Well, as I admitted, it was my big mistake to not get him to specify on the contract. I didn't think of it for 2 reasons, 1--lack of experience, 2--was a little nervous just meeting the new boss and didn't want to create and negative feelings or feelings of distrust.

The part that was rough was simply how that boss wouldn't tell me what he was doing and I didn't even know if I would be able to work without the release letter. Also, from the school that I was talking to (and that was expecting me to come) told me that the management of ENLI told her on the phone that they were going to cancel my visa. They never mentioned that to me however. Had they canceled my visa and not told me about it, I am pretty sure it could have caused me big problems. So, to protect myself I just left China.

Another thing I should add, when I was talking to ENLI about leaving 1 week early so I could make it to the new school by the start of the new semester (by request of the new employer), Shawn said, "Sure, that's fine. Just write down your name, your passport #, and the date that you're leaving."

In later arguments with Shawn when I asked him for a release letter he said, "I don't need to give you a release letter because you decided to quit one week before your contract was up." Keep in mind, my lessons were finished and I'd been sitting at home with no income for a couple of weeks by that time. So, due to that I also expected him to come at me looking for a breach of contract penalty fee. He got me good on that one--he got me to quit the job without even realized that I was essentially writing proof that I left the job early, all under the mistaken idea that ENLI was doing me a favor. Shawn is a slick old fox, and a smooth talker. Shawn's an intelligent man and he's been in this game long enough to know what to do. He's tricky, so if you work there just lookout for situations like this. If you go there, do your job, make sure to get anything and everything in writing, then you should be okay. My situation turned bad after trying to file a complaint on the school with the Labor Bureau (lao dong ju) after realizing Shawn was conning me out of 3000 RMB. After doing that, ENLI came after me with a vengeance.

I'm not going to insult or trash talk anyone here, I just want to provide a heads up. On a positive note, I was making decent money at ENLI and had Saturdays and Sundays off every week. Just want to say, don't trust so easily like I did or you can get screwed and cheated very easily. There are plenty of other stories I know, but I'm only going to share mine. I don't need to talk them down. Their reputation in the Tianjin area is getting worse and worse.. not just amongst foreign teachers, but also among many schools and other businesses in the Greater Tianjin area.

Nathan

Nathan