Job Discussion Forums

[Peter]

The panic that SARS has caused is far worse than the actual disease.

From my little part here in Shenzhen my classroll has dropped back enourmously, a nice profitable business has suddenly become a lossmaker; we are closing down the rented premises and continue at home.
Why this is so I can hardly understand in terms of health, more likely that economic fears cause elimination of extras.
In a school in Baoan all classes have UV lights which are switched on to kill nasties. Does it work?
One Kindy doses children with a herbal concoction and switches the AC off and now I sweat a lot more.
Other schools have cut after school classes; I missed one Sunday gig.

This overreaction to SARS will effect our work as I believe that ESL is a luxury; a percieved benefit but when the s##t hits the fan, purses will close in favour of essentials

Anyway I am going home; two years earlier than planned. China was a better economic proposition than NZ, but SARS has shifted that.

I have no faith that Chinese authorities can contain this, China is too big with too many people, with too many incompetent officials who habitually fudge the truth, while the population in general will stampede on rumours of little value.

The Chinese government reacted due to international pressure, the locals were left out. We ARE dealing with them, it is our livelyhood.

If you hang in there, how long can you live on a reduced income?
And never mind the contract you signed for a year's employment, will it be kept?
e

[Hamish]

[kimo]

I hope you really are right, Peter, that SARS is just a lot of hoop la. In my neighborhood, though, there are a lot of sick people. Half of them do not know the source of their infections. (Probably a no brainer though - people here habitually cough all over each other, pick their noses after touching all sorts of surfaces, spit as we all know all over the place, and use public toilets which I believe are infection grounds from which to track home microbes).

Hamish, I hope you are right too about a quick in and quick, but I am not convinced.

EFL will not die in China, but nature always has a way of weeding out inefficiency. May the strong and good schools survive.

[Egas]

To echo Hamish and Kimo, hang in there. I wouldn't pull the plug just yet. But the short term picture doesn't look too good for business. Beijing is really suffering. SARS probably won't disappear too quickly. But if it was going to devastate the country, it would have done so by now.

As for people getting sick, I have noticed that my girlfriend and my Chinese firends have been complaining about all sorts of aliments since SARS came onto the scene. Everyone is in a stressed state (except for me of course!) and that anxiety means greater likelihood of illness (if you follow mind-body medicine).

The upside is that there are not too many folks coming to China now, so there may be less competition for jobs. Here in my school I just picked up a whole heap of extra work (and cash) because one of the teachers panicked and left.