I've been in China for 2 years and worked with some difficult people, but i've never posted their details on this website on the basis that, even if i did, somebody would still go and work there. However, i did a few days of a summer camp for a company and school whose details i have decided to provide because they really were Grade A shysters. When you work for a guy that quite happily calls himself Dick without any trace of irony, then you know that you are dealing with quality people. Basically, If you are a native speaker with any pride in yourself and your work then do not work for either. Here's why:

1) Location
The course was located in a dump called Qiaotou (about 1 hour from Dongguan). The nearest shops were a 15 minute walk away up a dirt track and there was no other entertainment for foreign teachers that i saw apart from a table tennis table. The food was indescribably bad.

2) Organistion:
The course orientation involved an afternoon of throwing eggs out of a window wrapped in straws and paper, to attempt to prevent them from breaking. Our introduction to the students was a poor man's version of the Eurovision song contest, with a Chinese version of Terry Wogan compering. We were stuck on a stage with a load of flashing lights with music blaring out and asked to perform like chimpanzees. Things rapidly went downhill from there. I was the only person in the classroom that had a copy of the coursebook that i was supposed to be using with the students, and most of them didn't even have pens! Consequently, i was having to make up all the teaching myself with very little to guide me. The highlight though was being told by the course director, after i complained to him about the farcical organisation:
"teach them anything, even a,b,c, it doesn't matter".
According to my contract, i was only supposed to work for 5 hours a day but on most days i was doing up to 8 hours. The course director had disappeared by the third day of the course!.

3) Chinese teachers:
The Chinese teachers who were supposed to be our helpers weren't even being paid for the course (!!!), as they were employees of the school. Consequently, they were about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. I was teaching 13 year old's - some of whom couldn't even say "what's your name" - but my co-teacher refused to do any translation for me, explaining this bizarre attitude in her broken English, thus:
"you must them make understand you with your hands".
One teacher also refused to do any translation and justified this in the daily waste of time of a meeting by saying that he thought this was the best way to help the students!!!

I was dismissed/left this company without even being told directly (i overheard one of the many Filipino teachers on the course telephoning one of her mates, to invite her in from Hong Kong to replace me). The reason used to get me to leave: an argument with a Chinese teacher about a student who i had asked the day before to have removed from my class because his English was non-existent. The idiot assistant of the course director then claimed that i had tried to hit/grab her head (i couldn't understand fully due to his splendid use of the English language), despite the fact that he had not even witnessed the incident and the girl was walking around perfectly happily without a mark on her. I know this is China, the land of ridiculous stories about foreigners, but this one really was too much. After my dismissal, i was dumped at the nearest coach station, where i was left to find my own way home.

This lot are a complete bunch of cowboys who are about as qualified to run an English training camp as i am to perform open heart surgery. As the situation stood when i left, i was only going to get paid 4000 for working mostly 8 hour days (3 hours per day in excess of that stated in the contract) for 2 weeks, with no days off.

Steer clear.

Philip