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[masaier]

Lincoln School of Foreign Language Studies, Xinjiang

If you are thinking about joining this school in China's north-west please read my review. Since you are reading this you've probably taken notice of their advertisement but be warned that the job they advertise is not the job they offer. The problems I've had with this school can, in my opinion, all be ascribed to a lack of communication on both parts and a lack of experience with hiring foreign teachers on their part. For your reference I include the link to their advertisement

http://www.chinatefl.net/job_information.php?id=72

After my first experience as a teacher in China, a job where the workload and pressure resulted in me regularly working between 45 and 50 hours a week, and a job which as a result of this I quit after 8 months, I was looking for a job with a lower amount of hours and extracurricular work. I was willing to accept a lower pay as well.

I got in touch with Lincoln Foreign Language School in Urumqi, Xinjiang. After a fair amount of conversation by e-mail and on the phone, and after I had had a look at the contract that we would sign upon my arrival, I decided to go to Urumqi. I was under the impression that everything had been said about the number of hours (16 classes and one or two extracurricular activities per week) and the pay (a monthly wage, an apartment, visa fees, flights et cetera).

My first impressions of the school were good. The staff are professional and the adult teachers especially have an excellent command of English. They are all Chinese and even though this school has dealt with foreign teachers before, that had always been on a freelance or part-time basis, or by some other arrangement, until I arrived. The teaching climate is good and I very much enjoyed my classes at this school.

One of the reasons why this school has never employed teachers on a full-time basis before is because they didn't have the license to hire foreigners. They allegedly have a license now but I have never been able to confirm this. They certainly didn't have one when I first arrived. After a week or so it became apparent that the conditions I thought we had fixed before my arrival hadn't been fixed in their minds at all, and it started to go downhill from there. I quickly realised the job they want a full-time teachers at their school to do is certainly not the job they advertise.

First there is the apartment. We agreed beforehand that they'd provide me with an apartment, one that I'd have to myself. When I arrived they put me in a hotel only to transfer me the next day to a room in a flat where three of this school's Chinese teachers were living. That's four people in a three bedroom apartment. They agreed that this apartment wasn't convenient and said they were about to hire another one, for two people, which would be available within a week. Would I be prepared to share an apartment with one other teacher?

A week later this apartment fell through for all sorts of sketchy reasons and I was told to "better make myself comfortable in the place that I was in", because that was where I was going to be staying for another few months at least, until they'd been able to find a new place. Consequently one of the Chinese teachers was asked to move out. Remember, this is the apartment that the management themselves didn't see fit.

Than there is the number of hours. The lesser number of hours is why I opted to apply for this position in the first place. I wasn't asked to teach more than 16 hours a week, but I was expected to spend much more time at the office on many more extracurricular activities than we originally agreed. They suddenly wanted me to be at the office for 40 hours a week. Furthermore the number of days off were to be two before I arrived but had been reduced to one after my arrival. Admittedly they changed back to their old promise when I raised the issue.

Another fine example of them breaking their promises is the following. Before I came out to Urumqi they told me that the class size would never exceed 15. That's true for every class you'll teach at the school, but incidentally half the number of classes I taught were off campus. All of these far exceeded 15 students in size.

After three and a half weeks of continuously asking them what was happening to the apartment and what the deal was with the number of hours they finally came up with a shortlist of five demands, five things they want from a foreign teacher at their school. It is this list that much more accurately describes the job they have on offer. I quote their shortlist:

"1. We find a flat within 10 days. But we pay no more than RMB 400.00.
2. 35 working hours including 16 teaching hours. If teaching is in the evening than hours can be deducted from.
3. We help renew visa than apply for a work-permit.
4. We require involvement in school activities in time extra curriculum.
5. We require stand-by for some work that might come up at times."

Suddenly it is possible to find me a flat within days, whereas before that was only possible within a few months. When I said I thought this was a bit strange they admitted to me that they had lied in order to save money. They felt they made a huge compromise reducing the number of hours to 35. The number of extracurricular activities is still potentially plenty. Talking of these they told me that University lectures, taught outside the school, would not be counted as class-hours but as extracurricular because they treat them as marketing activities. The stand-by service requires you to be available for work pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they reserve the right to change your schedule on as much (or as little) as an hour's notice. Regarding the visa, they will indeed help you renew or obtain a visa but, and that's a pitfall that caught me out too, that doesn't mean they have to pay for it.

I told them that this was not the job that I had applied for, and that it also wasn't the job I was looking for when I first applied with the school. I told them that under these condition I wouldn't sign a contract. That was three and a half week into my stay at this school. We agreed we'd settle things in a decent manner and I stayed at the school for another week and a half. That would give them time to find replacement and give me time to find other work. During this week and a half nothing much happened.

The management seemed to agree that they hadn't clearly stated their requirements and expectations before I came out and admitted to making some mistakes in the way they had dealt with me. That kept my spirits up and made me think that this school would get there in the future, quickly learning from past experiences. For a few days I even felt I had misjudged them and had acted to rashly. That all changed in the last two days that I was there, when it all turned from ignorance about how to deal for foreign staff to maliciousness, and made it clear to me that they hadn't learned their lesson at all.

A few days before I was about to leave I asked them when we'd settle the salary and they wanted to pay me one or two days after my last day at work. I said that I didn't want that; it wouldn't leave me in a very good position and would leave me completely without leverage. They argued in turn that paying me beforehand would leave them in a bad position. In the end they mockingly agreed to pay me on the one to last day. I never missed a class or turned late for one, and I never took my teaching for granted because of the things that went on behind the scenes and I also didn't intend to do so after the pay was settled.

