Sunbo School, Shenyang

Does anyone know anything about this place?  The DOS reckons he averages 18300 RMB a month for a 40 hour week, which is pretty good money even if it's a lot of teaching.

I can find out very little about them on the web.  Yeah, it's a hell of a lot of teaching and only do-able under certain conditions (like in WS English for example where most preparation is already done for you).  I know lots of teachers around China and have been here a few years but no-one's ever heard of the place, so I thought I'd ask here.
One ad mentions that you get a lovely apartment (for 4000, ha ha!). Another (old) ad says you just have to teach the students to talk for 3 minutes on some topic: that sounds like IELTS stuff but there's a whole lot more to IELTS than the speaking test.

I'll steer clear unless someone here can advise me otherwise.

40 hours is fine if they mean office hours plus some lower amount of teaching. I teach 20 hours a week this semester and it is stressful and difficult to get planning and grading done. I agree with Ben-Dan that 40 teaching hours a week I'd go out of my flippin mind. But if you're talking to the DOS, I doubt he's teaching 40 hours a week, otherwise where would he find the time to do his DOS type stuff?

The only exception I can think of would maybe be kindergarten teaching where you're the lead teacher maintaining a presence in the classroom but not teaching set lessons broken up into period blocks. For regular English teaching, especially language center type teaching, I'd definitly stay away from any place that asked you to teach 40 lessons a week. And even if you were the type of person to agree to teaching 40 lessons a week, 18000 a month is not nearly enough, imo.

I was talking to the DOS but that talk was what prompted me to look for more information.
It's actual teaching hours, not office hours.
Nah...  not for me!

Woof...40 hours! As others indicated, that's a helluva lot, and I'd only consider it under very special circumstances.

I don't know this school, but I do know Shenyang. Not the worst place you could go by far, but not fabulous either. There is something of an expat community there...in addition to us Professional Wankers , a number of countries maintain Consulates there. However, winters there are unbelievably cold, and the air gets really filthy from all the soft-coal smoke.

The best city in Liaoning Province is Dalian...a much more vibrant and happenin' place, and its coastal location both moderates the temperatures and clears the air. However, it's also a hotbed of notoriously dodgy private schools- especially the vile and horrible AES/Aston/Future schools   so I'd recommend only considering university jobs there.

Thanks for the info, Duke.
I'm going to pass on Shenyang.  I've never been to NE China and I've got some kind of death wish to see a northern winter here but maybe I'll be sensible and confine myself to a visit to the Harbin Ice Festival.
I'm not averse to cold but I am averse to dirty-air-cold.

This is the kind of cold I like (Xinjiang):

Apologies for replying to myself but I just found out all I need to know from the DOS himself whose email I quote here in full but anonymised.  His rant is based, evidently, on his reading of my initial request for information here at Raoul's.  I'd say steer clear - he sounds slightly unstable to me!
"Just a quick word ,to set the record stright , in my last email to you I gave you my back ground , just to let you know what kind of person could do this job ,we are Not ! looking for Oxford Dons , just freindly people ,who can be interesting and funny ,their is No class preparation  No grading or office hours, NO Semesters ,this stuff is for you so called professional teachers ,now no body says you have to work 40 hours a week ,thats up to you ,we pay 100 rmb per 50 min hour  ,most teachers work 3 hours in the afternoon take a 1 and a half hour break ,then 3 hours in the evening ,and 3-4 hours one day of the week end ,now if this is too much for your academic buddys at Roeul  then so be it  [ what kind of a name is roeul any way... Mexican ] ,we dont need that short any way , and  buy the way how much do you make per month , every thing I have told you is verifable , if any of these know it alls wants to challenge me on any thing I have told you please give them my contact numbers 1********* email you have ,so before these experts comment on some thing they dont know shit about ,they should know the facts ,20 hours a week is for lazy bastards that think to highly of them selfs , no matter what they have to do ,now you want to look for an excuse not to work thats up to you   ,the feller who said that Shenyang has dirty air is full of shit ,that was 20 years ago , but yes it gets cold in the winter ,so you just stay in the south and collect your 6000 a month ,by the way did you tell them you can't fucking add up   No I didn't think so , I have been straight with you ,so before you go running around telling tales and half truths , take a look in the mirror and ask your self ,who are you and what do you want out of life ,dont worry pal your in no danger of getting a job here Thank you for your interest" 

That's awesome. This week has really brought out the training school nutjobs, hasn't it? My favorite part is where he calls Raoul a dirty Mexican. This guy is a DOS! Classic.

