Job Discussion Forums

[GONZALVESB]

I have been looking at adverts on the web to teach in China and many agents, when advertising vacant positions always include the notice about why we come to China and don't forget this is their country, etc. Well, please tell me if I am wrong but all of this is good and perfectly understable. It is their country and we did not come here to change them or teach them how to live their life. But why do the Chinese not know how to treat expats. From all the posts on this forum, I believe many of you have been around for some time. Don't you think it is by time that someone educate these people in how to treat expats? I really feel like something that the cat just dragged in. As I have mentioned before I am never told of anything happening at the school, examinations are taking place and my lessons are cancelled and nobody bothers to inform me. It is only when I get to class that I would find out they are busy with examinations. I ask the FAO why they do not inform me and all I get is a grin. I would like to ask MW what he has done to be treated in the way his school is treating him.

The SARS issue: no warning about people not being allowed to enter the school or us not being allowed to go outside. I also get the news afterwards. I needed to get my money into my bank account, they refused to assist. I get a friend's permission to deposit it into her account (she is Chinese currently in SA), the school refuse. First they give me 110 reasons about running the risk of getting SARS and nobody wants to leave the school while in the meantime many people are still going outside. When I refuse to accept the cash they finally agree to take me to the bank. I also then discovered that they did not think I should trust my Chinese friend (because the school leaders do not trust themselves)!!!!! As in Yaco's case, everybody was given a thermometer except me of course, everybody was receiving disinfectant except me. I was only an after thought about a week later but still did not get a thermometer.

Then they change the school timetable. On a Wednesday I normally started at 10:45. So Wednesday morning at 08:45 the FAO arrives at my apartment with my new timetable. My class today, ie. Wednesday starts at 09:05. Don't forget I also have a daughter to take care of. They have meetings, especially now with SARS but nobody would inform me what it was about I always have to ask the students.

MW I hope you are busy with a manual for Chinese schools on How To Treat Expats and don't forget to add, PLEASE DO NOT CHEAT people out of their rights.

PS: I SAW A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT THAT INDICATES WE QUALIFY FOR SICK LEAVE, I.E. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PAID 100 % SHOULD WE FALL ILL.

Unfortunately I have run but I have such a lot to say about my experience.

[ChinaLady]

my school has closed the campus. the students are getting bored with EVERYTHING!! the dining hall is cleaner and the food is hotter, these are pluses. all the apartments smell like some horrid bug killer because they spray the halls and all the outside passage ways twice a day.
I wear a mask everyplace. I take vitamins and drink a lot of juice.
and I wash my hands about 20 times a day, or more.
my school gave me directions about taking my temperature.
I bought my own masks.
they have never provided health insurance, I am instructed to go to the on campus clinc. shudder!
I am concerned that this SARS is more serious then the Chinese are letting on. why? you may ask?
well, they are trotting out the big guns for show and tell. Mr Hu and Mr Wen and even the retired Mr. Jiang.
stay calm, stay healthy, start reading a really long, big Clancy book.
or, like some of our teachers - run for home, where ever home is.
home is Shanghai right now.
I read the WHO postings daily.
and the International Herld Tribune and the Strait Times, daily on the web.
time will tell how really serious this all is.

[chastenosferatu]

Welcome to life in China... you have summed up the experiences of nearly all of us. Save MW who, by the general opinion of the people on Dave's, is really Chinese and masquerading as an ex-pat in China. You're gonna hafta be an *beep* and put your foot down if you want things to change, its the only way, otherwise they will continue to steamroll you. Make a stand and take no prisoners, use "face" to your advantage, like bring things up in front of other concerned parties i.e. your FAO's boss and fellow teachers. There is no nice way to get where you want to be, bite the bullet and take 'em out at the kneecaps is my advice.

