If you’re new to China’s ESL Industry, you can’t go wrong with Middle Kingdom Life. Well I mean, you can, but it’s a lot better than what’s out there. At least they’re trying to present a fair picture. It’s effort, and in this case, I give them an A for it.

Dave’s ESL Café Forums gets an F. Minus.

If you do take a look, you can safely take most of what you find there with a grain of salt. In fact, I’d personally say to take everything you find on those forums with a grain of salt because after enough time of lurking there, you will come to believe that by merely stepping outside you risk being impaled on a stake by a mob of kung fu trained, angry young nationalists.

“But what of the good stuff? It can’t all be bad. right!?”, I hear someone calling.

Yeah…but look at it like this: let’s say you have a mound of rhino shit. A big 60 ft pile. Of rhino shit. You know that somewhere inside there are a couple valuable diamonds. Would you be willing to sift through it with your bare hands just to find two diamonds? Especially when you know you can find those same diamonds elsewhere for free, clean and spotless?

I don’t remember who said “believe little of what you see, none of what you hear”, but it really applies to China ESL websites. As a good rule of thumb, question anyone who tells you that the city they want you to come teach in is a “real” Chinese city. Usually what they mean is that foreigners are scarce.

But foreigners like them are the norm. So, steer clear.