Job Discussion Forums

[kukiv]

[daCabbie]

Despite your previous problems, there is no way anyone saw this coming.

I hope you will keep us updated. We are dying to hear how the story ends?

You need to think up some cool tale to tell after this is all done to explain the scars. Vicious dogs or a kidnapping tale. 'War stories' to tell the grandchildren.

But, all joking aside. I hope you are all right. Please be careful. Take the antibiotics the doctor gave you and keep the wounds clean.

I don't live near Xi'an but I have an extra room if it is needed.

Good Luck and remember you have friends in China. Not everyone is psycho.

[kukiv]

[LarssonCrew]

So, my friend who works at the school came to visit me today to basically explain the position.

Obviously the Chinese teacher said that the empty, 200ml water bottle we threw back and forth had 'seriously hurt her?', but I　ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｌｙ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｂｌａｔｅｎｔｌｙ　ａｎ　ａｔｔｅｍｐｔ　ｔｏ　ｓａｖｅ　ｆａｃｅ，　ｏｎｃｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｌｉｍｅｌｉｇｈｔ　ｔｒａｎｓｆｅｒｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｈｅｒ．

Ｔｈｅ　ｍａｉｎ　ｅｔｈｏｓ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｔｈｅ　Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ｐｅｒｓｐｅｒｃｔｉｖｅ　ｉｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｏｍｅｎ　ｗａｓ　ｏｎｌｙ　＇ｈｏｒｓｉｎｇ　ａｒｏｕｎｄ＇．　Ｓｔｉｌｌ，　ａｆｔｅｒ　ａ　ｄａｙ　ｏｆ　ｒｅｃｏｖｅｒｉｎｇ　ａｎｄ　ｒｅｃｕｐｅｒａｔｉｎｇ，　ｉｔ　ａｐｐｅａｒｓ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｏｕｎｄ　ｗａｓｎ＇ｔ　ａｓ　ｄｅｅｐ　ａｓ I thought, but still, I've required hospitaliation and there is a long cut along my thigh. I was wearing very very thick jeans, and the force she must have required to make me bleed and cut me quite badly without actually cutting the jeans means alot of blunt trauma force.

Another is that I shouldn't have just 'walked away' without discussing with my manager. Apparently I should have 'shown the manager before you left.' What a shambles, I was in utter shock at this happening, and just wanted to get the hell out of the building that the woman was walkig in. I didn't think to say 'hey guys!I've been cut, [name of my manager] come into the toilets and I'll drop my trousers so you can review this damage that the co-worker has inflicted, I'm in no rush though!' How embarrasing and downright backward.

It beggers belief, and yet again the 'excuse' of 'but this is China' comes into play. I'm sorry, but no matter WHERE you are in the world, you shouldn't be attacked without some sort of retribution or compensation to say the least. Whenever anyone has said 'this is China' I've replied with, 'so you can cut people with knives, scissors etc. in China no problem', this will of course lead to silence.

Anyways, it appears I will have to appease the masses by working tomorrow purely to make sure I get my pay on Wednesday before I leave, I can't afford not to recieve anything this month because I've got medicine to pay for and such. On the plus side because alot of schools enjoy the way I teach I'm not shy of offers.

[LanGuTou]

Seriously mate, I would confront the leader and tell him that you will drop the matter if he pays you up and gives you a release letter. I would do it in a soft, compromising tone. A sort of 'let's call it quits and move on' approach. You clearly have no future at this place and will never be liked.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

politely but firmly demand compensation and then take a hike out outta that place. give them a deadline to sort it out, and stand firm. if nothing happens, then tell these clowns you're going to paste this incident, along with names and places, all over the internet and you'll make sure they'll never get another foreigner in there again. don't back down and dont show any weakness, they'll jump on that.

at worst, they call your bluff and nothing happens (i doubt it though). but if so, they'll have to start stabbin each other next time. . . .

[Teatime of Soul]

Usually FTs come here to complain about being stabbed in the back by co-workers.

So it sounds like you got off pretty easy.

I could see being maybe five minutes late if you had to tie off an arterial (bright red blood) squirting wound.

But being late for patching up a venous bleeder (dark red) is bordering hypochondriac, you should bleed out slowly enough to finish class with seconds to spare.

Man up and get back to class.

[johntpartee]

Careful, Teatime, I've noticed that there are some of these folks that don't get sarcasm. You COULD be held liable.

[johntpartee]

[kukiv]

If this forum was full of old vets then a sarcastic crack or two over how an FT could find themselves in a situation like this would be hilarious - but I'm afraid the majority of dave's inhabitants seem to be the kind of suckers upon who the evil Chinese mill-master prey upon - and I for one hate seeing those sharks profit out of yet another gullible newbie .
Over the years Kid Castle Xian has been posted numerous times for one or another violation of FT conditions - and indeed this isn't the first time violence has been reported at this school - a couple or so years back another poster reported being jostled and threatened when they tried to move their possessions out of a school rented apartment because of dispute with the employers and leaving before contract end.

To tell the truth I'm getting of the opinion a lot of folk deserve what they get for taking some of these crummy jobs - its more the sheer injustice of the way some local employers think they can treat the FT and their other employees that rankles me.
If anything a Forum like Dave's is all about standards - a record among FT's over the quality of employment. It looks here as if quality has fallen clean through the floor - ain't much to joke about there

[The Voice Of Reason]

make sure you don't marry the lass

when will teachers learn? if you're not Chinese it's your fault!

seriously, unfortunately (since you're in China), the only satisfactory outcome you might gain now, i think, will be in leaving the place. i'd talk calmly with your boss and expain why it's best if both parties just call it quits; that you get paid for your work (no penalty) and the contract is as of now agreed to be ended.

saying that however, thinking about it, i'm sad to say that as bend-over-backwards totally over-reasonable the above might sound, i doubt your boss would agree and would come out with threats if you don't continue teaching wearing a wide grin.

run ...... oh, sorry

best of luck how ever you continue with this

[Tainan]

In Taiwan I spent a few weeks doing substitute teaching for someone who was on vacation, paid by the hour. I think it was about ten or fifteen hours a week. One afternoon I rather suddenly started feeling ill but I decided I would still be able to teach. I went to work in the evening and started teaching the two teenagers who were my students for that lesson. As the lesson progressed I became steadily worse; eventually I was unable to stand, was dizzy and nauseous. We only had about twenty minutes of the lesson left, however. I sat down (it was just two teenagers at a table, after all) and basically had them do something for the rest of the lesson which involved my doing as little as possible.

Anyway--the next day (when I was fine--the flu or whatever it was went away as quickly as it had come) the school said that the students (little dears) had told their parents that the teacher had fallen asleep in class (not true), that the parents had complained, and that they (the school) would not be paying me for that lesson. We got into an argument in which they said that I should have told them in advance that I was too ill to teach, so that they could have found a substitute for me, and I replied that I had had no idea before class that it would get as bad as it did. I also pointed out that I had taught most of the class, and even at the worst I did not "fall alseep"--I had sat down (admittedly I had put my head down on the desk) and had the students do something (read aloud? discuss some questions in the book? An exercise?) while I tried to regain my strength.

The argument went back and forth and around in circles for a while; finally they agreed to pay me half the price of that lesson. The whole thing left me with a bad taste in my mouth about bean-counters, (and stupid teenagers who cannot tell the difference between someone collapsing with illness and someone "falling asleep") but compare this to your situation:

In my situation they threatened not to pay me for one hour during which I had not performed fully; in your situation they have threatened not to pay you for an entire month?

In my situation it was, at least, not the school's fault that I was unwell; in yours you were actually attacked my a colleage.

The colleague who attacked you is a lunatic and something should be done about it.

For comparison, I spent two years teaching at a Chinese university as well. Early in my second year there, I got suddenly sick and collapsed in the middle of a lesson. (By the way--since I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea--I'm a very healthy person. The two episodes I"m describing are pretty much the only time illness has struck in the last ten years!)

My students insisted on taking me to a hospital, I was fine, and everything went on as normal. I apologised and wanted to repeat the class that had been interrupted but they wouldn't hear of it. "It's not your fault if you get sick!" They said. No whisper of docking pay--just they hoped I would get better soon. In this incident the mainland employer was more human than the Taiwanese one, I'm sorry to say.

But one more note--in mainland China, if you are eating at a restaurant and you break a glass, they charge you for the glass.

[oldboy]

The woman who stabbed you is probably lurking in the shadows of some dark street in China, hunting another FT with the same scissors in her hand.
Until you stop this ESL slayer, non of us are safe.

[LanGuTou]

[theincredibleegg]

This story has more to it. It doesn't add up at all.