Job Discussion Forums

[Penelope]

Hi, I have applied for a job at Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School at Yangzhou. Has anyone heard of this school? The school at Yangzhou is only a year old, but the school has been around a while and has 14 sites. Any info on the school or the city would be great. Yangzhou is about 3 hours north of Shanghai. Thanks!

[Roger]

There is a host of "Oriental College" or "Oriental School", some with, some without "New" in the name; I don't know that Yangzhou branch.

But I would double-check them because the original Peking-based "New Oriental..." has a bad reputation.
They had a legal tussle with an U.S.A.-based publisher of textbooks and examination materials (TOEFL). It boiled down to unlicensed use of TOEFL examination papers, plagiarism and IP theft.
The Chinese court, much to the relief of the international community, found in favour of the complainants, but the New ORiental College appealed. The case is, I think, still pending.
Sorry if I couldn't type their correct name, but it is a case that made quite some splash when it hit the newslines back then. There have been many other similar cases.
Personally, I think if a Chinese state-backed school cheats on its foreign partner, then it is highly likely to cheat its teachers as well.

[roddy]

The Beijing New Oriental school has a very good reputation amongst the Chinese for getting good exam results - they do lots of intensive exam-prep, and give the international exam authorities (IELTS, etc) headaches by sending people with photographic memories in to memorize the papers.

I've heard a number of foreign teachers criticize them for being too exam-focussed. That's quite possibly true, but it's what the market wants. In Beijing they pay above the odds, both for foreign teachers and Chinese teachers. I've never heard of any of their teachers having problems - unless you hold copyright to any exam prep books, in which case they will be a thorn in your side.

As for 'Yangzhou' New Oriental School, I'd guess it's either a franchise or a rip-off. Either way, I'd treat it with the caution you would use with any other private school.

Roddy