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40w2000
Joined: 15 Apr 2015
Posts: 4
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 Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:11 pm Post subject: Beijing Huijia Private School Review |
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Up to date review of Beijing Huijia Private School. Too long to post the content here, but definitely worth a read if you are considering a job there.
https://beijinghuijiaprivateschoolreview.wordpress.com/ |
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thechangling
Joined: 11 Apr 2013
Posts: 276
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| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| Sounds like utter hell on so many differing levels and yet so many similarities are shared with my own college in Wuhan mostly pertaining to ruthless, insane management practices. |
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theoriginalprankster
Joined: 19 Mar 2012
Posts: 895
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| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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I'm heading to a school in Guangdong, in a small tourist town,near a beach, but still 90 minutes to Shenzhen.
Our apartments are off campus, but they also have a guest policy. I'm pretty happy to do my own thing, but if I happen to meet a lass that happens to become my girlfriend she WILL be staying over if I choose so. I'm 39 not 17.
I'm not going to have my lifestyle dictated to me by ANYONE, full stop.
Look forward to saving some money and getting out of SH, where I saved nothing. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 17
Location: Bucheon Korea
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jim_brava
Joined: 22 Mar 2010
Posts: 55
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| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, this post may have caused me to avoid making a big mistake.
I'd come pretty close to taking a position within a prefecture-level city (4.5 million, with 3.2 million urban), which, after a bit of research, seemed developed enough to be livable for a newbie foreigner with zero Chinese and a preference for large-ish cities.
Of course, a "city" in China encompasses a whole administrative region - perhaps with multiple urban centers - and this thread made me look for the exact location on Google maps.
Unfortunately, it turns out that this school is 10 kilometers from the closest urban center (0.4 million), which is itself a further 30 kilometers from the city's primary urban hub.
I'd made peace with being in a city of 3.2 million - which, let's face it, is quite small by China standards - but not being 40 kilometers from it.
Sure, my plan was to somewhat lie low and save some money for a few years, but not to that extent. Even the option to occasionally "jump on a train" to Shanghai or Qingdao looks unrealistic when getting to that mainline rail station will be a journey in itself. |
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22Yossarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Posts: 68
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| Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:49 am Post subject: |
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| For the first week the new teachers and I sat around waiting for staff from the previous year to return from vacation. We then sat around for another week waiting for students to arrive and classes to start. I came to learn that the school asking staff to return one or two weeks before students only to sit around doing nothing is a regular occurrence. |
Super common in China. Generally speaking the managment doesn't actually know what good teaching is, so they make very superficial judgements. My last school, which had an 8-5 work day, held it against you if you regularly left at 5. It is odd that they seem to find being so inefficient that one can't get his work done in a 9 hour day (with teaching loads capped at 20 hours a week) is considered a positive trait in an employee.
I generally found the foreign teachers who regularly stayed late to be the definition of mediocrity in action, they were not teaching high quality lessons. |
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22Yossarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Posts: 68
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| Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:04 am Post subject: |
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| The proliferation of Didi, a cab hailing app, has made escaping campus easier but the drivers always call rather than just follow their GPS and rarely speak English. Learning a bit of survival Chinese will help. Cab drivers can never find the gate because it isn’t well sign posted (despite the school being made aware of this). It’s almost impossible to spot the east gate at night unless you know where you’re going as its bathed in darkness. |
A bit of survival Chinese. First, immediatly after a driver accepts your ride, go to the messanger in Didi and select the first pre-written option. It basically translates to, my pick up point is accurate please follow the GPS. Normally, the driver will then select a prewriten option that basically translates to, okay, I will follow the GPS, please wait. I find that when I select that option, 70% of the time the driver does not call.
If the driver still calls, simply say "Ding wei, Chi fou, ding wei, ding wei" ding wei translates to GPS, and chi fou means driver. Usually at first they will try and ask a quesiton, but as you repeat ding wei in your foreign accent, they will realize that this is basically all the Chinese you know.
Finally, when the driver arrives to the pick up point, you will have 5 minutes to get to the pick up point. If you are not there immediatly the driver will usually call. If he calls, simply say "nei hao chi fou, wo ma sheng, ma sheng". Ma sheng literally translates to I am on the horse, but it really means I will be there soon. If you ignore the call, he may decide that you aren't there and drive away, and your didi rating will get dinged.
The problem is a creative driver can cause all of this to go sideways. I am unsure why Chinese drivers struggle to follow GPS instructions. I recently spent a month in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam and frequently used Uber. The drivers never called, rarely wrote anything in the in app messenger, and always turned up where they were supposed to.
