Very interesting recruiting promotion, Mr. Barry. I also worked for a few "colleges" (I use the term loosely) in China. I agree with you that in most situations I worked in, I enjoyed the students tremendously. I noticed beyond the "wonderful people" factor that you tout, you conveniently failed to mention any details about the actual working environment(s). Yeah, you offered a positive post, but only because you told as few actual details as possible.

The Chinese "colleges" I worked in provided no office/work area for foreign teachers (only Chinese teachers had offices), and each and every classroom I taught in was on the top floor of the building -- always with aboslute no heat or air conditioning. That might have been OK except for the fact that the school "leaders" (those pocketing huge sums of cash from parents for their child to have foreign teacher) were usually napping in their heated and air-conditioned offices while I was either sweating profusely, or the students were shivering in their down coats.

Little or no teaching materials were ever provided, nor was any classroom equipment (outside of chalk). After all, providing such frills would have reduced the personal profits of these dedicated leaders. They pocketed on average, 30,000 RMB per student, per year (ten different groups of 40-50 students per class -- you do the math) while I was paid 6000RMB per month. Yeah, "wonderful" all right!

I also quite agree with Choatle's post regarding our repsonsibility (or lack of) toward promoting educational "institutions" in China (or Korea).

When employers want to start promoting FTs who have endured tough and often unreasonable (and outrageous) working conditions and have managed to remain dedicated to the progress of their students, then I might consider recommending one of their "colleges."