Job Discussion Forums

[kungfuman]

I was offered a contract at this school in Suzhou and I have found nothing about it.

At first I thought it was for Suzhou University but then I realized it was a Canadian sub-school. The recruiter says it is a great school because Suzhou University is a great school but I have doubts.

Can someone give input?

[kungfuman]

No help? The recruiter said they have many foreign teachers there so surely someone can answer

[7969]

Why not ask the recruiter to find out and give you a few names and email addresses so you can speak to those people?

[Brian Hugh]

It is easier for people living outside of China to respond to querries about schools than it is for people living here to talk about places where we work. There should be more effort by people who have returned to their native lands to report to this site about experiences.

[Mister Al]

Nice school. If you do your job well you should have no problems.

[kungfuman]

^ Can you tell me do you work there now or have you worked there in the past?

[kungfuman]

So far my requests to get info from current teachers has been ignored.

[DosEquisX]

[chinatoon]

Back in 2008 I applied for a job using agent "Maggie Mei" aka "Shan Zhang". I then accepted a job at Lasalle Suzhou's centre in Ningbo. Here's my experience.

1. Zhang Yiqiao in Suzhou never gave me a straight answer as to when I would start.

2. I arrived 5th September 2008 only to find I wouldn't be paid until November because I had no classes.

3. I negotiated half salary for September. As soon as this happened my probation was reduced from three months to three weeks because "it was a short-term".

4. Nancy Hu, the only person who spoke English kept on relaying threats of deductions and firings from Zhang Wen who was bent as a ten bob bit. David Wang, Zhang Wen's henchman, bullied me and threatened me at every opportunity.

5. The school messed up getting my visa. I'd told them my previous visa had only 3 weeks, as soon as I accepted the job and was assured it wouldn't be a problem. However nobody did anything about the visa and then claimed it "took longer than expected to get the insurance" so they couldn't get my foreign expert certificate on time. This was a convenient excuse to let my visa run out and get me an F visa. After a month I was sent to Suzhou to get another F visa.


6.The following week I was let go for no obvious reason other than "I didn't do as good a job" as the other teacher and students complained, though were blatantly encouraged to by Zhang Wen, his right-hand man David Wang and the messenger Nancy. Of course the replacement they brought in was on a lower salary.

7. I lost my airfare because I was "terminated".

8. "Maggie Mei" set me up with another cowboy school where I was illegally let go in less than 3 months.

Long story short, anything with either Lasalle or "Maggie Mei" must be AVOIDED LIKE THE PLAGUE.

[hdwhatley]

I interviewed here in the spring of 2012. I worked with a recruiter named Maggie. The school had me come from Tianjin to Suzhou to give a mock lecture. The "lecture" turned out to be me giving a PPT presentation on my tablet to the manager of foreign teachers for less than five minutes. After the "lecture", she asked me how I would deal with students sleeping and talking in class and other discipline problems. Also, she kept leaving the interview to take phone calls. She then asked me when I was returning to Tianjin and if I had time to go to Shanghai the following morning with her boss on a recruiting mission. I had not even signed a contract and they were trying to use me as a white monkey for recruiting new students. Like most 2 + 2 programs in China with Canadian colleges, the students are usually from rich families and lack both motivation and ability. Also, they never reimbursed me for the train ticket nor provided money for the taxi to and from the station.Think twice before teaching here.