So you are completely OK with a western owned firm that knowingly and repeatedly installs schools in high risk
settings while taking absolutely no measures of any kind whatsoever to offset those risks?

I do not disagree about the conditions in many shopping malls and other environments in China CSS but as I have just pointed out the problem is China across the board. So what exactly are you saying? Because it sounds more like we should actually all be leaving China for other destinations based on the fact that they have a complete disregard for public safety.

I wager that half the modern buildings in China are substandard, have had a lot of the funds which were supposed to be used pocketed by someone and instead they have used substandard building materials and so on and so on. This is a country who is forever in the spotlight for things like this due to high level corruption. A country which sent an engineering team to a bridge which was beginning to fail and whose answer was to use glue to fill in the cracks!!!! The bridge collapsed soon after when a heavy goods vehicle was going over it.

Based on your reasoning for not working for Pearson you should also be saying that no one should be here teaching in China because it is a country which is forever doing the wrong thing an endangering peoples lives through a lax in safety. I nearly broke my hand once when I had it on the rail as I travelled up an escalator in a shopping center because the next floor ran too close to the actual hand rail and would have trapped it. No warnings an no attempt to resolve the problem, it is still the same to this day.

China is renowned for a range of serious issues concerning health and safety. Poor construction, poorly implemented or non existant fire regulations, tainted food produce and the means used to prepare and store it. The list goes on and on yet you, I and everyone else on this board have and sill continue to live and work here.

You talk about trying to offset risks then why not offset them yourself and go to another country instead?

As for talking about someone opening schools in a coal mine well now you are [deleted]

What makes WSI stand out? Well again this is just my opinion but the fact they have a unique curriculum for the students to work through as opposed to a few books which are incomplete sets thrown in a corner like some centers I have seen is one. The fact they don't hire each and every single westerner who walks through the door and set their standards a little higher like asking that the FT holds a CELTA or Trinity TEFL with a min of 120 hours and additionally provide their own training course prior to an FT commencing classes also stands out when compared to other centers. I cannot think of any other centers which do this, the ability to converse in even the simplest English seems to be enough for most centers I am aware of.

They use proven TEFL method teaching which is something that generally doesn't happen in China. For the most part TEFL method just does not work in China. They expect to be told everything and do very little themselves as a student. From what I have seen the students work very hard on the modules and then get to practice this with an FT who is expected to elicit the students and keep their talk time to a minimum.

One thing I want to know. You say you have a doctorate in Linguistics yet here you are on a regular basis discussing your experience in the low end of a de professionalized institution that is ESL in China. Why?? Why would you be settling for working in any of the environments available in ESL if you are so highly qualified. I am not questioning your credentials, just interested to know why you would bother with ESL. It's like a rocket scientist taking a job as a car mechanic to me.