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tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

A brief review of the school:

Location: possibly the most polluted and the ugliest part of Changchun, located right by the highway that big transportation trucks and long-distance buses take goods and people to and from Jilin and Harbin, plus other towns and cities in Jilin Province. The main campus is a 20-30 minute bus ride from the train station, and is is surrounded by small factories, goods shipping companies, auto repair shops. Big transportation trucks roam down the roads every minute. The main campus is dusty with constructions of three new teaching buildings going on 24/7.

Housing: Poor workmanship and flimsy materials resulting in problems like black mould, peeled walls, and quite a few FT's having roach problems -- and all of these apartments are 1 to 2 years old. Frequent power outage and low water pressure are a norm in this school. The broadband Internet connection, which requires a Chinese program called Dr. Com to login, is painstakingly SLOW. It's so awful, that many Chinese web sites (schools, governments, even Xinhua) can't open.

Fellow FT's: having read about the many rejects and creepy FT's in China, I had the misfortune of working with quite a few of them in the past year. CCNU does have a reputation of hiring some real losers, according to current FT's and students. Missionaries, creeps and a druggie are some of the people I worked with.

Students: Depending on whether they are three-year majors or four-year majors, and whether they are English majors or Bilingual majors. Four-year English majors tend to be the best students while three-year Bilingual majors can be bottom scrappers. There are, of course, exceptions.

Workload: FT's in the Foreign Languages College can be worked to death thanks to the English writing classes, with some classes containing combined groups of students and as a result, a room from as small as thirty-something students to as many as over 100 students -- this, on top of having to teach other subjects.

Help and support (including textbooks): typical inept Chinese administration (Foreign Languages College) with screw-ups often and common; boring and useless oral English textbooks; English writing textbook written in Chinese; American history and culture textbook filled with misinformation, Party propaganda, and outdated facts. The leader of the FLC is useless and small-minded woman who'd cheated on and/or plagiarized her PhD thesis. She doesn't take suggestions kindly, can be very manipulative, and doesn't know anything about spreading workloads evenly. The FAO is practically invisible with frequent out-of-town trips and sometimes, even trips abroad. He is an OK guy, though. Pay is often a couple days late (now direct bank deposits), apartment problems are usually taken care of very quickly.

PM me if you want the full dirt on this school (during the past year. Do keep in mind not all FT's work in the FLC, most work in the Internation Exchange/Cooperation College.

Out of five stars: 2.5

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

Dear TW,

Sounds like a uni that I know in GZ...chillingly so.

Thanks for posting this...I often their advertisements on the different board...yup, and the stuff about druggies, missionaries, all-time loosers, God it sounds like this uni I know in GZ..

I am so glad that you have left the place. Enjoy Dalian and all of the very best to you.

HFG

Lister · Joined: 27 Apr 2007 Posts: 264

Yeah, onward and upward..... Good luck.

SnoopBot · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 740 Location: USA

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

therock · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 1266 Location: China

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

cj750s · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:29 am Post subject:

is this the campus near the Friendship store...

therock · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 1266 Location: China

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Thanks for the heads up. I saw their advert and was impressed by the salary, especially for a uni in Changchun. TOo bad that they aren't worth working for.

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/china/index.cgi?read=17510

THeir advert is posted above.

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

OK, let's do the math. They're offering 6000 RMB per month but you have to teach 24 lesson-hours per week, right? That's just about 62.50 per lesson-hour, by my calculation. The normal load at both universities I worked at was 14 lesson-hours (that's 50-minute hours, as at Changchun). Let's take the average salary for Chinese universities and call it 4000 RMB per month. That works out to just under 71.50 per lesson-hour.
You also have to taken into account preparation. If their ad means 24 separate lessons of one "hour" each, that's a lot more work than, say, 7 x 2-hour lessons, which was the norm where I worked.
Changchun doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.