I don't see any advice worth following from this person. Psychology is a soft science my friend, and for a good reason. You sound more like a self help book than anything else. While your words sound rosy and sweet, in truth they don't reflect the reality of life. You also speak of people you actually don't know, so your making statements based upon nothing.

As for not having the same cushy life as we do back home. Come on, often we have it as good or better because of our high salaries relatively speaking. However that's just money. It doesn't speak to the often poor treatment, lies, corruption, or poor business practices we often must endure. Also, for each one of us who has it good, some poor fellow has a toilet that doesn't work, no hot water, and cockroaches the size of an NFL linebacker.

Before you portray those of us who portray the "reality" for a majority of FT over here as pansies, better get your facts straight. You are one of the lucky few who has not had too much of a terrible nature happen to him. Do you honestly think that makes you the majority, or just lucky?

I would say my picture is pretty true. Almost zero standards for real education, no idea how to educate, corruption, greediness so bad that it destroys any chance of education. Lie's, deceit, intimidation quite often, bribes, too much quanxi for the school, not enough if any for the teacher, disrespect by our Chinese peers. No, I think I paint a pretty accurate picture.

While this is not always the case, I would say that 80% of the time it is from my experience. Those few who come on here and have experienced a lot of bad things and yack yack about how it ain't a big deal are idiots. Their choosing to ignore systemic sickness in their job, and counseling others to do the same. Not everyone ascribes to the school of stoicism though, we don't all just want to sit back, relax, and tell the fellow who's torturing us that if he bends our leg anymore it will break, than when it does simply say "See, I told you it would break." Forgive me if I don't feel like being that stoic.

Also it is irresponsible to just ignore it or "suck it up" since this mertely emboldens the school to treat other teachers who come after with less regard. Basically, those people who just "suck it up" really make it worse for the rest of us.

The truth is that the reality over here is as follows. A lot of corruption, no real idea how to educate people. Too many private English training schools, too little understanding of western style teaching techniques. Add in the fact that so many Chinese collegues suffer from envy because they know what we make, and it can make for a not so good situation.

That's not to say that people don't find good jobs all the time, where they are treated well, but believe me when I tell you, that's not the majority.

And as I and others have said before, we are not here to market or "sell" any schools. If their doing their job well we have no need to talk about them.

Were not here because we hate China or dislike Chinese at all. Were not anti China. Were anti bad business and corruption. Were pro teachers, and we basically want to educate people on the reality they could be in for. It does come in varying degrees as well, I can put up with a fair amount of ignorance and disrespect from other Chinese teachers, and call it a decent job. Were all different, and we all have different tolerances. That's why we come here, to this forum, to give an opinion on what seems acceptable to an FT. Now your tolerance may be different, but I and others don't account for that. We just lay everything on the table and you decide if it's acceptable or not. That you have a higher tolerance for crap is good, but don't call us anti Chinese or embittered because we simply lay things out in a stark way without taking such into account. After all, everyone is different.

The truth is, if you want an unbiased view of China, you won't get one. We all live here, and work here in one form of another. If you want to learn about the realities, use your brain and do other research. Certainly don't take my words as gospel, but don't dismiss them out of hand either. Do be careful about listening to the people who will tell you were not representing the reality of how things are over here. That just runs smack dab in the face of common sense. In truth were portraying things just as they are. It's just that others have been here for so long they have become uncaring and blind to much of it, and in I have as well, at least when on the job. However this doesn't mean I don't want to warn others, not everyone has my tolerance for BS either.

If you want to come here to teach, keep all this in mind. Corruption, lies, deceit, business above education all the time. If you can live with these things, than you will maybe have an OK stay. However if these things cause the school and staff at your school to make your life hard, you might not be so happy. Do your research, and use your gut.

In the end, research is your best friend, and I say again, were not here to give free cudo's to schools, they have ad departments for that. The day they start giving free cudos to us on their own special teachers forums, that will be the day I start advertising for them. Until then, bye.