During my years in Shanghai I worked at a prominent English school called the Kai En English Training Center (凯恩英语培训中心). At the time it was a model school in the city and across China. It exemplified a successful joint venture between domestic and foreign owners, it utilized a highly-effective teaching model which was new in the Chinese market and it had begun to franchise across the city. When I worked there, two schools operated at full capacity. As recently as a couple years ago the same could be said of five locations.
But the good times have not lasted. Pressures from the other language companies (notably English First, I’ve read) and the global recession have cut into Kai En’s profit margins. The strong management upon which the school and brand grew splintered as the Shanghai-famous Ken Carroll became involved in ChinesePod and Praxis Language.
Unfortunately the bottom fell off Kai En earlier this month, making for a rough holiday season for a beleaguered faculty, administration and support staff. The company had been under financial duress for some time (perhaps more than a year), but had been able to stay afloat. Searches for additional investors panned and the ownership closed the doors and fled the country in a matter of days. All employees were owed some amount of back wages, and the local employees had gone the longest without pay.
Photo: Kai En
Here are the sources I used:
- The initial collapse, as captured by Shanghaiist. (Their source at Shanghai Daily is closed to subscribers, but I read it last week and it’s pretty much just the B&W facts on the matter: Owners bailed and took everyone’s money.)
- A teacher’s open letter on the situation, also from Shanghaiist
- A longer update posted on Shanghaiist. This one is good because it includes commentary from a long-standing teacher, Kris Fedorak. His perspective is particularly illuminating. (Unrelated observation: We must have missed each other in the faculty lounge by mere months.)
This is truly a sad post for me. My relationships with Kai En, Ken, Brian and Steve were never perfect, but over subsequent years I learned that they had treated me and my colleagues in a respectful, straight-forward manner. Ken and I had fun conversations about language acquisition theory. Brian and I debated the merits of pop music as lesson material and whether or not U2 was the greatest band ever. Steve was part of an historic Chinese New Year’s party that happened to coincide with my 23rd birthday. In those years the school was a dependable, trustworthy employer with a strong product, loyal students and a prominent position in the Shanghai scene. It’s sad to see how far this has all fallen.
Here are some pictures I have with other Kai En faculty.
Zach and Angelina were my roommates as well
Cassandra was a Senior Teacher
Phil was a branch manager, here shown with his fiance, Amy
Peder with a D 