a year since my experience, and it sounds like nothing’s changed.

Wire Williams. This is not the first time you’ve graced my blog with your presence. While i try my hardest to stay open to all sides and opinions of a subject, yours seem to border on nothing but ‘trolling.’ You come across with the intention of being noble and forthright and making it personal, but getting down to it, you have NO IDEA what we have been through; and to be frank, It’s completely arrogant and delusional to think that you do. Passing judgement on someone’s character through a life experience, that you know nothing about, is not your place sir.

I’ve allowed your comment because you do make a few good points about a commentator’s post. Points that I myself find difficult to wholly digest. But I get that right, you don’t. I suffered this, you haven’t. For you to be so self-righteous about an experience that you couldn’t possibly know or understand anything about, well, makes you the troll.

Another sheep. One that’s probably fapping to the drama under his keyboard as we speak. So do me, my patrons and humanity a favor and find something better to do with your time than waste ours.

Spiffy Girl, I can see why you think I’m trolling. However, I beg to differ.

Like I said in my last post, I came here because it’s interesting. It’s a neat insight into people’s minds that only genuine emotions expressed under the cover of the internet can provide. I’ve opened the floor a few times in my past posts here for anyone to write any objections or corrections to what I’ve said.

But, alas, no one, other than you, has ever replied to anything I’ve said. And really all you’ve ever responded to me was a cease and desist request. The reason for the radio silence is that I’m making good points. I’m making better points than literally anyone else ever has on this blog. I’m the most articulate writer and best thinker here by a long shot. It’d be a damn shame to lose me as an audience member and contributor.

I’m the only one that has made a point, backed it up with at least a remnant of an argument, and hasn’t made any ad hominem attacks. The closest I’ve come to that was to slip in a few childish words here and there, but that’s just to make the writing colorful while still coherent, something, by the way, no one else here has yet done.

At the end of my last post I said that every negative post here has just been woe-is-me anecdotes that are clearly blown out of proportion. While I may not have had the experiences you (and others here) have had, I would be, nay, am willing to bet that there’s not even a chance that the company is as bad as the few people here have portrayed. Every post made here against the company has been by people who have been fired. Doesn’t it seem plausible that it’s not the company that’s so bad, but rather the few individuals that have been fired?

Have you seen the Monkey Tree ELC website? There are like 200+ teachers or something nutty like that. Here’s the story as I see it: 1. There’s 200 teachers that haven’t been fired. There’s a handful that have.

The handful of people come here to write about it. That handful of people, claiming to be god-sent teachers, make outlandish claims, written in what can only be described as barely passable English. I make a bunch of good points and no one cares to respond because my points actually paint with a brush that’s reality-colored. Look, you said you’ve left my posts up because of whatever.

However, can you give me a good reason why you would take them down? I haven’t attacked anyone, and I’m certainly not wasting anyone’s time.

I’m balancing the playing field. Otherwise, this blog would just be a circle jerk feedback loop. In the name of free speech, let me have a voice! I’m just a warrior for reason. By the way, your *mic drop* was out of place. I realize you were mocking me, but, c’mon.

You have to try harder than that. You can’t just *mic drop* anywhere you like. That’s just fumbling the microphone as if it’s covered in butter or something. A proper *mic drop* is when you are putting emphasis at the end of at least one, or a set of really good points, or perhaps a really good rap. Yours was more like you actually just dropped the mic accidentally and forgot to pick it up to finish your speech. I work for Monkey Tree, and I just have to say that this post seems so outrageous, first of all it is absolutely untrue that Monkey Tree only wants British people.

There are at least as many Americans and South Africans and lots of Canadians and other nationalities too. I heard some parents at times prefer British teachers given Hong Kong’s history, but Monkey Tree does not only or even mainly hire British people and American people are senior in the company, while I don’t know of any British that are. In fact, most of the lesson plans and worksheets seem to have American English, so this is all totally false information. Even look at its name, Monkey Tree English Learning Cent**ER**.

