Job Discussion Forums

[Minhang Oz]

Gentle readers
I fear MW is toying with you. His description of a week in the life of an FE is a fantasy,designed to drive you crazy with jealousy. And it worked. I'd love to play cards with some of you guys. Or "youse" as we say correctly in Australia. I think maybe his satire is too subtle for those of you brought up on sterner stuff......wrestling grizzlies, slitting commies throats etc. If I'm wrong, my name isn't Minhang Oz [actually its not, but what the hell.]

[Hamish]

With apologies, and attribution of the initial text to MW, it takes little modification of MW�s account to describe our situation. It is no joke.

Our 3rd Tier College President, along with the Party Secretary, invite us to dinner. We discuss such things as educational philosophy, improving our educational quality etc. Mainly shop talk. We are asked for opinions and suggestions. We are also asked for progress reports on our students and the innovations we have been allowed to implement. Yes, rightly or wrongly, We are treated as a Foreign EXPERTS and we have been allowed to make many serious changes in curriculum, texts, pedagogy etc.

We are invited to lunch by my school head, my department head, and various staff, including our driver.

Our housing is large and newly redecorated at a cost of 70,000 rmb. The apartment, gas, cable, and electricity are provided. We have a new computer, in addition to our own Mac G4/933/scanner/ wide format color printer, and pay for our own ADSL. We have a phone in our living room, bedroom, one of our bathrooms, and in our apartment office. We also have a huge porch that my wife uses for drying clothes and growing plants.

A modern kitchen fills the balcony on the opposite side of the apartment. We have spent several thousand rmb setting our place up in the way we want it. We bought an Italian stove (with an oven) for 8,500 rmb and some leather furniture for 5,000. We put in an enclosed shower that cost 4,200 rmb (We were afraid that we might slip on the wet floor). Other additions have cost us substantial money as well.

I won�t tell you how much we make as the college has asked us not to discuss it. It is enough.

We do not have a phone in our large air conditioned office at school, but we do have four large new desks and another Mac G3 with all the bells and whistles I brought from the US and gave to the college.

We each teach 14 hours per week with all afternoons and Saturday and Sunday off. We are both free to work at other campuses where we are paid 200 rmb per hour, and given transportation in a nice black VW Santana each way.

We have a good working relationship and friendship with our students and fellow staff.

As I read all of the FE complaints about China, I am reminded of something President Kennedy once said: �Ask not what your Country can do for you - but ask what you can do for your Country.�

That is our attitude as we approach our work here and it has earned us the same degree of respect that we show our Chinese counterparts and partners in education. That is right, we are partners.

The above is entirely accurate. Please accept that. If it differs dramatically from your circumstances, I am interested in how and why they are different.

Sallie and I are having a great time in China and are amazed at how many people are not.

I wish we could help.

Regards,

[J.D.]

I am new and sometimes a little slow on the uptake, but are you kidding?

[Hamish]

No. I am telling it like it actually is.

I'll email you photos of the apartment if you'd like.

regards,

[Anne-Marie Gregory]

Hamish,

I'm MW's colleague. Any chance I can come and work with you instead?

[J.D.]

Anne-Marie where do you and MW work? And I ask, I believe for everyone here, is MW really the arrogant jerk portrayed here?
How do you work with someone like that?

[chastenosferatu]

Hear Hear JD, that IS the burning question... how do you work with or even just in the vicinity of someone who knows how unimportant YOU are??

[Hamish]

I am in no sense an agent, and accept no fees, but I will take almost anybody's resume to the man's desk.

Regards.

[chinasyndrome]

[quote="Anne-Marie Gregory"]