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Walton foreign Language school suspicious death.
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milkweedma



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 151

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:16 am    Post subject: Walton foreign Language school suspicious death. Reply with quote

suspicious death of foreign teacherBy:truthiness <Show E-Mail>
Date: 28 August 2011 In Response To: Re: Re Guangdong-Pei Zheng College Guangzhou (Turnoi)

Suspicious death of foreign teacher at school connected to Karl Wang at Peizheng College:
Death this weekend of a foreign teacher at Walton Foreign Language Schol in Huadu, near Peizheng. Karl Wang may by silent partner in the school.

(from another forum)

Re: Guangdong Peizheng College / Pei Zheng College

Postby TheTruth � Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:24 am
I made a posting concerning an ex-teacher of Peizheng College who was an employee of Walton Foreign Language School, Huadu until he lept to his death over the weekend over a visa and pay dispute.

Firstly, the owner of Walton Foreign Language School is among Karl Wang's closest friends. The school is located in the same complex in which Karl Wang lives. Additionally, Lidia, the owner and Karl's wife socialize together and Karl and the Taiwanese owner are on quite good drinking terms. It has been noised about Huadu and the complex where the school is located that Karl Wang is actually one of the "silent investors" in this school. The school is known for being highly, highly profitable and exceptionally malevolent to foreign teachers.

This suicide has been highly censored in the local press and reaches us through an overseas portal and through a contact at the Australian Consulate General, Guangzhou. There was indeed a suicide plunge.

For any of the teachers currently on the ground in Peizheng, have you any idea whom this teacher might be? From what I have been told through twitter, he was employed by Peizheng in 2009 - 2010, not at the present time.

What a true, true tragedy.

---

TheTruth

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Re: Guangdong Peizheng College / Pei Zheng College

Postby truthiness � Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:36 am
First, many thanks to the moderator for saving this thread.

------------------------

I don't have any idea who the unfortunate teacher is. This is an alarm bell of sorts. The government must step in and do something about this because news of this is incident could spread like wildfire and China could really start to get a really bad image because of it.

For now, this death is only a rumour. And frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a suicide. Who would commit suicide over a salary dispute? It's more likely he was murdered, in my opinion. Foreigners can just leave and go back home if things get that bad.

This case reminds me of the death of poor Darren Russell in 2005, an English teacher who it is claimed was killed by his school.

http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine- ... cher-death

http://teachinginchina.net/

NBC's special report on Darren Russell's death:

http://teachinginchina.net/pages/news.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?tid=506120

Some more reasons not to come to Peizheng:

1. Whitish dust from nearby construction fills the air.
2. Dust from all the heavy vehicles blasting through Peizheng.
3. The speed at which very large vehicles go through Peizheng. A student was killed a while back by a large vehicle.
4. The two long open sewers. The stench is vile.
5. The huge rat problem Peizheng has. I don't know how they can handle the stench.
6. The dirty restaurants in Peizheng, and the difficulty in finding food without pig fat or MSG. There is a Muslim restaurant, but it's not clean. I found insects in my food there once.
7. The regularity at which water and electricity are shut off.
8. The mosquito problem. The rooms have no screens and the classrooms are full of mosquitoes too.
9. The sofas, which are covered in dust as they disintegrate.
10. The quality of the water.
11. The speed of the internet.
12. Extra visa hassles when you leave.




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milkweedma



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 151

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2328&start=280
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i hate to take locked's side in this, but since he didn't write
LEGAL in all caps, i'll back him on this one.

wouldn't you say it was the OP who jumped to conclusions?
FT kills self. white folks would never do such a thing, eh?
obviously then a "suspicious death," and OP "wouldn't be
surprised if it wasn't a suicide."

an accident, perhaps. oh, no! OP accuses a respected chinese
bid'nessman of evil deeds...."It's more likely he was murdered"

really, be honest, what are the odds? businessman kills
employee over a couple thousand in unpaid wages?
or ex-backpacker, pothead, crack-addict, 'teacher' od's
and tries to fly off the roof? not sayin' the dead guy was
such, but given what tends to accumulate in backwaters,
odds are pretty good the feller had some problems.
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kev7161



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 5880
Location: Suzhou, China

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also, the OP (from another forum) seems to post in a highly melodramatic and sensationalistic way (hmmm . . . wonder if he's ever been a member at this forum? Nahhhhh!):

Quote:
The school is known for being highly, highly profitable and exceptionally malevolent to foreign teachers.
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Lobster



Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, reading skills check. Nobody said that the FT had a drinking problem! What was said was that the owners of his previous and current schools are drinking buddies. One person here misreads it and then others agree. What's with that?

I'm not going to speculate on the reason for the jump, but observe that the possibility that someone would jump to their death due to a visa or pay dispute seems highly unlikely. At any rate, it's very sad. It seems that the institutions mentioned are total snake pits. Did anyone else watch the video of the FT Director talking to the FTs? If that's any indication of what goes on at PZ, I feel sorry for anyone who works there.

RED
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
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Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lobster wrote:
...I'm not going to speculate on the reason for the jump, but observe that the possibility that someone would jump to their death due to a visa or pay dispute seems highly unlikely...


there was that kiwi a few months back claiming his life in china was
so bad he was ready to jump......
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mike w



Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1071
Location: Beijing building site

PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
there was that kiwi a few months back claiming his life in china was
so bad he was ready to jump...