Also, I know of several qualified teachers who have experienced nothing remotely like this working for the company so it’s also not correct to say they’re somehow discriminated against. Everyone has as a minimum a degree and TEFL, which is what the HK government sets as its standard. The hundreds of people who worked for monkey tree all had to find our own way to the apartment. It’s really not hard. Hong Kong is totally easy to navigate, the subway is all in English, sure I think there must be a better system for meeting people when they arrive for the first time here, but there are so so many teachers, it wouldn’t be feasible to meet every single person at the airport. Everyone else manages to get a SIM at the airport or use a payphone or whatever. My roommate got to the apartment fine and he’d never even been in Asia before.

Surely you could have foreseen a problem if your phone was locked and you hadn’t looked up the address or something on Google maps beforehand like anyone else would have? They made arrangements to meet me at a certain time, my flight wasn’t delayed, but you can’t expect people to wait around for you all day in that situation. You have to be prepared for such eventualities when you’re going abroad and have a back up plan/a phone that works, even just buying an old Nokia or whatever in the meanwhile. It’s really just common sense. Getting around Hong Kong is so easy, quite literally everything is in English and I was always given really detailed instructions on how to get to places, how you managed to get so lost all the time is completely beyond me.

The office for training could not be easier to find, they emailed me very clear directions and I, and everyone else in my training group, had zero problems. Sure, getting lost can happen in new places when you’re off the subway and trying to find the center. But you just listen out for the right stop, which is announcchined. Then you follow the directions and call someone if you’re lost. God help you if you ever go to somewhere like mainland China or even Korea. I think it’s really off to make such comments about a teacher’s appearance and say that he should not be trusted around children.

Everyone has to have sexual convictions check done and everyone is vetted and trained. It’s really unacceptable to judge someone as not trustworthy around children based on his appearance and accent. I do agree that the training can be boring, watching lessons all day, but you can get involved and start teaching too after a little while and it’s kinda necessary so you know what to do. I don’t know why anyone would think it’s okay to use a phone or learn Chinese during training and when you are sitting in a class, I feel like that would be unacceptable in any country surely??

You have to be upbeat when working with children, especially with Monkey Tree. Judging from what you say, it sounds like a lot of different people raised similar concerns when you met them and worked with them and said you weren’t doing things right.

It seems like you ran into a lot of problems with a lot of different people in various different places and situations, people not connected to head office, from your room mate to the admin staff to the teachers training you at multiple centers. Logically, it can’t be everyone else with the problem all the time, of course the managers are going to get cross with you and discipline you, that’s any job, it seems like you had lots of chances. Hundreds of people work for Monkey Tree and this literally never happens, it’s so rare to hear of something like this, honestly I’ve seen some people really struggle with training and need help and frankly they aren’t perfect after training even, but the company works with them and even if they’re never brilliant, I don’t know of anyone being sacked for just being late due to getting lost and not really being great at the job.

You must have done things so wrong and badly and had a really negative attitude for something like this to happen to you, I say that with 100% certainty after working for the company for a year. Monkey Tree isn’t perfect.

It’s long hours, it’s a demanding job, it has inevitable conflict between profit and education. Sometimes people get stuck at a badly organized center with a bad center manager, there are not enough sick days and so on. I had a kid in the wrong class for a while which was annoying, but I spoke to my manager and she eventually figured something out. But overall, hundreds of people have worked for Monkey Tree without experiencing anything like this.

We all manage fine with the job, not always with a big grin on our faces, but hey, it’s a job, it pays well, it’s easy enough teaching, pretty chilled, the kids are great and you can get a lot of satisfaction seeing them progress. All lesson plans and teaching support are provided, I’ve always been helped in any way I wanted, you get bonuses, there was just a big summer party with free food and drink and loads of expensive and cash prizes. I could go on. The point is, it’s a job like any other, it has good and bad.

I can’t see you lasting long at any job, acting like this and having that attitude. Of course you had to pay rent for staying in a place, of course bills were deducted from your pay, of course they couldn’t get it to you rightaway, of course it took a while to process, this is how any company in the world would operate!!! I had a friend in China who didn’t even get paid at all, you should count yourself lucky. Don’t you realize that everyone who moves to HK or moves anywhere in the world even has to go through all the things you’ve described, like finding your way around a strange place, being scared, adjusting to a different time zone and culture while also having to start a tiring new job. And guess what, they manage just fine overall!

