Dear Turnoi,

I know that this is off-topic too,but I think it'll be of interest to many foreign teachers working in China.What is in quotation marks is a copy of an e-mail I sent to my recruiter,X,after being offered a teaching contract by a school in Y after arriving at Y and teaching for almost 2 weeks in Y.The school had initially offered me a job knowing full well that I have a long-term L visa because of my marriage to a Chinese national.There is another foreign teacher here who had also been duped by initially being shown a contract that was different from the actual one.He is not angry about it.By the way,he had 'converted' to a Z here in the provincial capital,Y, 6 months ago.But I'll be damned if I'll convert here given what has already happened in a relatively short space of time - probably won't be able to anyway.My wife heard that the school had been let down by an Australian who failed to arrive on the 1st of September.That's why they had to resort to me!Last but not least I e-mailed a copy of the e-mail below to the school waiban.Needless to say she has told me a pack of lies in an attempt to appease me!

"Dear X,
What is not so good is that:

a)the school's contract received by me from you did not contain the two parts detailing the probationary period of 60 days,and that 70% of my students should like my classes.
b)the contract via you was for 2 terms of teaching,but the one they offer me here is just for 1 term of teaching.

So the school has changed the terms and conditions of the contract which was originally offered to me through you,even though I agreed to teach 22 classes a week instead of the 18 on the original contract!

But I'm happier with a 1-term contract because:

a)Y will be very hot in summer,resulting in the buying of food,as indeed the teaching,being very tiring during the 2nd term.

b)my students are in big classes,which are more difficult to teach than small classes would be.

c)rather a lot of the students are non-English majors with very low levels of English.

I'll sign the contract despite it being clear that the school doesn't trust me.

Yours sincerely,

Foxy."