Dear all,

I am currently a FT at Jiangxi Modern College in Nanchang. I really don't mind being in Nanchang, which is a pretty boring place, but the classes are making me truely miserable. I'm teaching 18-21 year olds who have no interest in learning English and the good ones' English is very poor. I want to be a good teacher and to do good job but I feel that I can't communicate with them. I am learning Chinese but I don't want to rely on it too heavily in class. The school pretty much ignores everything I do. I have lost my temper with students ignoring me and thrown them out of my classes, but so far I have only gotten in trouble with the leaders for walking out of a class because the students couldn't count from 1 to 20 (they have been learning English for 6-7 years, and I was at a loss as to what to do). The hot water in my flat was broken, so they got an electrician in to sort it out. He was about to leave when I tested the boiler, and I got an electric shock. I called my waiban and it turns out that he didn't put the earth wire in, so I could have been killed. Their attitude was, 'It's fine'. People have mentioned Nanchang's 'backwards' attitude and I have to agree, and it makes living here very hard. I am seriously considering doing a runner in the middle of the night. I don't think I'm being unreasonable or over-reacting, I was under the impression that I was hired to teach oral English, not babysit adults. If anyone could provide any insight/advice for my situation, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.