Job Discussion Forums

turvyc · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:55 pm Post subject: Anybody heard of this school?

Howdy all,

I've been lurking around here for a while, and I'm ready to emerge from the woodwork. I'm currently in the process of finding a position in China, and I've received a great offer from Quanzhou Cambridge English Training Center. However, no amount of googling or searching this forum turns up any hits for this school. Also, in the two emails I've gotten, not one has an address or a phone number, nor does the sample contract they sent me (which, curiously enough, was actually titled "Times Language Training Center"). For added bad vibes, the the username of their contact email is iwin666.

Has anybody heard of this place at all? Does it even exist, and if so, is it one to run away from as fast as possible? Any advice would be most welcome.

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

Yur Google iz broke! Try dis: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Quanzhou+Cambridge+English+Training+Center
And: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Times+Language+Training+Center+Quanzhou

Do Enjoy!

turvyc · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:30 pm Post subject:

Hmm, not the most helpful. Believe it or not, I tried that! If you took a moment to look at the results, you'll see that all hits are for various ESL job-finding sites, and not the school's actual website. In fact, some of the links are dead.

Anybody out there with personal experience dealing with this place?

shoo-fly-pie · Joined: 30 Jul 2009 Posts: 26

Hi, turvyc,

What you're experiencing is disconcerting and frustrating, yes, but not at all unusual. Most schools in China have no website, or if they do it is either in Chinese, and rarely (if ever) updated.

As for culture difference, the number "6" in Chinese culture is considered extremely lucky (as is "8"), and so in the minds of Chinese a username with "666" will bring the user good luck. Some Chinese people spend huge sums to obtain cell phone numbers, etc., with lots of "6"s for luck.

Just know that most training centers, in general, are suspect. I lived and taught ESL in China 2003-2008, and I worked in several training centers during that time. In some ways they are better than public institutions, in other ways, not.

Good luck.

seagull · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 38 Location: Perth, Australia