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Info. on English Primary School (Xincun Middle School)

 
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beautification



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 111

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:39 am    Post subject: Info. on English Primary School (Xincun Middle School) Reply with quote

I am leaving this school in December, maybe sooner. But, I thought I would drop a note about the school.

The full name of the school is Chinese English Primary School attached to Xincun Middle School. The school isn't awful but it's far from great.

PROS

- good job for backpackers and alcoholics as not much teaching is needed, just show up and be white
- the children are super excited to have a foreigner, as are their parents
- located in a small village (if you like that) and the villagers are very nice
- not too far from Foshan, about 45mins - 1 hour by bus, same with Daliang
- I fractured my ankle and the school was very good about helping me and drove me into Foshan every three or four days. They also paid for the medical expenses even though they didn't need to


CONS

- a few minor contract violations, such as; not being given 24 hour notice of classes being changed (this has been worse lately and is really getting annoying), my contract says only two classes with 40 students but I teach 4 classes with 40 students
- if you need something done, you have to ask multiple times and repeat yourself often
- The woman who is in charge of the English department and contact for the foreign teacher is completely useless and selfish, looking out for only herself and is not much help
- children's English level is really, really, really poor and the Chinese-English teachers are not very open to suggestions and sometimes even interrupt you classes.
- No one in the village speaks English and the Chinese-English teachers that teach English understand very little English. Out of the ten or so Chinese English teachers I can only have a conversation with one of them, the two others that could carry a conversation have since left.
- no other foreigners nearby
- school has d*cked me around with the visa. Visa expires on Dec 14th and my contract and air ticket home are for the 31st. and I still don't know if it will get corrected
- all the Chinese teachers here are pretty lazy and this gets reflected in the students' marks
- you will receive little to no help or information from any of the teachers or administration , unless you make good friends with someone.
- internet is often useless and doesn't connect and is shared by the whole school, no ports are opened which means no torrents and the school wouldn't give me access to the router to fix this.
- although the school has a good multimedia setup in the class, i.e computer/internet/school's FTP, projector thingie, big televisions > they rarely work correctly or quickly
- pay is low between 4000 and 5500 RMB for 20 classes (maybe you could get 6000RMB, but not likely) >>> they offered me a 200RMB raise to sign on.
- and worst of all not very many pretty girls in the village (I know how much the foreigners like to have pretty Chinese girlfriends)

That's all I can think of right now. I didn't think my negative list would be as long as it is because the school isn't as awful as the horror stories some people have posted in the past.
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SnoopBot



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 740
Location: USA

PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Info. on English Primary School (Xincun Middle School) Reply with quote

beautification wrote:
I am leaving this school in December, maybe sooner. But, I thought I would drop a note about the school.

The full name of the school is Chinese English Primary School attached to Xincun Middle School. The school isn't awful but it's far from great.

PROS

- good job for backpackers and alcoholics as not much teaching is needed, just show up and be white

75 % of ESL jobs are this way

- the children are super excited to have a foreigner, as are their parents
- located in a small village (if you like that) and the villagers are very nice
- not too far from Foshan, about 45mins - 1 hour by bus, same with Daliang

Good

- I fractured my ankle and the school was very good about helping me and drove me into Foshan every three or four days. They also paid for the medical expenses even though they didn't need to

This is very good many places wouldn't pay for this.

CONS

- a few minor contract violations, such as; not being given 24 hour notice of classes being changed (this has been worse lately and is really getting annoying), my contract says only two classes with 40 students but I teach 4 classes with 40 students

Typical I work at Top 5 tier university in Beijing and they always do this too

- if you need something done, you have to ask multiple times and repeat yourself often

Of course, most cannot understand what you want.

- The woman who is in charge of the English department and contact for the foreign teacher is completely useless and selfish, looking out for only herself and is not much help

Typical of fossilization

- children's English level is really, really, really poor and the Chinese-English teachers are not very open to suggestions and sometimes even interrupt you classes.

Typical- they all do this most of the time.

- No one in the village speaks English and the Chinese-English teachers that teach English understand very little English. Out of the ten or so Chinese English teachers I can only have a conversation with one of them, the two others that could carry a conversation have since left.
- no other foreigners nearby

Can be a blessing though

- school has d*cked me around with the visa. Visa expires on Dec 14th and my contract and air ticket home are for the 31st. and I still don't know if it will get corrected

Often they are getting dicked around by the PSB people.

- all the Chinese teachers here are pretty lazy and this gets reflected in the students' marks

Thanks to the old Marxism system, no incentive to work

- you will receive little to no help or information from any of the teachers or administration , unless you make good friends with someone.

This is normal, it took 1 year before some Chinese teachers actually said "hello" to me.

- internet is often useless and doesn't connect and is shared by the whole school, no ports are opened which means no torrents and the school wouldn't give me access to the router to fix this.

I had to install my own Internet system.

- although the school has a good multimedia setup in the class, i.e computer/internet/school's FTP, projector thingie, big televisions > they rarely work correctly or quickly

Or the instructions are in Chinese, you might need to find someone to translate them to an English operations instructional card.

- pay is low between 4000 and 5500 RMB for 20 classes (maybe you could get 6000RMB, but not likely) >>> they offered me a 200RMB raise to sign on.

Beijing pay for Masters in Education + TESOL (The 3-year Masters degree program with teaching certification/practicum) is around 5500 too. This is for expensive Beijing. Imagine yourself spending +40K for this degree along with a MBA at 35K. If you have less than this, and higher pay your doing good.

- and worst of all not very many pretty girls in the village (I know how much the foreigners like to have pretty Chinese girlfriends)

This one really sucks, they have but maybe you have not spotted them yet, they are in hiding. Actually, China's rural area is like the Rust Belt of the USA. Any educated or pretty girl takes off after high school to a better place of opportunity, this often leaves the HillBilly girl types.
Take some trips into the bigger city and scope it out.

That's all I can think of right now. I didn't think my negative list would be as long as it is because the school isn't as awful as the horror stories some people have posted in the past.


Actually, not that bad, some of these issues will improve with time.
Some you will adapt to after awhile.
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beautification



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 111

PostPosted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I forgot to mention that I would have reconsidered signing on again but the school couldn't pay me what I wanted.

So, if anyone is looking for a job there will be at least three positions with this school after Spring Festival - two at the primary school (to replace myself and my girlfriend and one at the high school)
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