Turnoi, you are obviously talking to someone who doesn't care about the different experiences of others. He believes his own is the only one that matters, and he has not evolved his personality to the point where he can adopt a critical way of thinking about things. I did accomplish this as I spoke a while back about how I myself had the rosy glasses on when I first came to China. I changed my outlook not only from my own work experiences, but also by looking at the attitudes of others who went through similar things. What ultimately pushed me away from the Romanticist View of China was the attitudes of some expats who saw the plights of others as something to not give two shits about if it was negative, and there were too many expats like that. What was even more disturbing was how the grovelers were seen as actually virtuous for enabling the disgusting practices of Chinese business owners, while the folks who spoke out about the injustice and wrongdoings were labeled as "disrespecting Chinese Culture" and other nonsense.

There is literally NOTHING left for expat teachers to compromise on as far as I can see. We already have to fight tooth and nail to get a proper working visa, our flight reimbursements, overtime pay if we have to do them, and dealing with the changing of the schedule at the whims of FAO's and if you're unfortunate enough your boss at whatever training center you're employed full time at. If anything, expats should have demanded a near western pay grade, western apartments, and a plethora of ridiculous things that the Chinese would never give but would be scared enough to actually give the expats what was originally promised in the contract if just to not want any more trouble. You ask for 10 things and they will give you 5. But if you just sit on your laurels and expect the 5 in the contract that you signed with them you will be lucky to get 1/2! But what have we seen? Too many doormat types who just walk away and not even do a thing as to inform others, which is why you continue to have so many posts about crappy places to work at in China. Some of them as well as the vested interest types will even project their own insecurity onto the internet, and tell others to not say anything about any negative experiences in China! What bit them? My point is, compromise can only happen if there are 2 sides who are doing the compromising. The Chinese are not compromising. If I was a greedy Chinese owner I would be laughing at how eager folks like Beelzebub and Mancunian are at bending their knees to the floor to put a smile on my face with annoying posters such as you and me who are a thorn on their sides.

Progress is made by complaining and exposing the outfits that run these places. Enough people complain, you get enough bad publicity. When that happens, then minor changes will come first followed by perhaps major ones. The Chinese Government will only get involved if there is enough proof of illegal activities at enough places of the same chain of Language "School" Mill. But these things take time, a lot of time. You don't just quit after you've stopped working as an ESL teacher. I have a busy job and I have not posted for a week or so but despite being tired I see that there is still a lot of work to do. There are I read recently 50,000 plus private companies selling education in China that includes English as a part of their course curriculum now. How many more people will be hired to do the overseas marketing? It's a huge business, and ordinary folks are going to have a hard time deciphering. Being from the west I can say that in a consumerist type of culture like the USA we will always be bombarded with corporate propaganda, and the mutual cooperation between the two countries that is the USA and China there are simply not many outlets which actually look at China in a fair, critical manner.

We have seen in the last few months since the new year a few new posters come on here and try to bend our wills to theirs as a way of finally getting us to believe how right it is to work in China. What they missed out on is the fact that they have nothing to prove to anybody, working in China is solely their choice, and therefore their responsibility. I have no obligations to tell you how great you are for working there, you already feel great about it don't you? Why do I have to feel great "like" you supposedly? Needing someone else's approval to feel great about something you say you believe shows you don't actually believe it, and you just want pity so you can pretend to feel so, for a short amount of time that is before you move on to the next potential victim. [edited]