Hello,

I can recommend an excellent place to work. First off, I am not a recruitment officer or anything of the like. The school where I am working now is a medium sized training center that teaches IELTS and general English. All the teachers here have been here for about 3-8 years and I actually enjoy coming to work here. Can you imagine? The name of the place is Compass English and it is located in Tianjin, China. A city very close to Beijing.

I have worked for some less desirable places, including Web International English, EF English First and a few random small joints. This is by far the best. This school doesn't only hire native-English speakers as I work along side a man from Italy, a women from Russia and a man from South Africa. They give about 15-20 classes per week, no office hours. You receive one month of vacation, part of which are paid trips with the Chinese staff.

The Chinese staff is overall friendly and most of them can speak fluent English. The schools pays entirely for your medical checkup and visa process. They also provide a generous sum of 8000 RMB for a return flight home or if you don't want to go home, for you to use. They provide an apartment or living allowance of 2000 RMB and they start you off at 8000 to 10 000+ RMB depending on your experience and qualifications. Sounds pretty good right?

Here are some of the drawbacks as there are always some. You need to teach English corner about 3-4 times per week (although it's not incredibly packed, usually 15-20 students at most). You will be asked to work afternoons and evenings and MAYBE weekends (but this is negotiable). The building is in a pretty busy area but it is convenient. Scheduling can be a bit strange and has room for improvement.

That's all I can say that is negative about the place. Coming from some horrible nightmare places, this place is like a dream. Whenever a place in China is doing something right, I feel the passion to really recommend the candle in the land of darkened ESL training centers.

From August 1st to August 5th, the school is taking the ENTIRE staff and NOT students to Nan Dai He, which is an amusement park with a beach. Many of us are looking forward to it and actually WANT to attend since we aren't being marketed. To make matters better, my wife is the educational supervisor (I met her WAY before she got this position) so I always try to supoprt her and guide her decisions for the better of everyone (not just the foreigners).

Anyways, if it sounds like a place you would like to work. Let me know and I will send you an email. I don't get ANYTHING out of this other than the satisfaction of helping out a fellow ESL teacher get out of a nightmare.

Regards,

MW