Hey there everybody, the school I work at right now is always searching for teachers (English, mostly), so I thought, why not post my honest impression of the university.

Shandong Foreign Language Vocational College (Shanwai) is a private, government-approved college in Rizhao, Shandong province. The Vocational part of the name will be dropped next year 'cause it's being upgraded to full College status. What this means is, the college is part of the Chinese university system, but doesn't rank to high in terms of prestige. Most students didn't store high in the University entrance exams, so this is a second-choice college. Motivation among students is pretty diverse, ranging from non-existent to extremely high. But every class has enough people with a adequate level of English, so communication is never a problem.

As for the thing that has struck me positively here is the Foreign Affairs Office, which has the nicest employees you can find. Before coming to China I red alot of horror stories in that regard, thankfully here it really feels like home. Some foreign teachers even work part time in the Office, which is certainly not the norm. I consider then friends foremost, and part of my motivation to write here comes from that. Contact among the foreigners differs, same goes for the Chinese teachers. I get along with my colleagues, but not everybody does. We have lots of nationalities here, as this school has English, French, German, Spanish, Korean and Japanese department.

The apartment building for the foreign teachers are pretty new and around 80 sqm, fully equipped with flat-screen TVs, kitchen, shower, etc., nothing to complain here, one Japanese teacher even says he never conspired another school for that reason.

16 teaching hours according to contract, if you don't teach English you will probably work less, not so with English though, since there are more classes you will fill out those 16 hours. In the English department, all that has to be tough is oral English, that differs though for the other languages, where teachers fill out a more rounded role.

The campus is pretty far out from the city itself, which is the one big negative. Takes some walk by foot and then the bus to the student part of town, and even more for the center, around 40 minutes. Supermarkets and shops are here, though, and there is no restriction in going out at night. Rizhao itself is a nice coastal city, has a beach and clean air, though not much in terms of nightlife or big sights. Foreigners hand around 2 or 3 places, and it doesn't take long to know everybody. There are some western exchange students at the other colleges, especially in summer.

Salary is 4.500 Yuan, so this will probably scare some people of. Add to that airfare and holiday allowance as well as free utitilies and the apartment. The school can and will arrange private teaching hours or at other institutions for the foreign teachers if they want, which have a standard rate of at least 150 yuan per hour.

All in all I can recommend the school for people who want a relaxed and honest environment. It's not a place to get rich though, and it will probably get boring after a while if you are a big-city kind of person. Still, its a nice place to teach, and Qingdao is not far and always reachable for the weekends.