Here is why you might need an agency: HARDLY ANYONE IN CHINA SPEAKS OR UNDERSTANDS ENGLISH.

So pray tell, HOW do I contact these employer schools directly????? Call them on the phone?? From Canada? I worked and taught in China 4 years, and I had trouble with my own Human Resources liaison at a top 10 university! Do ya follow...? THEY CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU. And doing it over a phone is way, way more difficult. Ever try that in China?

Okay, so let's say you email them. Wait, first you have to find the schools you want. So here's how I'm doing it- - I went to the list of Top 100 Chinese Uni. I chose some according to geography and warmth and ranking. Now you have to find their website and get a contact email. EVER DONE THIS?? It is a nightmare, I've spend days on this. Even top schools have crappy English websites that don't work. THEN, there is no email, certainly not one for Personnel, not that you can find.

BUT let's say you do find some, which I did, a few. So now you blindly send your stuff to them. (I'm laughing like crazy now....thinking of the Chinese lowly employee, which is most, seeing this English resume and what is he/she going to do with it -- this isn't the West, there's no moral obligation. They'd likely dump it somewhere. It's all so comical, imagining this, if you've been to China you'll know -- it's called APATHY.) So do you really think this clerk is going to run to their boss with this great discovery - 'HEY it's a great EFL teacher ! How rare! Look, look...'

Super funny... But to continue. Let's say you actually make contact, and they want you. Now you have to make a contract with them !! You better hope their English skills are impeccable because getting visas and expert cards and housing and neg. hours and utilities and air ticket, etc. etc. is going to be utterly wild. I get heart arrhythmia just thinking about it.

At best it's a shot in the dark, and takes a lot of work. And if you have few qualifications, like degrees and years of experience, then you are really screwed. I'm trying this because I do have a darn good resume, BUT INJECT SOME REALITY IN YOUR ADVICE, for pete's sake. You cannot just blanket statement to everyone - don't use recruiters. It's arrogant; it's Western ethnocentrism at its worst.

Let's all remember, we are not applying for a Western job in the West.

A good recruitment agency can be golden. The best is to have a former or present teacher at the school to recruit you and liaison the contract. Maybe that's what more of us should be doing before we take off, maybe we'd even get the recruiter's fee!

The bottom line is sometimes you have to trust someone, even a recruiter. Just make your decision as wisely as possible. And please pardon my passion.