" Having seen your written ability showcased on this forum . . . ."

Hey, " The Corrector ", what you playin' at? There's much worse to pick holes in in terms of writin' full of grammatical and punctuation defects than the example you've deliberately chosen to blow our minds with. You've obviously a seperate agenda, one which it's not too hard to identify by the informed readers of this board. You can not succeed in pulling the wool over our eyes. you'd have to do a lot better'n that to stand any chance of acheiving your goal!

Mr Mcduff needs to put his handbag down and stop speaking ill about a marvellous establishment of language education. The school has recently undergone a significant restructuring of its management, this much is true, but it is far from inefficient. Infact its actually being run as smoothly as any comparative western organisations. The 'inexperienced' Director of Studies/ HR Director you refer to is actually a graduate in international commerce and has a sound grasp of business management, marketing and the general co-ordination of educational organisations. He has several years of ESL experience, with all age groups, and is a remarkably approachable authoirty figure.

Coupled with the experience and capablity of the other management staff, the man-management at York is superb. York is consistantly moving towards elite status in foreign language teaching. Unlike other establishments who operate in an informal, 'join us for your gap year' manner, York is a serious school for serious teachers. The pay and incentive schemes are more than competative. Not only is it the biggest and best institution of its kind in Fuzhou, it is efficient enough in its progression to go above and beyond its current vacinity.

The ownership is the cornerstone of York's success. Both the majority share holder and junior partners share an unmatched passion for ESL teaching and put the clients before making a quick return. You are certainly right about the staff. In my experience, the workforce at York are friendly, helpful and incredibly community spirited.

In sum, Claudius, you are obviously a bitter individual. Having seen your written ability showcased on this forum, it is more than reasonable to pressume that your teaching leaves a lot to be desired and therefore your own shortcomings ultimately played a substantial part in your departure from York.

Mark was the one who started the school there. He ran from EF, ripping them off, so I don't know how real he is. In fact, Mark [edited] has posted some fine stories about the EF Fuzhou to which he returned from York School. Hard to believe Mark, although I've seen him in action..teaching, observing classes and providing feedback on teachers. I can tell you that he was pretty straght forward, although bias against some. If you went out for a beer with him, he was great. I've seen the school as Mark has invited me, when I was with EF Fuzhou. York looked fine..teachers office great...in 2002. Honestly, I know Mark is [edited] and he wouldn't remember you after a couple years.

On the owners, I don't know who owns it now, but the ones that invested initially in, where some great locals. They were into some hospital equipment..import-export. They had the money, but they weren't into education much. One spoke English pretty well however.

Cheers and beers to York and the fine owners that I have got to know..they were fine fellas i'd have another beer with

I worked for York for a year and a half.
It's not the worst place in the world to work by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it's pretty decent. My current contract in a non-teaching job is coming to an unpleasant end shortly, and I intend to talk to York about the possibility of a half year contract.

Interestingly Grant is actually a real person, an Aussie, who no longer works in York and actually left Fuzhou for greener pastures. I've already texted him to find out if he wrote that, as he usually manages to keep his English a bit more coherent. If he didn't write it then I may have to retract some of my enthusiasm for the school, and if he did then I'll have to mock him most thoroughly at some length.

The staff (both Chinese and foreign English Teachers) co-operate effectively. I have been working for York for three months now I have had no issue. The have organized my working visa, provided me with secure accommodation.

The working hours are reasonable.

There I cant think of any negatives working in China, Fuzhou or York.

Currently it has an English DOS. Witch makes communicating about pay and contract issues easy.