[hubei_canuk]

gonsalvasb: "Unfortunately I have run but I have such a lot to say about my experience."
--------------------
Hi person-teacher! Whats the scoop? Run from where to where? Are you home? How did you do it? What happened?
Don't worry they can't touch you now unless you are obligated to a coupany in your homeland. To do anything out of province they have to spend $$$ to the bears. They always develop instant amnesia in the land of immorality.
Well you should be flattered. They really tried to treat you as one of their own i.e. as a slave, indentured servant or state property.. Foreigners neve take well to the yoke, it's always an irritation to them.

[hubei_canuk]

ChinaLady: WHO officials are rather perplexed about the situation as are we all.
Especially WE all living here in the interior.
Are the streets dark and dangerous?
Will i become a datum in theWHO's reports?
Or it is tomorrow just another Day?
---------------------------------------------------------------------


"One big question facing WHO experts studying the epidemic is why vast regions in central China, south of the capital, have barely suffered from the virus that orginated in Guangdong and ravaged neighboring Hong Kong some 1,900 kilometers (1,135 mile) away. "Right now, without the full data we just can't say," Alan Schnur, head of WHO's communicable disease office in Beijing, told AFP.

"It could be that some places are just lucky, or maybe there has been a lack of reporting in the provinces and the surveillance system is incomplete. "But until we get the full data and have a good understanding of the surveillance system, it is impossible to tell what is really happening."

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/may2003-daily/06-05-2003/world/w2.htm

============================

[GONZALVESB]

I just meant I had to run to get to class. I am not running yet. I am much stronger than I sound and can bite the bullet when I have to. What worries me though is that we are all dissatisfied with the way we are being treated, why has nobody started a business in teaching Chinese how to treat expats???? I must admit this is quite an experience. I should start writing a journal. I am sure my daughter would not believe it when I told her what we went through and of course being here with SARS, we are part of history, right??!!!! I just hope we live to tell the tale.

I have also been keeping me up to date by means of the internet because the FAO really thinks I am an idiot. I love to ask him questions just to hear the response, and of course he is always lying. He does not know that I know the real statistics.

[hubei_canuk]

Hmm..
"unfortunately i have run"
"unfortunately i have to run"
-----
"sorry I have to run"
================================
'To" can change your life! It can send you to your home country and back in one afternoon!
..
Well anyway, i think i have a solution:
Compulsory lobotomies for Foreign Teachers.
Do it in the school offices: Just train the waibans (school foreign teahcers liason) in icepick lobotomy procedure. Simple, cheap effective.
--------------------------------------------------
As far as the SARs thing, they could put compulsory headbands on foreigners that constantly read body temperature. Upon exceeding 100 degrees a radio signal will be sent out. Reaching over 102 degrees the headband will aautomatically administer a lethal injection and stop the infection in it's tracks so to speak.
We should be seeing a prototype issued soon for the citizens of Beijing. Right now they have temperature squads patrolling the streets. Next step is to automate it.

[GONZALVESB]

My apologies hubei_canuk, forgive the typos??? (i.e. typing errors). It was unfortunate because I had to stop before I could complete what I really had on my mind. Anyway, you got the message.

I still wanted to tell MW, that we are all here (I think) to teach English and hoping to make a difference as far as our students are concerned. So yes, I ask myself what I can do for the Chinese student. But when will the leaders of the school ask, what they can do to make me really, really want to do an excellent job. I spend most of my free time on the schoolgrounds and play sports with my students because in these situations they really speak freely. I am constantly trying ways and means to make the students feel confident enough to speak in my class and I must say most of the students who have visited me or spent time with me over weekends have become more confident and speak more freely in class. So, yes I am doing everything I can and give my all. I would be very proud and happy if by the time my contract expires I can hear my students communicating in English without thinking twice about it. The students are also very kind to me, it is such a pity that their leaders have to be .......

