In the interest of helping all those considering teaching at Hainan College of Foreign Studies (previously known as Hainan Foreign Language College of Professional Education), I thought I’d share a bit of my experience. I was part of a group of foreign teachers employed by the school and spent one year teaching there. Having taught extensively over the years in China in the past, I knew a lot of what to expect; however, I was not prepared for what transpired.

Our group of foreign teachers was completely new as all 17 of the previous teachers quit. I heard rumors of them banding together and electing not to return as a message to the administration, however, that story would probably be better heard first-hand from one of them. All I can say is that if that was their decision, I understand.

Collectively as foreign teachers, our experience was rough. We had teachers from all over the world and we would regularly discuss the problems we were individually having with the administration. Many of the administration members were unhelpful at best and hostile at worst. Having taught in China previously I am familiar with the norm, let me say this school is far from normal.

Without going into too many details I will share a few stories to illustrate the schools mentality: One teacher called the administration from his apartment too sick to even make it to the hospital. His calls were disregarded and he was left to fend for himself and figure out his own transportation to the hospital. Another teacher was given specifics about what occurred in her bedroom by a faculty member who simply said “he was watching her”. No video camera was found, but the specifics made it very likely that somehow this was true. Others were caused to stand and lose face in regional meetings with other schools present due to not being fluent in Chinese. A shouting match took place at the PSB after the foreign teacher’s liaison failed to inform the teachers about some documents they needed and instead made them cry with his insistence that this was somehow their fault even though it was his job.

Additionally four of the teachers left the school early due to the health concerns they were facing seemingly because of the environment. So, while there are many great things about Hainan (warm weather, less pollution, 40 minutes from the beach, etc…). I cannot recommend this school to anyone considering teaching there. Having taught other places I can certainly recommend pursuing a job in China, I would just steer clear of Hainan College of Foreign Studies.