I'm not sure if the franchise/chain schools are "better" but I'll have to agree with Mark Charters about English at public universities here. My experience is rather limited, I'll admit but I taught one term at a public university and was appalled, disillusioned, disappointed,disgusted, whatever. Most of the Chinese faculty were too humiliated by their low level of English to even say hello to me and most of my FT colleagues were shockingly incompetent and unqualified. I was so excited to get to a uni and finally do some "real teaching" only to discover it was little more than a warmed-over middle school environment. By that I mean there were huge classes and all anyone cared about were mindless "exams." (I won't even get into what a mob of zombie conformists the students are as well. If one expects to find an island of free-thinking like one sees in unis at home, well, forget it. Students are told what to study, when to study it, what time to get up, go to bed, etc) I lost track of the various acronyms for the various tests the English majors were all obsessed with. Few were genuinely interested in learning English. The entire system is broken and won't be fixed any time soon.

I interviewed at an EF Franchise once and was offered a position but I was frankly turned off by what they expected of their teachers and turned it down. I think the basic problem they have is one of understanding the motivation of someone who willingly chooses to leave their homeland to come here to China. Why would I work my tail off for the US equivalent of less than $1000 a month? And wear a tie? C'mon man. If I were willing to do all that I'd stay home and earn real money. I'm presently working at a Junior School teaching Grades 7 and 8 and lots of the kids are loud, rude and disrespectful. I'm like, "Christ, I can teach loud, rude, disrespectful 14 year olds at home for real money. Why do I stay here?" I'll be outta here soon.