Job Discussion Forums

time to teach · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 73 Location: Bangkok

At the end of the day, it's just a job, an employer-employee relationship. As the saying goes, nothing personal, it's just business and this is just a public case of what's happening at so many English language schools like Aston, where textbook company culture is a camouflage for the bottom line, where corporate language including administrative statements, recruitment, and out of context are used to maintain the rank and file.

Disgruntled employees at China's dancing monkey language mills lose the battle almost every time because the system is designed for high turnover. So many schools like Aston do in fact recruit a majority of young (under 30), white, energetic, smiling happy faces with little or no teaching experience. Hey, there�s nothing wrong with being young and happy. It may be the best drug on the planet. But the faces do come and go, and a few bad apples in the yearly hiring cycle are standard issue in the recruiting game.

Schools like Aston, in my opinion, want their apples to play the staff member game, which means becoming part of the team, to be one big happy family, to show up and follow the rules, to march to the TEFL monkey�s tune and believe the words and phrases of the pecking order like goals and work ethic and chain of command and performance and positive environment, all for the sake of the organization.

The key to the TEFL game in China is finding a teaching job where you can get the most enjoyment and satisfaction with the least amount of BS. Being a happy teacher is about liking our jobs, and especially our students, in the daily grind of the work week. As many here will say, if you�re gonna whine just make sure you like the cheese. And if you choose to be disgruntled, just make sure you remember the second part of the phrase, which is employee.

In the end, every teaching job is just that�a job.

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

I can't resist perpetuating this thread when I read such comments. Wink

[quote=]...textbook company culture is a camouflage for the bottom line, where corporate language including administrative statements, recruitment, and out of context are used to maintain the rank and file. Rolling Eyes

[/quote]

You obviously haven't read my comments about the lack of corporate culture--a common complaint among managers, Chinese included. I had a lot of autonomy at the 5 Astons I worked at as did many FTs I know...and partly due to the high turnover 'design' as you call it--why spend the time helping newbies develop their teaching when they'll be gone in a few months and I'd argue one of the reasons they leave--they don't see TEFL as a professional endeavor and indeed in China, teaching isn't a profession in the western sense of the word. Even you refer to it as 'just a job'.

Believe me, Aston coursebooks don't sell the school, they even turn off some parents as there's too little language for their liking, but they sign up after comparing tuition with the competition, so I guess you're right, it is good camouflage as HO makes a fair bit on them despite their reasonable price.
Smile

time to teach · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 73 Location: Bangkok

My reply was mostly a response to the Jining Aston administrative statement, which rang false to me on a variety of levels. My comments were intended to strike a deeper chord about the realities of working at language schools in China where corporate culture -- the business side of ESL -- often takes the heart and soul out of teaching.

Even the illusion of corporate culture is detrimental to education. It creates business managers brainwashed into believing the corporate buzz words and marching orders from the big bosses at HO. Teachers get lost in the maze of overworked and underpaid staffers running the company while owners pay crap wages and get rich on their tuition-war profits.

And all the while, managers believe that spending years of their lives working for an organization that puts profits before people, and has nothing to do with their self worth as human beings, is somehow a worthwhile professional endeavor.

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

Gav22 · Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 25

Am I the only teacher on here who reads these threads and thinks "why don't you moaning little bitches stay at home in the safety of mummy and daddy's house and leave the traveling to those who are cutout for it?"

Now I haven't worked at this school - but I have worked at other which are something similar by the sounds of it. In my opinion there are two ways to deal with it:

1) Whine, moan, yap and gurn until you go blue in the face, make life difficult for yourself and everyone around you, then go home having had a negative experience and get a job at McDonalds or some fashion store where you will find, once again, that you ARE a dancing monkey and you are NOT special.

2) Relax. Laugh. Say a massive "F**k it!" and go with the flow. Just go to work, do your lessons, get paid,enjoy the food and culture, accept that work is work and stop moaning. If you want a perfectly flushing,working toilet, stay in America or England - if you want a new experience you can look back on and laugh at, learn to take the rough with the smooth.

Of course - don't be a walkover. With the right attitude and persistence, people will respect you and as long as you get your money on time and in full, and you have a roof over your head and enough to eat - what's the issue? This is Asia for Christs sake, it's not supposed to be the Hilton!

Of course the management will treat you like an expendable commodity, because that's what you are. You're there to make them money - and if you want to make tons of money yourself, might i suggest you DON'T teach English? This job pays crap, yes, but what other job do you get to teach around the world and make tons of new friends from countries all over the planet? Personally it's the only job I've ever done that i don't mind doing.

Life is a journey - just go with the flow - have a laugh, and get over it. It's all another story for the book Wink

Enjoy your travels, or stay at home.

Gav Smile

"ATTITUDE IS A LITTLE THING THAT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE" - WAYNE W DYER

Banner41 · Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 656 Location: Shanghai

Tetris · Joined: 11 Feb 2010 Posts: 24

Gav22--

Having been Little Tiger's colleague, I don't think this post is "whining and complaining" as you might choose to call it. It was intended warning as to what may happen when there is no longer a foreign manager.

I used to think as you did--who the aitch are all these people, and what are they complaining about? I made up my mind when I came to China that I would tough it out and not complain about ridiculous things. And guess what? I actually got in trouble for not complaining enough!!

I also might point out that having a roof over my head, money, and food is all I ever asked for myself; these necessities were quickly rendered irrelevant when my water was severed and thugs were banging on my door demanding money.

If you're having a great time, wonderful! Enjoy it, rather than lashing out at long-resolved posts.

time to teach · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 73 Location: Bangkok

seamallowance · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 5:26 pm Post subject:

Bottom line: Avoid Aston Jining and Aston Weishan.

Jining is a gray, flat, smoggy, shithole.

Weishan is worse.

mrwslee003 · Joined: 14 Nov 2009 Posts: 190

Everyone of you have the right to compliment or bitch or complain or explain in Dave's Cafe: Remember you are FTs in China with emphasis on the FOREIGN, because you are away from your familiar surroundings and away from your friends and support group. And Dave's is for this purpose, a safety valve for all your frustrations or emotional highs.

Remember China is a 3rd world country, a developing country, and because she is opening up you may find there are now spots of 1st world and 2nd world living conditions. Where as before this opening up there were "poverty" everywhere, from north to south, from west to east. And FTs played a great role in this transformation of this poverty stricken country.

So FT's, don't get on each other's nerves, because you are all in the same boat-trying to contribute to the transformation and improvement and modernization of this vast land, with the hope of getting some satisfaction in return. And sometimes you only get a pain in the behind, after all your troubles. That is the unfortunate part. But that too is part
of life. No one promised us "a rose garden".

Life is too short, FTs, enjoy it, the good and the not so good.

Cheers, I was in China from 07-09.