Job Discussion Forums

[chon nom]

I'm being offered two positions. the Uni in Wuxi has a bomb apartment and is a 1 semester contract. They pay airfare both ways(reimbursed on arrival) and cover medical. 18 hours/wk. 6000RMB +500 for food.
The other is a middle school in Wezhou. 18-20 hours +2 for 10000RMB.
Apartment and all paid, but no medical and they dont pay airfare til the end of the (Year-long) contract.
Any advice?

[Lorean]

Ask the schools to define working hours.
The university could define 1 working hour := 50 minutes
The middle school could define 1 working hour : 40 minutes OR 60 minutes.

Questions to Ask:
Holiday Schedule
Paid Holidays
Precise Duration of Contract (3 month vs 4 month; 11 month vs 12 month)
Number of different courses (think prep work)

The university job will likely be the less stressful of the two. When you work at a university you are paid through the exam and exam marking periods even though you may not teach classes. Furthermore, the suffering of your student's misbehavior will be limited to watching them sleep in class.

The airfare reimbursement the university is offering seems too good to be true. Full return airfare for a 1 semester contract? Usually that only entitles you to half airfare if anything at all.

[waynehead]

I'm working at a university in Wuxi under similar conditions and I plan on breaking my contract and resigning halfway through. This city just ain't for me.

I don't know anything about your other option, so it could be the other armpit of China, but since it's significantly more money for not much more work if I were you I'd take it.

[k3o3r9n0]

Out of curiosity, which uni in Wuxi? I'm also at a uni here and didn't ask them how far from the city center it is and how many buses run along the route. I didn't put due diligence into that subject and now I'm a 40 minute crowded bus ride into the city center with only one route to choose from.

[Moon Over Parma]

In Wuxi the water can literally turn green and be shut off. In Wenzhou, well, you'll pay slightly higher than Shanghai prices without the service, selection nor quality. Also, most places claiming "Wenzhou," are far removed from the city and in another municipality altogether.

Where in Wenzhou is the offer?

Check my previous comments on this thread:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=65233&highlight=wenzhou

And you can find several other, Wenzhou-related posts if you search through the archives. None of them paint Wenzhou in a positive light.

[Hansen]

Chon nom, A round trip airfare up front for a a 1 semester contract? Amazing if you ever collect it.

Whatever you decide, make an effort to fulfill the contract to which you agree. Simply deciding that the place doesn't suit you and leaving is a despicable act which should excite the indignation of, not only the school, but the FT community.

Brown suits and inane questions to all contract breakers.

[jirikiman]

That job in Wuxi is with Jiangsu University which is in partnership with Lambton College in Canada and who do the recruiting for three or four universities in China.

The reason they give a round trip ticket after one semester is that the working conditions are so bad that many teachers who had signed for a year just took a runner after they couldn't stand it any more, and of course left the school in a lurch.

I worked there for two semesters and at a partner university in Changchun for three weeks before I decided I had had enough. The staff regard the teachers with contempt because every semester there is an almost complete change of faculty. The only ones more abused than the FTs are the hapless students who pay five times the fees of a regular Chinese university.

I am curious as to how Lambton recruited you.

and if you are interested I can pm you a copy of a survey from Lambton that I responded to. Lambton wasn't the worst job I had in three years in China. Only the second worst.

Follow the advice of a previous poster--take the job for 10000. You may be abused but at least you are making 50% more money. When Lambton recruited me over the phone--I was in Guangzhou at the time--they offered 20 hours a week, which I thought was kind of heavy because univesity gigs typically are for 14 to 16 hours. When I got there, the contract was for 24 hours a week--about the same workload as a language mill where at least you get a variety of Chinese to teach, rather than immature high school graduates.
Good luck.

[North China Laowei]

If we are talking about Lambdon or however it is spelled, this is an "avoid". I met many, many teachers in Guangzhou who were Lambdon Wuxi refugees. Most of them complained about the American DOS who made their collective lives miserable. One was a so-so teacher I will admit but the others were qualified, intelligent, diligent persons. Wuxi Lambdon is just another cash cow for some obscure Canadian institution of higher learning, if it is even that at best.

As for Wengzhou, as I mentioned previously and as the other posters have said, be very, very judicious in your choices of a school here. You need to ask how many kilometers from the city center is your middle school with the big bucks.

[Ms Bean]

Perhaps the OP has one school confused with another. JiangNAN University in Wuxi is NOT offering round trip airfare for one semester. There is another university nearby which is offering one SEMESTER contracts with no return airfare. *BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*

There's another program being shilled which offers thirty day tourism, a fat paycheck and round trip airfare for one semester. *BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*

My inquiries into Jiangnan University received a rather sketchy response. The contract does not match the advertised job description, and when I pressed the school's representative re: paid utilities, I received a reply which contained conflicting answers. The job description from the recruiting agency said that "it depends." I got a yes on kitchen utilities but an answer of "partial payment" of electricity. *BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*

Questions regarding holidays and periods when the FT will NOT be paid (e.g., holidays and times between semesters), I received an answer telling me that it depends upon the teacher's performance. *BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*

Inquiry into Lambton's involvement elicited an equally murky reply. *BLINK*BLINK*BLINK*

I forgot to ask whether I get a last cigarette and a blindfold at the appropriate time.

[spikelee]

I hate to jump in during a firefight but I work in Lambton Wuxi now and I am not sure where so many people here got their information from but so far all the negative posts about Lambton are either way off the mark or just not true.

It sounds like may of you are just making this stuff up for the sake of argument.

[cj750nomad]

Mr. Lee ... as ur a one post wonder and a recent addition .. and not that I don't believe ya... but u can understand why folks may question .ur sincerity....I have never worked at the school in question but I also have heard bad things about it...why not relate why u think these are off the MARK

[spikelee]

Well, first I am not a Lambton stooge if that is your worry. Second I am a teacher there and not Chinese , and I won't say I am a proponent of this school - it has good and bad - but many of the postings were just inaccurate.

And having a solitary post is a sign of something on these forums? Having one post means you know nothing and having 3000 post means you are some sort of ESl God or China guru?

[North China Laowei]

[arioch36]

How often do I agree with nomad

Lee, u show every evidence of being a stooge, perhaps a recruiter (my guess) never posted before, just to reply to this?

yeah having more then 30 posts shows that u r more active on this forum. One post about one thread is suspicious. We have seen it before. How did you even find out about this thread?

Someone directed you here, or you have another name here, and use a different computer to hide your ID make a lot more sense the u just happened to sign up on Dave's and make one post just about this.

Just circumstantial, mind you