Job Discussion Forums

[gabeltron]

Does anyone know about this school in Beijing? They've posted for two ESL positions. I'm just wondering if they are similar to an international school in terms of vacation/salary.

[cj750s]

I believe they are on the Geely Campus...lower end but punkish students with FTs (older ones) hanging around the dorms..waiting to pay the cell phone bill of some young chinet..

As to the American School, don't know anything particular but the location of the Geely Campus is near ChangPing which is a smaller town with a few universities..around 45 min to an hour from downtown Beijing but without subway or light rail service leaving you to the mercy of the Dirty taxi and their often drunk and with licenceless drivers. Buses will run you to the next light rail/subway station but the travel time is limited to certain hours... The school leaders are drawn from local moneyd men with professions as devised as dentist but with few educators. One tip, they are ruthless...I once had to sit on a safe ...well that is another story
tip check the housing..not bad if in the independent housing but it is run by a real estate company and even though sometimes the school will pay some..the rent did go for 1500RMB per month..

[englishgibson]

cj, you've got sooo many stories to tell

gabeltron, is that a middle school?

i know there's a chain of american schools/middle schools around

cheers and beers

[gabeltron]

Yeah, it's on the Geely campus. Their website doesn't include many details so I don't know if it is a junior high or high school.

CJ, you mentioned something about rent and a ballpark figure of 1500. What does rent go for for a decent sized one bedroom in a better part of Beijing. By better, I don't mean fancy or corporate. I just want something for a decent amount of space for my girlfriend and I. She's from Beijing, but she hasn't been there for on a regular basis for about four years. Also, like many Chinese teenagers she pretty much went to high school and then college without without breaking out of that routine. What I'm trying to say is she has no idea about how much an apartment costs. We still haven't secured teaching positions yet either. Both of us have our masters degree and a few years experience teaching high school here in NYC. The job search has been much harder than I expected. Thanks for your detailed story about that area...doesn't sound like I want to go there.

[arcueil_1]

I was accepted for a position by this school very recently. After all the important matters were completed (e.g. job requirements and curriculum, work schedule, selection of texts and materials, work visa, FEC, etc.), I purchased a ticket to head to Beijing. On the e-mail I sent them that included the flight information, I made a request to have most of the lights in the apartment be incandescent (as opposed to fluorescent), as I'm somewhat color blind in the red-green spectrum; if all the lights in the apartment are fluorescent, I have some trouble seeing with 100% accuracy after some time and I can also get strong headaches. On that e-mail I also mentioned that the Internet connection should be 1mbps minimum, but ideally 2.8mbps, as that seems to be the standard these days throughout most of China. Those two items were important and perfectly reasonable requests that have never been declined to me. Additionally, I mentioned that if a couple of speakers were available in the living room, that would be great, but by no means essential -- I can do without those, no problem.

What I got in return today was an unbelieavably rude e-mail telling me that, "Nacel is no longer interested in employing you. We are not obligated to do so, nor are we obligated to reimburse your plane fare," because:

a) Their instructions were for me to tell them how I was going to arrive (plane or train). This in order for them buy the ticket and send it to me.

In fact, I was under the impression that I had been given the option of doing either what they suggested or simply purchasing the ticket myself with a view toward later reimbursement. I purchased the cheapest possible ticket available from Sichuan to Beijing: total cost 1140RMB. I did that in order to save them time and effort, and as stated earlier, because I was led to believe that this option was OK.

b) I did not tell them about my, quote, "disability", prior to being accepted for the job. If they had known about my "disability" they would have not hired me, as per clearly implied on their e-mail.

This is plainly discriminatory and I'm currently in the process of filing a charge with the EEOC (Equal Opportunity Employment Commission), as they are an American school and I'm an American.

c) "Your request for a personal stereo system in your living room is beyond my comprehension! Why you would even think that this request was appropriate is beyond me."

I did not request this at all! I simply said that if a stereo was available in the apartment, that would be great. I also stated that it is perfectly OK if that is not possible. For the reader's information, I should point out that this job requires the teaching of music theory and appreciation; I'm a composer.

d) We all have the same type of Internet connection, so suck it up.

I didn't know what type of Internet connection would be available at the apartment, therefore I just needed to point out that it should be at least 1mbps, just to make sure.

And so, I got "fired" for gracefully asking for regular light bulbs in the house, to check that the Internet connection is the right one, for having bought a plane ticket out of my own pocket in order to save them time and effort, and for having mentioned (not requested) that a stereo would be desirable. That's all.

In my seven years teaching in China and an additional eleven years teaching elsewhere, I have never been treated in such fashion by an employer -- not Chinese, not American, no-one!

These people even had the audacity of saying that they don't feel that they have to reimburse me for the ticket I purchased (after I was told to be there by the 1st) unless I had Air China send them an e-mail of confirmation and a copy of the receipt. Quote: "If China Airlines sends me an email with a flight confirmation number and a receipt for the money paid, I will consider reimbursement as a courtesy." [my emphasis]

How messed up can a school and particularly its administration and human resources department be?! Contemptible!

