Job Discussion Forums

[randerso]

Don't know if anyone else runs into this, but we've been told we get 4 weeks vacation for Winter Break, only no one can seem to tell us when it is. The FT at my school have been told that the Government sets the vacation dates, but doesn't release the info until about a week before. Is that right? If so, does anyone have advice on how the heck to make travel plans and book tickets? Is last-minute not the problem I think it will be? Any help would be cool. Thanx.

[ContemporaryDog]

[Old Dog]

The schools know the dates but won't say. Remember that, in China, knowledge is power to those who hold the knowledge. It may be the only power some minor official in a school has. The schools know perfectly well when their exam revision program begins, when the exams begin and how long they intend to use for review after the exams. But they won't say because too much knowledge gives people too much power - or rather the one power they possess dissappears or is dissipated once the information is released.

So, knowing all of this, I don't bother asking. I simply plan my vacation from about 15 days prior to Spring Festival and about 10 days after. That is a conservative estimate and usually proves convenient. Hence this year, I've booked to travel from 22nd Jan - but I fully expect that maybe even up to a week before that it will be decided the students will have no classes from me. The return date is rather harder to work out but 10 days is not a bad estimate depending on what day of the week the new year falls in any one year. This year, I plan to be back here about 15th Feb, which should allow me a couple of days to see people who are still in town. If I've made bookings and they prove inconvenient to the school, I simply tell them that they should have announced their dates earlier since international airline bookings are a rather different thing from booking on the local bus to the next town (which is as much as most of them know about).

For this reason, I keep in a little book the dates of Spring Festivals for about 5 years ahead.

[ymmv]

The universities DO have set calanders which are printed up at the beginning of the school term in September and cover the whole year. They are on small cardboard sheets, but are written all in Chinese and so they probably figure you won't understand it so never bother to give you one. Then they forget to tell you when tests and the end of the term are because everyone else knows and they forget that they forgot to give you one of the calendars. (In fact, the calendars also have those nefarious rescheduled dates for the Golden week holidays on them, too. But those particular dates sometimes change.)

Best practice: ask for one at the English Department office (not the waiban because, agreed, they do like to play the keep-the-foreigner-in-the-dark game). Also ask your English Dept. dean (not the FAO) when you are expected to finish giving your finals for the semester. Generally, they prefer that the FTs give their finals a week or so before the regular Final Exam period of the college. Let him/her know that you know that and you'll probably get an answer....plus an extra week or two of winter vacation holiday because you'll be done before the school is done.

On an unrelated issue, travel during Spring Festival is a monstrous headache, as previously noted by everyone. But travel from the evening of the first day through the third day is sublime. The trains are empty because everyone has arrived home - and they're staying put for three days with the family. I once had an entire sleeper car (not berth or compartment, the whole friggin' CAR) to myself on a 21 hour train ride starting on the second day of Spring Festival.

[ContemporaryDog]

Yes, last year if I recall correctly, we'd done and dusted all our exams by about the 30th of December. After that we were free. NY was on the 22nd of January, and the next term began on around the 9th. Working on that, FTs shoul finish on around the 13th this year, with the school finishing on around the 20th, and the new term starting on about February 21st.

[ymmv]

Yeah, following on to C Dog's post, I guess I should post more specific dates, at least from my university. Classes finish on January 14 and school finishes on January 28th. (A fourteen day study and final exam period.) Upon asking two weeks ago, I was advised that I could/should give my exams the last week of classes - the week of Jan. 10/14. C Dog's guestimate is almost dead-on (you go, dog!).

Can't put my hands on the calendar right now, so I can't tell you the startup date of Spring semester.

But I can tell you further that when I snagged the calendar off the desk in the English department back in September a week before school started, I noted those "Golden Week" makeup dates very carefully. A couple of days later, the Dean contacted me about scheduling my classes. I am given some leeway in my own scheduling so I "suggested" that my classes be scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. Those were two of the three days that were NOT slated to be "madeup" on the weekend following the Oct. 1st holiday. The last day of the Golden Weekwas a Thursday.

A week before the Golden Week, I ran into the dean and she said, "Oh, by the way, the Golden week is coming and we will have classes on the following weekend. Saturday and Sunday's classes will be for classes you have on........." then she pulled out my schedule. "WOW, your classes are on Tuesday and Friday so you won't have to teach that weekend. You're really lucky!"

In China, luck is 1% inspiration, 1% perspiration, and 98% keeping your eyes open, watching how things work, and then figuring out how to think like they do ... rather than whining about it.

[Guest]

The holiday commences on the 14th January for the Foreign teachers here. As Chinese New Year falls on the 9th February, we expect to resume teaching about 10 days after the New Year i.e. around the 19th Februaary.

That is what happened last year.

[Roger]

Yes, this is true: the schools do have set timetables and school calendars; my Chinese colleagues have one each, and in my very first school I actually got a calendar right at the beginning. Never again, though...

But our CHinese colleagues have to do exams at set dates, while ours - if we have to do any - will be inserted into the weeks as time to hold exams comes. Thus, it is prudent to not rely too much on calendars.

Some schools actually purchase TRAIN TICKETS for their stuidents and teachers; if you manage to get a ticket through this channel you may succeed in securing a fixed date of commencement of your holidays. Also, this way you will not pay inflated ticket prices.

[tarzaninchina]

I'm not content about the English Department not knowing when exams will be, but I've sussed out that there will be one week of exams for me and that there will be classes for me pretty much all of December.

The Year of the Rooster will begin on February 9th. Lantern Festival, the last official day of Spring Festival, is held 15 days later. That will be on February 23rd. During that period, all public schools will be out. Before and after that depends on your school. I still don't know, but I'm not planning much in the way of travel, so whatever.

Don't forget, it's law to provide you with two paid vacation days for Christmas, normal workdays that is (for FT's).

[oprah]

Xmas is on Saturday, my usual days off are Saturday and Sunday, so does this mean I have four days off?? Two of my days off and two days for holiday??

[tarzaninchina]

Yes.

[brsmith15]

At the uni where I am, we have 2 semesters of 17 weeks each. The current one ends on Jan 1 and the next 2 weeks are reserved for final exams. Classes begin again Feb 17.

[shenyanggerry]

My university term starts on Feb 21st. I know that I figured out when classes ended last spring by matching with a post here. It's probably standard.

I vaguely recall that public school clases started back a week after university this year, for what it's worth.

[Guest]

Oprah

If you are in China, you will only have the Saturday and Sunday off - not 4 days as you would in Australia for instance. China does not recognise Christmas as a holiday.

Last year it was on a Thursday and it was lessons as usual for the School for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It was only because I jumped up and down about visiting the Orphanage to take their Christmas presents that all the Foreign teachers got Christmas Day off. We did, however work on Boxing Day (the Friday).

[ContemporaryDog]