Job Discussion Forums

Changjiang · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 55

I have been working for Buckland Group for the past 10 months and have no complaints. My contract has been fulfilled in both letter and spirit.

Owen is Chinese, he's adopted a phoneticly spelled L2 name based on his L1 name, much as my Chinese name is LoBaDa, since my Ss have trouble pronouncing the R's.

There is no possible way he wrote the "ringing endorsements" from other teachers. I have edited some of his writing and although he is capable in English, IMO he would be unable to give a piece of written work a consistent 'tone' different than his own natural one. If he was going to forge a response would it not have made more sense to have it come from another poster? You credit him with natural sounding English, yet assume he's incapable of creating another account?

These spurious and meaningless attacks verge on the personal and have no value. To say "Don't trust a Chinese businessman!" is so stunningly obvious it hardly bears the repeating and breathless agonising for the span that it has. Are there any businessmen anywhere that you would blindly and completely trust? Contracts are a two way street, if you don't like them, don't sign them.

The original post was flame-bait, and I see the OP has not commented. Let's drop it.

chinafriendhere · Joined: 31 May 2003 Posts: 22

Travesty21,

What does it matter if Owen is a westerner or Chinese? He has the right to defend his school. If you want to be an ugly foreigner then please bring it to some other place.

Chinafriendhere

jimrothstein · Joined: 15 Mar 2003 Posts: 14 Location: Dalian, China

I'm new in China and see many, many complaints about company XYZ or school ABC.

After 2 weeks in China, I see that ESL industry is bit like the wild, wild west.

What are suggestions for (a) documenting (b) reporting (c) publicizing complaints about business practices of a given enterprise? Is there a way?

Sure, forums like this one are very good, but I'd like to see a database of complaints, something like 'public records' in the US. Annecdotal information can be great, but I have also heard 'facts are stubborn things.'

Thx.

jim

senor boogie woogie · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 8:52 am Post subject:

I have heard of Buckland's before, but know little about it. I take it that Mr. and Mrs. Buckland are from the west. So I would ask, how did these two westerners get into the ESL market in China? Obviously, they have been in country for many years to be allowed to offer visas and do what they do.

So what do they do? They farm out teachers and make a fat profit for themselves. They are agents basically. Personally, I dislike agents because they are making money from my labors. How much are the Bucklands making from that couple in Guanxi Province? They wont tell you. If they did know, I don't think they would be as happy. What is really a travesty in all of this is that the Bucklands are former ESL teachers.

To the couple in Guanxi, if you like the number 9 school, work for them for the year and renegotiate your contract on your terms.Cut the Bucky's out. Make sure the school can hire foreigners on their own. If you are working at a school where they don't have the "right" to hire laowei, you are being used, simple.

SENOR

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

You are probably misinformed, senor! Owen "Buckland" is a genuine, authentic and real Chinese from Hunan. I have seen him in flesh and spoken to him in person. SHould be able to tell the difference by now!

I think, if Owen stuck to farming people out to schools in his particular region there would not be much to complain about. Guangxi is poor and they do not know how to recruit from abroad.
What I do abhor is that some schools act as agents interprovincially. Owen's schools used to have a good reputation among Chinese (and Yangshuo has the most English speakers per square meter anywhere in China, I reckon!) because it used to be a business dedicated to promoting the use of English among CHinese. It was very successful at that.
However, the province may not have been large enough for him. He seems to have entered into cooperative agreements with partners all over China. How could he maintain quality control?
I am convinced that job takers in his own school were happy even though pay was at the low end of the range. It is understandable. Yangshuo is a fantastic place, and you can travel for hundreds of kilometers, and still admire the country and its people.
BUt things change rapidly if you are sent to places such as Changsha. Or Liaoning.