I went and saw them this week...they made me feel at home for the first few minutes because the company is run by an American (from Tenessee).

However, my feeling about the place changed when they talked to me about a job.

1. Out of ALL the jobs that they had listed on the internet, only ONE was available. The man shoved a laptop towards me and told me to have a look. Fenny and Perlandas ARE everywhere on the internet and they SEEM to have a lot of jobs but for me there was only one available.

2. They handed me a paper which made me promise that I would pay THEM 50 PERCENT of my first month's salary and that I would continue paying them every year that I reknewed the contract. This put a bad taste in my mouth. In my experience, schools usually pay recruiters; prospective teachers shouldn't have to pay!! And 50 percent! The job that they were offering me was about 7000 RMB so I would have had to pay them 3500! That is ridiculous. NOWHERE in their job listings on the internet does it say that the teachers have to pay them. I would have been pretty upset had I come to Shenzhen just for them.

I don't think Perlandas is a scam necessarily but I don't like the way they do business and I don't think there is any reason to use them unless you are really paranoid about finding a good position yourself. I have taught English around the world and I have found that if you ask the right questions and do the right research, you can find these positions on your own!!

Cam