Job Discussion Forums

[tw]

I have been asked by a member to post this about New Times. I know the member as we met on the flight from Vancouver to Beijing when I was returning to Changchun. The member's colleague/friend posted the following comments, and the member has asked me to post this on his/her behalf as the experience was the same:

[Ahchoo]

What's the point?
Middle aged man tries it on with Danish hottie, wow, big surprise.

[Shan-Shan]

[Ahchoo]

[kev7161]

[latefordinner]

Let's not judge too harshly. When you're young and in a strange place, common sense can be difficult to apply. And give her a bit of credit; she did find her way out of the situation, although not entirely to her liking. Pretty hard to imagine a graceful, culturally sensitive way out of that situation. (Knee to the groin would be my choice too, but I'm not about to impose my values and methods on others. Not in this thread)
Let's take this the way TW seems to have meant it; as a warning. If even one newbie reads this and encounters a similar situation forewarned and forearmed, that's something.

[tw]

I posted this as a favour, nothing more and nothing less. Actually, I was expecting to read the horror the member'd gone through with NT (fake visa, being detained by the police, etc), not somebody else's tale of almost being raped by the owner.

[SnoopBot]

These stories are becoming more common.

I suggest ANY WOMEN who are considering teaching abroad be very careful if they are going alone.

Here some suggestions:

1. Be careful of taking jobs that request women only, usually with age limits and non-teaching criteria.

2. If repeated request for pre-job photo's or other private information- alarm bells should go off.

3. ALWAYS- have an open airline ticket or ATM avail savings for a ticket back home or to cover cost should you flee your job.

4. NEVER stay under these conditions - share a room with a boss or stay with some unknown family.

5. Remember the world isn't like Middle-fork Iowa. It's a dangerous place for a single recent college graduate that feels they need to volunteer to "do their part in the global world." While this type of thinking is noble, if you do not go with a reputable organization, you can be cheated and abused. (or worse)

6. Never go places alone in a foreign country- bad idea -always group tour is best.

A certain type of mentality is slowly creeping into China concerning Western women. You can blame part of this on the trash Hollywood puts out.

Rich, powerful Bad Chinese men have become tired of the common show of wealth and power. BMW's, Mercedes, Villa's, 3rd or forth Chinese wives ect. These are now fairly common, the latest craze is to have an attractive Western Woman (usually blond) as a second wife, or controlled sex partner. This is now a status symbol for some of the bad guy types.

The result - some female FT's been drugged, raped and placed in controlled situations. Russian women been facing this abuse in China for the last 10 years.

With this latest bad-guy craze (all this was a discussion issue with Chinese students) women must be more careful these days.

[patsy]

I think I remember reading on one of their advertisements that Mr. dou was very friendly.

[boubou]

Ok, so here is my Story. I passed by New Times agency for a job (big mistake) When I got there, around 2 weeks later I was meeting Mr. Li, the "headmaster" of number 8 middle school in Zhending. Mr. Li happened to be the representative of Hebei greemind international center for educational exchange, another agency (www.happyteach.com) Therefore another middleman. New times was selling me to another agency instead of finding me the job. When I signed my contract, it was biased, Number 8 middle school quickly became Mr. Li and happy teach. When came time (asap) to upgrad my visa, they kept pushing it back, oh no, to early, wait till your L visa is over (I protested) But may holiday is around the corner, if you want to travel you wont have you passport during may holiday" (Why will it take more than 3 days?) Oh it wont, but it's too busy, the police said it was ok don't worry. At this point, I call New Times, they tell me not to worry, that my visa will be prossesed, ect ect ect. I take a deep breath and "trust" them. Finally may holiday is over, I call Mr. li many more times to get my visa processed. OK he says. 1 week, 2 weeks, third week is when my patience runs out and the problems start. "Where is my passport, I've been waiting for three weeks!. "we don't know it will be there soon." That was the same arguements everyday.... On a tuesday while in class, my supervisor asks me to step out of class that she needs to talk and it is urgent. I ask her what the matter is, she drags me out of class. I ask again, she says the police is on there way (I still don't have my passport) That I am an illegale worker because the school is not licensed and that if I don't hide I will be in big trouble and so will the school. "Think of your boss and the school, you NEED to help us." I go back to class after a solid yelling match in the hallway, which continued in class because she had the guts to keep at me while I was trying to teach. (I wasn't going to run or hide from the police, continuing to teach while the cops were coming was the best idea I had, especially for them not to lock me up in the library like planned.) The other teacher tried to calm me and the supervisor down. My finale word was that I wasn't going to hide from the cops. If they were coming, they already knew we were there. At this point, I call new times. They tell us to run, take the next bus into town (shijiazhuang which was 45 minutes away) and to come directly to the office. If we were there and not at school, we couldn't be arrested. I refuse thinking it's the dumbest idea I've heard, I call a friend who tells me to wait for the police, that hiding or running would only make things worst. I stayed and waited, being to hot headed the other teacher talked to the cops while I was told I could head home, I'd get a call later. In the afternoon I was called to head to the psb in the hour that followed, not doing so would get cops at my house, so I did... I was kept in a small room with a big leather couch where I was asked just about 1001 questions. Of course, they started it with: "please sit, we are your friends, we only want to help, as long as you cooperate." I had to call New times to get my passport number (they had my only photocopy, the ones I had were lost for some reason) At this point Mr. Dou is pannicking at the back because I'm at the police station, I should have gone there WITH him (funny when I mention Dou's name, they asked me if I thought it was his fault, opening a whole new file with his name on it.)