It’s no one’s fault that your plane was delayed or your bags were lost or that people couldn’t speak English in your area or that you had such difficulty adjusting to the culture, place and time zone and job. It seems to me that you went to another country to work with no conception or understanding of what that would entail and learned a very tough lesson (or maybe not) I just don’t know what you were expecting, but frankly I’m totally unsurprised that you were sacked. Spiffy Girl, Since you’ve clearly not allowed my last post through, and I’m sure you read it, I feel as though I have to say something about it. I understand that perhaps it was a bit abrasive and uncouth, however, once again, I don’t think anything in there was wrong. As I’ve now said in almost all of my posts, please tell me if/when/where I’m wrong. I’m happy to reevaluate my positions and statements. As you’ve said before, you’re just calling things as you see it.

Well, same here. Frankly, as an American, I’m really surprised you’d bother censoring my post. This board clearly is a place in which people are allowed to express their opinions, no matter how well constructed or clearly laid out.

But instead of letting my posts through on a board that is nearly devoid of activity anyways, you’ve decided to censor me in an effort to, perhaps, fulfil your own biased agenda. Very Fox News of you. If you don’t find Fox News to be a pejorative, then perhaps that says a lot in the first place. But I’m really surprised that someone as opinionated and clearly passionate as you wouldn’t bother letting my posts through simply because they take too much effort to respond to or they perhaps make you question your opinions.

Or is that they don’t go through because I’m actually right and you don’t want to face that? I obviously mean no harm. I haven’t bothered to do any name calling or saying anything slanderous (ok, my opening line in reply to C’s post was perhaps a bit childish, but you gotta admit, it was funny as fuck). I only bothered to write on this blog in the first place because it was a) fun and b) provided a slight counterbalance to what was otherwise being said. I don’t see why you wouldn’t let absolutely everything through that was not spam or, perhaps, illegal or something. What’s so scary about an open conversation? Why does it have to be a stifled, one-sided smearing of [pick your target]?

I’m saying once again, if you, or anyone, has a case to make against the company, then go for it. But in the name of free speech and at least to maintain some integrity, let the other side speak.

Why do you even have ‘moderated comments’ enabled? Just let everything through and moderate after the fact. I’ll leave it there so as not to bum anyone out. And to answer the question that’s likely at the forefront (I’ve been asked a few times now who I am), no, I’m not a Monkey Tree teacher and no I’m not paid to write this. By the way, absolutely everything I’ve said on this blog to this point (ok, ok, 98% to account for inadvertent inaccuracies or sloppy use of language) has been true. I haven’t even bothered to lie in order to construct a better narrative or make a funnier case.

I’ve just said what was, in most cases, demonstrably true. Which is more than most of the posts on here can claim Letting my posts through on your blog is in your hands. To be completely honest, I have had every intention of allowing your comments.

The cause of delay was part distracted part lazy-ness. Not that I have to explain anything to you, but seeing how you took the time and energy to communicate with me about this, I’ll meet you halfway on it.

I am in the process of gaining a masters degree in Special Education which has taken most of my attention and energy, directing it to what’s in front of me here. I wrote this blog for obvious reasons, but I didn’t realize the level of responsibility I’d inevitably be taking on for its message. I mean and meant every word and will defend it tooth and nail. I’ve had the employer, Rick, attack me under a false name. I know this because his return email address was. He went under the guise as a professional in the education world and insulted and belittled me in every possible way.

So yes, I am cautious. Bottom line is, at the time I wrote it, I didn’t fully realize the gravity of the message reaching and affecting so many people. Enough to have its CEO slander me on here under a false name.

It was then I realized that I must be making an impact if he felt the need to stoop to such a low position. I am a big BIG fan of truth. However, truth is relative. I wrote out my truth here. I believe it was Maya Angelou who said “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” So really, this blog entry is a small piece of my scathingly raw and vulnerable human experience told with the greatest possible intentions. Perhaps this is why I am so fierce with you and your snide antagonistic commentsbut hey, for the record, I am against censorship and unless it’s completely devoid of any point or rationality, i’ll let the freak flags fly along with my own.

I worked there. I am local with fluently spoken English. When I first applied for the job iinterviewed for the post centre manager And for a weird reason I was given training to teach ( that is very different from other managers that are supposed to be his childhood friends) and became a substitute teacher. Normal teachers stay in one centre mainly but at that time I had to travel and teach from one centre to another in just one day, which was not written on the contract. The last school I taught they subsidied the travelling fee of teachers. But this school exploits teachers and played with the shady area of the labour ordinance, so the three months I worked there I started to get very discontent. The general ambiance of this company is resentful.

