I would disagree with that, schools with foreign managers tend to be far better. If the manager has been there for a few years you at least know that they have some kind of stability as foreign DOS's tend to float around a bit. The additional benefit is that you have someone with at least some sway who understands what it is like to work as a foreign teacher.

Having a foreign manager is kind of a standard that schools bear to show that they hold foreign teachers in some kind of regard as well as that they can afford to do so. Look at all the crappy 1 on 1 schools, how many foreign managers are there? From my experience none. This holds true for many of the fly by night operations in Jian Wai Soho and other areas.

Yes, there is a limit on what it signifies and a lot depends on the individual DOS but I would say that having one definitely raises my trust levels when dealing with a school.

The funny thing is that I find the reverse to be true when it is foreign owned. If it is a smaller school owned by a foreigner, things tend to be pretty tough as small school owners generally don't have the capital to pay higher wages and let teachers take liberties (as many of these school owners used to be teachers who scraped enough together to start their business). Even the medium to large foreign owned schools can be pretty shady - Berlitz, YBM(Korean), The Language Key.

I was not talking about the abilities of every foreign DoS individually as they are just as hit and miss as teachers can be. What I mean is a school who hires a foreign DoS shows a few things about their company:

FDoS are more expensive which means the company tends to be more financially viable and less likely to go bankrupt at the drop of a hat.

I have never heard of a company with an FDoS decide not to pay its' teachers for no reason. Any foreigner who allowed that would be ostracized and get the crap kicked out of him regularly on nights out.

You need to view the industry as whole to understand what I mean from the ground up. The order may vary a little so if anyone disagrees please offer your view. This is how I view schools in terms of their quality (AVERAGE - of course there are exceptions up and down)starting with the lowest.

Note: Quality refers to treating teachers fairly, salaries, general trustworthiness and security.

Agencies - Shifty, unfair, no security, low requirements

International Schools (Assuming foreign run) - Great Pay, Great benefits, easy work. Never hear anything bad about these places, though they generally bring teachers directly from schools in the west.

Now, if we look at what point FDoS start to appear. Agencies NO. One on Ones NO. Kindergartens NO. Small Training Centers NO(Maybe 1 in 25). Its not till you hit Universities (Maybe 1 in 10) and finally larger training centers, corporate and international schools that FDoS start to become the norm.

Its not that the FDoS will inevitably make a school good, in fact I know many who kind of suck at their jobs, but even having one just tells you a a lot about the school's mentality.

My first DoS back in the day was perpetually stoned. Always. Constantly. I ended up running the damn place while the guy got the fat salary. That said, the company itself paid well, the owner actually respected well performing teachers and I eventually replaced the guy. (Not before he tried to sell me an once before one of classes in front of a student. Sigh)

My point is that from the bottom up, there are a lot of things that can go wrong, and when I look for work I tend to gravitate to places that have a Foreign Director of Studies.