Job Discussion Forums

[Lancy Bloom]

China is a great place for unqualified teachers. But have you ever run into one who is qualified.
Now as we are into personal stories my last job 6 months ago I was working in a special experimental middle school
They wanted me out. They told me that the Greek kid was a better teacher than me. He was waiting for his deploma from a college in England. He had the tatoos the and played Hangman in everyclass.
I have a good degree and references from good schools and have people who will vouch for my abilities in four countries.
I have seen this time and time in China. They take truck drivers out of work cooks, Taxi drivers and they teach English. I have yet to meet anyone from my university here teaching. I met many in Korea and Taiwan.
The story we are talking about says the same thing. Qualified EFL or ESL teachers don't work in China.
Don't attack me I am just tellling my experience. China is a good place for backpackers. The Chinese do not hire people to run their English Departments in Universities. Those positioins are held by members of the Communist Party and their positiosns are secured through the giving of gifts to appropriate people.
KOTESOL in Korea had monthly and yearly meetings attended by thousands of Japanese, Korea, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong English teachers. In the ten years I participated I never met anyone coming from China to participate.
The writer states the same thing. As a career move, coming to China to be a teacher of English is a step backward.

[DirtGuy]

Well, everyone is entitled to an opinion or two. Thanks for the tip on KOTESOL.

DG

[MisterButtkins]

The editor of the Middle Kingdom website seems to hate China and have this idea that there is no reason to work there.

I mean seriously, in the first paragraph:

[DirtGuy]

30 hours per week!! Oh, the horror, the horror. I can't wait to get up to 30 hours per week between school and privates. At that point, I estimate I could easily be sending back $2K per month to the States. 40 hours per week would be even better.

The guy who runs that site is some sort of head doctor. Maybe he should seek out some advice as to why he has such a chip on his shoulder about this country.

DG

[MisterButtkins]

[Non Sequitur]

Middle Kingdom Life is American in origin and its authors would be unaware of the long history of Commonwealth (Aust, NZ, Can and SA) young people taking off overseas after completing their degree or trade qual.
In the past, the main destination has been the UK but as the UK becomes more Euro-centric and a visa wall emerges, these people go to places like China and other Asian EFL destinations.
Part of the attraction of this 'overseas experience' (OE) is the adventure and roughing it. They will in time return home none the worse and in many instances a lot better for the experience.
Americans it seems expect a seamless transition from college to corporate and when that doesn't happen they feel affronted as they seek employment with the commies.
One result is to denigrate the host country as a kind of evening up strategy.
I always factor in a resentment element when I see something like MKL.

[Banner41]

[Non Sequitur]

Working alongside our American cousins over a few years in PRC, has given me an insight.
As DOS I had to sit in on a termination interview with the FAO and an American teacher.
Among other things he shouted that his country was the most powerful in the world and could take out China and my home country.
When he had finished he flounced out of the office leaving me to apologise (it was that foul) and to find a way to expedite his exit.
The next two older American teachers repeatedly breached a health quarantine that had been put in place because of an infection on campus.
The response to the question 'What if you take the infection into the downtown?' was 'who cares' and a shrug.
As for refusing to ask for help (so as to avoid an impression that they may not know it all) these two also misread the requirement for makeup class put in place to allow students to go home for 7 straight days.
They were sleeping off the prev night's binge when we finally woke them by which time the first 45 mins was just about up.
Even given the number of times I have done makeups in various schools I always swap notes with another teacher to make sure I understand the requirement.

[Banner41]

Congrats on having exit interviews with dumbasses....every country has them.

[DirtGuy]

B41,

That 20% of Americans having passports is a misleading number. Thanks to the frightened folk and gov. in the US, one now has to show a passport to go to Canada, Mexico, and (I think) the Virgin Islands. Prior to this asinine requirement, only a driver's license was needed. Many, many people now had to get passports. The number of what I would call "serious" travelers as a percentage of our population is still quite low. For as long as I can remember, the number I always heard was just 10% of the population had passports and probably many of the holders were business people.

Americans, for all their big talk and swaggering ways, can be very frightened and narrow minded people. Look at our previous president.

DG

[JamesD]

[Banner41]

[Non Sequitur]

[wonderingjoesmith]

Too late to stop the eggs flying.

I see no difference in numbers of drunk Brits vs Americans.

"Realistic or negative"? I'd say realisticly negative or the other way around, and it doesn't take much time to figure that out.

Workload or salaries may not be the point.

There are many bias people around the world. When it comes to business, most will see their own points.

[Non Sequitur]

It's more the day to day attitudes, but that said one of the worst things I have seen was a Brit teacher who decided to rename all of her students (sophomore English majors).
She awarded the names on the basis of cartoon characters.
You can guess who became Donald - yeah the kid with the tuft of hair and a big mouth.
He was mortified, particularly as he had taken the name of an English author whom he admired.