Centre managers knows nothing about teaching and the arrangement gave a hard time to teachers- sometimes they can go 3-4 sessions straight with no breaks. And there’s one time I found myself almost have a nerve breakdown while teaching. A 2 and a half baby boy was having a reading lesson that is obviously too hard for him, and I saw his mother twitching and squeezing his little finger hard. (Parents are not allowed to be in the class with the kid, supposedly) i told the centre manager and he told me there is nothing he could do and they paid to have lessons here. This goes against my value so I left the company (oh and had more than half of my salary deducted).

Nay for whoever who wants to work there. I worked for Monkey Tree, my experience was not the best but not the worst either. I won’t bore with all the reasons why I personally didn’t like it, the truth is, if you have a different set of values to the centre head teacher you may struggle. Issues with Monkey Tree: You feel obligated to go in on your days off. Quite often you will be asked to do things which are not in the contract but if you ask for any allowances they will not be allowed. Your holidays are minimal and have to be taken in a certain way.

This letter was sent by a friend of mine to this place: Rick Sung! Please open the link herein for your personal attention, if you have the manliness to do so. If you refrain to do so, you will always be in the dark why you are struggling to acquire ESL teachers. It might be of great benefit to you and your “management”. Here it is: Thank you. Let me introduce myself: I am a very well-educated and experienced professor in Academic English as well as in ESL, the father of Mr.

Xavier Schoeman, who applied at your “facility”. After some investigation of your said “facility” and the so-called “qualified” managerial persona in management, it is deeply regretful that your company is this much biased. You and your company is a distress and a black hole in the ESL community. Moreover, you are RAPING the English establishment worldwide. You may call yourself qualified in criteria from Canada, but the institution in Canada, where you “obtained” your qualification, raised their eye brows concerning you. Being a true English speaker means to be born as an English First Language Speaker.

No wonder, you are ABUSING real English speaking teachers to cover up your own incompetence of the language, making yourself out as ‘superieur’ in the English language; whereas, you and your “insufficient-educated” collaborators are an absolute DISGRACE to the English language, and subsequently to true English teachers too. Just “milking” them for their expertise.

KNOW THE PROVERB: What goes around, comes around. If you want to take me to court due to my remarks herein, by all means, do so! I like a challenge. It would be a pleasure for me to down-grade your supposedly “superiority” just because you have money, and by that trying to humiliate, abuse and STEAL from good-believing aspirant teachers. Have you ever considered that you are destroying your reputation? My-my How dumb can a person be in this modern era. My-my Wake up!

No wonder, the above link was created to warn future teachers concerning your “highly professional” institution. Now, I am ALSO aware of the REAL facts. You and your company is a sure DISGRACE to a very beautiful language (why English became the world language and NOT your language?), and I am fully qualified in this language of mine. I leave you even my own email address, so ready I am to defend good-believing aspirant English teachers, and in defence of my birth language. Waldo Werner SCHOEMAN, Ph.D, MBA (B. Lit et Phil) (D. TEFL & TESOL).

I have recently applied at Monkey Tree in Hong Kong and would like to update anyone else who is thinking of applying. On application I spoke with two people who work in HR (shows improvement) and offered two different roles; one for ‘full time english teachers’ and another for ‘supplementary english teachers’ which from what I can gather requires travel to various centres as well as input in materials etc. The person I spoke with was approachable, clear and I found they were very informative during my interview. My application was processed quickly and offered a role within 3-5 days. All was well until I requested detailed information about the role itself and they were not able to provide a set specification. This wasn’t great having applied to other schools which were happy to do so, secondly with a company as well established as Monkey Tree I felt this to be unprofessional, even if it was a new role.

