Job Discussion Forums

[Neilhrd]

Has anyone out there had any dealings with Rebecca Tao. She has recently become Regional Academic Manager for GAC Education Solutions in Shanghai and therefore my boss. I have no idea what she was doing previously except that she claims to have studied some kind of TESOL course at the University of Nottingham.

Usually I can spot Chinese bullshit a mile off but this woman I find difficult to read. Someone is lying to me and I am not sure if it is her or somebody else in the organisation which is complex and obscure as usual in China. I am not sure if Rebecca Tao knows what she is talking about and whether she is trustworthy or not. as we have some pretty important issues to deal with in the near future I would appreciate any feedback.

You can pm if you information is sensitive but if it is merely abusive or libellous don't bother. It is facts I need.

Thanks

[brsmith15]

Neil,

Sorry that I don't have any facts for you, but if you suspect you're being lied to.........you are.

Is there a way you can put her to a test by asking something to which you already know the answer?

[englishgibson]

[arioch36]

Strange, I know Emily got promoted elsewhere, but as I know, the job is someone elses, I will ask
If I forget, PM me

[arioch36]

Bessy Tao, sounds like that would be Rebecca Tao, Yes shehas or is taking over, so brand new at the job, may be good at quoting whatever her manual says

[englishgibson]

amazing that both emily or rebeca are chinese and've been chinese for a very long time...lil western experience, but lots of directions for fts on what to do or how to do it. i just hope that rebeca can read that manual well enough to moderate fts assessments that often require a real academic depth to assess correctly. emily could not see a difference in between a GAC role-play assessment and an IELTS exam and then had no idea how to reason with her moderations at all. worse than that she failed to disclose her changes (moderations) to either students or teachers (hoping she'd get away with it)...is that a chinese tradition

by the way, what's emily's promotion i thought she was in xi'an...working in a museum

cheers and beers to western educational products with chinese marketing them to rich parents under the illusion that it's gona really help their kids

how is rebeca going to explain to the parents that she is the foreign teachers' (facilitators) big boss..or maybe, she'll never have to

[arioch36]

I am curious, to the point of actually asking, what the Syndey connection is. Having never talked to them in person, do they care less if standards are maintained in China, or if everyone is cheating?

[arioch36]

On the positive side, all the students of GAC, almost all agreed that taking an IELTS class was a waste, that the GAC program does more to improve their english and teaching them HOW to speak English. At the school's, or probablably rally at the parents insistence, many "had to" attend an IELTS course.

A main shortcoming of GAC is that for English, the overall objective is good, but many of the topics are not what best suits them. We threw away one of the topics, and talked yesterday about whether a certain student should be kicked out, and whether a certain teacher should have been dismissed (uh, fired) it was a great discussion, summarization of arguments, supporting different opinions. And I am expecting to catch grief for it. We were suposed to discuss the British monarchy, pros and cons

[englishgibson]

with regards to emily, yes, she's promoted somewhere, and aside her fine soap operas, the mentioned GAC ass essements with her moderations and IELTS might have something to do with it too (used a blender to moderate)


back to the topic and rebecca that's got no blender, my fine teaching skills were recently observed by her. she sat quietly back in my classroom writing notes that i might never get a chance to see. however, she gave me a really beautiful feedback then...professional in a chinese sort of way.


having said all that and keeping on topic, it's quite worrying that an allegedly western company with an allegedly western product would choose a chinese academic leader of all chinese centers teachers. this young fairly attractive woman clearly has been born and raised in china and 'cause i have met her i wonder about her academic depth that she will need to especially moderate foreign teachers assessments. since the company does not keep us posted on the number of centers in china, i'd wonder further how many centers and foreign teachers this person will have to manage


a question raises out of all this; HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE PAYING PARENTS OF GAC STUDENTS TO REALIZE THAT WESTERN IS ONLY THE PACKAGE AND TOFU IS INSIDE OF IT?


one more thing that i am wondering abo