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acwilliams
Joined: 17 Feb 2006
Posts: 68
Location: Now in China, soon moving on
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 Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 1:48 am Post subject: |
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| As a Brit, 'return ticket', to me, does mean a 'go and come back ticket', but I can see the potential for confusion. I hate to say this, but the American 'round trip' is much clearer and less ambiguous. |
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Joe C.
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 993
Location: Witness Protection Program
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 1:56 am Post subject: |
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| acwilliams wrote: |
| As a Brit, 'return ticket', to me, does mean a 'go and come back ticket', but I can see the potential for confusion. I hate to say this, but the American 'round trip' is much clearer and less ambiguous. |
It's probably this distinction in terminology that causes a lot of the conflicts with FTs and employers over airfares.
It's also kind of funny and shows what a crock it is when Chinese people always say, "Our [Chinese] teachers only teach us British English.  |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:37 am Post subject: |
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| jester wrote: |
| Well said. It took you an essay to say what I did in one sentence. |
Two sentences actually. 
| Joe C. wrote: |
| clark.w.griswald wrote: |
| I have seen contracts that state the provision of 'a return ticket' which to me means a ticket here and back (return). |
Gee, Clark, you ought to start checking out Ft. Lauderdale nursing homes. When anyone in the northern hemisphere reads "a return ticket" they understand that to mean a ticket to return home. How you happened to get from home to here in the first place is your own problem -- a separate issue. |
That's not very nice J.C.
You will note that there is a whole other hemisphere to the earth and that some native English speakers do come from the south. Add to this the differences in British and American English and you have a recipe for disaster if you come here on the belief that 'return ticket' in a contract means what you think it does.
I am not sure why you have taken this tack Joe.C. I am sure that you agree with what others and myself have posted here - check what the school offers with them directly. Do you have a problem with that? Or is something else I have said on this thread? Or perhaps another thread that you are bringing over to this one? |
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Joe C.
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 993
Location: Witness Protection Program
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:50 am Post subject: |
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| clark.w.griswald wrote: |
| Joe C. wrote: |
| clark.w.griswald wrote: |
| I have seen contracts that state the provision of 'a return ticket' which to me means a ticket here and back (return). |
Gee, Clark, you ought to start checking out Ft. Lauderdale nursing homes. When anyone in the northern hemisphere reads "a return ticket" they understand that to mean a ticket to return home. How you happened to get from home to here in the first place is your own problem -- a separate issue. |
That's not very nice J.C.
You will note that there is a whole other hemisphere to the earth and that some native English speakers do come from the south. Add to this the differences in British and American English and you have a recipe for disaster if you come here on the belief that 'return ticket' in a contract means what you think it does.
I am not sure why you have taken this tack Joe.C. I am sure that you agree with what others and myself have posted here - check what the school offers with them directly. Do you have a problem with that? Or is something else I have said on this thread? Or perhaps another thread that you are bringing over to this one? |
Another thread? First sign of dementia, Clark. Get a checkup.
Now, I do recall that you have continually said you were from North America. In that light, anybody from Canada or the USA understands "a return ticket" to be anything but "a round-trip ticket." Oh, and by the way, this "anybody" also applies to our brethren from Mississippi, Louisianna, Alabama, Texas and West Virginia.
Now, if -- and only if -- I am mistaken in believing you are from the USA or Canada, I do apologize for not being nice. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| Joe C. wrote: |
| Another thread? First sign of dementia, Clark. Get a checkup. |
So if your animosity does not come from another thread (the tax thread perhaps) then why the animosity toward my earlier post. If you don't agree with what I posted then fine post your disagreement, but it is beyond me why you felt the need to attempt to insult. There is far too much of this on this board as people attack the person making the post instead of the post that the person makes.
Quite honestly if your views come from inside this thread then I now have even less clue as to why you would post what you posted.
Most job ads will post something along the lines of 'we offer a return ticket'. This means different things to different foreigners, and naturally different things to different Chinese. To some it means a return trip-two way ticket while to others it means the return portion of the trip only.
| Joe C. wrote: |
| Now, I do recall that you have continually said you were from North America. |
Continually huh? Let's see one quote of where I have stated where I am from. Just one would be fine. I hate to say this, but if there is a case of dementia here then it is not mine!
| Joe C. wrote: |
| In that light, anybody from Canada or the USA understands "a return ticket" to be anything but "a round-trip ticket." Oh, and by the way, this "anybody" also applies to our brethren from Mississippi, Louisianna, Alabama, Texas and West Virginia. |
And as I have pointed out not every foreign teacher in China is from Canada and the US. More importantly though, not every Chinese employer is from there either. So no matter what you or I may think that they mean, they could mean something completely different. Hence my advice to check it with the school directly.
| Joe C. wrote: |
| Now, if -- and only if -- I am mistaken in believing you are from the USA or Canada, I do apologize for not being nice. |
Whether I am from North America or not should not validate your earlier comments. What's the point in being less than nice to people on a discussion forum. I just don't get it. |
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Bayden
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 988
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:11 am Post subject: |
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The point you're ALL missing is that you're communicating with CHINESE people who may or may not fully understand either term but could well use that to their advantage. "here's your return ticket, for you to return on" even if they DID understand the meaning of 'return ticket'.
Doesn't really matter how WE refer to it. If I were negotiating such a contract I'd use a simple and unambiguous term like 'two way ticket' or insert a lengthy sub clause outlining exactly what is meant by whatever term I used.
Bickering about who here understands what to be what is bit pointless eh.
Tip for newbies, don't expect that just because a Chinese person uses a term/phrase/word they actually know what it means or if they do, won't use any possible ambiguity to their advantage.
Make it crystal clear. |
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7969
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:35 am Post subject: |
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bayden has a good point. if there's any chance for ambuguity, better to clear it up by having the wording for the air ticket reimbursement put into terms that both sides understand to meant he same thing.
my current school contract says "the RMB equivalent of an air ticket to return to the home country will be paid at end of the contract." no mistaking the meaning there, a one way ticket.
however, the school i will be working at next term has different wording, it says: "after Party B�s whole-term service, when he or she completes his or her work and is ready to leave China, Party A shall provide Party B with round trip airfare subsidy from (insert chinese city here) to ______, (insert home city and country here) to leave China, and the round trip airfare subsidy can be reimbursed on handing in the plane ticket."
on one hand, it says round trip airfare which should mean a two way ticket. on the other hand, it also says airfare subsidy from china to home country with no mention of going from home country to china. this could be taken both ways, and its incumbent on me to sort it out beforehand.
perhaps we can all come up with the appropriate wording here and post it on this thread. then we could try to have it inserted into various contracts to see what happens, or if the chinese actually will accept it. |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:58 am Post subject: Return Trip Ticket |
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