Job Discussion Forums

[Voldermort]

First I would like to thank everybody on here who has been helping over the last few months, I couldn't have done it without you. I said I would give the full story once my problems were fixed, so here goes:

I started looking for a teaching experience in China during February and March 2004, after speaking with many schools I decided to settle on one seemingly good offer. It was to be a teaching position within a primary school located in Changchun (I forget the name the told me), 5000 per month for 22 hours teaching including all the normal benefits (apartment, completion bonus etc...). I arrived in China at the end of april.

During the first few hours of being here things started to go wrong. I was told that there was no school, it was infact an agency (the type that farms teachers out to various schools by the name of Tianshuo). I was not happy, what choice did I have though? Either go back home and start again or stay and try it out for a while. I stayed.

From here on things steadily got worse, during the first 4 months of working I recieved a total salary of 5000 (yes for 4 months work!!!). I was tied down with a contract and had little experience of how things are done in China. During that last month I decided it was time to find a new school and leave, but first I would have to leave the 'free' apartment. I found a nice little 1 bedroomed place in Changchun and moved out. Chinese law states that every foreigner must register their residence within 24 hours. But to do this I needed my passport and residence permit, these were still in the posetion of the agency. I had to try to get these back before I could go any further, needless to say they refused.

I went to the Foreign Affairs Office, Jilin province police station and Changchun City police station, nobody wanted the hassle of helping me. In the end I found one police man who said he would try to help. At the time I didn't know, but he was a corrupt police man who was very friendly with the managers at Tianshuo. His help consisted of cancelling my visa and giving me 7 days to leave the country. He also said that if I wanted to work for another school here I would have to leave and re-apply to work here.

By now my emergency funds were very low, I had to borrow money from home, friends and even students to pay for a trip to Hongkong and obtain a new visa. Before leaving though I found 2 schools who were willing to hire me once I returned, "Sincen adult education center" and "North East Normal University", there was not enough time to obtain an invitation letter to obtain a Z-visa in Hongkong, I instead got a 1 month tourist visa.

When I returned, both these schools had found another teacher, my plan had failed. I instead started looking for another school. I started working for "Simon Language Club" only part time though, I knew his reputation and refused to work for another bad company. This was to tie me over until I found a full time position. Due to the time of year, this was a little difficult, I ended up having to work for Simon full time. I gave him my passport (4 days remaining on the visa) so that he could get me a Z-visa and all the legal documents. He returned my passport to me 2 months later with no visa. I found out that I had a bad record within the police station, I was a violent alcoholic who like to start a fight with the locals every night. Hmmmm........

Anyway after this i was in a panic, I had an already two months expired visa, the police in the city are looking for illegal teachers, my money is all gone and the lease for my apartment was about to expire. This is when I asked for some help on this forum.

I had a few offers of work and some offers of somewhere to stay. One person, Nolefan, put me in touch with another agency in ShijiaZhuang, Hebei province by the name of "New Times". This company have bent over backwards to help me. They fronted me a loan to pay the overstay fine, they helped me obtain a new visa, they gave me somewhere to stay and now they are looking for a school with whome I can sign a contract and start working again. This company have done me a really good deal. But the best thing they are not like any other agency I have seen here.

I would recomend to any newbies, and any people thinking of coming to China to work, to come through this agency first. They will find work suitable to you, you can have a real trial period, you can get a feel for things. But more importantly, they are there to cover your back if the school decides to 'act up'.

[nolefan]

glad I could be of assistance and that all of that crap is behind you.

[ChadinChina]

Well I'm glad you found New Times, they've helped me in the past, and I continue to do business with them whenever something comes up that could benefit both myself and their company. The way I look at it is "yeah you could come to China and try to do all this stuff on your own. You'll probably miss some technicallities and if you're not really with the picture and don't speak Chinese very well (As well as know local customs and business standards and practices) you're likely to get taken at least a little bit." And to me that's fair...When you factor in living costs, etc, a foreign teacher costs a school something between 5-10 times as much as local Chinese teacher. But having a company like New Times there to help you out really takes a lot of those worries off your shoulders, and there are so many added benefits it's really hard to describe them all.

The greastest thing I see in their benefit package is the sheer flexibility. Came to China with little money in the pocket? Not a problem - live with a host family! Been in China for a while and had some paper mess-ups? Don't worry! New Times has lots of government connections and they play that side of the game very well. Funny story, but there were 2 teachers travelling seperately in China (in fact I seriously doubt they knew eachother), one from New Times, one from another company I won't mention the name of here (because it might reflect poorly on them, and it probably shouldn't be taken that way). Anyhow, both teachers had some paper problems that were quite similar if not the same and one teacher spent a few months in jail, the other simply got roused out of bed at 7am or so and after producing a business card from New Times was left alone (though I'd imagine having the police come to wake you up was probably a fun experience!). The point of the story is that New Times has the connections to smooth over a lot of basic problems that really don't need to become big ones.

I've known so many people who've come here to China and gone through New Times, and to be honest I can't think of one that came here with an open mind, and intention to teach that walked away unhappy. I know some who came here with intentions to travel and party, etc who probably don't have the best time - so my suggestion is to make sure that before you come and avail yourself of New Time's services- make sure you're here to work first and play second It IS a job after all:)

Hope to see you around Vold - come visit SJZ any time man

[7969]

good post voldermort.

[Voldermort]

I just think stories like these are important for anybody to read, whether they are already here in China or just thinking of coming over. I have read similar things all over the internet, most of the time they end badly.

If anybody is in China having similar problems, please contact me, I will try to help you as best as I can and put you in touch with people who can take some of that stress out of your life.

[ChadinChina]

Well ultimately life is really short and hopefully you won't be stressed out I really enjoy that factor of Hebei New Times It's always a bit of a leap of faith to come to a foreign country but at least here you get plenty of support. That's always nice. There is a business saying that goes something like "If you make 15 people happy, 1 person will say something nice about you to a friend. If you make one person angry, they'll say bad things about you to 15 people" or something like that (I figure the numbers probably change a bit per business) but the biggest telling mark imo about Hebei New Times is look at the sheer number of people saying good things, vs the one or two complainers. And it seems that the complainers are the ones who almost universally came for a vacation and not to work So it's all good. If there was a poll on who's got the best services in placement in China, I'd be clicking Hebei New Times for my vote

[Voldermort]

Nice post Chad, I will be the second to click that vote. On Tuesday I will move to another city to start working for a school given to me Hebei New Times. Before I came here I was half expecting to be placed in some hell hole of a foreign language school, but this was not the case.

The did not hold back in finding me a position that suited me. All I had to do was tell them what age group and type of school I preferred to teach in. Less than a week later I was offered two teaching positions with very good benefits, unfortunatly these were a little further North than I wanted to go. No problem, the staff at Hebei New Times just kept on looking for me.

I was shown various schools, given many interviews and even had the chance to try out a few places. Finally they found me a position that suited me. I will give this company the thumbs up anyday.

Like you said Chad, there is always one bad apple in the barrel. Unfortunatly people seem to complain about the good companies and not the bad ones. Not everybody can be given the 5 star treatment when they come to China, but most of us at least get a 3 star.