Job Discussion Forums

pandasteak · Joined: 01 Apr 2004 Posts: 166

just wondering about how all you university teachers manage with regard to nightlife...

wanted to know what the standard or average policy towards foreign teachers is, on a campus that usually locks it gates for its students.
thanks!

NateM · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

My campus doesn't lock the gates, (at least at any time that I've tried to come in at). However, all the students have to be in their dorms by 10:30. Given that we're about a half-hour taxi-ride from the city, and there isn't much else to do on campus that doesn't shut down when the students do, that usually, (but not always), means we're in by then, too.

ChinaEFLteacher · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 104 Location: China

we live on campus but have no rules governing our lifestyle for the most part. they have no business telling any adult teacher when they can come and go, or any other intrusion into our private lives. having heard about other teachers and their living predicaments, i feel happy about mine except my apartment could be a bit bigger. no self-respecting teacher should accept curfews or other infringements on your freedom. the only good reason for the curfew would be that you're living in a dangerous place, and then why would you be there in the first place?

Ace · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

How can you endure living on campus with that awful music? I wouldn't ever consider it again...

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

I have a curfew, of sorts.

The school gates school at 11. I live on campus, and was told that it was expected I be inside before then. Last term (my first here) they even went so far as to tell me I wasn't allowed to stay elsewhere, and that I couldn't have anyone spend the night!

Not that the latter has been an issue, really. But I get around the former in various ways. Usually spending the night with a friend (a foreigner lucky enough not to have to pass through any locked gates on campus). Or by banging on the gate until the guard wakes up, if absolutely necessary. But I have been wary of doing that ever since one of the new guards refuses to smile at me following my previous 4 am wake - up call.

nolefan · Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1458 Location: on the run

My wife and I live on campus (no music) and we don't really worry about a curfue. The school gates close around 10:30 P.M but we can usually wake the guards up to let us in whenever we want. We do try to be mindful and jump over the darn thing whenever we stay out past 1 A.M (which doesn't happen much in Tangshan).

a funny fact is that I had to jump over the fence to get out of the school this past saturday because a friend of mine was due at the train station around 5 A.M.

Old Dog · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 564 Location: China

Here - with plenty of money for security:
a. Front gate locked at 10 p.m.
b. Inner gate locked 9.30 p.m.
c. Our building locked about 9.30 but we have a key, however,
d. Movement sensor security switched on - meaning two carloads of police arrive within minutes if we venture off our flat floors after sensors switched on. Someone might be after our virtue!
e. All perimeter fences have electronic security - so there's no jumping walls.
f. No crocodiles in the moat but the putrid water would kill.
g. One guard likes a drop and so is sometimes dead to the world. Stood at my window one night and watched for an hour as someone knocked, thumped, belted and then threw rocks at the back gate to wake the guard - with no response. Don't know what the poor unfortunate did. But it was summer so sleeping in the adjacent field could have been OK.

Long ai gu · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 135

The school I work for tried to impose an 11:00 curfew on me. I had this changed in the contract before signing it. They told me it was dangerous to be out after 11:00 and that I would be beaten. At this reply I flipped out "nobody beats me!", and got my message across. China is the safest country I've been in, much safer than my own country. Curfews are to keep you in line with the Communist way of going to bed at 11:00 and waking up at 6:00 and eating lunch at 12:00 then napping after lunch til 2:00 then eating supper at 6:00 etc. They want you to be good little soldiers like they want their own people to be. I didn't see my first year students til October, but I could hear them every morning at 6:00--yee, er, san, s, they were taking military training--what does military training have to do with education? - good little soldiers--do what you're told and keep your mouth shut, Chinese way? Communist way. As a foreigner you have more power here than you think. I've tested the waters with my school, the police and other oppressing facets of life in China. Don't be afraid to fight back if you think you are being controlled, unless you are cool about being controlled--I'm not. Give me freedom or give me death....

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

ChinaEFLteacher · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 104 Location: China

and again the antwrp has shown the weakness of someone's arguement. where would we be without his great insight into the workings of the universe. i feel blessed to have such counsel. we'll all rest well at night knowing someone can be sure to correct us if we stray.
by the way, although they are technically responsible for our welfare, how far will you let them go to 'protect' you. huh? some of us are less willing than others to conform our lives to someone's ideas of 'protection'.

Old Dog · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 564 Location: China

I omitted reference to the "mall-type" surveillance cameras in every classroom and school yard. It's all the result of a superfluity of funds.

