Well I left a review on here awhile ago but don't see it in this thread. The below will be a bit of a ramble to put it mildly.

I did work at this school for a short time and live in the city even longer. The city is not that bad, however IEN was one of worse schools I worked at. Now I have heard through the grapevine that certain personnel changes have been made in the past 6 months. However like any school in China you should always ask for an interview and see the place. I left because you are not a teacher or educator in any sense of the word. Students who you fail get passed, there are no standards, and at the time I was reprimanded for not accepting students homework that they cheated on even though I could prove they cheated. Also all they cared about was I take attendance. The school does hire a dorm monitor that goes to students rooms to make sure they are in class, most the students cheat. I probably only had about 3 percent, out of about 300, of my students who did the homework, reading assignments, and actually came to class prepared on topics that were given to them. While I was there it was more of being a babysitter. If the students complain to the Chinese management about you, you will be asked to change you teaching methodology to one of playing songs they can sing to. Doesn't matter if you know current second-language acquisition teaching methodology only that the students are happy enough not to complain. Also they like to say they pay more but with all the classes, office hours, and weekly meeting, it works out to less. The teaching material you are given is subpar meaning just usually speaking aim and nothing on listening, reading, writing, grammar, or pronunciation aims/goals. The only saving grace was the coworkers. I do not mean the 'western' manager who was a tool and completely incompetent but made it into the local paper a few times and even an award for his teaching. They showed him in the local newspaper giving away money for students who answered correctly. Also told us(teachers) about how he would have the students play darts and put money on the board. That should give you an idea of the standards there. Also I remember in one meeting we were told to not let the students smoke in the bathroom, remember this is a university, and Chinese bathrooms, and the Chinese teachers also smoked in there. Oh YEAH! Also in winter when it gets dark early they don't have the lights in hallway, how about them apples. Its like only the classrooms would have lights which you need to turn off after you are done because you are suppose to lock up. I would turn them on in the stairway daily but the lights in the hallway would be turned off, like the light switches wouldn't work. At the time all they required from us was to do powerpoint presentations.

By far the best school in the area is FAFU (nongda) where you will have better students and license to actually create effective lesson plans, however they are one of the lowest paying schools in the area. There you can play tennis, basketball, table tennis, badminton, and they have martial arts clubs. Coworkers are also really nice but pay less than 100rmb for a teaching hour which is the norm which means you will make less if you do any lesson planning, homework/test grading, meetings, or any other teaching responsibilities.

My synopsis though is if I a guy I know who is working as the new head guy now I would definitely say check it out.

This will probably give me away to anybody who worked there the same time I did but for one winter they asked all of us Foreign Teachers to dance for the Chinese management for a dinner we were going to have together and even practice the dance. I refused outright on grounds of it being unprofessional and later on more teachers refused and then dinner itself was cancelled. I said if the Chinese management wants to dance with us then I will but to ask us who are suppose to be working professionals to dance for superiors at a work dinner was absurd.

Also I liked the city, but the biggest thing is to learn Chinese that will help so much.