ESL teaching jobs at training centres and certain other Chinese schools are not quality jobs an such that are at the bottom of the barrel.

Agreed.

Thus, only folks unemployable at home - whether because of lack of education, personality problems, or of a record of crime which causes them to escape from justice back home - would take such jobs just in order to survive.

Disagree; replace 'only' by 'some', and I'd agree. You should understand that westerners back home unemployed, not necessarily unemployable, and others in deadend low-paid jobs are lured as FTs to China by training center adverts offering high pay and career structures of various kinds.

Such folks for SURE will become mentally ill.

Disagree; most won't, but some will - especially the older westerners among them. Case in point, the old man with little to do except post loads of useless drivel mainly on the discussion forum, so annoying most readers of thr board, including you and me!

Too much useless drivel on the forums lately from a certain numpty - enough is enough!

Jim O'Shei posted recently that 'teaching English tends to lead to mental illness'. He could be right!

Anyway, I can't be bothered replying to posters afflicted so.

I suggest you follow suit.

I only have one question to you. In GCGS's kitchen, no one is allowed to entrance. Even Chinese staff. How can you enter there and see a rat under a trolley.

You just a foreign teacher, how did you know the turnover?

"Turnover is over 80%!"

That's a big red flag. Given the negative content of most of the rest of your post, I'm not surprised by that statistic.

These days, most schools in the PRC try to hang on to their FTs longer than they used to. That's because the new visa regulations mske it a cumbersome and time-consuming exercise to hire new foreign staff.

Teacher turnover of over 80% is excessively high. It suggests that most incumbent FTs either don't want to renew their contracts or that the visas they hold cannot be renewed.

A school in the PRC that treats its FTs well will probably have an annual FT turnover of 20% or less.

I would never want to live in Guangdong, or bgy again. and if I ever did, I certainly would not want to work for Country Garden School again.

Very good that you did so.

Country Garden School is not physically nice, and most areas are desperately in need of renovation.Rats seem to be a major problem, not to mention the gigantic cockroaches that can be found just about everywhere (I've seen them all around the kitchen - I once saw a dead rat under a trolley that had food on it!!) .

The Chinese staff are treated like slaves and terribly overworked. Some are friendly towards the foreign staff, while most are very cold and seem to resent us for being here.

The teacher residence is decaying , albeit on the cold side in terms of furnishings. The school provides a small housing allowance but they reduced the teachers salary again this year.Over the summer of 2017, a teacher went back home for 6 weeks. Nothing was on in the apartment aside from the fridge. When she returned, her bill was nearly 8 times her normal monthly amount. When she complained, they threatened to disconnect her electricity if she didn't pay immediately. A lot of other teachers have complained about their bills being high...we all speculate that there is some kind of corruption going on with the landlords, and cgs.

For me, the Head of School is a terrible person and the worst "leader". He lied to me on more than one occassion and I find him extremely unprofessional. His lack of leadership has a direct impact on the school. It creates a trickle down effect. i believe the school will never be viewed as a good school as long as he is there. I see him as obsessed with profits and could not care less about academics. The principal, both Chinese and Western, are incompetent and inexperienced, so they really have no idea what they are doing. The only reason the school makes money is because of the location - nothing else around the school, but the area has quite a large number of Chinese families. The Teachers spend A LOT of time at meetings and at evening meetings and lesson plans. like 6 lesson plans each per week and I'm talking about tens of thousands of A4 paper!!).

The school's primary objective is profit in my opinion. This comes long before education. If you have no experience, need a job and don't care about being treated like a dancing white monkey, than apply at country garden school.On Mondays during flag raising, you are required to attend flag raising, and recite the Chinese National Anthem. Afterwards, all the western teachers perform a song, and do the cgs monkey dance.

Life in the countryside of Guangzhou is boring. The pollution is just as bad as being in the heart of the city, so don't believe this BS that being outside the city offers fresh country air - it's all the same polluted air! The only upside to the school's location is that it is 3-4 hours to Hong Kong and Macau

I would never want to live in Guangdong, or bgy again. and if I ever did, I certainly would not want to work for Country Garden School again. It is the worst school I have ever worked for and I cannot see it improving. Turnover is over 80%!