As far as I'm concerned, they can keep the money. See you in court!

[arcueil_1]

The school is Nacel International School -- St. Paul American School in Beijing.

Position details:

Salary: supposedly $32K per year (10 month contract); 65% paid in US dollars to your American bank account and 35% paid in RMB to your local account; Uncle Sam takes out some for your SS; no medical insurance offered.

Work load: supposedly 37.5 hours per week, but the individual that "hired" me said that it would in fact involve some "extra hours", so God knows what the truth really is...

Subjects: ESL, levels 3-4; Music Appreciation and Theory, and Choral Music, levels 5-6

Sounds good, doesn't it? But is it worth putting up with their almost certain nastiness? I don't think so.

BTW, they never sent me the contract even though I was told that they would, and even though I asked for it twice.

[China.Pete]

St Paul American School is located on the campus of Beijing Geely University. It is in the countryside two hours northwest of the center of Beijing. It's main unit is a non-degree granting, private university; that is, offering graduates certificates rather than bachelor's degrees. Consequently, the major part of the 20,000-strong student population will be weaker academically (I'm being polite, here) than you would find at other public or even many private universities in China.

Nonetheless, the school is fairly innovative and aggressive by national standards in delivering educational services, including the establishment of special schools and programs such as the one being discussed in this thread. I would say that the salary offered to foreigners at the international school appears to be quite good. Salaries offered to both foreign and local teachers at other units of the university are pretty low.

Based on the discussion in this and another thread, I would suggest that you plan to buy any lighting or other accessories you may decide you need for your apartment yourself, after your arrival, and well after you've obtained a signed contract from them. Also, don't mention that you are tone deaf, colorblind, subject to altitude sickness, or use any other words or phrases containing deaf, blind, or sick in any of your emails to them. Incidentally, this advice may also be of some service to you if you are currently considering working at other schools in China.

[arcueil_1]

Thank you for the info -- I've only been in zhongguo for a few hours, so I definitely need it, especially the last sentence. Thanx. Hehe. Good post though -- good info about the school.

[lf_aristotle69]

[arcueil_1]

Hi,

"Is the US$32k salary you mention for a full year, or actually for the 10 month contract period? If the former, would that mean that you would only actually receive 10/12 x US$32k accumulated annual salary? And, would you then not be paid during the summer break at the end of the academic year? Do they have an end of contract bonus month payment?"

The person that "hired" me clearly stated that the contract is for ten months, therefore they pay the 32K for those ten months. They do not pay for the summer break or medical insurance. As far as I could tell, they do not include a bonus either, but I may be incorrect about that detail. Anyway, it seems that if these people want a teacher to work for a second year, they will renew but you still don't get any money for the summer break. However, it is common sense to assume that if they want a person for a second year, they would let that person stay in the provided apartment. (BTW, the school is not at present located in the place that it should be. They will move to their normal place after the Olympics, as the area where they should be located is going to be used as a facility for the games.) I know all this stuff because, like I said earlier, we had already arranged and discussed everything. We only needed to put pen to paper after my arrival... If you consider working for these people, be aware that this is a corporate environment and the person that does the hiring is a lose cannon.

I hope that helps.

cheers

PS: If you want, go to the thread named "Nacel International School -- St. Paul American School in BJ". The thread is now locked and an important post removed because some people went on the attack, but there is still some useful information and additional perspective there, on my later posts.

[lf_aristotle69]

Thanks arcueil. I read the other thread.

Is the school really American? Some kind of JV? Or franchise?

It was interesting reading about your experience dealing with your colour perception problem.

I'm also Red-Green colour defective (that's what they call it in Australia at least). I had never heard about a link between flourescent lighting and ill effects linked to the RG problem.

I just moved to a new apartment and have a flourescent light in my study. I was at home for a few days in a row a couple of weeks ago and found one eye was watering non-stop. It has never happened before. Not sure if that's something you've experienced.

LFA

[arcueil_1]

Hi,

Yeah, the school is an American one, based in Minnesota. In addition to their US campus, they have four others around the world: Kenya, Poland, South Korea and China (which is the newest one).

My issue with color perception is very, very mild. The problem is that if there are *only fluorescent* lights *constantly*, I begin to have headaches. It's cool if the lights at work and in my kitchen and bathroom are fluorescent but if the bedroom, study, living room, etc. are also fluorescent, my eyes start to become tired and they have to work overtime. That can cause a headache. Anyway, I have never had the watery eye problem you mentioned, or anything else.

(BTW, I discovered my red-green problem at the very beginning of this decade when an Army doctor diagnosed it by going through some tests with those funny number cards -- you know, the ones where numbers are written in an array of bubbles of different color combinations. I was going to work for them in the MI department as an image analyst, but instead ended up taking the Defence Language Aptitude Battery Test (DLAB) and trained for a short while as an interrogator (MI 97E), now more politely called "information gatherer"!)

[h-train]

[arcueil_1]

Haha! You must be referring to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey! Yes, sir, cool place Monterey is... and Cali! Mucky Duck is alright too. Good food...