Hello, everybody here on the board -
I am writing this from my "safe haven" in Europeafter returning from China some time ago. My experiences with recruiters and employers were negative for the most part, and finally this has caused me to return to my country.
When I came to China, I first ended up with a private employer in Henan Province. I was not given anything that I was promised (I came by a Z visa). Instead of being given an apartment, I was made to stay in second class hotel where the prostitutes used to call in the middle of the night. I could only get rid of them by telling them "I have no money" (mei you qian). The class rooms were not heated at all and the second day I was there I got really sick and had to go to "hospital" (not very clean by our Western standards but the herbal pills I got from a traditional pharmacy really helped!). I left that place soon after and then found a job at a middle school in the northern part of China (Fushun City). This was a private school, too but the headmaster was a really nice person and I was treated really well - I would say exceptionally well compared with all the other places in China.
There are even some government-run schools/colleges/univbersities where they are going to cheat you and where accomodation is not appropriate (Jiujiang University is such a place, there were rats around in the house and the administration did not really care to do anything about it). At the same time I have heard of other government- run schools where foreign teachers felt treated well and correctly.
So what I am trying to say is this: You cannot say private schools in general are bad and state-run schools are good in general. There are some good ones and some bad ones among the private as well as the state-run schools. It really depends on the individualm you happen to come to. I have several PhD and Master degrees and even this does not save you inh general from ending up at some of the worst places you could ever get to in China. One really needs to sort out and chek the place as much as possible before eventually going there.
Among my foreign colleagues, I have also seen some more doubtful figures - still quite young, not well educated with a big mouth and really unsensitive to Chinese etiquette and culture. The person in question was a good and heavy beer drinker, but on the other hand he used to slap his Chinese students with a broom - he says this was out of fun but made the Chinese students concerned feel humiliated.
Chinese people will judge us as Westerners,and again here - some are more "appropriate" in their education and their behaviour..you cannot really generalize....reality is somewhat more complex than a pure white-black perspective.
The real problem in China these days is that the market for English language instruction seems quite chaotic which may allow for so many crooks to turn up to run illegitimate schools. And the government authorities concerned do not really seem to be in controll of this....Anyway, you can make your way but you need to insist on what is your good right and you should not be afraid of contacting the provincial Bureau of Foreign Experts if your employer does not treat you reasonably.
Good luck to everybody here on the Board and have a happy New Year 2007!