I hear you, Raoul.You're right of course about getting out of town. That's what I do if they go back on a deal. I tolerated it once, but never again. I learnt my lesson.

Two questions:

1. Why do FTs sign contracts that they're not happy with, and then bitch about it on the Internet?

2. Why do FTs stick around for months and sometimes years with schools that blatantly break the contract and make their life a hell, and then bitch about it on the Internet?

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate teachers that alert us to bad schools. That is one of the purposes of this type of forum. But I think many FTs actually create these monsters (cheating schools) by providing a market for them. Signing on the proverbial dotted and agreeing, when the conditions are pretty poor is not helping ANYONE. It's obviouly not helping the FT who has just commited himself to a year of drudgery and tears. It's not going to help the future FTs. When they turn up for negotiation, the school boss will say "What do you mean 250 dollars a month is not enough?, the previous FT signed!" It won't help, the school itself, because they will never be able to keep permanent, secure and happy teachers, and it sure as hell won't help the poor students. You are making Frankensteins! Many of these scummy, scammy schools are created by FTs!

So WHY do some FTs sign these contracts? I can only think of two main reasons:

Desperation and naivety!

Desperation!...Many school leaders can SMELL the desperation on an FT. They can SEE it in their faces. They can FEEL the reek of anxiety in the air...They can HEAR it bouncing of the walls. They KNOW this poor fool has nothing but holes in his pocket because he's either slashed it all up the wall or just finished his Asian Safari tour, and he is now absolutely SKINT!! YES, the Vultures have primed meat in their sights, and what chance does the poor FT have? He'd just caught a glimpse of bundles of pinkies (100 RMB notes, the highest value Chinese currency in circulation), through the windows of the financial department. Money earned from the blood, sweat and tears of the previous poor deperadoes whose corpses were now buried in the green at the back. He knows this, but his belly is emptier than an off-licence just robbed by a crowd of alcoholics, so he knows that even if the contract states that he has to teach in five schools from sun-up to sunset, he needs to put his scrawl on it pretty soon.

Foreign teacher brethren, stop selling yourselves into modern slavery. Keep a little dosh put away to give yourself that bit of leverage. They can spot the desperadoes a mile away (the ten gallon hat and horse is usually a big giveaway).

Naivety! We've already talked about prime meat, but now the school can smell FRESH virgin meat. Yes the newbie has just arrived fresh of the plane, a lamb to the slaughter.'3000 yuan a month' He'd been told, by e-mail, 'Ten times as much as the locals earn. A bowl of noddles costs 3 RMB a day and a beer is often cheaper'. 'See beautiful China. Come and experience Chinese culture'. Yeah!, He's sure going to experience Chinese culture alright.

It's true though that signing a GOOD contract is no guarantee to a happy trouble-free teaching experience. So what about when an FTs fourteen hour schedule a week, 600$ a month job, suddenly turns into a sixty hour week with a 50% cut in salary? Why do many FTs tolerate this instead of running for the hills? The same as above! STILL desperation, because our poor desperate FT, four months into his contract is still skint! What little salary he has left every month (30% a month is held back as a deposit, he had no choice in this, remember?), has been spent on fags (that means cigarettes in Britain, if you're wondering), and booze, so he feels obligated to accept his revised schedule, besides 'he's doing it for the students'! As for our newbie, he thinks this is the way it is meant to be here, and he also thinks that nothing can be done about it, and of course he's also doing it for th... So naivety again as well. But there's also a third reason.

Illegality!

Some FTs are working illegally, and feeling insecure about their status they daren't seek legal help (understandably,... excuse me Mr FAO, I've been working illegally for this illegal school for the last six months and..).

Brethren, if you turn up at a school and they offer you a bad contract, and they refuse to negotiate reasonably, leave.

If you turn up at a school and they ask you to work on an illegal visa, get back on the train.

If you are WORKING at a school and they suddenly mess you around seriously with your contract, especially regarding your salary and schedule, first firmly but POLITELY reason with them pointing out their promises in the contract. If that doesn't work seek legal help from the local authorities. In China that would be the PSB or the FAO. You could even seek advice from a lawyer. If all of that fails, get the hell out of there. By then the contract will be void and non-existent, because they would have clearly broken it and have made no effort to correct things. But don't leave until you have been paid all you were entitled too.

Whatever you do, do not sign another contract that is worse than the one you already have. I'm talking about contracts that are meant to supersede currently existing ones. If they insist after you have exhausted all negotiation and official help, run for the hills! Don't let these schools be like a traffic jam. Don't get trapped in them.

For every bad school in Asia, there's a much better one around the corner. No school leader holds a gun to your head, unless you give him the gun. Really, there are NO abusive schools, just those who ALLOW themselves to be abused.

So, if we read a post about an FT complaining that his school told him to hurl himself of a ten-storey building through a plate-glass window and that he is now in hospital with two broken legs, a broken collar-bone and a fractured skull, we'll not only heed his advice and not go to that school, but we'll also know why he hurled himself through the window.

'Poor fellow', people will mutter, 'He must have been either a desperado or a newbie. but then again he might have been doing it for th...

You're just like crosstown traffic
So hard to get through to you
Crosstown traffic
I don't need to run over you
Crosstown traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I got better things on the other side of town

Jimi Hendrix