And he is trying to get back to China as you read this .... go figure!!
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Silent Shadow



Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 380
Location: A stones throw past the back of beyond

PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

choudoufu wrote:
Lobster wrote:
...I'm not going to speculate on the reason for the jump, but observe that the possibility that someone would jump to their death due to a visa or pay dispute seems highly unlikely...


there was that kiwi a few months back claiming his life in china was
so bad he was ready to jump......


...but this poor fellow in Peizheng did jump (or at least that was the claim). There's a big difference between making a statement on the internet, and actually doing it.
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The Great Wall of Whiner



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll just state my opinion and then leave:

MY OPINION, so no need to flame/insult me:


In my opinion, the chances of an educated foreigner committing suicide over a pay dispute is extremely low, considering they can walk away and work almost anywhere else.

I also believe that the odds of a profitable school with dubious owners facing the loss of hundreds of thousands of yuan is much more likely to kill someone rather than someone killing themself over a few thousand yuan.

Questions:

Any suicide note? Any e-mails to family/friends? If there were, they would have contacted the police/media back at home immediately.

I think this story is either a fabrication and/or suspicious.

[update]

I did some checking, this is all quite possibly a hoax. More later...
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eslteach



Joined: 28 Sep 2010
Posts: 94

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:47 am    Post subject: Re: Walton foreign Language school suspicious death. Reply with quote

milkweedma wrote:
And frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a suicide. Who would commit suicide over a salary dispute? It's more likely he was murdered, in my opinion. Foreigners can just leave and go back home if things get that bad.



Of course a murder is more likely.

"Oh, no, my visa is taking too long to be processed."

"Oh, no, I might lose this 900$ a month job which is even less than I could make at McDonalds back home"

There is absolutely no way a western person committed suicide because of this.
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Opiate



Joined: 10 Aug 2011
Posts: 630
Location: Qingdao

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:33 pm    Post subject: Re: Walton foreign Language school suspicious death. Reply with quote

eslteach wrote:
milkweedma wrote:
And frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a suicide. Who would commit suicide over a salary dispute? It's more likely he was murdered, in my opinion. Foreigners can just leave and go back home if things get that bad.



Of course a murder is more likely.

"Oh, no, my visa is taking too long to be processed."

"Oh, no, I might lose this 900$ a month job which is even less than I could make at McDonalds back home"

There is absolutely no way a western person committed suicide because of this.


You must be kidding, sure there is. Not saying it was the case here but it is certainly plausible on the little information we have about this scenario and FT's in general.

How many mentally unbalanced teachers have you met during your time here? I have met more than a few. I have met folks who are running from various issues both legit and shady. I have known people who stayed here too long and who made no efforts to integrate their time here into a normal life back home. For some there is no going back, at least not easily.

Again, I have no opinion on the incident but to say there is no way it could have been a suicide seems foolish. Likely? Perhaps not. Impossible?...Certainly not.

Furthermore, I often hear how you can make more at home working at McD's and I often want to strangle the person who says it since it is utter horseshit. In China I can live off of what would equate to a McD's salary back home but guess what....here I can eat out, go drinking, dating, have a social life, and not count pennies. Try doing that on a McD's salary wherever your home is.
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igorG



Joined: 10 Aug 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: asia

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here in Guangzhou, i haven't really heard of this case. From my very experience, the local authorities around the country are just too good for any media. It's hard to imagine our lives would vanish without being noticed. In my mind, that hurts more than hitting the ground.
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The Great Wall of Whiner



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:07 am    Post subject: Re: Walton foreign Language school suspicious death. Reply with quote

Opiate wrote:

Furthermore, I often hear how you can make more at home working at McD's and I often want to strangle the person who says it since it is utter horseshit.


It's all down to personal experience. It's only good for bachelors who want to work minimally and drink/chase tail all day. For a family guy, heck no, not work it at all.

Where I hail from, it's 10 dollars and hour to start. 10X8=80 bucks. 80 bucks multiplied by 5 is 400. 400X4=1600.

$1,600 is around what? 10000RMB?

So, from my own personal point of view, the pension I am paying into, medical care and unemployment benefits added with free schooling for my two kids and a baby bonus every month X2, added with my wife working full-time at 10 bucks an hour adds to what?

Mortgage of 900 bucks a month for a decent house, and after 20 years we own the house when the kids finish school we have several hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets to enjoy ourselves with.

And it is just as cheap to eat at home than it is to eat in China now. The prices have skyrocketed.

Strangle away, but facts remain as they are. Unless you are a free-wheeling bachelor in his 20's, not worth it.

Besides, with all of our alleged education and experience, we should be able to command better paying jobs.
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Cairnsman



Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Mortgage of 900 bucks a month for a decent house, and after 20 years we own the house ....

Wow! Decent houses must be cheap in Canada!

In Australia, a 20 year mortgage with monthly repayments of $900.00 equates to a loan of $110,000, at the prevailing home loan interest rate of 7.5%. You'd need to have at least $200,000 in savings (to add to your loan) for a run-of-the-mill, outer-suburb house in any of Australia's major cities.
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The Great Wall of Whiner



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Decent houses are not cheap in Canada, I am only speaking of personal ability. Like a low interest rate for borrowing and homes for under 140k.

I do my homework and ignore real estate agents and pay attention to auctions.
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