[Roger]

Your main observation this time around, GONZALESB, is that expats are not being treated as expats, or in other words: not more equally, but, horribile dictu, as less equal than our Chinese colleagues. That's a fair observation even if the treatment we receive is not fair.
It irks, to be sure. After all, we are not 'immigrants' (although some of us can no longer imagine where we might move from here if we had to uproot again!).
What we really are can only be described adequately in foreign languages: Gastarbeiter and gastarbeiterinnen (guest workers, both male and female), ressortissants (people who have moved out of their own country), stranieri (stranger living in a foreign place). In this respect, at least wse are no longer simply laowai, or worse still: guilau; we have morphed into some honourable waiguoren.
There hardly is any point higher than that for non-CHinese. We must accept this, or else...
There are some mitigating circumstances: While we are always the last to be informed, and never to be consulted, we enjoy some privileges too. FOr instance some of the decisions you are subjected to have been discussed during teacher meetings.
You have the freedom to do with your spare time as you please. All my Chinese colleagues I have had over the past eight years had to put in at least twice as much time as I ever do, for a salary that always is considerably lower than mine.
Granted if I was asked whether I wanted to contribute to their discussions at meetings I would also opt for more freedom. On the other hand, I do think it would be in everybody's interest, including my own one, to give and to take in such exchanges of opinions.
Those meetings are the instituionalised discussions during which your input would fall on someone competent's ears!
But because these meetings are institutionalised and tend to be mere exercises in showing obedience and dedication if not personality cult - the worship of the big boss, one of my former employers announced during a meeting that I attended that "wo shi shangdi", shangdi translating as "god", - they hardly ever produce tangible results. The big boss usually rams his opinion down the throats of his underlings - so much the better that we can stay away from these events!

One tip, GONZALESB: To avoid miscommunications in the future you should demand that all instructions be given to you in writing.
DOn't forget the CHinese don't feel very self-sure. They like to avoid committing themselves. Thus this muddling through all the time and ad hoc decision-making. WHo knows if the boss himself informs the waiban person in TIME of his latest rethink after having obliged you to accept a new timetable?

[yaco]

At my college in Nantong, Jiangsu Province the Chinese Teachers have been instructed not to visit the Foreign Teacher's Apartment. I am unsure if this is to protect Chinese Teachers of Foreign teachers !!!!!

The Foreign Affairs Office in Nantong today issued an edict about animals. Apparently any animals found in public will be sent to an ' Animal Farm'. This caused panic for my neighbours an Australian couple who have their dog with them. Upon asking the FAO for clarification about this matter they were told ' these are the rules'. The foreign teachers had to contact Foreign Affairs themselves and were finally notified that ' if animals are kept on your premises all should be OK'.

Roger, I am curious about your remark that Chinese teachers work hard. At my college they have 12 teaching hours per week and theycomplain this is too many!! Our school worked during the May holiday but the Chinese teachers were extremely unhappy about this turn of events. Maybe the teachers work longer hours in middle schools or kindergartens !!!!!!

[gmat]

[POTUS]

My school has done nothing except give me vacation time, no thermometers. It is Bei Gong DA
POTUS

[arioch36]

Chinese people working common jobs often work too hard, or not at all, usually one or the other. At colleges they usually work fewer hours then the foreign teachers, many don't even work or teach. Example, one full time teacher works 6 hours this semster, next she will have...oh no...teach 12 hours. They are worried it might cut into their time at all their private teaching jobs

Not always true, but often, in my experience. On the other hand, high school teachers have no life, have to always be in the clasroom (Places I know of)

Curious...is it different elsewhere?


Why do people always think they will catch viruses from animals???

[Steiner]

Arioch, I haven't read anything about it lately, but don't they think SARS jumped from either chickens or ducks to humans via (maybe) pigs? The bird flu was from birds, mad cow disease was from cows. That's why I don't have a pet cow.

The teachers at the high school where I work have no life, especially if they're new. Most of them teach about 20 or so hours a week and have to be at the school even on days when they don't have class. In the evenings some of them are not allowed to go home until 10. They don't have to be in the classroom, just the office. This is so a student can talk with the teacher if he has any questions. So most of the teachers just sit at their desks all evening and watch movies on the internet. Why not let them be at home with their families, I wonder?

[POTUS]

Yes, it is a shame. I see them come early and stya late too!
China is a bad place to be a teacher, except the beer is cheap