Job Discussion Forums

Marnie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

Hi, does anyone have any information or opinions about teaching in either of these two provinces?

I am looking at two programs:

1. World Teach in Hunan/Changsha - secondary schools
2. Global Vounteer Network/Sinoculture - secondary schools or universities.

I am new to TEFL , so assume I know nothing and go from there! I've been reading the posts for about two months now, and the China post shares so much more information than South America, for example. I am impressed.

Thanks. Marnie[/quote]

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I have never come across a town name "Shadong"; Yantai, on the other hand, is a town in SHANDONG. IT's a bit off the beaten path but it seems to be a hospitable enough place judging by the feedback I got from a colleague living there. I would love to see its vineyards and the harbour. In winter, it gets awfully cold, though, and that's not my cup of tea.

Changsha is in Hunan; it's a ramshackle city with few mitigating features.

You mentioned a volunteer organisation. I have no input on them. THere shouldn't be any need for such organisations working in the core parts of CHina; a more convincing reason would be for them to send you to a border area peopled by non-Hans.

Marnie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

I can't believe I got my first response posting from the famous Roger. Hi, Roger! Thanks for your reply and your correction of my spelling of the province in which Yantai is located. Your information on this city was very helpful. As were your comments on Changsha.

Could you explain your comments regarding no need for volunteer organizations in "core China", but rather in border areas peopled by non-Hans? (By the way I know what Hans are).

Thanks. Marnie

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

VOlunteer organisations usually work in areas that are described as disadvantaged, and core China isn't one of them; the border areas, however, are: it's hee that the non-Han peoples have been displaced to by the waves of Chinese settlers over the last two millenia.
Some organisations work in the west of Sichuan next to Tibet, others do the same in Qinghai, Xinjiang and many have tried - probably unsuccessfully so far! - to be entrusted with a job in Tibet.
These organisations have to be politically hyper-correct, and their recruitment also is done with a view of sorting out potentially disruptive FTs.
It is true, however, that some schools in core China manage to enlist foreign organisations that send volunteers - who then get low pay, or in some cases, no pay at all! I deem this exploitation of foreigners!
One such case came to my attention here in Guangdong: a private K12 actually had several Christian missionary fellows on their staff; they enjoyed their stint, no doubt about that, but of course, for them it was just a sort of holiday with some work thrown in for good measure. This afforded their organisation some 'face' but little else, and the school saved on several thousand yuan per each volunteer while they charged their students 30'000 yuan per year...

Marnie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

Hi Roger,

Thanks for sharing your opinion regarding the role of volunteer organizations in China. I don't agree with you.

However, right now I am just trying to get as much information as I can about these two provinces. Can you or anyone else give me any good websites and/or books on China that might go beyond the travel websites? I have gotten info from both the State Dept. and CIA websites, but I need to know more than all the statistical information these sites provide.

Thanks to all.

Marnie

foreignDevil · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 580

jester · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 111

That's right!!! Slam him!!! That is what this forum is about.

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

Marnie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

Hey guys! Did I step on someones toes (or other body part) here or something? The question is not my opinion or Roger's opinion or anyone's opinion about volunteering. I don't figure how I plan to do what I plan to do is anyone else's business, and I am entitled to my opinion just as is Roger.

What I did hope to learn was information about the two provinces and cities I listed. Period. That is what this thread is about. O.K????

And, you are slamming her not him Jester!

And, thanks to HumanForeignGuy for the info re Changsha. Should I be saying Chang Sha instead?

Marnie

Marnie · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

Oh, yeah, one other thing: one of the two programs I am looking at is not volunteer; it is for a paid position. Just because something says volunteer does not necessarily mean it walks and talks like a duck, if you get my drift!

Marnie

jester · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 111

Sorry, did not know you are a "she". I was kinda coming to your rescue.......

Voldermort · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 597

I spent a few months in the small town of LaiWu in ShanDong last year. I must say I, for the most part, enjoyed it there. The weather was pretty hot, the people were friendly, and I caughed up coal dust every morning. ShanDong is famous for their mining, which in turn means pollution.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I don't know what SHE disagreed on with me, but that is as relevant as cold ice to an Eskimo. I have no reazson to disagree with HFG in his assessment of Changsha's - certainly not Chang Sha's - qualities or quality of life; if you come from the outside and get plunged into such a place, you usually end up identifying with it in the mid-term. That's how highly readable books such as RIVER TOWN are concoted.

But for me, Changsha simply isn't attractive enough since I have found greener pastures farther south; at the beginning of my TEFL career here, my situation was hardly different to that of any teacher anywhere in China, especially in Changsha or Laiwu or Yantai for that matter. One chooses one place over others for a variety of reasons, and geography might just be the main motivating part. I would certainly never say Changsha is a dump although it had few attractions when I last visited it; some FTs complain about its weather extremes: they point out it gets even hotter in summer than Guangzhou does, and winters can be torture too. But you can live with such weather variation as I can. I wouldn't like to live in Changsha because I am by now too inured to the creature comforts to which I am entitled here in Guangdong, as well as the relative ease by which travelling is possible there (imagine a train ride from CHangsha to Shanghai or Kunming - nightmarish!).

I did say I would much love Yantai, and I have spent an extended period of time in SHandong province. Surely Yantai is not worse than Changsha, and CHangsha is not worse than Foshan in Guangdong...

BUt I hold on to my observations on volunteer work! .