Job Discussion Forums

[Buck Lin]

Since I have been in China I have watched four people completely flip.
Something I am familiar with also as a teacher in Canada. I watch them in Canada in schools where eventually they were taken away in an ambulance after being sedated. People who spent twenty four hours a day thinking about their jobs.
Here in China you hear them screaming from classrooms at their students. I am presently working with one at my school. He is always angry and has nothing good to say about anything. Usually they are teaching 10 to twenty hours over the contract they have signed. They are workaholics usually from Canada. They can't say a word in Chinese and expect everyone to talk to them in English.
I watched and listened to another guy from Canada who was doing two jobs at once, beat his wife regularly. I wanted to beat him also after he insulted me in my own house and slapped me in the head for not agreeing with him. The university liked him though and he stayed there for six years because his specialty was preparing students for interviews so they could study abroad. Same routine of humiliating and chastising the students into studying. The last I heard of him was that they had to get rid of him because he beat his Chinese wife infront of the Dean.
So the program is the same everywhere, and they tell you they can't get teachers to teach English. I too lost control on my first meeting with my supervisor on this job when they gave me 6 more hours to teach than was on my contract. The Chinese know we can't do the work and expect us to bail. This way the Chinese English teachers get to pick up your classes.
So my advice to anyone in China is, only to work the hours given in the contract. Do the other things like English corners or after school activities, if you like,but get away from the job and enjoy the pleasures of China.

[Hansen]

Buck, I don't understand why you "lost control." Just say NO! If they make an issue of it, leave. I know the leaving is difficult with wife and family and short of money with no future back home.

The Chinese bosses know it too.

[eddy-cool]

Buck, I know some guys like those you described; maybe you are unlucky in that you only meet compatriots but I see a lot of people acting that way that are not from Canada.

You ascribe their problem to being overworked (which they choose of their own volition to be); wouldn't it be more likely that these chaps simply are not in the possession of an allrounded preparation for a life as a teacher among foreigners?

You know, they have their tantrums even when their workload is down to 2 lessons a week or a day.

Where I am working now, we have a laowai that's married to a Chinese woman; he is, however, most noted for his explosive temperament in interactions with fellow laowais.

One reason is that he believes himself to be superior to all and sundry even though he has no pedagogical or linguistic background. He is shunned by nearly everyone and can always be seen seeking to be seen in the presence of our college's leadership - when dining out then their table is his table.

[evaforsure]

[Songbird]

Thank you everyone SO MUCH for your own stories. I am so, so glad I'm not the only one putting up with a 'not fitting in' coFT in my uni.....but I do't want to say anyone as I don't know who's reading this....

[Buck Lin]

Hansen I lost my temper because when saying no, you are looked at, as not being not a team player. They don't understand that in the west one hour of teaching means 4 hours of prep. The person at my school was trying to prepare classes for many majors with material relating to their majors. The students are low level and don't understand him.
I did say no emphatically. My friend the workaholic kept quiet. Recently others have realized the impossiblity of the load and dropped classes. I went to the person who is screaming at everyone and suggested that he too drop classes that are giving him problems, but he prefers to complain.
What I am trying to point out is the need for people to get away from their jobs no matter what they are doing. You will do a better job in the long run. Learn Chinese do Tai-qi or calligraphy. Don't let your employer take advantage of you because you enjoy teaching.

[theincredibleegg]