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[MESL]

Nanyang: Good schools, bad schools


Nanyang is the 2nd of 3rd largest city in Henan. Henan is a good job market because it is China’s most populated province and because there’s nothing particularly exciting here to draw competition. The other side is that the visa requirements in this province are more tedious than in other provinces.

I had a great situation at a private school in Nanyang. Salary was 10,000 yuan. Awesome team teachers who fully participated in every lesson. Not a bad apple in the bunch. And I’ve had some 35 team teachers in 4 countries. So in my experience, this is very unusual. Technology in every classroom. AC in every classroom and every office. Although a lot of the technology was showing signs of wear. One computer wouldn’t connect to the projector, another wouldn’t play videos, another wouldn’t open Word documents or photos, etc. Large apartment with free utilities. Great restaurant a stone’s throw from the gate, although a bit expensive. Bus stop across the street from the school. And the students. Very enthusiastic. Not at all shy like typical Chinese students. Except the high school students, who chronically played hooky or preoccupied themselves with their gadgets. Huge language school with impressive facilities and small class sizes.

Everything was going great until the summer break. The office manager, who was the principal’s wife, got it in her head that she was going to keep me busy during the summer break. She wanted me to report to the language school every morning at 7 a.m. and park myself there until 5 p.m. She also wanted me to sign in and sign out. Never mind that the contract doesn’t include office hours or signing in and out. Never mind that she didn’t provide me with an office, desk, computer, Internet connection, or printer in said language school. And neither did the language school director. Now how am I supposed to prepare lessons for the next semester with zero resources. So the desk in my apartment became my workstation, as it had all of the above, plus a vpn. So me and my assistant dove into work. We made 500 vocabulary flash cards and 25 conversation, vocabulary, story, essay, and video transcript handouts. Meanwhile, I researched and downloaded 35 education videos. Plenty of office hours. I was on the verge of starting on the picture flashcards and more video transcripts when it hit the fan.

Come payday, there was a big scene. I appealed to the Foreign Experts Bureau and the Labor Board. The principal was so enraged that I had gotten government agencies involved, the used the master key to bust into my apartment without notice, read a contract termination notice in Chinese in an increasingly loud voice, then stormed out. He also ordered my personal translator out of the dorm and threatened to bring the police the next morning to escort her out. Then the language school director invited her to a powwow, allegedly to work things out with me. Turned out to be an effort to convince my translator to break with me, thus weakening my ability to stand up to the principal. This after evicting her and threatening her with a police escort, hmm. After she moved out, the principal instructed the gatekeeper to not open the gate for her. He gave me a week to move out. Meanwhile, he fired the school’s foreign liaison, by far my best team teacher in the school, because she was the only witness that the FAO had given my translator/assistant permission to live in the dorm. This wasn’t the first barking episode. When I tried to get my summer pay, several times I had to park my body between the office manager and my translator to prevent the one from verbally abusing the other in her face.

This wasn’t the first pay controversy. The payday the month before, the accountant tried to give me 8000 instead of 10,000. I informed the accountant and the office manager that my salary was 10,000 yuan, not 8000 yuan. They told me the FAO told them to pay me 8000 yuan. Then they told me the FAO was not on campus and was not answering her phone. I said, “The FAO doesn’t determine my salary. The contract determines my salary.” They said, “We don’t know what the contract says because we can’t read English.” I said, “The contract is bilingual.” They said, “We don’t have a copy of the contract.” I said, “The contract is right there in your office drawer.” They said, “We don’t have the key to the drawer.” I said, “The contract is also on your office computer.” After arguing with them for a long time and repeatedly demanding that they honor the contract, I left with a partial salary and notified the school’s foreigner liaison about the situation. Later that day, the FAO told me to return to the office to get the remaining 2000 yuan of my salary. Then the accountant gave me the 2000 yuan. In the morning, my salary is 8000 yuan. In the afternoon, my salary is 10,000 yuan. And nobody ever explained to me what happened. It was like a comedy movie, except it wasn’t funny. This gave me a brilliant idea. If the FAO can change my salary from month to month - indeed, from hour to hour - and since the accountant takes her cues from the FAO, then I suppose she can tell the account that my salary next month is 100,000 yuan. Then we can split the money, 50,000 yuan for me, 50,000 yuan for her. Sounds like a plan.

Without making a formal request, I inquired with the Foreign Experts Bureau and later the Labor Board about my options and the procedures for an appeal. You guessed it. No sooner than I had hailed a taxi, both or them were on the phone with the principal. An attorney told me that for 5000 yuan, he would represent me in a court case, but not before either of the government agencies. Ask a judge to help me, so he can get on the phone with the principal no sooner than I hail a taxi. Sounds like a plan.

If you’re considering offers in Nanyang, PM me and I’ll tell you if you’re dealing with the same school. Meanwhile, there are other good schools in Nanyang, although the salaries are 40% lower. One is the technical university. One of my best Chinese friends in Nanyang to knows a couple of the foreign teachers there, both of whom have been there for several years. There is also the teachers college, where the above Chinese friend is on staff, along with her daughter, in the English department. She owns the oldest and biggest weekend language school in Nanyang. All the Chinese teachers in the language school are licensed teachers, all have degrees in English, all are fluent, all work in the public schools. It’s a good place to network.

[Greg 09]

Wow, there must be a great back story to this episode hidden deep within the bowels of of cultural relations between a dedicated teacher and a money grubbing foreign language school.

My guess is a failure on the diplomatic level. Or crass taking advantage. Or both. Or whatever, after all this is China.

Edit: I'm butting in here because I know half the cast of characters, the latter half, but not the OP.

[Lancy Bloom]

Not many foreigners in Nanyang for a reason. It is a farming community. I lived there ten years ago. You get ahead in this city by tricking farmers who are basically honest people. They look at foreigners as being honest and easy to trick. My advice is to bite the bullet and leave before you loose more than 2,000 rmb. The year I was there I saw many foreign companies pack up and leave. Same reason as yours. Non itemized bills and contracts not being honored. Nothing in my contract was honored. I found working in mining communities better. You can't trick a miner with their pay.

[Greg 09]