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[MESL]

China-Australia High School, otherwise known as China-Australia College, a prep school for overseas bound students.


PROS:

99% of schools in China do not have AC/heat in the classroom; CAC does.

99% of schools in China do not have technology in the classroom; CAC does.

99% of apartments in China do not have 24/7 hot water; CAC apartments for foreign teachers do; electricity powered hot water heaters; no buttons, valves, or waiting, no one or two hour time window.

At Shengda College down the road, I gave final exams to 400 students; at CAC, I gave final exams to 10 students.

Most schools in China do not have separate offices for foreign teachers; until very recently, CAC did, with AC/heater, computer, and Internet.

A lot of schools assign evening classes to foreign teachers; CAC does not.

Many schools require a lot of paperwork; CAC does not.

Many teaching assignments in China require commuting to the school, walking to the other side of a large campus, or commuting to another campus; CAC classrooms are yards away from the offices and the dorm is a 2 minute stroll to the main building.

Free printing and copying.

No English Corner.

Private, furnished, spacious, safe apartments. Well, it used to be quiet. The plot next door is on the verge of construction.

Enormous common area with enough space for bikes, large suitcases, winter clothes, out of season appliances, books, etc.

Free food. Well, the vegetables and noodles are free. Meat, fruit, and drinks you pay for. Affordable steaks are often grilled on the spot.

Friendly, English speaking computer-audio-video technician.

Friendly, fluent, Chinese English teachers. Most of the other Chinese teachers, namely the younger ones, are also bilingual and friendly.

FAO with local pull.


CONS:

Frequent schedule changes.

Frequent weekend lessons, including Sundays.

10 day and 7 day marathons so the students can go home for 4 days in a row.

Rundown facilities.

Trashy classrooms.

Disgusting bathrooms. Beyond typical Asian disgusting. Swarming with flies disgusting. Staggaring stench disgusting. Littered with cigarette butts disgusting.

Frequent electrical blackouts.

Occasional water cutoff.

Poorly insulated apartments, no central heat, and no school provided heaters.

Group cooking facilities; no private cooking facilities except for a microwave.

Washing water is hard, which makes your clothes stiff.

Long lines in the dining hall.

No shopping bus.

Only one restaurant near the campus.

Highway 107 is under major construction.

Hooligans. Usually boys. You know, dyed red hair, low English, bad behavior

Remedial class. ESL-C. Mildly retarded.

Students arrive late, leave early, go in and out of the classroom without permission, sleep, play with their gadgets, chat with each other, interrupt their classmates during IELTS presentations, talk on their mobile phones, eat snacks, play with pets, knit, primp, romance their boyfriend/girlfriend, and just about anything else you can imagine that students shouldn�t do during a lesson.

Sociopathic principal. Fortunately the foreigners don�t deal with him often. But when they do, it�s pretty shocking.

[MESL]

Oh and they pay in cash. I've been burned by direct deposit in 3 countries. Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia. So I definitely prefer cash.

[fat_chris]

[fat_chris]

[johntpartee]

[kungfuman]

99% of all figures used in presentations are made up.

How do I know? I made it up.

[7969]

[roadwalker]

quote MESL:

"Most schools in China do not have separate offices for foreign teachers; until very recently, CAC did, with AC/heater, computer, and Internet. "

I've only had that once and once was enough. It felt like we were being sent to the foreign ghetto. (It didn't help that our office was adjoining (roughly partitioned) that of one of the administrators.) As far as I know, after a couple of times poking our noses in, none of the foreign teachers used the separate office. I thought they should have told us to stop going to the (Chinese) English teachers office if that is what they were after. Hard to know their intentions but it didn't sit well with me.

[twilothunder]

Although the 'statistics' are a bit stupid, this is a worthwhile and informative post and I thank the OP for it.

[MESL]

Clarification: The equipment is new and expensive, the buildings are old and unkept. The students are allowed to litter the classroom floor with appalling amounts of trash.