Thank you so much for that email, Muncher. I have to ask, was the sender's initials E.M.?

I finished up on my 1 year contract as an FT with WSE in August in one of the Southern China cities. While no doubt it is a professional company to work for, and no worries about pay on time etc, the concerned raised so far are valid.

1. Image image image! We were visited every 1-2 months by 'the image guy' who was pendantic- down to ensuring we used 4 pins per paper on the wall in each corner, not 2 or 3! I was duly reminded of this one day when putting up the English Corner schedule. I too was actually reprimanded for wearing 'dressy sandals' in my training (only closed in shoes allowed) but of course, no dress code is given until you arrive. So AFTER you've done your year's clothes shopping at home!

2.And speaking of English Corners *shudder*.....I had 4-5 to prepare every week. And despte the service hour provided, there is no time for EC prep other than in your own time. So finish at 9pm, home at 10pm after an 8 hour day then have to pump out an English Corner for the next day. I was so over it!

3.During my year I too found discrepencies between the target language expected in an Encounter and what the students had studied. This last year I was told that HQ wanted to update the manuals so to bring any problems found to the SM. When I spoke to him about it, I was just told that it was already covered, perhaps I hadn't elicitied properly. These were quite advanced language skills that students had no warning about and were expected to pull it out of their rear ends during classes! I got to the point of rewriting the lesson plans for those units and avoiding the language altogether, therefore, having to sweep it under the carpet.

4.On the flip side, I did have to get 2 medicals done due to a mistake on my part back home. But WSE did reimburse me both medicals, with all receipts provided.

5. In March I got really sick with bronchitis. It was a challenge to get days off without feeling 'guilty' about taking time off. I did work for a couple of days in the early stages of it and it nearly killed me! Thankfully I had no issues with getting my treatment reimbursed. Though no sick days provided by the company, and only 60% pay IF you provide a medical certificate.

As someone said, sure, work for WSE if you badly need to save cash quickly. You work up to 6 days a week (and half days off don't count, let's face it, what can you really do up until 4pm when you have to get ready for work?), 2 consecutive days off if you are REALLY lucky and barely any holiday time. There simply IS no time to spend all your hard earned cash!