I also noted that the salary is staggered from Month 1 to Month 2-6 and so on this highlights that there is an issue with retention rates or sacking of staff. This does make me uncomfortable. With that in mind, I conducted some research and found this blog very interesting not to mention other reviews I have read on other sites. It is clear there are many people who have had negative experiences working for a company that is growing rapidly in a short space of time that is bound to happen. I am also aware X amount of people would have had a negative experience however there must be other people who have worked at MT for 1-3 years and there is a lack of testimonials or reviews from these staff who are obviously enjoying it! As Monkey Tree is a franchise the standard of all centres will be different from each other which is unfortunate, I feel they should work harder to maintain a standard across all their centres. I urge anyone who has had a better experience or currently works there to step forward!

I agree with you 100% This was the reason why i Wrote the blog in the first place. There wasn’t enough information about this company other than what they were peddling out about new centers and upcoming “events.” It’s a shame, however, that my experience (along with a significant amount of others) happened to be subpar and almsot insulting. There are many others who have enjoyed their time there.

But personally, as a teacher, I have a higher expectation and level of consideration and respect that this company, specifically #RickSung, doesn’t adhere to nor cares to. Hi everyone, Wow I’m not sure what to say I was going to apply to Monkey Tree once I was TEFL certified. But after reading about a few people’s bad experience working there, I’m not too sure if I want to apply or do my practicum there. Currently, I am taken a TEFL program and I need to do my practicum before finishing the program. I will be relocating from Canada to Hong Kong by the end of this year, due to my husband’s job transfer. In the fall, I will visit him in HK for about 2.5 weeks.

I was hoping to fit my practicum in that time. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to do my practicum in HK,and where I can land a teaching job shortly after? Technically, I’m not an expat. I was born in HK, but raised in Canada.

I didn’t go back to visit until I was in my mid-20s. I have an education in opticianry,and some university course, but I don’t have a bachelor’s degree. Would I be at a disadvantage because of that? I would truly appreciate it if anyone can give me some advice.

Not-so-HK Hong Kong girl P.S. – My husband said we might live by the Olympic MTR station. Any good companies to work for there? I thought I’d update this blog with some recent experience of Monkey Tree. Before I accepted my position there, I came across this site but because a lot of the posts were quite old (and some sounded a bit crazy!) I chose to ignore the warning signs and reasoned that my experience would be different. The HR were absolutely amazing during the interview process. They were friendly and informative and answered each and every query completely.

Being recruited by a young South African girl just like me was part of what swayed me to choose this job as I got the impression that there would always be someone on my side. This wasn’t so. To be fair I think that they themselves are under huge pressure to recruit, so will tell you whatever you need to hear, and once they get you to Hong Kong and allocate you to your center, you aren’t their concern anymore. Prior to Monkey Tree I spent one and a half years working at a training school in Mainland China (who were wonderful and I would happily recommend them to anyone).

Monkey Tree is simply greedy and lack basic human decency and compassion. They have many teachers that ‘pull a runner’, and very few stay on to work more than a year which is a very telling sign. There were 13 people in my training group, and within 4 months they are down to 8. The most important thing you should note if considering Monkey Tree is that your experience will depend completely on where you are placed. This is a franchise, and different owners run there center’s differently.

My boyfriend worked at a wonderful center with a kind and generous center manager. In contrast, my center only cared about making as much money as they could. Some examples: If you have a free period, some branches allow you to leave and use this free time however you choose, some people go to gym, or do grocery shopping, or go home and have lunch if they live close enough.

At my school, even though twice a week I had a four hour break, I was only allowed to be away from school for 1.5 hours, and then had to be back there even though there was nothing for me to do! And it’s not like you have your own desk and can sit and do something productive with your time. You end up stuck in a tiny teachers room sitting in a kiddies chair or leaning against a locker playing on your phone and trying to stay out of the other teachers’ way. I HATED being unproductive and wasting time that way, and not being able to use my time as I see fit. Some centers follow a standard timetable: 2 hours teaching – lunch break – 2 more teaching hours – 1 hour break – final 2 hours. For me, more often than not I had four teaching hours in a row.

There is no break between classes. If I let my class out at 15:29, or 15:31, I was reprimanded. I felt guilty having to go to the bathroom between classes. Also, the promise that you will never teach more than 6 hours in a day was a joke at my center. At my boyfriend’s center, if for any reason your last class was cancelled, you got lucky and could leave early.

If you needed to take a few hours off, e.g. To meet someone at the airport, apply for a visa or write an exam, they would move things around to help you out.

I would never have dreamed of asking my manager to do the same for me. I had a 2.5 year old student in a class where I was expected to do phonics work who just cried throughout the class for weeks.

I felt guilty asking for new markers when mine were shot. Some teachers just bought their own markers. And God forbid you ever accidentally printed something in colour instead of changing to black and white. Then a bit more about my story. Coeficiente De Sesgo Calculado Con Software. Three months into my contract my Dad discovered he had Leukaemia. Initially they thought there was no need to panic, but my Dad asked me to come home to learn his business so that someone would know how to run it should anything ever happen to him.

So I gave MT my two months’ notice (I actually asked to leave earlier but was told this would incur the salary in lieu of notice penalty). However there is still a contract break penalty of $10 000 dollars for breaking contract early. After seeking advise from HK contract lawyers and the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union (HKPTU) I was advised that the legality of this is questionable.

Our representative at the HKPTU told us that they have had quite a few complaints about MT. We were told that it is illegal for the company to simply deduct money from our pay checks, if we needed to pay anything our full salary should be paid to us and then we pay over whatever is owed.

We made it very clear to HR that we understood the law and did not consent to having any money deducted. However come pay day $5000 was missing from my salary, and they even had the cheek to give me a payslip reflecting the full amount that should have been paid with no evidence of the deduction! (how shady and in my mind further evidence that what they did wasn’t legal).

So I went to the Hong Kong Labour Relations Division and filed a claim for underpayment of salary. They then set up mediation with me, a representative from the labour department and the company. Before this meeting took place, Monkey Tree offered to reduce my contract break penalties to $1667.

Because I was tired of fighting, and $1667 looked a lot better than the original $10 000, I accepted this and cancelled the mediation after my money was refunded to me. Three weeks after originally giving notice, my dad’s diagnosis changed and I was told he might deteriorate quickly, so I decided to leave that weekend. I told the school, who informed me that at that point I still owed about $28000 in salary in lieu of notice but that because of the situation they would reduce this amount to around $18000 i.e. The value of the time already worked that month + overtime + leave pay + rental deposit.

They honestly believed they were doing me a favour. I had worked up until the 18th of the month and booked a last minute flight home and ended up leaving HK with less money than I came with. Salary in lieu of notice is standard practice in Hong Kong, and I might have received the same treatment at any other school. But a South African company would never treat a foreign employee going through a family crisis the way I was treated. I felt safe choosing MT over other jobs because of the presence of South Africans and other foreigners in management. One hears many horror stories of people who go to teach English in Asia but this placed it seemed very international and I expected to be treated decently. This was completely misguided, and I write this in the hope that no one else makes the mistake of choosing Monkey Tree for the reasons I did.

If anyone would like to contact me my email address is. Sarah, Thank you for sharing your experience. I can’t imagine what you were going through with the news of your dad combined with the unreasonable pressure from RICK SUNG aka Tricky Ricky/ Monkey Tree.

As teachers, all we want is to provide and inspire, and to be harshly treated in such a way when you are the most vulnerable is incredibly cruel. My blog has been accused of “School shaming/ slandering”. But like they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Thanks again for sharing. It’s the reason why I started this blog in the first place. Hi there, I had an interview/ job offer with Monkey Tree this week that I am now obviously discouraged to take. This wouldn’t be my first time teaching in Asia so I don’t feel as though I’d have as many difficulties adjusting as some of the people in some of these comments (no disrespect – I understand the first time can be challenging to say the least), but I do not want to get involved with a company that is shady.

I am now extremely set on moving to Hong Kong and was wondering if anyone in this comment section works for/knows anyone working for a good school and could point me in the right direction? Any help is good help, thanks, – B.

To be fair, I think you are mistaken/unclear regarding the HK law surrounding sick leave and notice periods. I have no idea about the Monkey Tree specific stuff, as I don’t work for them. Our company sounds much nicer though 😉 (plug plug plug plug) Notice periods are only governed by employee ordinance if they aren’t specified in the contract, and even then that they cannot be less than a month. Otherwise, whatever you signed is valid provided it is not less than 1 month.

