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Greg 09
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 169
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 Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Brian Hugh wrote: |
| Watch out for you electric and water bills. Check and make sure you will get your plane ticket. Don't count on other teachers to tell you the up and up because they are often held hostage over their airfare. The leaders of the school will arrange meetings with buxiban owners. You provide extra income for them because the two universities are the only people allowed to employ foreign teachers. So if you decide to keep a low profile and not do the extra hours you may have a problem. |
I hate butting into threads like this, but I hate misinformation even worse.
NIT does not give you a plane ticket, they give you 7000rmb per semester - in cash - for air allowance. Nobody is held hostage over anything. Nobody is pressured to teach extra hours, anywhere. The two Universities are not the only people allowed to hire foreign teachers in Nanyang.
Yes, we are asked occasionally if we'd be willing to work in this place or that, but my refusal has never compromised any pay, allowance, bonus or relationship with the school officials.
I don't know who you "know", but your "facts" are unsubstantiated on the ground. |
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lemak
Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 368
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| johntpartee wrote: |
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| For the second one I have talked to a teacher there who has been there for 3 years |
That's a pretty good indicator, assuming she's a teacher and not a shill. |
Another one to bear in mind is exactly *who* has been there 3 years. I work with some old geezers who are so haggard and decrepit they could almost pass for 2013 era The Golden Girls (and I think a couple of those 'old dears' are deceased), yabbering away in their Nucky Thomson era English to young Chinese punks who are more interested in their iphones and qq ranking than hearing about how gay and hearty a shilling and a thruppence's worth of crumpets made them feel on the steamship to Hartfordshire.
For all intents and purposes they are essentially unemployable elsewhere and the school is somewhat desperate for teachers to add to the contingent of Czech, Ukranian and Mexican "native English speakers"
So they stick around stinking up the place with cod liver oil, halitosis and decaying Alzheimer's addled brains.
Likewise sometimes I go to collect my wife from her uni for lunch just as the English classes are letting out in the neighboring building. The circus troupe of foreign teachers staggering and limping out of the halls could almost pass for a scene from Dawn of the Dead - dwarves, morbidly obese chicks with goiters, blood shot eyes, acid wash jeans, mullets.
Most of those guys aren't rapidly getting hired elsewhere. So they stay on, and 3 years, 5 years, 7 years passes quickly.
Don't intend to be ageist, or sexist, or freakist, but someone in the prime of their employability....blond hair, big boobs, desirable degree, big boobs, blue eyes and big boobs sticking around at some uni gig for 3 years is far different to fruitcakes such as Jimmy Savile or Kenny Powers doing so.
(and yeah I watch too much TV, so 'effin what!  ) |
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teachingld2004
Joined: 17 Feb 2012
Posts: 389
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| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 12:11 am Post subject: univ |
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To be fair about age, I have worked with 30 yr old's who would rather drink then teach. I have worked with a 28 yr old who never took a shower and was quite ripe. I have worked with a 26 yr old who was more interested in how many checks were on his score card then class prep time. I worked with a 65 yr old who was the best teacher I knew. You can not comment about ages.
I worked with teachers over the age of 55 who taught in their own countries and came here because they loved it here.
I have worked with people ages 22 - 60 who got jobs here because people in their own countries would not touch them with a 10 foot pole.
People who stay for years in a job do so for many reasons.
1) they love it
2)school just needs a white face (sorry people)
3) school too lazy to look for anyone else
4) people so good looking they are there for photos.
Age does not matter I would rather have people over the age of 55 with experience then recent college grads who never worked in places other then fast food
This does not mean that some one with out experience could not do a good job, but hey, age means nothing |
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lemak
Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 368
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| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 1:20 am Post subject: Re: univ |
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| teachingld2004 wrote: |
Age does not matter I would rather have people over the age of 55 with experience then recent college grads who never worked in places other then fast food
This does not mean that some one with out experience could not do a good job, but hey, age means nothing |
You missed my point.
My post was nothing to do with old people being crappier teachers because they were in their autumn years. Plenty of teachers in their 20s and 30s stink up the place worse than Mr Zhang's breath.
Age *does* however mean something when a new school won't take a chance and hire you because you're over 60 or 65, yet the current place of employment will keep you around because you are a known quantity.
At that point the best school in China is the one who can get you a visa.
Were all things equal I don't think the oldies at my school would have stuck around here for the 4+ years they have.....they've said as much. So when the FAO says in an interview we have teachers who've been here for 3/4/5 years it doesn't necessarily correspond with the quality of the workplace.
*That* was my point. |
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lemak
Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 368
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| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 1:36 am Post subject: Re: univ |
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| teachingld2004 wrote: |
People who stay for years in a job do so for many reasons.
1) they love it
2)school just needs a white face (sorry people)
3) school too lazy to look for anyone else
4) people so good looking they are there for photos. |
Let me add to your list with the teachers who've been at my school for longer than 3 years.
5) Has family here - easiest way to get the visa
6) Studying a PhD. This job guarantees him easy hours
7) Doesn't have a degree. This job gives him a visa.
8 ) Overweight, ugly and creepy (the ESL trifecta!). Re-applies at different schools every semester but doesn't get many offers.
9) Lives opposite the campus with his wife who works opposite the campus. School offered to sponsor his visa.
10)-Non-native speaker - school sponsors the visa.
11)-Studying Chinese at a nearby private school who don't offer visas. This place does and gives a basic level of cash flow.
12)-Old man # 1 - 68 years old
13)-Old man # 2 - 65 years old
14)-Old woman - 65 years old....these guys apply for different places every year, but turned down endlessly, so they stick around.
That's like 70 or 80% of the foreign workforce at my school who've been here multiple years - but for personal or alternate reasons - not because they love the school. Most of them grumble endlessly about it. But to a newb when the FAO sell them on the number of long term employees it must sound like the happiest place on earth.
The "more marketable" teachers consistently disappear after their first contract is up.
The *reason* teachers have stuck around for a long time at the same workplace is far more important than the simple fact they've stayed so long. |
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teachingld2004
Joined: 17 Feb 2012
Posts: 389
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| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:05 pm Post subject: NIT or |
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Well, I did take the job and know why the teachers stay. It is a great place to work. So I guess I was lucky.
I have worked with the dreggs of society who the schools wil hire again year after year becase the boss is lazy. Blows my mind how these kinds of teachers stay.
One year in Korea I stayed at the same school for another year because I just loved the location,, has my apartment all fixed up, and was not in the mood to move. The year was OK, not great, but it was near the sea and after work and some of the time before work I would go walk along the beach and I was in heaven. |
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