Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

there were no classes at our middle school today, yet i only found out about it when i showed at my first class at 10:25. why can't these people bother to pass information on to me?

to be fair, i rarely go to my office, but only because it's too noisy there and my colleagues know that i do my preparatory work at home. but no phone call to pass on the information, either by showing up at one of my classes, or knocking on my door? (i live 250m from the office).

i've been in china for a year now, but these guys are amazing in their inability to say anything about anything. I still can't get a straight answer on when the last day of classes is so that i can book a ticket somewhere.

life goes on.......

[Old Dog]

As for ticket booking, I suggest you write a note saying, "I have booked my ticket to leave here for the winter holidays on ................. If this is a date that is inconvenient to the school, please advise me urgently." Then book your ticket.

I think ft's get little information because Chinese people don't ask for information themselves. Officials just fall into the habit of announcing at the last minute - and no one complains. People here are so accustomed to acting under instruction that they just wait to be told, "Your holidays start tomorrow." And this really doesn't matter. They're not doing anything anyway. Students here never know dates for anything. Their reply to my questions always is, "The teacher hasn't told us."

The 21st Century, as (yet again) one hopeful in our English-speaking competition told us the other day, will belong to China. That may well prove to be so - but, as yet, the claimants to ownership of the 21st century are not into booking international flights, into any other form of long-term planning or into individual decision-making.

I am always struck by the bovine acceptance of information starvation in otherwise intelligent people.

[7969]

you're right. long term planning is not part of chinese employment practices. i grew accustomed to it in my past work, but have now come to accept that it works differently here.

i will use your suggestion, book the ticket, leave a note and see what comes of it. thanks.

[roostasha]

Argh! The same thing happened to me on Saturday. In my case, not only did the Chinese teachers forget to tell me, but they also forgot to tell half of my students. I think someone is actually getting fired over this...

[Roger]

In point of fact - others have mentioned this before me - the schools do have an academic calendar, and their teachers ought to know when they have days or weeks off. It's just those bloody FTs that get informed the last; and often you have to accept a principal's fluctuating floods of new ideas of how to use you.

A way of overcoming such trouble might be by asking them to get a discounted or pre-holiday price ticket from your locale to a destination inland.
Remember during holidays ticket prices go up steeply. The Chinese have for decades been buying their holiday tickets through their danweis. Thus, the ordinary Chinese person has no idea of how much they needc to pay if they travel on their own, and they don't know how many days ahead they need booking. That's why the stations are so crowded most of the time.

[Newbs]

I reckon that most of what has been posted here is on the money, but there is another aspect to this lack of notification, that I'd like you to try on for size.

Based on observations of my colleagues here, and overseas Chinese in my homeland, knowledge is power. I feel that from an early age there is a subliminal message going on that if you know something, and someone else doesn't then you have power over that person. I'm not suggesting that this belief is unique to the Chinese but it does, in part, explain the lack of information handed out. There's also the issue of face, when you give that information to someone you are demonstrating your power, hence you have face. Conversely, as we've all observed, when you ask a Chinese a question to which they don't have the answer, rather than admit that they will simply reply "No."

By the way, I found out on Thursday that I had Friday off, and only then when I told my class that I would see them tomorrow.

[limits601]

Hello there

Im new to China. Goin on 3 months and i had the same thing happen to me. Here in Jiaxing, we had a little bit of snow fall and then the temps dropped so all the roads and pathways were ice so the school decided, since it was friday anyways, to cancel class and send everyone home. Well i got up early as usual and got ready and went to my class at 10am. As i open the door, the chinese english teacher lets me know that classes are cancelled.

I was totally thrilled to have all my classes cancelled but i mean, they could of just called me. I had to walk all the way to the school on this cold icy day but oh well. Im getting use to this "no passing along information unless in person" mentality. Ohh well, welcome to China :+)

[peggiescott]

Our final English department meeting for the term was last week and we (the teachers) were all given a schedule for next term. The dates of holidays and exams are all listed. And I've known for a couple of months what the last day is I'll be teaching. So far, no days off or weekend replacement classes have been a big surprise. (I can't say the same thing for meetings though, they seem to often be planned at the last minute). I have some complaints but, so far, being out of the loop isn't one of them.

I'd really like to work at a school in another part of China next year but when I read posts like this where it seems many people have the same (bad) experience I wonder how many good schools there are out there.

[amandabarrick]

What if you asked the school to provide you with a schedule of classes, times, days off, exam days, last day of class, etc... when negotiating the contract. That might be a great way of seeing if the school hiring you is organized and how they treat their teachers, keeping teachers informed of important dates and events. Perhaps you could stipulate in your contract that the school must provide you with a schedule before the beginning of each semester. I wonder if that would do any good though, because the schedule would most likely be subject to change or not followed at all.
AB

[Old Dog]

Sadly, the Chinese work to an old saying, "Change comes before planning" - so there's no compunction about changing anything that has been "planned". Hence, any schedule issued in response to a contractual demand would probably turn out to be pretty worthless. But you never know. It could be worth a try and if it turned out to be worthless, you'd be no worse off than you are now.

My task for today, trying to extract from the old fool when our last day of teaching will be this term. I should get something, possibly accurate, in pencil and in crabbed hand, in several days' time.

[7969]

[Roger]

Well, quite fascinating insights into Chinese behavioral patterns and psychology. We simply have to put up with their whims. Chinese don't ask many questions, least of all of their superiors. |They meekly obey.
They don't even always ask about their salary level when they go for an interview; I knew many a newbie girl in Shenzhen from the north that accepted a new position then found out her salary a month or two (!) later.
In the evenings, they often linger in their offices until their boss waves them out the door. It's a kind of "we are family" syndrome where the patriarch alone decides things on a first-come-first-decide basis. If his mind is after some female company he might ask one of his staff to accompany him to the nearest KTV - happened a lot of times in Shenzhen.

[7969]

roger, your description is very apt. in the army, it sometimes happened that soldiers would hang around the workplace, even if doing next to nothing..... until the guy at the top left. then the floodgates opened. that situation began to change when i was a soldier, as soldiers became more educated (guys with college diplomas and BAs), and started questioning the value of sitting around doing f*** all. why not do it at home?

the former situation above is similar to many workplaces in china.

actually, i'm quite happy that my chinese colleagues leave me pretty much alone. however, in some cases they've taken it to the extreme in not even telling us when there's a day off.

[kev7161]

We had testing days on December 29 and 30. Naturally, I was told on the 28th (better than the 29th I suppose) . . . by a student making an offhand remark!

As for holidays, I booked my Thailand tour today (despite the tsunami disaster) - - did you know that travel agents have a Chinese price and a Foreigners price for the exact same tour? My friend and I managed to get them to discount by 280rmb because we have to do our own visa arrangements. The Chinese price includes visa fees - - ours didn't it seems.

An extra 1000rmb for the same flights, the same hotel rooms, the same meals. I don't know if it's really true, but the travel agent said that most Chinese airlines charge more to foreigners than to native Chinese. Anyone have any input about this?

[7969]

kev, how much did you pay for your trip and who did you get it with, if i may ask? i'm thinking of going back to thailand for a couple of weeks at the end of this term as well.

to answer your question, i think if you just buy an air ticket there's no price differential, however, there may be such a thing on a tour package.

regarding thai visa, you don't need one, but as i remember, you said your friend did?