Job Discussion Forums

[vikuk]

[davesesl99]

I see this topic has started a typical string including unconstructive nitpicking. The point being offered so as to help other teachers is that many language schools will damage your reputation for no good reason. Success in such places has nothing to do with �knowing what you are doing� or applying good teaching skills. Teachers are asked to dance, sing, divulge personal information, and do pretty much whatever makes the student happy. TESL � Total Entertainment in Student Lessons.

Comments to the contrary are tainted for the well-known fact of retaliation toward anti-Chinese thinking. If you are successful in such places, consider yourself a good salesperson or entertainer to an infantile crowd. Other student markets, like Japan, are serious about teaching results which can�t be said for Beijing, and the difference in English ability is obvious.

Let�s acknowledge what is happening here for what it is, and at least support each other when questionably and subjectively qualified people start using words like professionalism and Teaching. Has anyone caught on to, or should i say ready to admit to, the collective network of people in schools and classes and offices throughout Beijing? Their objective is to create mocked up situations for the fake impression that a particular Teacher is 'so great'. Can we safely say that ANY kind of feedback from these places is ridiculous and they only serve as case-studies of service businesses offering leisure and entertainment with no standards whatsoever.

Perhaps someone will provide an OP on the management practices of these places, or lack of. Has anyone included a waiver in their contract for the fact that teaching experience/qualification is asked for but reprimanded when used in the work?

If any of the over 500 readers of this post would like to contact me via PM, feel free.

[MGreen]

If you find yourself in this kind of situation or working for a language mill of this caliber, quit! I feel for teachers who get put into a situation like this but you have choices.

[Super Frank]

I can't believe I'm back here again.
I thought the point of the post was to inform us that our text messages were being surveiled(?). Good job I lost my phone then. The only people I know who have had touble with that is from girlfriends checking through, and they are a lot worse than the PSB when it comes to demanding explanations.
I get a bit naffed off with people saying things like "I'll teach English for a while, then a get a proper job". To me, any job is a proper job if it gives you money to eat and live. As for ESL, some people take the job seriously, others don't. If you put in the effort it it is relatively easy to get better positions with more responsibility as a lot teachers are just in it for the short term.

[vikuk]

[davesesl99]

Super Frank - You can take whatever is helpful to you from this string. I would say you are right in that people go into ESL work for different reasons. Its a pity for the industry that it isn`t taken seriously, and then we know why that is in Beijing at least.

Vikuk - It seems you haven`t met teachers who had to leave their job or Beijing entirely for the targeted gossip and smearing of them. This example was in Shanghai, where a student faked to be the HR Manager of a company and said he would directly contact the past students of the teacher, bypassing the teacher`s current employer and their sales staff. Your reputation now teeters on the opinion of students, who are inherently prejudice.

This is what i am saying in my posts, that if you try to meet the local expectation of reputation, you will be doing little associated with teaching and acting contrary to what is professional and credible. Any feedback on your work is meaningless for the local prejudice and mandated thinking that anything different than chinese thinking is consider a threat.

[vikuk]

[Shan-Shan]

[davesesl99]

Vikuk � Shan Shan`s post serves your example of gossip and smearing. The Internet (outside of Daves Caf�) is loaded with posting of FT`s who are smeared by students. Curious that such little response is coming out here and the one response to your question comes from out of China ( It seems Shan Shan is writing from out of China). You�re not going to deny that FTs in China are forced to compromise their ideas and what they say so as to avoid being harassed by the sensitive locals. If you can`t confess to this, the over 700 readers of this string will know who you are.

Another story for you at an EF English chain school in BJ, where the FT Supervisor confronted a female student who was spying on an FT`s text messages and harassing them and trying to sabotage the class with it. The student stopped. Try to connect the dots on the gossip workings considering how the local environment operates :-

It would seem that administrations are doing nothing about this, when they easily can. What are they afraid of? One business in BJ was dealing with the problem of smearing and invalid criticisms, and actually supporting their FTs and keeping credibility in their FTs and the business name itself. Another business offering online training was acknowledging the ridiculous feedback of the student market in BJ and dealing with it accordingly.

Perhaps you can enlighten me on this. Why would an administration let their school/business name suffer to the slanderous and infantile feedback of students?

Should the authorities get involved to control (bad word I know, but little choice here) that TESL requirements and Visa requirements for FTs are actually serving some purpose and that the Chinese population is learning English and not creating a recreation industry, contrary to the government�s intentions.

[MGreen]

Where are you teaching? Maybe this is a problem at language mills, but at most first tier universities in China, this IS NOT an issue. I have never had to compromise my ideas, teaching style etc here in Beijing.

If this is happening to you in Beijing, head out to the Haidian District and apply for some university jobs.

[vikuk]

[Shan-Shan]

[arioch36]

I was teaching my 2nd year students to do a complaint letter to the college. Usual, cafeteria food, library hours. They all wanted a system for taking showers that did not charge a flat fee, but you paid based on how much you used.

ANYWAYS Another common complaint of theirs was how the administration would listen to any student complaint about a teacher, and never listen to the teacher, and how many Chinese teachers operated under this fear. So they feel the smear thing that students can do on a teacher is a real problem

[Itsme]

Regarding the OP, wow you should be on CNN or something!

[jwbhomer]