Two words i hate to see used these days, genius and professional. It all began with genius which used to be reserved for the likes of Steven Hawkins and Sir Isaac Newton. These days you can get on the list for cooking some grub on the TV. Now you can be a professional for cleaning the toilets out nearly. Unlike being a doctor or a proper teacher (been to teachers' college for a few years after leaving Uni) Ft's as a whole are not professional people. We arrive in China with a degree (could be in pottery) On the way to the airport we go on a course for a few weeks and come out clutching a TEFL. Being an FT in China is not a career, you try asking Fuzhou about your pension plan. No, it's a long working holiday and a lot more interesting than stacking the shelves at Tesco supermarket. You try arriving at a school in America, and say you've come for the English teaching gig, they'll be falling off of their seats laughing at you.

Your English sounds okay but after reading some posts and info from this school-play cricket, professional is not the word you should use, now is it?

FT's are mainly asked not to bother about teaching grammar in China, the reason being is not many of us and I include myself are up to it. We are white monkey exponents of oral English- If most of us are asked to go over the simple verbs lay and lie we find ourselves helplessly out of our depth because we are not proper teacher. Slopping together a PowerPoint, yes we can do that, and doesn't it look "professional?l" We can collate chinglish lesson plans that fuzhou give us, sit in our gleaming glass classrooms and look all "professional.

FT's should come to China to have fun, not to pretend we are something we are not, find a job in a state school or university where we are asked to only work 15 hours a week, get everything paid for including our flats, enjoy the ladies and learn Chinese. If we don't have that pottery degree buy one. If you are a proper teacher, get a well-paid job in London with a pension and very long holidays.

An update on Future English formally known as English first Fuzhou

After working there for the past four and a half years I have finally left the school for hopefully bigger and better things but I feel it is important to detail my experience there.

on a positive note the students that currently attend the school are for the most part respectful, motivated and hardworking. After years of culling the least desirable students i can truly say that the group there are a true joy to work with. The same can be said for the teachers, they are a dedicated group of professionals with a strong desire to help as much as they can and will go to many lengths to ensure their students are given all the opportunities to achieve their goals. If anything I will miss these two groups for they are what helped me stay for as long as I did.

it was with much chagrin that i have to admit that I was 100% wrong in my opinions about the Owner of the school and his staff. As i write this I am trying to keep any bitter thoughts out and report as objectively as I can but i will say there is a lot of animosity on my part right now. I would please ask that before anyone says "I told you so" or take joy in my admissions to remember that truly we are all interested in helping our students many of them kids and that my heart was in the right place. When I first came to Fuzhou I had many discussions with other teachers about how we were treated poorly and that it made no sense. The schools invite us here depending on our western knowledge, skill sets and ability but yet when we actually work for them they expect us to understand Chinese thought. It really was my hope that through discussions , arguments and example that I would be able to change the minds of our bosses.

When i first got to English First Fuzhou I was the only teacher that was left at the school. The DOS, senior teacher and the rest of the staff had all left within a short time of each other. No one really said why but I knew there were problems. At the time I had gone to that school because the university i had left had canceled my work visa without giving me proper notice. They had not lived up to their part of the contract and instead of dealing with the issue tried to evict me out of the country. Within weeks of coming to EF I was asked to be the DOS which I turned down knowing I was not qualified to do the job. I took the position of senior teacher explaining I would help whoever was in charge to the best of my ability. I knew from early on at the school that it would not be easy working with the current centre manager as she really had no idea how to work with foreigners. At that time I had little to no contact with the owner of the school except for the occasional thank you from him. The centre manager got into a routine of regularly arguing as there were many things I did not agree with and refused to do. I often explained I was not a foreign monkey here merely to entertain the children nor was I a daycare worker. Our new DOS was known throughout Fuzhou and had plenty of great ideas but seemed to expect them to be implemented with little to no effort expended. After months he finally gave up and exclaimed he was no more than a high priced teacher and with that gave no direction to the staff at the school. When I took the position as DOS I became the focus of animosity, unfounded in my opinion but nevertheless so.

I spent the remaining years arguing with the centre manager about a variety of issues such as fair pay, expectations of the foreign teachers and other issues that seem to plague us all here in china. for the most part I was successful and the environment of the school improved greatly. I believe at the time that the owner felt he had no choice and listened to me knowing that if he did not he would not have a school.

Jump to present day and i have nothing positive to say about the owner or the Chinese staff that work there. I truly believe that the owner felt my presence at the school was more troublesome than it was worth. The school had increased by twice the size with the same number of teachers, the teachers seemed content and things were working smoothly. It is at this point that he started making ridiculous decisions that impacted the school and ultimately led to my decision to leave. He installed a new centre manager whose English was sub par and was unable to make any decisions herself, employed staff who knew nothing about foreigners and could not speak English as well as unqualified to work in a school. They started opening classes willy nilly with no regard for the students or the teachers and would keep students who should not have been at the school. they would move that student around to different teachers so that I was unaware of what was happening.

It is important to say at this point that the owner is a used car salesman from xiamen who has no idea about education. If he had just kept his nose out of it the school would be humming along nicely. I do believe that at a certain point most bosses here feel they have to assert their dominance and show us silly foreigners just how smart they are. This has led to increasing frustration on my part as well as the other teachers. His son occasionally goes to the school and has private classes which are dreaded by all because of his lack of English. His nephew is even worse and has failed a variety of classes with different teachers. Personally if it was me I would be ashamed to be the owner and have my family unable to participate. He will often use the excuse that he does not understand English whenever he hears something he does not like. He will hide behind his staff, mostly women to do his dirty work for him. It is my guess that his school will be closed within the next six months, or at least that is my hope.

After four and a half years there they did not want me to tell my students I was leaving the school, instead just disappear quietly into the night. I refuse to play by their rules and have been penalized by it. There are plenty of instances of trickery but I feel I have gone on to long. Ultimately i will say to anyone that wants to come to Fuzhou to avoid that school because there is now no one looking out for the interest of the teachers.

I am sure there will be some that will will take great pleasure in seeing this as my downfall but I assure you that what I have done was done so in the effort of trying to provide a good environment for teachers and students. I admit at times I was not the most diplomatic but i worked with what i had. I will eventually open my own school because that is the only way I feel that foreigners will be given a fair chance here in Fuzhou.

It is no longer EF fuzhou you should avoid but instead avoid FUTURE ENGLISH FUZHOU