How do you deal with illegal and racist recruiters? What can be done to stop these unprofessional and money grabbing hoodlums. Its one big problem here in China.

I am a FAO and I do not discriminate against race or engage teachers based on their skin colour. One incident that had me seething is that a couple of recruiters, a British woman and an American guy came to see me. Like any other recruiters, they promised to find me good teachers for a fee (I will not mention their company's name nor fees - it's exorbitant). Incidentally, my three foreign teachers were with me at that time and I decided to include them as it gives them a chance to meet up with foreign pals. We went through their proposals, chatted for about half an hour. They even complemented my two foreign Chinese teachers about their excellent English- not knowing that they were foreigners.

They went through every detail and said that they will find me white teachers only. I simply asked them what is wrong with teachers from non-native speaking countries or Asian Chinese? The American guy replied that non-native speakers will not be as popular as whites and their English isnt as good or comprehensible as whites.

To this, my American teacher asked him to prove that Chinese teachers cant teach English. My two Chinese foreign teachers just sat there grinning and waiting to pounce on them. The British lady chipped in and said not local Chinese but foreign Chinese. This upset one of my Foreign Chinese and he said, Look here lady, you mean to say I cant teach and what I say is incomprehensible? The poor lady still didnt know that he is our foreign teacher; she said that she wasnt talking about him but about foreign Chinese. My foreign Chinese teacher told her I suggest you think carefully before you saying such things She was adamant but my other foreign Chinese teacher told her he didnt find her statement one bit amusing. Finally, she realized something was wrong. I told her that the two Chinese guys are my foreign teachers and they owe them an apology. They did so and I could see their face as red as a ripe tomato.

I have this to say, I do respect my two Chinese foreign teachers for keeping their cool throughout the discussion. They bear no grudges against both recruiters and went about their work as if nothing has happened. They are as good and popular as anyone. These three guys have been with us for more than 3 years now and we intend to keep them here for as long as they want. Our American teacher was put in a dilemma by that situation. He could not believe that a fellow American could do this sort of things in the world of teaching. Poor fellow, he kept apologizing to his two collegues but they told him to forget the incident as he has nothing to do with it. I am happy with them, my school is happy with them and most of all my students are happy with them. I aim to keep it that way. Why should I use recruiters when I have thousands of options over the internet? My apologies, I am not advertising for now and I hope I don't have to for years to come. At least I can save on recruiter's fees and pass those on to my foreign teachers in the form of salary and perks.