Breaking Your Contract in China: New Consequences for Pulling a “Midnight Run”

Mr. Benn, well I think it's impossible for anyone to say whether you made the right decision or not.  It sounds like you were miserable though and that doesn't make for a good teacher so I personally think you did make the right decision.  Like I said, I don't advocate quitting early but sometimes you simply have no choice.

Ya, I might be doing a "runner" or quitting during the New Year's break.  I have taught in many countries and this will be the first time.  I do feel some guilt but only for leaving my students.  The school I work for is terrible and I'm not going to stay and continue to be miserable.

Before coming here I tried to do as much research as I possibly could but there just some things you cannot account for.  The organization that hired me turned out to be nothing more than a glorified recruitment agency.  They hid the truth.  They hire teachers illegally on business visas and then let them go when it's convenient.  I'm not sure whether to blame the teachers for this or not.  These teachers are from countries like Holland, Spain and Russia, so I guess it's their fault for taking the risk?

I've had problems with no heating, no water and no Internet for days at a time.  You really can't foresee these type of problems before coming over.

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I've had problems with no heating, no water and no Internet for days at a time.

No water? That's just China, from my admittedly small experiential sample of two apartments over five years. I've been without water for two days at least twice. It might be more a problem of your neighbors renovating their apartments than your recruiter.

As for the rest, I don't know. I'm just glad I won't be one of the colleagues you leave in the lurch.

I work at a public school, so no colleagues that would suffer

Actually the water problem was for several days and was a municipal issue that affected many people in the neighborhood. 

My issue with my school is that they simply don't care about the foreign teachers where I work.  There are two of us here and we are an afterthought at best.  When talking to us, they treat me okay but the other foreign teacher they absolutely hate.  I honestly believe it has to do with the fact that they hate foreigners in general.  The last few teachers all quit and I guess that skewed their opinion of all foreigners.  Not really much I can do about that.

I have been told by many teachers here that what I am going through is normal.  I know teachers who have lived here for years and they told me they haven't made any real Chinese friends at all.  Moreover, they are all pretty much despised and hated at their schools too which makes me reconsider leaving.  If it's normal and just a cultural thing then I'm probably over-reacting.

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