I wish to respond to the rantings of Mr. Evashuk regarding his experiences with the Huamei Group in Guangzhou.

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I run a licensed foreign program on the Huamei School campus, and as such I am employed by the Huamei Group.

It appears Mr Evashuk had a problem with his contract and accommodation. In the near 24 months that I have been employed on the Huamei School campus, I have employed no less than 12 teachers most of whom have come from abroad to teach in our program. None of them have experienced contractual or accommodation problems. The reason for this is simple. All of the teachers I employed did their homework before committing to an overseas employment contract. I wonder how much (if any) due diligence Mr. Evashuk conducted prior to him accepting his employment contract.

Mr. Evashuk defames executives of the Huamei Group in his posting without any evidence. Hearsay, is a powerful motive in Mr. Evashuk's ranting. The most defamatory aspect of Mr. Evashuk's ranting is that he demeans the English language teaching profession. I quote, "China is very foreign country and English teachers are for most of the part, cannon fodder." Ignoring (with extreme difficulty) Mr. Evahuk's generalization, has he bothered to ask existing teachers, especially those teaching English on the Huamei School campus, whether they are "cannon fodder?" Frankly, I doubt it. I suspect Mr. Evashuk would be alarmed at the (alternate) responses he may receive.

While I pity Mr. Evachuk's lack of thought and preparation in taking on his posting with the Huamei Group, I will applaud his courage for identifying himself in his blog posting. This is more than I can say for the cowards who have responded to Mr. Evachuk's blog posting and failed to identify themselves (admittedly, some did have the courage to identify themselves). I understand that it is not necessary to do so in the "blogosphere", however as any seasoned blogger will tell you, your blog posting is only as credible as its ability to identify its author.

To that end, I would like to remind the teaching profession to practice what they preach. If, as part of your profession, you set homework tasks for your students, then perhaps it is incubment on you to do some homework yourself. China is a culturally, legally, linguistically, and economically diverse nation and different from most parts of the Western world. Most of these differences can be overcome with a little bit of preparation.

Doctor, heal thyself...