To the Director of Studies from Walton,

First, it is very interesting to note that none of this information can be confirmed from the Walton web site -- another big warning to any foreign teacher considering this school, particularly this school, which has such a nefarious history.

According to the website, the Director of International Studies, or whatever, is a Frenchman from some obscure university that no one has ever heard of. And yet the poster claims that he was the regional vice-president of his union in the United States -- and how does a blue collar union worker suddenly become a skilled, experienced teacher?

Next, he admits what everyone has been saying and that is that the owners are Taiwanese, which while on its face value, may mean nothing to most readers but to those in China, they will know that the Taiwanese on the mainland, for the most part (at least Taiwanese businessmen) are the sharkiest of the sharky, so to speak.

Finally, all of these administrative changes to which he alludes are wonderful but are totally nonsubstantial. Under the current ownership, if you are employed by this school, your pay will still suffer at whim, your housing situation will be deplorable, you will have to shlep all over the greater Huadu / Guangzhou area for classes and you will often have to wait for teachers that are late so you will be running to classes (I mean for transportation purposes).

Of course, at least this Mr. Tangmo has changed the rude tone of his previous insulting posts and become more civilized -- but again -- remember a leopard never, ever changes its spots.

Additionally, Walton is so desperate for teachers that they work with the WORST agent in Guangzhou -- Jacky Wu at teachingd@163.com. Wu is the papa of all sharks in Guangzhou and he only takes on clients that are like him in manner and comportment.

To any inexperienced, "green", novice teacher or even an experienced, trained shark-handler, my advice remains the same : run as far away from this place as you can.

And finally, by Guangzhou standards, the pay is very, very, very low.