I have to say I feel both surprised and shocked that my comments and comments made by friends and co-workers of mine have come under scrutiny and ridiculous critism. I have read through the entirety of the comments posted in this thread and for a while there I almost believed some of the posts, despite them seeming to extreme to be true. But as the posts go on, it is easy to see the claims against the school just get more and more absurd.

After reading them all, I simply posted my experiences up that were a true and acurate reflection of how I feel about the time working at the school. I also made my mate who was teaching with me last time I was over here aware of this site and when he posted his experience on this board, his honest comments also came up against ridicule.

I have to honestly say this whole thing comes across as a huge load of BS. Assumptions, rumours and a load of rubbish that doesnt make any sense at all. The people (or person posting under several names) putting stuff up on this site are clearly teacher(s) who have been let go by the school for one reason or another (probably because they turned up late or not at all) and are trying to get some sort of revenge.

Firstly adressing Silverfish and Theo's comments about the TAs. I dont care at all if you need TAs or not to teach your lessons or control classes. If you dont use them at all I think its great that you have that ability and confidense. In fact I have taught at both public schools and training centres in China and I have usually taught without a TA. Of course if a TA wants to get involved in the lesson thats fine with me too. I welcome the ideas they have. After all, they are the ones marking the student's work and exams, so they will know the areas that need improving, and have a good idea of the students level.

But lets get away from you and me shall we? Lets talk about the majority of people teaching in China. Most people teaching English in China have come over here without a Teaching Degree (I know you have one Mr Silverfish, however you must admit most English tutors/teachers in China never stepped foot in a classroom before they came to China). To be honest I dont think you need a teaching degree to teach in China, after all the FT's job is to work on speaking and pronunciation. Encouraging the students to speak and thinking up creative ways to practise the new language learned in class are the roles of the FT as the TA teaches the grammar and chinese meanings. This is something I think anyone with passion and imagination can do. In fact for a FT to have a teaching degree and be working in China would leave them feeling bored as their skills would not be needed, and perhaps even jealous as anyone with half a brain can get the job working as a language teacher despite not having their teaching qualifications (although a TEFL certificate is recommended as a bare minimum)

Back to the TA's...those new to teaching in China appreciate the help and support given by the TA's who give ideas and help new teachers through the first lessons. Controlling a large class of kids who dont speak english well is a challenge no matter who you are. Now I have experiece I can deal with this, however when everything is new, a Chinese teacher/TA in the room makes a huge difference.

Like I said before, the TA's at New Century take an active role if you ask them to, but for most of my classes they sit at the back marking papers. I think there would be more disgrutled posters if there were no TAs at NC to be honest.

And now to address Silverfisher's 'I bet you won't' comment asking for the schools whereabouts and pictures. There are 3 New Century branches in Dalian, the main one being on Shenyang Road near Olympic Square. The 2nd one is one I've never been to or seen, and the 3rd one is on the 6th floor of Chunliu Supermarket. newcen2000@hotmail.com is the school's email. They can be ontacted on 0411-83679836. Amy is in charge of handling FTs and Dawei is the school's leader. I dont have Dawei's ph or address, and even if I did I wouldnt post it here, as anyone can see this would be an invasion of privacy. I'll post up photos of the place I'm staying in courtesy of NCES when I get round to cleaning it up, if that will make you happy.

Theo, if you are serious about coming around to see if I am real, simply ask for the Australian FT who worked with Hayden at the 3rd school a few years ago. I can guarantee I will appear, without the aid of management, and would be happy to have a chat provided I have no class on.

The school wasnt about to close then, and isnt about to close now. Last time I was there I was working about 8hours on Sat, 7 on Sun and 2.5 on Wed at a local primary school. I was getting 5000 a month + the apartment. Hayden worked a couple of hours less than I did.

The salary deal has changed since then, 6000yuan (per month) is the bar amount and like I said in a previous post they give you 2000yuan (per month) toward rent assistance. The rent in the school's two bedroom apartment is 1600pm and they give me the difference of 400yuan with my pay each month. I am working over the bar amount now and usually get about 6500 yuan after things like tax, electricity, gas and rent are taken out automatically of my pay. For that sum I worked 67 hours over the month. I had 2 days off each week.

New Century is a fine school. There is nothing wrong with it at all. Im done wasting my time on this site, I'm begining to feel like a broken record. I've said all I want to say, make up your own mind about what you want to believe, and remember you will never know what its like until you actually teach there.