When finally they were about to pay me they had miscalculated the number of days that I worked for the school, and they have a funny way of 'pro-rating' the cost of the flight as well. I accepted the way they pro-rated the flight because I quickly felt that that was a lost battle. The days that I had worked for the school were beyond a shadow of a doubt. There's no room for debate there if you accept the Gregorian calendar. But no matter how many times I calculated, before their very own eyes, the number of days I had worked, they wouldn't take my point for it. I feel they did take my point but didn't want to agree out of some wicked sense of pride. All sorts of completely unrelated issues were used to counter my arguments. I told them that if they didn't pay they'd leave me with no choice but to refuse to teach my last class. They didn't pay me the amount that I was entitled to but did give me the (miscalculated) pay that they thought they owed me.

Their best argument for not paying me for every day that I had worked was that I hadn't lived up to their expectations. I told them that I have always been true to the agreements we made before I came out to Urumqi. From the moment they told me their expectations, their real intentions, by providing me with this shortlist of 5 points, I've always said to them I wouldn't live up to those expectations as I couldn't agree to these demands.

Finally, a few hours before this very last class, I'm given a letter in which they threaten me with legal actions if I will do anything that may discredit the school. They feel I have a legal and moral obligation to shut up about everything that happened between me and the school. I simply replied by saying that I am under no obligation to do anything at all and that telling my side of the story, to anyone, is not breaking any laws. That must have infuriated them as they couldn't wait for me to finally leave the apartment and never see me again, which by all means was fine by me. By the way, I did teach this last class; those students are the most delightful bunch and it was them that made me have a merry Christmas this year regardless of what was happening between me and the school. They took me on a two-day skiing trip in the mountains.

To illustrate their ignorance I'd like to mention what happened to my visa. Even though I wouldn't stay they said they'd get my old visa reissued. (I had just received a new passport because my old one was stolen, and all I had at the time was a copy of the visa in my previous passport.) I thanked them for their generous offer and asked repeatedly to make sure that all they'd do is get the same via reissued and to also make sure I wouldn't end up on a business or, horror, a tourist visa as that would get me into more trouble than I was in. They reassured me four of five times, that wouldn't happen. A few days later and my passport comes back from the PSB with a brand-spanking new tourist visa! I know they were only trying to help, very generously, but just didn't have a clue what they were doing. Somebody at that school thought it would be a good idea to start hiring foreigners. They applied for a license, put and advertisement on the internet and didn't even give the consequences of their decision another minute's thought.

As I mentioned earlier on I really liked the classes I taught at this school. So if you still consider taking up a job with this school make sure you make very clear all the condition before you fly to Urumqi. Set the remuneration, your wage, housing allowance, flight and visa fees, et cetera. Make clear decisions about the number of hours, both in class and extracurricular. Talk about the sort of extracurricular activities, your days off, class size, number of classes off campus, et cetera. And finally make sure EVERYTHING is in the contract. If it isn't than they are likely to change their mind about everything they said to you before your arrival. Even better, make sure you include a probation period in the contract. If you do all of these, there is no space for them to reopen the negotiations after your arrival, and are happy with the results than I'm sure teaching at this school will be a great experience.

Good luck!

[Roger]

You have my sympathy!

[clark.w.griswald]

Thanks for such a thorough review of this school. By laying out the good and the bad you have clearly shown where the fault lies, and that is quite clearly with the school. If only everyone who saw fit to make a comment about their school could go into half as much detail as you have, we would all benefit.

All the best with your next school.

I also wanted to comment on some of the comments that you made.

[Sinobear]

Good on you for providing such a detailed report, Masaier. The best apartment I had in Urumqi was a two-bedroom, unfurnished place for 300 RMB per month.
One thing I'll add...when I was in Urumqi, all the legal and legit positions were paying very low. After hearing so many times how poor Urumqi is, one only has to go outside to see the Mercs, BMWs and other luxury vehicles.

Let the employee be wary...no matter where you decide to venture.




Cheers!

[masaier]

Thanks clark.w.griswald, your elaborations on those five points are my thoughts exactly. When I had to reply to their 'list of 5' the first thing I said to them was that it was good that they finally gave me a clear answer, and a clear set of demands.

The 'conscience'-argument I find partiularly offensive too; arguing that you didn't do your job when you did, or that you are in no way better than the Chinese teachers, "so why give you more?" I agree, but than don't make promises you can't or aren't going to fulfill. I can go on about this for hours... When those Chinese feudal lords (that's what I call these Chinese bosses of language centres these days) use this argument it can bother me for hours. I start to think I'm not quite the right person for this job, not in China anyway. I don't intend to offend anyone for who it does work out just fine but I start to think you need to be a bit of a cheat yourself to get by as a TEFL teacher in China.

Sinobear, thanks for your comment. Everything of that size (2 bedrooms) I've looked at costs between 500 and 700 RMB, 800 for the particularly nice ones, but I'm not looking for palace (would be nice though :) When were you here and which area of town were you living in?

[Sinobear]

I lived just north of the Hongfu Hotel. The block of apartments borders the culvert (which, I was told, is sometimes called a river, sometimes a canal...for really small boats). You have to be able to obtain the assistance of a local Chinese person to do the recce for you first, based on your requirements. If you "cold call" a place, you will automatically be given the "special rate" reserved only for rich foreign CEOs.

BTW: if you don't particularly like Urumqi and the minset encountered there - don't consider Guangzhou as a place to work. Beijing is much different - Fujian is great, too. My own opinions, of course.

Cheers!