Job Discussion Forums

[therock]

[tw]

Oh, I can see this thread being locked or even deleted very, very soon now. John Haigh will probably complain about this thread on CCNU's behalf. He is possibly the only recruiter the Foreign Exchange/Cooperation College uses to recruit its FT's and he was the one who told a FT that CCNU's main campus was "within short walk from downtown Changchun". Liar!

[jwbhomer]

TW... you mean JH is a bible-thumper?! That alone would be a good reason to find somewhere else to work. I really can't stand those missionaries who come to save the heathen Chinese! What gets me is...the standard contract prohibits teachers from discussing or conducting religious activities in the classroom, yet these "born-again Christians" seem to have no scruple about living up to the promises they make in the contract. AND...no-one seems to complain about it or try to discipline them. Well, "this is China", I guess...

[tw]

In the case of this Englishman (whose initials are not JH), he rents an apartment off campus and holds weekly meetings with twenty or so Chinese students of various ages, from different departments and colleges to "discuss" JC. The American couple who taught in the FLC for one term had students reading bible stories, then discussing them. They, like the Englishman, also invited Chinese students into their apartment and ended up bap[tizing two before going home.

[jwbhomer]

There was one upstanding Christian lady (?) at a large university in Guangdong when I was there. She used to do the same thing... invite the students back to her apartment (ON campus) etc etc...but for some reason she seemed interested in "saving" the girls, not the boys!

[cj750s]

The Normal univeristy in Changchun ..for some time did and I am not sure they still do .. was the main training language center for ELIC..a Christian org...which has taken over shcools such as HuaQao ... where they pay around 2K for the same services that FTs are paid 4000...and around 65RMB per hour is standard for CC schools that provide additonal services such as visa and housing..when the FT is under contract..

[HunanForeignGuy]

[jwbhomer]

After the revolution the Communists expelled all foreign missionaries from China. Unfortunately that doesn't stop the missionaries masquerading as teachers.

[John Haigh]

I'd like to emphasise that there are two very separate English teaching programs at CTC.

"tw" worked for the regular English Department on the CTC campus and he might well have good reasons to be unhappy with his experience. He seems to make an effort at being even handed when he refers to the International College even though he feels that he's been screwed by his Foreign Affairs Manager. For example he (tw) says,

"That said, readers should keep in mind that there are two groups of FT's at CCNU: those teaching FLC students, and those teaching the International Exchange/Cooperation College students. The FT's teaching IEC students make a bit more than those in the FLC, but they also teach more hours (though with fewer students and much easier lessons to teach)."

Yet the thread in this discussion seems to blur the differentiation between the two separate programs. The regular CTC English Department and the International College program are quite separate.

When it comes to the International College program I can comment with some authority as I advertise for and vet the candidates for teaching positions there.

Firstly I'd like to defend the teachers we have employed. They have all had either ESL teaching experience or a TESOL certificate or both. We have been very grateful for the professionalism and dedication they have brought to their work.

Secondly, I can't understand why somebody would take offence because we are blind to gender, ethnicity, religious belief or sexual orientation in our hiring process. I'm quite proud that we don't show a bias that is all to evident at many universities and private schools.

There seems to be a consensus in this thread that we are some sort of religious front. This is completely untrue. I have never asked any candidate anything about their religion. In the rare cases that a candidate's CV shows active religious participation I draw their attention to part of our contract which states,"6.Refrain from proselytizing about religion or politics in class." Just as I expect religious people to be tolerant of my lack of belief, I feel that I must respect other people's right to have religious beliefs and to act legally, outside the college, on those beliefs.

tw wrote that the DOS "rents an apartment off campus and holds weekly meetings with twenty or so Chinese students of various ages, from different departments and colleges to "discuss" JC. "

This is nearly correct and I am confident that he feels he is reporting accurately. A fuller picture is subtly different. He shares an apartment off campus with two Chinese people. They permit a legally registered local Christian group to hold a weekly meeting there. Quite rightly the DOS hadn't considered it necessary to inform me of these meetings.

Regarding me being a liar. I'm pleased to say that many teachers have thanked me for giving them a "warts and all" picture of conditions at the campus. I've often mentioned the five minute walk to class from the teachers' accommodation as a positive; but when talking about the distance from the centre of the city I've always said, "10 minutes by taxi with no traffic; up to 40 minutes at peak hour."

The scheduled work load and pay are commensurate with a McMill private school but our teachers are not expected to do free promotional work, have all their weekends and evenings free, have a stable schedule, and use modern western textbooks with teachers books supplied. Plus they have relatively small classes for a university.

It's one of the better teaching options in China and most of our teachers have told me afterwards that they enjoyed it.

[tw]