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AMMG
Joined: 26 Jul 2007
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject: Any Info on Aston Schools |
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Does anyone have any experience of/recommendations for working in any of the Aston schools?
Thanks. |
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jwbhomer
Joined: 14 Dec 2003
Posts: 876
Location: CANADA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| I guess it's my turn to give the customary reminder to newbies to use the search function before posting broad questions like this one. A search for "Aston" will give you 100 hits. |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:55 am Post subject: |
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Aston seems to get more positive comments than some of the other chain schools. If you like working with kids and having a curriculum to follow then perhaps it is worth considering. Pay is reasonable considering that everything is provided but the hour load would be higher than a public school or university. Their schools tend to be well located witin downtown areas which may also be a plus.
As jwbhomer says a search should turn up some experiences if you can get the search function to work for you. |
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vikuk
Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 1842
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:42 am Post subject: |
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According to their website - this company employs a Canadian recruiter with the intials BB. A website called buxiban carries an advert for this company.
Newbies - I know nothing about Aston apart from their comedy of a website and its news that you may be working on a Saturday night at a KFC or Mc Donalds in their ongoing recruiting drives  |
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Shan-Shan
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1074
Location: electric pastures
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| Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Newbies - I know nothing about Aston apart from their comedy of a website and its news that you may be working on a Saturday night at a KFC or Mc Donalds in their ongoing recruiting drives |
http://www.astonenglish.cn/e/news_view_all.asp?news_id=134
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| Everyone in the community is welcomed to take part in the Aston English Corner. They are held every Saturday night from 7pm-8pm. Come and have fun at KFC with some truly special people |
Again, when you are nothing more than a piece of fried meat, why not go to Korea or Japan where you can emerge from their KFC with a lot more than just a greasy napkin and chump change? |
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Nemesis
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 122
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:41 am Post subject: |
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| Shan-Shan wrote: |
| Again, when you are nothing more than a piece of fried meat, why not go to Korea or Japan where you can emerge from their KFC with a lot more than just a greasy napkin and chump change? |
Why not go to Korea or Japan? Well, if money is a priority, why not indeed?
Those coming to China for the "experience" could do a lot worse than Aston. I worked there for 6 months. Solid pay, no dramas, decent treatment. I worked in a franchise, in a pretty blah town with few foreigners.
The people who ran the school had no clue, but they had good intentions. Whenever a snafu came up (there were a couple), I'd deal with the foreign dudes in the regional HQ. Solid fellows, from my experience. Pay was never late, and in fact was given early (by request) a couple of times.
Luckily, I never had to do that KFC thing. My hours were reasonable, but the job itself is tough. You're basically a paid monkey, and that's what the kids expect. You've gotta be uber-entertaining all the time, which gets tiring.
It's an excellent job in no way whatsoever, but for a first job in China, I think it would suit a lot of people. |
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Shan-Shan
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1074
Location: electric pastures
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:23 am Post subject: |
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| I stand corrected: if one is looking for the "experience" of being a paid monkey in China, Aston is a good choice. |
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Nemesis
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 122
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:16 am Post subject: |
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| Shan-Shan wrote: |
| I stand corrected: if one is looking for the "experience" of being a paid monkey in China, Aston is a good choice. |
Riiight. Being treated like a dancing monkey is a rare indignity for ESL teachers in China, and so that makes Aston a bad outfit to work for.  |
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peepertice
Joined: 23 Nov 2005
Posts: 63
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:43 am Post subject: |
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From Aston website (description of Yinchuan school):
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| The school employs around 30 staff including half a dozed foreign teachers. |
like it.
having visited Yinchuan once would be very interested to hear what it's like living there (of course only by employees or ex-employees of Aston to keep this on-thread!) |
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chia48
Joined: 16 Oct 2007
Posts: 14
Location: Jiangsu
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:53 am Post subject: Any Info on Aston Schools |
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I would say, from my experience in a short term summer job with an Aston school, that problems might arise from expansion into smaller cities and joint ventures with local partners. That was the case where I worked.
The school was brand new and the Chinese teachers were very unhappy. They complained the boss was a real penny pincher. They were afraid to ask for the money they had earned. I had no problem in my dealings with the Aston organization but the local situation in that particular place was not good at all. |
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vikuk
Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 1842
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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There was once a poster called Pazine � he wrote a very interesting thread on his teaching experiences at an Aston school in Taiyaun �
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=52865&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=aston&start=0
In the blurb on the Aston site it was written that Taiyaun had the following set-up �
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| We have both Western and Chinese management staff and a dedicated and professional team of teachers in our classrooms. Collectively we number 15 staff in total |
But reading Pazine�s posts you get an idea the real world of Aston is a far different affair � both in managent role for the FT's and the dedication and professional outlook of the Aston Team. |
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jg
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 1263
Location: Ralph Lauren Pueblo
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:48 am Post subject: |
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I enjoyed teaching at their Summer Camp in Jinan and the management - foreign and Chinese - were reasonable in their dealings with me. This was waaayyyy back in 03 but hey, it still counts right? The accomodations were solid, and I have to say that many of the teachers actually gave a damn, low pay or not.
OP, can you find out the emails of some of the teachers at whatever location you are interested in? They'd be your best source.
Good luck. |
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vikuk
Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 1842
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:55 am Post subject: |
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An aston teacher's comments about one of his aston experiences -
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Interestingly, there are only three teachers at this school. This week, the other two QUIT. Seriously. One for health reasons, another because he's a psycho, but...
I got a call yesterday from my school. I guess they assumed I didn't know anything, because they did't mention the psycho's departure, and told me that the other fellow was "going to be in the hospital for a few days". In truth, he went back to England.
Anyway, they called me up, told me I was their "best teacher", and that they'd like me to come in today (on my day off) to "give special lesson" to "students who will love me." After that class, they wanted to take me out for dinner to "show me their love" (ewww).
I told them to ask psycho to teach the class, as he was scheduled for work anyway. They told me psycho would be busy on a "special assignment".
I told them that they were lying to me for no reason, and then revealed what I knew about psycho and sickboy. The director's response was that I have a bad attitude. I guess dinner's off...
I'm gonna cut slits in my pants and crap on her desk |
I guess posts like that also count!!!!! |
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clark.w.griswald
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 2056
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:36 am Post subject: |
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| vikuk wrote: |
An aston teacher's comments about one of his aston experiences -
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I told them that they were lying to me for no reason, and then revealed what I knew about psycho and sickboy. The director's response was that I have a bad attitude. I guess dinner's off...
I'm gonna cut slits in my pants and crap on her desk |
I guess posts like that also count!!!!! |
Yeah you could take into considerations rants from an individual who clearly does have a bad attitude judging his comments above, as well as a lack of maturity judging by his last sentence.
Or you could do what someone else has suggested here and make contact with present and past teachers at the school in question.
Clearly one option would be more helpful than the other in getting to the truth as far as it applies to your individual needs. |
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vikuk
Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 1842
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:00 am Post subject: |
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For the record - the poster who wrote the remarks I quoted about aston was - in his own words -
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| I'm an experienced teacher with a good resume, and I've been in Asia for 10 years. And I chose, for my initial foray into China, to work for Aston |
By the way if anybody does make contact with the other side - tell us what kind of response you get - I'd be interested in reading if other FT's feel that they also have to play a hard game of being the Monkey when employed by aston. |
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