"Fear and Loathing" obviously isn't as widely read as it should be!

Dude, he asked you to give us the contact number.

He did, but I suspect that he wasn't entirely compos mentis when he emailed me, and I'm not sure of the ethics of this....

I'm not convinced he's the DOS either.  My guess is he's been asked by the Chinese management to find teachers.  Someone in the city will surely have more information.

(good judgement, Paul. To be fair, if you had just posted the contact info as part of your post, RD might very well have edited it out, and changed namename at placeplace dot com to youdontwanttotalktome at donteventhinkaboutit dot com. Or whatever. If you really want to pass it on, you can send it to RD in a PM, and keep it off the radar. sorry for the digression, I'm probably preaching etiquette to Miss Manners, but thought it wouldn't hurt to throw this in)
Yes, this looks like the guy was half cut at the time. If it was directed at me personally, I would be inclined to just let it go. One more flackwit I don't want to put up with. If he were to come to me for a job some time, he'd have to have a pretty good interview.

His rant is based, evidently, on his reading of my initial request for information here at Raoul's.  I'd say steer clear - he sounds slightly unstable to me!
"Jwe pay 100 rmb per 50 min hour  ,most teachers work 3 hours in the afternoon take a 1 and a half hour break ,then 3 hours in the evening ,and 3-4 hours one day of the week end ,

So the teachers work six hours a day, six days a week. Since there are "no semesters", the teachers probably only get three weeks of vacation per year (unpaid). All that for ¥100/hr. I'd skip it.

Well, I worked there for 2 years on an 80-hour contract. It's actually sad to see the alleged DoS get his knickers in a twist.
For the base 80 hours, you got 7,500RMB plus 1,500RMB apartment, 500RMB travel and 500RMB for turning up on time to your classes. (Many of the guys would rather forego that and turn up a late and a little hung-over!) 10,000RMB wasn’t bad.
What this idiot was trying to say is that there are *no* lesson plans as they taught Cutting Edge and New Headway with their “teach by numbers” teacher’s books. So, you can just waltz into class as it starts, entertain the young adults, and leave. Of course you could, as I did, actually teach.
Problems? I was never paid late, worked overtime and pulled in about 15,00 to 16,000 a month (22,000pcm during a long summer vacation period – 9:00am to 9:pm – 9X50 minute lessons a day.  )
It’s f**king cold in winter, but good clothing and warm bars took care of that. Too hot in summer. Polluted – 10th worst in the world as of 2004. (Apparently cleaning up, but my 2009 photos still show pollution.)
The westerners’ nightlife was always good.   Can’t say much about the school from personal experience now, as I moved to Suzhou in Jan 2010, but I know people who still work there and say it hasn’t changed. You can be a walking billboard who turns up and entertains the natives, or a teacher who will be liked and respected. The school doesn’t have much choice as Shenyang is not on the radar for most people, and getting true native speakers to go there is a bind as the school is actually the largest in the city.
Would I go there again? If I hadn’t just secured a good job here, I’d go for the money, the nightlife and, the clear skies after the wind has blown. I met some good friends there, local and foreign. If anyone is interested, I’m sure I can get a few emails from people still there to give you the lowdown – but not that rambling DoS who can’t string a good email together. Still, he was right – it’s not for “Oxford Dons”. More for drunken reprobates   and people who just want to turn up, work, and go home.

Mexican? Me?
Wrong, actually- they spell it "Raul"- but I have no problem with being suspected of Mexicanity.
But I agree entirely that I have no idea what kind of name "Roeul" is. Hell, I have no idea how to even pronounce it.

I simply adore responses like the one that DOS sent. You can almost see the flecks of foam from around the guy's mouth spotting the computer monitor. That is one desperate and pathetic MoFo. I actually feel kinda sorry for him.

Why, he makes me seem sane by comparison.
Especially when he claims Shenyang's air is clean and has been for 20 years.

Kudos, Paul, for your artful dodging of what looks to be a pretty serious bullet.