Well this letter is long overdue, the reason for the delay is that I had to sort myself out and wait for the devils from this establishment to finally pay me. This school is located in Shanghai in the Putuo District. Whatever you do please avoid this place at all costs.

1) First off they are NOT authorized to hire foreign teachers, what they will do is take your passport and give you an F visa.

2) The boss is a Taiwanese named Phoebe who calls herself a professor. She claims that she earned her PH D in America but was only over there for two years. So you do the math......... There is also no evidence of this and when you ask her for some proof she will tell you that it is none of your business to see her papers.

3) She claims to be able to teach English using the NNA (Native Nature Approach) She states that by these methods that Chinese children will speak English like it is their mother tongue. I worked for her for almost 6 months and I never once met a kid there who could speak English. Half of them when you asked them "What's your name?" or "How are you today?" would get this glazed over look in their eyes and stare into space.

4) I was hired to teach in this school and thought that is what I would be doing but instead she had me writing books for her. Phoebe loves to brag about how she writes all of her own material but in reality she gets foreigners to write the stuff, takes it and puts her name on it. Deceitful to say the least.......

5) She will provide a house for you but in my case it was filthy and difficult to live in. The other foreign teachers fared a bit better as their house was much nicer than mine. My house was on the first floor and was so damp and wet that there was mold on the walls and the heater barely worked. When I spoke to her about this I was told basically it was my own problem. She also makes you pay for your own utilities which would normally be okay if you had a decent heating system. Unfortunately to stay remotely warm in the winter you had to run the heaters 24 hours a day and this resulted in hefty heating bills.

6) Another problem with this school is her lack of respect for people. She figures people have no life and wants you to revolve yours around her joke of a school. She is barely there and when she finally rolls on up to the school it is usually at the end of the day when it is time for you to go home. She loves to drag you into her office to discuss her methods of teaching English and will keep you there until well after 6pm in some instances.

7) Her teaching hours are also really crazy as well. She had me coming to her school at 7:30am in the morning to stand at the front and say good morning to all of her students. Most of the students at this school are 2-4 years of age and can't be bothered if you are standing there or not. It was the same after school one of us would have to stand there and say goodbye to them as well. All of the foreign teachers there were fed up with doing this as some of these kids would kick, spit and hit us. While this was going on Phoebe would usually stand there and say nothing. Never once did she help any of us out when it came to being abused by the students.

8) This school also employs a woman by the name of Dr Penny....this woman is a piece of work. She is supposed to be the school doctor but again she has no credentials to verify this. I became very irate when after a physical exam she was given my papers and told me that I had a liver ailment. She came to this conclusion because of my blood test. Nobody at the hospital told me this, only her. I finally told Phoebe that this woman is not a doctor and has no business making this kind of diagnosis. When I asked to see her credentials I was met with "why do you need to see that?" Not only was this woman supposed to be the school doctor but Phoebe also put her in charge of the weekend English classes at the school. This would have been fine except that she doesn't speak a word of English or Mandarin. She is basically only fluent in the Shanghai dialect. This made communicating with her very difficult to say the least.

9) It is the law in China that you get the May and October holiday off. Whether it is 3 days or a week everyone gets this. However in Outstanding you are not given this time off. Phoebe uses this time to have you give lectures to the teachers about how to teach English. She writes up all the stuff and has you present it. Nobody gets a holiday and she is supposed to pay you double time or triple time for working this holiday but she never does.

10) Another key point that I feel needs to be addressed is the fact that Outstanding runs 365 days a year therefore there is no summer vacation. She will tell you that she gives 2 weeks holidays but when you ask for them she always has an excuse as to why you cannot take them. Her idea of holidays is half a day here and one day there. She never let us take our holidays all at once. Since we are foreigners most of us would like to take this time to go home to see our friends and families. She will make this very difficult for you to do this. One of the teachers there who was from Australia was only allowed to take his holidays after his contract ended. When we tried to explain to her that that is not a holiday that is his time we were met with more of her excuses. Honestly talking to this woman is like talking to a brick wall.

There is so many other horror stories I have about working here but I am sure that many of you can understand where I am coming from. If you want to have a nice time in China and not be abused by a bully of a boss than find employment elsewhere. There are other schools in China that will respect you and look after you much better.

I would also like to add that this school is using the China Teaching Network to find teachers. So if any of you are dealing with them please ask them if this is the school they are sending you to. If it is than please say NO!! As I mentioned earlier they are not authorized to hire foreigners.

In closing I would like to add that I am pretty sure in China a Pre-School cannot have a license to hire foreign teachers. This is what I have been told by a lawyer. Does anybody know if this is accurate?