Job Discussion Forums

[MESL]

PROS:

Exceptionally high salary. Almost $8000 to start, 10% raises every year.

Near Hong Kong. 4 or 5 hours by bus from the campus. Less than 2 hours by express train from downtown Guangzhou. For those not familiar with the difference the mainland and Hong Kong, it�s a whole different world down there. Pretty much anything you can�t do or get here, you can do or get there.

3 free buses going to large supermarkets and back, 20 or 30 minutes away, every 2 hours.

School provided foreign teachers shopping bus going into Guangzhou every 2 weeks. Last semester on Saturday, this semester on Sunday.

City bus to the nearest suburb, Huadu. Every 20 to 30 minutes. 20 or 25 minute trip. Drops you off near the New Century Hotel, the Vanguard Supermarket, and the computer market.

1 hour from an international airport. Take the city bus to the New Century Hotel in Huadu. Take the shuttle from the New Century Hotel to the airport. Here�s another bonus with the Guangzhou airport: it�s connected to the subway system. And I don�t mean walking half a mile. It�s right downstairs from one of the terminals.

Small train station in the nearest suburb, Huadu. 30 minutes from the campus. For major destinations, you don�t have to go all the way into Guangzhou to get on or off.

Foreign supervisors as a cultural buffer between the foreign teachers and the Chinese management. I haven�t so much as been in the same room as the director of the Foreign Affairs Office or the director of the English Education Center except for the week I arrived.

Comparatively large foreign population. 80 foreign teachers. Most other colleges and universities in China have less than half a dozen.

Magick Caf�. A western restaurant that serves authentic American food in a relaxed, community atmosphere. The owner is one of the Pei Zheng foreign teachers. The head cook owned a caf� in New York. Large movie screen with movies every night. Open 7 nights a week and lunch on weekends. Frequent parties. A bit expensive, so don�t plan to go there every night.

Low student-teacher ratio. 15-20 student per class for non-English majors, 12 for English majors.

No writing classes.

Minimal paperwork.

Hands off management.

Super efficient housing staff.

Longer summer and winter breaks. Almost 2 months each.

Beautiful, immaculate campus.





CONS:

No summer pay.

February pay withheld til the end of the contract.

Larger lesson load. 20 lessons per week.

Evening classes. These evening classes mean split shifts. They also mean teaching art department students who have little English skill and even less interest.

No technology in the classroom.

No recreation room.

No English Corner room.

Harder to find translators than at other schools. Probably because you�re competing with a much larger number of foreigners.

Smallish apartments. Some apartments are larger. And there�s a couples compound. I�m referring to the campus housing. Some foreign teachers live in school housing across from the gate. I�ve never actually been in one of these apartments. I�ve heard horror stories about buses coming and going and construction trucks roaring by.

No restaurants on campus. Just dining halls. The gate is a 20 minute walk and back. The restaurant food isn�t terrible, but the general consensus among foreign teachers is that it leaves plenty to be desired. There are a few exceptions, namely places that serve decent western food, and again, with higher prices. There�s a teacher�s dining hall with food a bit higher quality than the student dining halls.

High menu price considering this is a rural area. On my last campus, a restaurant meal was 4 yuan. Here, more like 16. So unless you like to cook, meals dig into that high salary.

2 hours from urban life.

No nightlife, except for the Magick Caf�.

Devastating humidity. This far south, the heat is severe too. But it�s mostly the humidity that gets to you.

[rogerwilco]

[xjgirl]

exactly roger,
plus you have zero opportunity to work outside

[MESL]

That's 8000 RMB per month. Highest I've seen advertised for university jobs in China. Right, no freelancing opportunities. Add that to the negative list.

[MESL]

All the classrooms have movable chairs. Sounds like a minor thing, the lecture seating arrangement can get pretty frustrating. Try to have a lively classroom environment without the students interacting with each other and try to get students to interact with each other without facing each other.

[Miajiayou]

I used to hate not having moveable chairs, but the students are pretty used to it, and arrange themselves into groups of four, all facing each other, quickly.

I appreciate you taking the time to write the lists of pros and cons, that will be wonderful for someone considering the school. I wish something like this would pop up when I search for schools I'm curious about.

[bythebookie]

The 'cons' are enough to take a pass.

[roadwalker]

Yes, thanks for a good list of pros and cons. Not every school is heaven or hell. Most have some mix of positives and negatives that affect some more than others. And this is a school that hires a lot of foreign teachers so it is worth a separate thread.

[Gamecock]

I, too, think a post like this is great. Would love to see more objective posts like this about jobs in the future.

I looked at this school and didn't pursue further when I learned that it is really out in the boonies. 8000 is actually about average for universities in Guangzhou where the salaries are higher than most places in China (But this school has higher hours than average).

A majority of schools in GZ don't advertise online because they don't have to. 20 hours a week and split shifts (evenings)...egad. Not a great deal. Maybe if you are outside the province and want to get your foot in the door in Guangzhou...

[xjgirl]

80 foreign teachers?
Could be a serious con with the legendary stories of madness and mayhem
that come out of Peizheng on forums

[TexasHighway]

I would consider having 80 foreign teachers a serious con...sounds awful! Also I would consider "foreign supervisors as a cultural buffer between the foreign teachers and the Chinese management" a con. I certainly don't need any middleman to serve as a cultural buffer. I like to deal directly with the management myself. I do like the small class size though. This sounds like it might be a good introduction to teaching in China for a newbie but probably most old-timers would want to give it a pass.

[MESL]

The �I Need� shop stocks imported groceries. Plus fresh and frozen packaged meat, assorted cheese, alcohol, and more. Not as much variety as the imported groceries shops downtown, but more than enough to keep your taste buds very happy.

[MESL]

The wife of one the foreign teachers serves western style sandwiches. Plus breakfast. And she delivers to the 2 on campus dorms. The prices are about the same as the Magick Caf�. Since she�s on campus and the Magick Caf� if off campus, there�s no competition.

[MESL]

I showed the original pros/cons list to a couple of foreign teachers here and asked them if anything is missing. They told me that schools in rural areas don�t have bars near the campus. Pei Zheng has several, all of them a 5 minute walk from the campus. Not having a party bone in my body, this factor never occurred to me.

[MESL]

Now here�s a strange thing. Type Pei Zheng College into Google and you get this forum. Type Peizheng College into Google and you get the TEFL.net forum. Must be something to do with the metatags. I�ve never seen the name spelled Peizheng College on any school documents. The Google search for Peizheng brings only about 5000. The Google search for Pei Zheng brings about 130,000. And you don�t get both links on the same search. So in case it never occurs to someone to try both spellings:

http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2328