To any teachers out there who are contacted by Eton British English Academy in Bayuquan, Yingkou City, China regarding a job, avoid it like the plague!

Myself and a colleague had a horrific experience at this school with the manager/owner Nana (Na Wen) Firstly giving us wrong information to get us there under false pretences, then when we arrived treating not only us, but all the staff like dirt. She threatened and tried to blackmail myself and my colleague when we tried to leave and ultimately forced us to leave the country with very short notice and not paying salary which was due. She threatened that she would report us to the police, saying we had received our salary fraudulently unless we paid her back the money we had received since beginning the contract (6 months before).

She is very convincing and capable of making a good first impression, she will make plenty of promises about what she will do for you and fill you with high expectations but don't fall for it. Luckily myself and my colleague had lived in China for a few years before working at this school so we were capable of getting around and providing for ourselves. But if we didn't have this knowledge, we would have been left to try and fend completely for ourselves. Which in this small town if you have no Chinese speaking ability life would be very difficult.

We were very lucky to have good people in our lives (not related to the school) to help us get out of this situation. But others may not be so lucky. As we were leaving she hired another teacher from America and sent him packing before he even got to teach a class because she didn't like the way he looked. Not before she got him to reimburse her for hotel costs for the few days he was there.

I strongly recommend if you are contacted by Nana, then don't entertain the offer. There are plenty of honest and genuine school owners in China, and we had good experiences at a number of schools prior to this.

Good luck!