But there's no need for alarm. This is China and it's all for surface effect. After the first month, no one bothered with the things. I take it they work since huge sums go into maintenance of everything. But the cameras' pictures can be received on any TV set within the complex, spliced somehow into our cable TV system and the only things they now reveal are a view of the main "morning exercise" area between two of the teaching buildings and, just occasionally, a view of the empty theatre. For the first month, we had rolling views of successive classrooms - but now no more.

As for the excessive concern to protect our virtue, it's no worry to us really. The NZ lady and I are of a certain age or more and unlikely to inflame passion. But the arrangement is such that if I (3rd floor) should wish to make an assault upon the virtue of the NZ lady (2nd floor), there is no movement sensor in those two areas to bring two car loads of Gong An to protect her.

In any case, this is China and no one has realized that if one climbs the tree beside the first floor side door awning, one can climb (if so inclined, that is) on to the roof of the awning, enter the building via a second floor window, steal either the virtue of the NZ lady or, even, at a pinch, mine, and the movement sensors would be none the wiser. But such an intruder would have had to by-pass steel gates, perimeter electronic security, shark-infested waters, and the ubiquitous Chinese person who is always awake and who sees everything. Such an assault would have to be an inside job.

Don't know, of course, how long they'll keep hot-blooded youth at some future point in their ft history.

ContemporaryDog · Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 1477 Location: Wuhan, China

As I've mentioned numerous times on here, we had a curfew in my first term here. Luckily the gate wasn't very high, it was piss-easy to climb over. Which we did - we had no choice. How on earth can they expect a young, single male to be in by 11pm on a Friday? it would be sort of OK if it was like England and there was a culture of going to the pub at about 8pm and coming home at 11. But most of the clubs and bars are a long taxi ride away and don't get going til about 11.30. On weekdays we had to be in by 10.30. The 11pm on fridays and saturdays was their idea of a'compromise'.

Luckily, some of the new people who came along at the end of that first term (one of the teachers did a midnight run cos she was so angry about the rules, which also included compulsory sitting around doing nothing in the office all day) were the kind of people who are very good at negotiating - they basically sorted the rules out, and got the school to give us a key to the gate.

I'll say one thing, and that's that I never, ever would have stayed on here if there had still been the curfew. Ironically after they dropped it I had met Mrs CD and now I tend to stay in much more than I used to - but its still wrong, sometimes I like to pop out to the street stalls near the school, which are much more buzzing and vibrant later in the evening.

Old Dog - I don't understand how you put up with that. I would only do so were I in a place with absolutely nothing to do outside in the evenings. I get claustrophobic and being locked into my own house would freak me out. Even when we had the curfew here we could still wander the school grounds, and go jogging on the track etc.

Old Dog · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 564 Location: China

Well, actually, there is nothing to do outside at night. But the NZ lady and I are not totally passive. We now take the view that "What the hell if the cops come". Eventually, the cops will grow tired of the stupidity of the system - so if she and I kick our heels up and get in beyond 10 (after pounding on guard gate windows, that is), we try to alert our Mr Lu that we've come in late and to advise the cops accordingly - but he's usually out to it. So we just have to run the risk of the arrival of the two carloads.

There is the nuisance element, of course. Sometimes, in summer, about 11 p.m., I think that it would be nice to walk in the yard since the place is nicely landscaped - but then I think of the cop cars and stay indoors.

A by-pass switch is all that would be needed. I used to head an organization that was prodigiously well-alarmed, to no effect I might add. With my key, I could turn the system on and off as I needed without the risk of setting off panic in a control room in the city. But that refinement has not arrived here yet.

ContemporaryDog · Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 1477 Location: Wuhan, China

If it was me, I would definitely push for this to change. IMO if you are going to another country to work, it should be a fun experience! Not a concentration camp! After all, its not as if, usually, we are being paid especially well in China. We are here to enjoy the country.

I could handle such conditions if I was in say Saudi and was just there for a year to earn some serious bucks.

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

Do you all know what an ad hominem argument is? I only ask because there is one idiot, who shall remain nameless, who seems intent on letting that stand for any kind of intelligent discourse.

Oh, very well, it's ChinaEFLTeacher. So you agree with me that it's understandable for schools to want to monitor your whereabouts, huh? But you couldn't resist the personal attack anyway.

I know, who doesn't hate being proven wrong? You seem to enjoy punishment, so I'll give you more. Because although I should resist, I'll respond to this pitiful parting shot of yours: