Job Discussion Forums

[Ger]

I've been working at a private tutorial centre for a couple of weeks now. The owner's wife (Wifey) is annoying me - she's got a degree from a Canadian university in psychology and economics. Her system is getting on my nerves.

I have had to find my own teaching resources for toddlers (aged 2-3 ) up to primary 6. I bought a grand's worth of books and CDs and they bought toys and CD/tape player.

For the toddlers playgroup, Wifey gave me a small room to use for 5 toddlers plus their parents (that's mum and dad plus relatives and maids). The room seconds as a store room and file room (photocopier paper is stacked in there and the other staff come in and out to get their files during my lessons). Wifey locked away all the toys that had been bought and gave me one small toy with which the toddlers were to play. Needlesss to say the toddlers fought over the toy and the parents complained and wify was quick to tell me of the problems.

For the other lessons, I am supposed to photocopy from my resource books and cut and paste onto company-headed paper. Wify complains that I must not waste paper and I must give the counter staff the books to copy (when the counter staff have my books I don't have them to read through and prepare for other lessons). So I give and I tell them what I want and they copy back to back and how am I supposed to cut and paste onto company paper using back to back photocopies. Anyway the staff often omit pages that I have requested for a lesson. So photocopying is another problem.

Then wify questions me (to justify my request for a photocopy of this page or that page) as to how I plan to teach that item to the pupils. I tell her my plan and she'll tell me no, do it like this and you don't need a photocopy. So I say fine, whatever you say wify.

Filing my lesson plans and photocopies of resources that I've taught. I asked wify for a folder for this purpose and told her that I needed some paper upon which to write. I got this. I told her how I planned to file for record keeping purposes (so as to know who I have taught what to when). She said that's for the teacher to do. Then a week later, after looking through my filing when I wasn't around, she told me not to do my filing that way as it is not cost effective, using too many sheets of paper! She proceeded to tell me how she wants it done and no paper will be given if I don't take her suggestion. I praised her suggestion.

So wifey's sister works at the centre and her two kids study at the tutorial centre. They are rotten. Spoilt rotton. Disruptive and don't co-operate, but clever. I try to teach the lesson focusing on the other pupils but the wify's nephews are jumping around sticking glue on the tables, throwing items at the other kids, laughing at them, etc. Of course there is noise. The walls are paper-thin so the teachers and pupils in the rooms on both sides are disturbed too. Thursday, 3 minutes to the end of lesson, wify was in one of those rooms and charged in to tell me to keep the noise down (as nephew and the other two pupils were supposed to be tidying up the room and started throwing plastic balls at each other and were laughing loudly) I was cleaning up the glue and writing in their handbooks. I had asked nephew to be quiet.

Friday, I was summoned to a meeting with Wifey. My photocopying was slated, my filing system was slated, my teaching was slated, the very teaching resources that I bought were slated, and she told me to go watch another young Chinese native-English speaker's lesson (I needed the time to prepare for an extra last-minute lesson that wifey had scheduled for me immediately after the banana's lesson). So I say, Yes mam. After all she's the owner's wife and I rely on the centre for employment sponsorship, it is a very humiliating situation to have to tolerate.

Any advice on how to look at this situation from another perspective?

[prplfairy]

Try not to let the replies by the resident boneheads discourage you. Really there is no way to deal with people like that, you bosses I mean. They have the power and you don't and nothing is going to make them decent responsible human beings so don't waste your time and effort on them.

The truth is that while your sponsor does support your visa it is an easy process to have it transfered if you find another job. That would be the first obvious step-get out! Then post the name of the center here and anywhere you can find so that other people won't get involved with the place. Also, if you can afford some lean times in the salary department you can just quit and, despite what people say at times, you can stay in Hong Kong for the duration of your work visa. If you leave and come back though you will be classified as a tourist. So if you quit don't leave HK until you get another sponsor.

I would also try to get away from the learning centres if possible and get a NET contract at a school because most of those centres just screw people left and right, although I wouldn't take any crap from people like Freddie Unbelievably Stupid who took the soft NET scheme option. These people have no idea what it is like to work in this city on their own and as you can see don't offer much insight into your dilema. Best of luck.

[Freddie_Unbelievable]

...Freddie Unbelievably Stupid who took the soft NET scheme option...

Look Fairy,

What makes you so morally high? And you assume your approach is allmighty.

You need someone like me to talk some common sense into you.

I think you live in a fairy-world where real problems can be fixed with the wave of your jealous wand.

[prplfairy]

Look Freddie,


The only reason I took a shot at you is that you fail to appreciate anyone else's situation other than your own. This is a forum to converse about jobs in Hong Kong, hence the unambiguous "Job Discussion" title, not to put people down and to write annoying remarks that are neither insightful nor interesting. So you can make moronic comments about my addressing people's concerns with a wand or some other object of your fantasy but I address concerns in some attempt to give insight. Ger actually erased your comments, and Roger’s, they were so useless. So if that makes me "morally high" and "allmighty" [sic] then so be it. Kiss the ring.

As far as your undying belief that everyone is jealous of you, you obviously haven't been paying attention to previous postings. So pull up a chair, sit back, relax and be enlightened. Let's look at the facts, shall we? I have all the benefits of a NET schemer (salary, bonus, etc.) except that I actually chose my school. I had several offers and was able to choose a progressive DSS school with no funding issues. Want books? Buy books. Want IT materials? Buy them. So while I'm not the kind of person who would go around saying that I've got it better than everyone else, a quality I hope you build up to some day, I can certainly say that I'm not jealous of someone like you or anyone else in the NET scheme. As I've said before I think the NET scheme is a good idea and I have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is how certain NET schemers attempt to marginalize English teachers in Hong Kong who are not in the scheme, as if they are not "real" teachers. Teachers who work at learning centers are teachers, teachers who have direct contracts with schools are teachers, teachers who work through agencies are teachers and teachers in the NET scheme are teachers too. The sooner we realize this the sooner people like Ger will get constructive answers to inquiries instead of put downs and sophmoric remarks.

[Freddie_Unbelievable]

oh, I'm sophmoric now. Hmmm, methinks your DSS school has brainwashed you to believe your allmighty.

Teachers in a language school are workers. Do you get your home professionally cleaned?

Now, there is no need for further put-downs on either side. My comments in a previous post were insightful, well-written, and factfull.

Does the truth hurt?

[prplfairy]

Yes, Freddie my DSS school has brain washed me into thinking you are sophmoric-you got it exactly! Your powers of deduction are staggering. Freddie Power: Two plus Two equals a purple eagle. You should market this logic scheme-brilliant!

"Do I have my home cleaned by a professional?" A professional what? Is whether or not you have a cleaner some measure of wealth, status or laziness? This is your insight? Not a question wondering why I think all teachers should be respected and not put down. Not if I know any well trained and educated teachers, not "workers", in learning centres. No, that might be useful, that might actually be on topic.

Does the truth hurt? You are not insightful. You are overly concerned with money. You degrade people who you think they are not your equal, which despite what you think is not insightful. I have a job I love, a nice flat, a good salary, a wonderful spouse, a lively gorgious dog, and I do my bit to help others when I get a chance. Does the truth hurt? No, Freddie, it doesn't.

[Juan Alias]

First time caller...
Freddie, wouldn't it pay, when holding yourself up as a quality teacher of English, to use the language at least accurately?
Jest a thought...

[Freddie_Unbelievable]

Professional housecleaner is oxymoronic. Hmmm, were you reading into other things here?

Methinks is a fun way to write.

Methinks your husband is spending far too much time with your dog.

[prplfairy]

What's wrong Fred? Don't have the cajones to stick with your original post? You must have been pretty hot under the collar to accuse someone of bestiality. You're a sad little man who proves every accusation against you correct.


Sing along Fred: "You do it to youself, you do, and that's what really hurts... just you, you and no one else."