Job Discussion Forums

[lao hu]

I�ve recently returned from teaching at a university in Guilin, where I befriended several foreign teachers at Guangxi Normal University (GNU). All of them resigned at the end of the term in July, 2004.

The reasons recounted to me were many, but they added up to gross mistreatment of foreign teachers by the university administrators, up to and including endangering the teachers� physical safety. To make matters worse, GNU officials were able to convince the local police and Foreign Affairs Ministry, to whom complaints were lodged, that there was no problem and certainly no wrongdoing.

This is no hearsay. I was given firsthand accounts by several of the teachers, independently, and the stories seem to check out. I passed this information to another colleague who was about to wander into the GNU pit, and when he decided to back out of the deal, some of the items he had left for safekeeping at GNU were stolen while he was on home leave.

My advice to prospective foreign teachers: Don�t go to GNU � don�t even think of going there � no matter what sweet talk they give you. Their promises and commitments aren�t worth the paper they�re written on � if they�re written down at all.

[goeastyoung(ish)man!]