Job Discussion Forums

[englishgibson]

This morning I walked into the full of Chinese staff members office and nobody greeted me. Ok, I don't expect them to "go down on their knees" or anything like that, but at least "HI" would be nice. That event has prompted me to rewind all my memories in this country and then later sign in here and click on the new topic.

As a new employee at the center, I am probably hard to remember, although I am only one of 3 FTs out of which one's leaving in a few days. There are about 10 Chinese female workers to remember their FTs in our center.

To be honest, there're scores of attitudal issues that I could mention on, but that's not what I want really now. What I'd like to do on this thread is to compare the present vs the past situation at schools/centers in this country. I really feel that we've been much more appreciated or even respected before than we are now and I don't only mean the salaries.

So, when I came in 2001, I was warmly welcomed and most of the staff members introduced themselves to me. They all gave me such nice smiles when I came. And, there was a big welcome dinner. I'll never forget that. When I came a week ago to fill in this position, a shy girl greeted me in front of the center. She couldn't tell me much as her English was quite poor, so I had to buy her a dinner to give her more time to "express herself". It was worth it as she told me she had to work so hard and they even fined her after she made a mistake. The next day wasn't much happier as few or i can't remember one that said HI I AM...MY JOB HERE IS...

To sum up this sad trend as I see it;
1) Before I was warmly welcomed. A week ago, I felt some cold reception.
2) Before I was invited to a welcome dinner. A week ago, I had to invite for that dinner.
3) Before they said "HI" when I came to work. Now, they put their heads down.
4) Before they gave me an induction. I haven't gotten one till today here, but I can guess since I've done this before.
5) Before they paid for my health check and work visa. Now, I am paying it.
6) Before they offered me a flight reimbursement. Now, they've offered a bonus that's a bit lower than a flight to Canada. Although I am happy 'cause another offer did not offer even that.

I am gona leave it at the number 6 there and allow the other long time FTs in China to give their experiences.

Cheers and beers to the fast growing Chinese economy as well as their developing education that's got schools/center still inviting foreign experts

[kev7161]

I feel, four years after I've arrived, that the teachers and staff are still mostly friendly and helpful towards me. We still have fun together. We just had a teacher's singing competition where I placed 2nd. Several leaders were in attendance (many judging), lots of teachers and staff members as well. Everyone was in high spirits. But I have a story to tell:

This year I decided I needed a break from China. I am set to return to the USA for a several-month leave in September. My school and I already have contracts signed and agreements in place for my eventual return. In March, I suspected they might try and ask me to stay in September at the last minute if they couldn't find enough teachers so I made a "Plan B" proposition with them. Ultimately, they wanted me to return in September if I wanted to, but I was required to stay with my class that I've been teaching for 3 1/2 years but I said no (quite frankly, tired of them, time to move on) so we stuck with the original agreement. No harm, no foul.

Recently, we had a teacher leave our school in a huff (you may remember a now-defunct thread about this) and so I and a couple other teachers have been covering his Grade One classes. I taught that class for the first half of this school year but then moved to the 4th grade class at CNY break. Unbeknownst to me, the parents of this Grade One class put together a petition and all but one parent signed it. They were petitioning me to return to the school to teach this Grade One class when they move into Grade Two. Needless to say, when I found out about this, I was very flattered but didn't know if I wanted to do it or not. I told one of the parents who contacted me that I was open to discussion with the school if they were. Here's the thing - - the school leaders didn't even approach me about it! They didn't tell me about the petition or that they were considering it or what did I think or . . . anything. Finally today I went ahead and mentioned it and they just said something about they already had a teacher in mind for that class. That's fine, I don't care about that; I already have my plans in motion. What kind of irked me was the lack of communication AT ALL about the whole thing. At least they could have said, "Look at this Kev. These parents think so highly of you and that makes us happy as well. However, we are going to go with a different plan . . . " Some thing like that.

Maybe it's just a bruised ego, but now I hope that coming back next year doesn't turn into a fiasco. I mean, they've gotten me a new Residence permit already so it seems like they are keen. They have many of my belongings in storage at the school. We do have the new contract signed. Everything "seems" okay . . . let's hope so.

[JGC458]

[Laurence]

Well, englishgibson~

If that receptionist's English was so bad and speaking made her nervous, why didn't you put her at ease by talking to her in Mandarin instead? Your new colleagues might be cold because they're not used to being shown that kind of respect and openness and understanding of Chinese culture by foreigners.

Give it a little time and see how things pan out. Sometimes Chinese people can take a little longer to reach out on a social level than we are used to. Of course, you must already know this, having been here for 8 years..

Instead of hoping for local business practice to change, why not align your own expectations with what your wealth of experience tells you?

If you're as bitter offline as you are online (and if you really voice all those quotation marks), I'm not surprised that the others haven't warmed to you.

A lot of the time
you find what you look for

don't you think?


@SZKev:
I'd say that the school did the right thing by not bringing that petition up. That sort of thing can give teachers funny ideas. I worked in one school where a teacher got all the parents to sign something saying that they would remove their kids if she was not given another contract (the school rightly wanted to fire her for various things). Not saying you would do that, not at all, and it sounds like you're already aware of the fact that your efforts are appreciated. It sounds like you like your work and you like the school and the kids - that's where I am too these days and it all makes for a great teaching and learning experience : )

I wonder if you'll miss China...


Ah! the topic!
I think language training centres follow a pretty straightforward business model and I don't see many changes personally, although teaching English in China has become much more popular and accessible over the last decade so I'm not surprised to hear that people are missing out of their welcome dinners or whatever.

Less special treatment?
I'm in favour, for sure.

[PattyFlipper]

[kev7161]

To clarify: Our department plans on adding two new classes each year for the next three school years with a total of 12 classes altogether when we are at capacity. Right now we are at 6 and next year will see 8, so nobody is really "taking" my job as the school and department will consistently need new teachers each year for the next couple of years at least ("only" two per year in the unlikely event that all the current and next year's new hires all stick around for the next 2-3 years!). So, I'm not really and truly worried about coming back to a position, just hope that all the goodwill sticks around while I'm gone!

[Jayray]

Do you have fellow foreign teachers? If so, what kind of vibes do you get from them?

I am at a different school this go 'round, and for the first time, I actually met the dean of the foreign languages department. At this school, Chinese teachers actually say hello to me.

My fellow FTs? A totally different story. Gossip and sabotage.

[englishgibson]

call it a frustration...many that've been here longer have had it