My previous job in China, my school was a bit of a distance from the subway, and I would usually use a Didi to get to the subway. About once a week, the driver would drive clear passed the school and into the mountains. I'd watch him blow right by, and about 2 minutes later he would call me yelling. My Chinese was not good enough for that. |
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OhBudPowellWhereArtThou
Joined: 02 Jun 2015
Posts: 1168
Location: Since 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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I read the website and the OP's experiences and laughed. He may not realize it, but his survival skills are very good and he accepted the situation with perfect aplomb. His experiences aren't too uncommon, though I haven't had students students who were obscenely rich (that I know of, anyway). I've taught in the boonies as well, but I have been lucky. I can count the number of thoroughly apathetic students I've had on one hand. (Maybe on two hands and a couple of feet. Wait. One school is coming back to me. Scratch the previous numbers until I grow a few more appendages).
The feeling of isolation is common. Crummy and extraordinarily incompetent administrators aren't at all uncommon. (I'm being charitable in my choice of words so that I don't get booted from the board). Screwball FTs? There are fewer now than back when China was the Wild East and anyone with round eyes could score a job.
I've had worse accommodations. At one school, my "bed" was little more than a wooden lawn chair.
All I can say to the OP is bravo for your survival, good humor, and to wish you good luck in the future. I hope that you're considering spending a few more years in China. The FTs collective reputation and China need more like you!
Cheers! |
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wailing_imam
Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 580
Location: Malaya
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| Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| What you were experiencing is culture shock. Classic case. |
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22Yossarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Posts: 68
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| Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 11:59 am Post subject: |
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| wailing_imam wrote: |
| What you were experiencing is culture shock. Classic case. |
I think this is a bit dismissive. When I first came to China 4 years ago, I had culture shock, but I was in a city wiht things to do and was able to build a social life. My culture shock has moved onto culture annoyance.
The OP was just in a horrible situation. I think he could have been in a similar situation in his home country of being really isolated and not having an easy time getting anywhere, and terrible internet, and nothing but bad food around, and he would probably have been equally miserable. |
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getbehindthemule
Joined: 15 Oct 2015
Posts: 712
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 12:41 am Post subject: Re: Beijing Huijia Private School Review |
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I agree with Bud, we need more like you on here!
Very enjoyable read (good balanced review imo) and typical of many a position in the middle kingdom. I, like you, came here in part to escape boredom. 2 hrs outside of Sanlitun, seems very far out alright. You must have went through a fair amount on taxis! That's why I choose SH and made sure that I wasn't in the boondocks before I arrived. When I get older, I probably won't mind a quieter existence!
The accomodation provided by the school looked decent enough though to be fair, from the pics, albeit small.
As for the workload - 24 x 45min periods seems very tough going! I certainly wouldn't count it a 'relatively light workload' as you stated. You made a good point about the second year, with life becoming easier and less stressful. I really found this to be true in my life here.
One of your pros - 'no commute' - this for me is a bit of a deal breaker! I love to be able to roll out of bed and walk to work 
Being always paid on time, in full with a payrise annually is also good and not always the case here! |
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40w2000
Joined: 15 Apr 2015
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the positive comments about the blog. I'm glad some people are reading it. I do occasionally get emails from people who are considering working at Huijia or sending their kids to the school asking for my opinion or telling me flat out they decided against it after reading my posts.
I don't think I had culture shock while working there. I had lived in Asia for years before taking the job at Huijia. China isn't always the easiest place to live but I am still here. Changing jobs was the best move. I'm back in civilization now in a much better school with things to do and people to see all around me. That's how I like it.
Huijia was definitely a stepping stone that helped me move onto bigger and better things and for that I'm grateful.
The school could be great if the powers that be just treated their staff with a little more respect, tried to empathize a bit more with western staff and put long term gains ahead of short term profit. I hope it sorts itself out eventually for the sake of my friends still working there. And magically teleports the whole site to a better location. |
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thechangling
Joined: 11 Apr 2013
Posts: 276
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| Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| I read your blog totally and really enjoyed your honesty and analysis of that school. I would never work there on the basis of your review. |
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22Yossarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Posts: 68
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| Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| 40w2000 wrote: |
The school could be great if the powers that be just treated their staff with a little more respect, tried to empathize a bit more with western staff and put long term gains ahead of short term profit. I hope it sorts itself out eventually for the sake of my friends still working there. And magically teleports the whole site to a better location. |
I feel like this can be said for just about any bilingual school in China...
You see potential, there are good people who want ot teach there, but the leadership just gets in its own way. |
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Xie Lin
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
Posts: 731
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| Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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Good, balanced blog with useful info. Thanks for linking to it.
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