John say, "no matter how dodgy these schools may be, they must be keeping most of their teachers happy most of the time."

Oh, my, but this is such a dangerous and untrue assumption! Tunnel vision is such an ugly and crippling disease!

I've worked in plenty of places in China where every single teacher, from the DoS to the newest arrival, was extremely disgruntled and itching to get out. And no, these were not a bunch of lame whiny-butts...in most cases their unhappiness was quite justified.

These people stayed where they were not because they were reasonably satisfied with their situation, but for other reasons. Some took a while to find a job that wasn't obviously even worse. Some had spouses and other SOs that limited their mobility. Some hated the school management with a passion but cared about the students so much that they were reluctant to move on.

And, of course, many schools here operate on the "Here's the deal; if you don't like it there's plenty more where you came from!" basis. The doors on these schools revolve constantly...some leave, others come in. If they can't keep enough teachers in the stable, they often respond by increasing the hours of the teachers that are left...sometimes without an increase in pay. (I've seen this happen!)

The number of foreigners coming here has exploded in recent years and we are not the pampered, coveted rarity we once were. There are now so many foreigners here that schools don't have to be careful to keep one. Of course, the fact that many of these foreigners are fresh off the plane and don't really know what they're getting into is just fine with the schools.

So, please don't buy the "most of us are happy enough" line. It ain't necessarily so.