We also have a notice period of 2 months, since that is how long it will take us to find and train a replacement. It is also 2 months notice from the company side. As for sick leave, the employee ordinance only deals with sick leave that is at least 4 consecutive days, and for that you get 2 days per month accrued up to some maximum I’d have to look up. Sick days, its per the contract. That said, you are welcome to correct me if I’m the one that is mistaken. HK is a tricky place when it comes to employment contracts as the labour ordinance doesn’t go nearly as far as it does in most other countries, and the lack of union enterprise bargaining means you are on your own when negotiating and signing.

Best advice I can give to new people coming to work here is always read carefully and question the small print. If the employer goes over the contract with you and explains to your satisfaction, then that goes a long way to building trust.

The issue is with the fact that their contract makes it seem as though you are only allowed 2 days of sick leave in total. The labor department says otherwise as you’ve suggested with 4 consecutive days. Monkey Tree does not want you to be aware of that and often times people will only take 1 day of sick leave when they really should have taken several consecutive days. Monkey Tree’s contract is intentionally misleading to discourage people from using sick leave even if they actually are sick. I had several coworkers, on several occasions, at work for days at at a time while running a fever because they didn’t have any sick leave because they’d used their 2 measly days and didn’t realize they could take 4 consecutive. Monkey Tree would rather you come in sick and work with children than you take a day off and have them pay a substitute. As for how much notice is required, according to the Professional Teachers’ Union, I was given other information, in that, 2 months is a highly irregular requirement and falls within some questionable areas of the law.

I intend to post MUCH more on my blog, including my and many others negative experiences. As to people being informed before coming, that’s what I’m trying to do.

There are many other, much better options in Hong Kong. Your center may very well be one of those places. It’s good that you came away with being able to spin your experience into a positive, however, reading your experience, it doesn’t come of as all that enjoyable. Your experience with your manager is a reflection of the lack of education/school experience these people have; they are business owners not educators. They see it as doing what they’ve gotta do to make money and the teachers are just a piece of that machine. To add to that, as you’ve said, HR is understaffed, and in most instances, doesn’t take the side of the teachers unless it’s an easy situation for them to sort out.

If it ever comes down to money or contractual issues, HR will not get your back. Again, you managed to leave with a somewhat positive outlook on it, and that’s a good thing. However, I would never recommend someone to work there if they were already in Hong Kong. There are so many better options, especially for experienced and qualified teachers.

Comparing Monkey Tree to a public school position (which is attainable if you’re in HK) is like night and day (better salary,schedule, holidays, classes, sick leave, benefits, etc etc etc) And, if you’re going to work in a language center, yeah, you could do worse than Monkey Tree, but you could certainly do better. I have been working in Hong Kong for many years. I run an education company that supplies teachers to schools and centers throughout Hong Kong.

I have seen the rise and fall of Monkey tree and many other similar centers over the years. Monkey Tree is a bit worse than most because they have a truly abusive break clause and because they take advantage of teachers who opt into the company housing.

That said, if you don’t opt into housing and you don’t break the contract early then Monkey Tree is quite similar to other centers. Most centers in Hong Kong use break penalties of some sort. Being offered bad housing may be better to some people than being offered no housing at all. I have never dealt directly with Ricky and from what I have heard I wouldn’t want to.

It is easy to find other good employers in Hong Kong. On almost every job website you will see advertisements for my company (American English Workshop) alongside Monkey Tree and many others. For those debating whether to work for MT or not I would suggest just interviewing at any one of the hundreds of other companies in Hong Kong. We are always hiring. You can contact me at with comments or feedback. Hi guys, I was offered a job with Monkey Tree today and decided to go online to see if I could see any reviews of the company before accepting Can’t believe my eyes!!

Thank you so much to everyone for sharing their experiences, I will certainly not be accepting the offer now. However I must say I’m a bit gutted, as I was excited at the prospect of moving over and teaching in Hong Kong after recently qualifying as a TEFL teacher. Does anyone know of any other good companies in Hong Kong to contact? Thanks again for sharing your experiences. I hear you Clare, despite there being absolutely NO reviews on the company, I was completely enticed by the glamour of living in Hong Kong.

If you scroll down the comments here a few people posted some alternative places to teach that seem to treat their teachers with more respect. But research them as well before making any decisions. A great place to begin your TEFL experience is South Korea, no joke! I had the best time there, just stay away from Hagwons. Try for a university or public school. Happy hunting 😊 SpiffyGirl.

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