When I first looked at the contract with this school back I was really excited. I was told that they had a new innovative way of teaching and I was very excited to learn everything about it.

When I arrived at the apartment that they give you as stated in the contract there was tons of trash everywhere and the owner said that this was normal. The apartment looked o.k. when I first got there, but when I went to the bathroom it was a Chinese toilet….In other words – it was a hole in the floor. I chased the girl down who helped me move and asked her how to flush the toilet. She said there wasn’t any flush that you just poured a bucket of water down the toilet – really???? My mistake was that in knowing that this was a Canadian owned school I didn’t think that I had to specify a Western style apartment…. Lesson learned.

I didn’t have a decent shower in the 2 weeks I stayed there. The bedroom consistently smelled like mold even though I scrubbed it down with bleach every chance I got. I took off the doors on a very old makeshift closet because the smell coming off of it was unbearable. The bed was hard and the pillow smelled. I had to fight off the roaches in the kitchen and thankfully, I bought some bait traps with me from the states and worked on that problem daily. The refrigerator was old and the shelves were not all in it. It was very strange.

I hated the apartment and talked to the school about it more than once in a nice and friendly manner, but she just kept making excuses saying ‘Oh, you’ll get used to it’. I kept telling her no I wouldn’t, but she didn’t seem to be listening. She ignored my request until I started bugging her about it every day. Now I am in an apartment that I have to partially pay for myself.

They started me off on a full schedule and stretched it out with 3 split shifts. In the morning there is an extremely boring teachers meeting that goes on until lunch. Then I go home for 2 hours and come back for what they call admin hours....Big joke. I don't have a computer so I sit there from 2-5 and then go home and do my lesson plans. Then I go back to school and work from 7-10 most nights.

Every week one of the owners says the schedule will be lighter and it is usually a heavier work load.

The schedule is the worse I have ever worked and I have talked to one of the chiefs about it....They don't care and basically would not work with me on the hours.

The administration there is not warm and unwilling to work with what will make the foreigner feel good about a new job. Their innovative way of teaching is not any different than any other system out there - although they think it is.

Their style of teaching is based on a reward and team system which I have always believed is good to use as a tool, but not a crutch for classroom management and for keeping students attentive.

People in Shantou outside the school are warm and friendly. They are eager to talk with me and help out any way they can.

I love to teach, but am worried that this job will make me hate the profession. They are trying to train me to be a robot and act like the other teachers. I asked them if they wanted me to use my own teaching style and they said yes, but this is not true.

The Chinese teachers are treated very well and I am the only foreigner. They treat me like an outsider and I only feel welcome in that town with the people outside the school.

Don't teach there unless you like to be treated like a piece of dirt on the bottom of a shoe.