"Teachers at universities are always better trained and more experienced than those at places like EF and Linguaphone."

True. For example at Shi Da University in Fuzhou, where ANY non-Chinese who is studying the Chinese course there is asked to teach English TO ENGLISH MAJORS!!!! So, there are now 18 yr old Russians, French Cameroonians and Nigerians (here for business) without even a degree in their own country and a little more than rudimentary grasp of the mechanics of English, teaching at tertiary level to MAJORS in English.

This proves your point entirely.

You all know in China that a white face is in itself a teaching qualification. This disease is not confined to Universities by any means, training schools and other state schools are just as guilty. This is a big problem for those of us who take our jobs seriously. These clowns are undermining us and doing a disservice to all dedicated and serious teachers in China. Those of you who seem intent on criticising chain schools at any cost are really failing to examine the wider picture - I'd back my staff against those of most universities any day of the week. At least here, we have a supportive environment, teaching workshops to make up our shortcomings and the constant supervision of an experienced academic manager and senior teacher. In addition a solid curriculum and a library of supplementary material can assist new or inexperienced teachers to grow as professionals.

Let's all please get over our snobbery about what type of school we work in. We are all in the same boat here in China, more or less, and this competitive and unnecessarily critical rhetoric doesn't really help anyone. In fact if I were a new teacher thinking of coming to China and reading these message boards, I don't know if I'd be tempted to come. So can't we have a more positive, encouraging exchange of ideas amongst us please guys?