Job Discussion Forums

[Julia Girl]

Hello. This is Julia again asking about schools and such. I have finally narrowed down my choices regarding schools and contracts. I really like the photos I have been sent of the campus (Xuzhou Normal University) and the people I have been comunicating with thus far. I am hoping that someone on the board has heard something about the school. I will be teaching reading, composition and both British and American Literature. My contract gives me 5000 RMB for 16 50 minute periods maximum per week. I have also worked in Health Insurance and travel pay as well as my tickets plus internet access and the standard on campus housing. If anyone can give me any info about the school and its reputation with ESL teachers, I would really appreciate it!

Ciao,
Julia

[Roger]

This contract sounds quite acceptable. What's intriguing me is that someone else had posted a similar question about this school a few months before, stating that she had to work 25 hours a week (or even more) for roughly the same amount of pay. Have they improved that in the meantime?

Xuzhou is a nondescript and smallish industrial speck in Jiangsu's woods, so I hope you are looking for a place off the beaten path. This school is linked commercially to a Czech-based TEFL training centre. I do not know if that is a recommendation, or anything else!

[Tao Burp]

Xuzhou is a industrial backwater city in the northern part of the Jiangsu Province, where you are inundated with hellos and snickers to the point of insanity. Don't waste your time. Sure they are nice people--desperation can do that when it comes to hiring foreigners so far away in the hinterland. You won't find much to do there. I have been there many times. You can do better. Heavily polluted; forget about nightlife unless you like playing rocks, scissors, paper, and drinking bajiu until you puke.
They have a MacDonalds, KFC, an airport, and a train station. I wouldn't recommend it. Xuzhou Normal University isn't a bad college, but the city itself will leave you bored to tears after 8 weeks, and Beijing is almost 12 hours away and Shanghai about 9 or 10 hours away. Think about it.

[Julia Girl]

In the middle of nothing? I really wanted this school to work out. Yes, they did want me to work 25 hours also, but I said no way. I am also taking 2 of my friends with me to the same school. I have spent a few months in Beijing, but prefered the city of shijaizhuang better because it was much smaller. The hellos I ignore by wearing sunglasses and dressing locally, I have straight jet black hair and when I try to blend in, it usually works. I will also be studying while I am teaching via the internet, so that is another consideration, I wanted to be in an environment condusive to education, writing papers, etc.

Does anyone know what the climate is like?

someone also mentioned that it is 9 and 12 hours from Beijing and shanghai, GEEZ..... that is really, really far to go ......... I am assuming that this is by train? Do you happen to know how long it is by flight? I really don't care for the trains in China and I started taking short flights instead of train rides to city hop.

Can I ask about the conditions of the school? Are the buildings nice by chinese standards?? Does anyone happen to know what the living conditions for the teachers are like??

Thanks for the replys posted!

[Roger]

Julia,
your questions surprise me, considering that you are in the country right now! YOu do not happen to be the poster who asked about this school in spring of this year? That lady too had "two friends" going with her! Another one asked about the same school at the beginning of June, and the answer I gave prompted her to go postal!

Anyway, by air it should take one hour. It might be faster to fly to Ji'nan (more flights, I guess), and take the train for the remaining 150 kms or so!
Climate?
It is half way between Shanghai and Peking, so what do you expect? HOt in summer, and humid too! Maybe around 35 degrees. Winter is pretty cold (I lived in Ji'nan, in a 'brand-new" estate, and my flat had no shower - 'because it gets so cold here we don't take a shower").
That's China - very sophisticated oases with all kinds of creature comforts such as Shanghai, and the Third-World just a few kilometers from the city limits!

But the school seems to have modern premises (they all look so "modern" on websites). You might find their website on Chinatefl (I once saw it there).

[Julia Girl]

i have posted a couple times aking about various schools, so it was probably me asking about another school. 35 is pretty hot, but i suppose most places are in summer. I was in Florence l couple of weeks ago and it was 35-40 and humid every single day. I am now used to Toronto winters where it gets down to -20, Beijing doesn't get that cold does it??? I'm actually not in the PRC right now, I am in my home town of Los Angeles visiting my family. What I meant by weather was really seasons. sorry about that. Are the seasons nice, fall and spring.....

[David Bowles]

Just to resurrect this thread from the dead...
I thought Xuzhou was kind of cool when I was there. I was only there for one day, waiting for a train to Beijing, and I met a random guy on the street who took me round . It's certainly off the beaten track, but I reckon that makes it more interesting in some ways- more random markets, more streetfood, more general weirdness... And it may be a backwater, but it's not a small backwater- 6 million at least.
I was teaching in Suqian, the little city to the SE of Xuzhou- that was properly 'unwestern'- it had an imitation McDonald's that served milk instead of milkshake and didn't know how to make burgers, and that was it. Summer weather wasn't too bad- it got hot, but it was so dry that it didn't get clammy or nasty, and I'm guessing Xuzhou would be similar. Winter was cold cold cold (after the UK, anyway), but Xuzhou might just be the kind of flashy place to have some kind of heating system in some of the buildings. I didn't think it had an airport, but I could be wrong.
I reckon it's worth a go- should be interesting...