Job Discussion Forums

[gerard49]

Well, have you all found your jobs yet- February 9 and another semester are nearly upon us? We thought we had jobs when Zhoushan University offered us positions, sent the contracts and wanted them back signed, asap. A week passed, some emails apparently went "astray" so I decided to give them a call.
The response "Oh we have a problem, the FAO has decided to stop hiring foreign teachers". Yeh and pigs might fly!! No doubt they had a better applicant but couldn't come right out and say it.
Ironically, our first choice had came back a day earlier and we had to decline thinking that a contract is worth the paper its written on.
I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there that has reneged on a contract before the start date and what the reprecussions were, if any?

[MyTurnNow]

Yes, once.

Anal cavities still inflamed from the treatment I had received at the hands of Abysmal English Schools (they usually advertise under another acronymic name), I took a job at Modern English in Beijing.

I was placed into a hideous slum of an apartment that cost me 2500 RMB a month. There was no furniture to speak of beyond a bed. There were roaches in the refrigerator. Lots of things didn't work; cable TV I paid the landlord for never got turned on. I also got badly screwed over on my visa by the completely inept FA crew.

I screamed my head off for 3 months, as I endured this horrible place. Finally, I gave up and took a new job in a distant city. I hired a company to pack and move me; I made sure my PC was the last thing to get packed. I wrote an e-mail to all of my managers there reminding them of the situation we'd had there for the last 3 months, as well as their total inaction, and told them that as they read this I was on an outbound train, buh-bye.

Then I pulled the plug and headed for the station. Never heard from them again. Good job, too.

MT

[NumberOneSon]

[gerard49]

Here's a thought, I'm no legal-eagle but why do we have to sign a contract and send it back but never receive a countersigned copy in return . A contract is surely not a contract until both parties sign it. If they're not willing to sign it and return it to us (asap) how can it be valid or binding??? I signed one supplied by an agent but when I asked for a z-visa invitation letter from the school u think I wanted the world!! In another case the school reneged on us so it would appear to be of little legal consequence.

[arioch36]

I just wrote on the other post...that contract you send via e-mail isn't legally binding. Yes, if you want to teach legally in the same province in another school, you should have a decent reason for refusing your first school. But it is your option.

Harder for the school inviting you to say no, though.

Oh, and our contracts do fall under WTO regulations...if you can ever find a lawyer to represent you

[MyTurnNow]

#1, that was "good job, too" in the British sense...as in "I'm really happy I never heard from those awful scumbags again."

Modern English was a very mixed bag. The real problems weren't just housing, it was everything related to teacher support. There really wasn't any. Visas and such were as much of a train wreck as housing was. Everything got turned over to a couple of likeable but utterly worthless young guys who essentially did nothing. Anus Enlargement Services was more dishonest, but even they weren't this totally incompetent.

Modern English's curriculum at the time was scandalous. It was OK for people already at a high fluency level to help them make their English more natural and more idiomatic, but unfortunately it wasn't sold that way. People with little or no English were being brought in for the same program (I think ME may have taken some steps to correct this since my departure). There was heavy pressure to be amusing and entertaining- apparently on the theory that if Chinese students have enough fun in their classes, they don't notice (or care) how little they are actually learning. The approach was very phrase-based....to some extent a knockoff of Crazy English, and we of course know what a banner of quality that program is.

Despite being written by a gnomelike foreign person, Modern English's books suffered from the "we don't talk like that!" syndrome, which is ironic considering its focus. When was the last time you walked up to another person and asked "Been healthy lately?"

All this said, Modern English gave me the most marvelous teaching experience of my life. The students I had were incredible...bright, engaging, hardworking, into what they were doing. I loved them and they loved me...I'm still in contact with many of them. I only felt bad that they were in a program that really wasn't right for them...I deviated from the texts as much as I could to give them what they really needed.

If it were between Modern English or the employer I had before them, I'd go back to Modern English. At least at Modern English I knew I was being screwed over from the outset; no knives in the back later.

MT