MW, that's an excellent post and quite likely a great job as well. I've tried so hard to find a place like that, but have been unable to do so. I am a 45 year old fart with a lot of laguage (personal belongings, wife, little son etc). I have stopped paying much attention to employment agreements as they usually are ambiguous and contradictive, but I always worry about who will manage and/or evaluate my work. I believe this is one of the most important if not the most important issue in a pro ft's employment on mainland. We, the experienced ones, know how the local evaluation process goes around and what it consists of, don't we? So, my question is; HOW DO YOU GET EVALUATED? I know you've said there're a few fts that've been in that Tianjin school for quite some time, but i've worked with some fts that wouldn't care much about their students progress as long as everyone was happy and that's why they've been able to keep their fine gigs in one place. Such approach has earned them a highly positive evaluation, even though they've only preformed adequately. By the way, I too have been involved with IELTS courses, their exams (part-time) and I too have liked it. What ticked me off was the employer's approach to the academic program. Local teachers were to teach it all, except the "oral" part and they were also to provide their employer with a feedback on what the students thought of fts there. You could see the "friendly" Chinese teachers entering fts' classrooms on breaks and asking all sorts of questions. I've found it highly invasive and unpro, but this is China that I have seen. :) Ohh, with the local teaching approach, it was really tough to mend my students' foundation prior to their IELTS exams.

Cheers and beers to the fine place in Tianjin where I wouldn't mind moving for a better pro life