*Sorry for the delay, I work long hour on weekends*

By the end of the interogation by the police, I was free to go, and they were on the lookout for my passport. The solution they found was to wait until my pasport was in my hands again before the school got more trouble from the cops. So I was to keep teaching there until my passport was found and that the whole thing was over. One beautiful day about 1 week and a half later, my passport comes in, with a F visa. Give the cops a call that my boss finally gave it back, they ask me to bring it in. They will be keeping my passport until the whole thing is solved. Get a call a few hours later, the visa is not only wrong but it it also FAKE. I was from then on an illegale alien with no valid visa. Very scary... Foreign affairs police were on my side though, since I had anserwed all the questions and I had cooperated, they got me a legale F visa valid for 6 months -free of charge- in order to get a new legale job. But it doesn't end there... I of course got fined with 1000 yuan for working illegally, but at least I wasn't deported like I should have been. Mr. Li and the school got major fines, never got an accurate price though. If I understood well, Li got 5000 yuan per head to pay (2 teachers therefor 10 000 yuan) and the school I can't be sure of. New times NEVER helped me in this. Moral support was given by the foreign worker there at the time, but no help in negociations or any help in dealing with the police or with the school.

This is my story, beleive, don't, I don't know but I can confirm that those were the worst months in a long time. New times is NOT to be trusted. I've met many "volonteers" that New Times places in Private schools. These schools pays New Times between 100 and 150 yuan an hour for the teachers. New times gives 30 yuan per hour to the volonteers. A volonteer even got told (by the school) that she couldn't take a sick day because the kids pay a lot to be there... Go figure huh? As for New Times, I heard through the branches (unconfirmed yet but I think it's accurate) That practicly no schools in shijiazhuang are allowed to work with New Times for teachers anymore, since my arrest anyways.

BTW, I got a cool new job in Chongqing where things are legale and nice now

[sfarkas103]

You must always treat posts with a certain level of skepticism. I have posted on here at least twice about the poor service and lies I received from New Times, but invariably it was always followed by posts from some Dou minion about how I was off base, etc. It was the worst experience of three years in China, and enough so that after being back home in the USA now for almost two years I still cringe at its memory.
The organization is rancid, through and through. I have had conversations with members of the PSB I befriended in Shijiazhuang about New Times and they vow they are looking into it. Avoid them.
Virtually everything they did in my case was unethical and in some cases illegal. I am not recounting the incident again, suffice it to say, again with emphasis, AVOID NEW TIMES.

[gastoni]

[clark.w.griswald]

New Times is certainly one of those companies people either love or hate. Overall though there seems to be more positive than negative comments out there about them.

In order to preserve their reputation however New Times would be well advised to cut any ties that they may have with the placement agency and the school that Bou Bou mentioned in his/her post as to continue dealing with schools that are clearly not acting above board will impact upon their reputation.

Non-native speakers of English and native speakers of English without degrees should take the above as warnings that you can't get legal employment as foreign teachers of English in most places throughout China no matter what a school or recruiter may tell you. So protect yourself by doing your own independant research rather than hoping that someone can help you find a loop hole.

[tw]

Boubou and I met on the flight from Vancouver to Beijing, where she was picked up by representatives from NT and driven to Shijiazhuang. It was during our conversation on the flight that she told me NT was going to help her get a job, and that NT would take care of the visa. When I told her there'd been some negative feedbacks with NT, she said she had done her homework and assured me that everything would be OK.

It didn't take more than a month for her to e-mail me and telling me she was in trouble thanks to NT.

Again, newbies, avoid recruiters if you can -- especially those who tell you to come with a tourist visa and will let you pick and choose the job you want.

[arioch36]

tw