Tutors learning new lessons in life

Dong Yuhui became an English tutor at New Oriental Education and Technology Group right after graduating from college.

Now, after eight years tutoring about 500,000 students, the 28-year-old is a live streaming host selling agricultural produce.

"It was not an easy decision to make because I was passionate about teaching and very good at my job," he said.

The summer and winter holidays were the busiest times for private tutors, so Dong did not return home for Chinese New Year for several years.

One time, the parents of one of his students invited him to join their family dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve, but he declined as he did not want to intrude. The following day, the start of the new year, the parents left homemade dumplings outside his classroom door while he was teaching.

"I cried while eating those dumplings. Although it is very tiring to teach classes nearly 12 hours a day during vacations, the appreciation shown by students and parents was satisfaction enough," he said.

Two years after joining the private education company, Dong became the youngest head of the English teaching research team at New Oriental's branch in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

In 2019, he moved to Beijing and became head of the English teaching department at Koolearn, a New Oriental subsidiary that specializes in online education.

However, late last year, he transitioned to his new job at Dongfang Zhenxuan, Koolearn's livestreaming platform, after new rules were introduced for private providers of education services.

To comply with the government's "double reduction" policy－aimed at reducing the twin burdens of homework and extracurricular classes on primary and middle school students－New Oriental ended its tutoring business for such children at the end of last year.

In a recent WeChat post, Yu Minhong, the founder and chairman, said the company had laid off more than 60,000 employees. Severance payments, tuition refunds and costs for terminated leases for teaching centers totaled almost 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), he said.

Most of the employees in Dong's old department took severance payments and left the company.

"I do not have time to feel sorry for myself. I felt ashamed that so many colleagues lost their jobs and I could do nothing about it," he said. "I stayed because I wanted to do the right thing to help farmers sell their produce. I was born in a village in Shaanxi and my family still lives there, so I feel obliged to contribute to rural vitalization."

Being a livestreaming host is harder than he had imagined, though, and it has led to many sleepless nights as he has had to deal with online trolls and live feedback from netizens.

"There were personal attacks about my looks, and complaints from people who had bought company (Koolearn) shares and lost money," he said.

"Moreover, netizens doubted whether agricultural produce could make a profit and asked why we weren't selling products with higher profit margins."

Dong added that he also has to field questions about the high prices of some products and complaints that a few are not up to standard.

"I tell myself to focus on explaining the stories behind the produce and the farmers and not pay attention to the negative comments, but it is not easy," he said.

He added that he feels it would be a shame to give up too easily, while his original aspirations to help farmers have not changed.

"I am still confident about my future. Whenever I feel it's too hard to carry on, I take a long walk or read a book," he said.

From math tutor to mom

In late October, Zhang Limei's 10 years as a math tutor and teaching researcher at TAL Education Group ended abruptly. She is now a stay-at-home mother, looking after her two children. The youngest, a boy, is 2, while the older child, a girl, attends a primary school.

"I considered quitting my job to look after my two children, who were cared for by their grandparents, but I just loved my work too much to end it," Zhang said. She added that she even stayed at her post until just a few days before she gave birth to her second child.

The company started laying off employees in late August, and a second batch of colleagues left a month later. "It was very hard for me to say goodbye as I have so many beautiful memories at the company," Zhang said.

On Sept 10, Teacher's Day in China, Zhang's colleagues got together to celebrate their last such event as a team. Many of her peers cried because they knew that it would be difficult for them to meet again, Zhang said.

Since she left the company, she has focused most of her attention on her home, looking after the toddler and taking her daughter to interest groups.

"I still miss my job very much, especially the close relationships with my colleagues, being able to interact with people constantly and the sense of achievement from completing difficult tasks," she said.

Hopes dashed

Teng Ya'nan has many photos and videos of former students on his smartphone. He enjoyed teaching young students at 51Talk, an online English education platform. The working environment was good－the tutors were mostly 20-somethings like himself－and he was satisfied with the salary.

He hoped the company would introduce changes to conform with government requirements so he could continue working as a teacher, but those hopes failed to come to fruition.

He joined the company in Wuhan, Hubei province, in 2017, and left in early November.

"For the first couple of days after I left, I felt very happy as I was able to enjoy some free time," he said. "However, anxiety and boredom started to kick in as time went by."

He has to pay rent for his current home and also service a mortgage for an apartment he has bought in Wuhan that is still under construction.

After staying home for about a month, he started looking for a new job. However, it was much harder than he had imagined.

"I set my hopes too high for the salary as I thought my work experience would equate to more money. Also, there were vacancies that did not match my abilities," he said.

After submitting his resume to dozens of companies and being interviewed by several, he decided to work as a headhunting consultant for international companies, a job that also requires a high degree of proficiency in English.

"Although the salary for my current job is lower than before, I had to settle for it because it was the best option I had," he said.