Job Discussion Forums

[nateliu99]

I am a credentialed teacher in America, two years ago I decided to teach at a cram school in Shanghai. Honestly, i did not really like China very much. Some nice people there, but I wasn't fond of the local culture much.

I went to Taiwan last year with a Ministry of Education job, had more money and a great year, but I didn't want to return to the same school

I wanted to either work with adults this year or work for a university. I'm interested in getting either my educational doctorate or PhD in the future, to work with new teachers. I was hoping to get a better idea of what it was like to work at a university by interacting with the students and professors. And i felt it could beef up my resume too.

I learned about this program through a connection to San Diego State University, they have a relationship with a university in Guangzhou. Originally, it was advertised that there would be free housing, decent enough salary and benefits, and we would be teaching SAT prep for the university's freshmen that want to study more in America. It took a long time for the program themselves to contact me, but now that they have, it seems that the housing is shared, you just get a 10X10 room, and they are not university students but high school students you will be working with in a special building on campus.

I would like anyone's opinion about how suitable this job would be for the experience that i was interested in getting. The program insists they are actual employees of the university, but it seems like just a version of Sylvan learning center or the like, but it just happens to be on the campus. I feel like I won't be interacting at all with professors or students, and in the end, it will just be a variation on the cram school experience I already had, and did not like.

I have an option to return to Taiwan with the same contract but in a different city, and I am thinking if the China experience won't actually help me or give me insight, I might as well just return to Taiwan. Advice is appreciated, thanks

[roadwalker]

A lot of public universities are branching out with private initiatives (joint venture private universities or colleges, exchange programs, and test prep) to get revenue beyond the somewhat limited tuition they can charge. So it's not an unusual situation.

I can't believe they aren't offering private housing for you. Shared accommodation for uni jobs is rare except in Shanghai and perhaps Beijing. Perhaps the cram school is in a high-rent neighborhood (SCNU?), which might mean there are means to entertain yourself nearby. You might luck out and get at least some students who are eager to learn and excited to get an overseas education. I haven't prepped high school kids for the SAT. In my limited experience prepping university and high school graduates for the IELTS, I was not impressed with the attitude of the students, but part of that may have been the structure of the program and lack of coordination between teachers.

Unless the pay is significantly higher than a regular uni job, I can't see how this would be better. You might have motivated, active students and you might have good interaction with Chinese teachers (or none at all). Read up on some of the threads in this forum about universities and how they differ from the west (socially immature students, top-down administration, teachers teaching English in Chinese to English majors, etc.) before you commit to teaching there. See if you can get any response at all from the program director or their office. If not, it could be that you will be asked to be the foreign face of a money making subsidiary of a Chinese university.

[Zero]

Shared housing tells you all you need to know. I would tell them to get lost.

[Lobster]

You'd be well advised to listen to roadwalker. Unless this is an academic English program that the students take in their final high school year in preparation for studies at a university abroad, it does indeed just sound like a money-making oral class hosted at a uni. This would be particularly true if the curriculum doesn't come directly from the US or the exams are not vetted by the sponsoring US uni. The students may be ok, but it's certainly not what you're looking for. It should be noted that quite a few unis here are also home to attached high schools. You would indeed be an employee of the uni, but you'd have no contact with the actual university teachers and admin. Shared accommodations? Bleh!

RED

[igorG]

Roadwalker and Lobster have demonstrated well what the OP's job may be about.

[MisterButtkins]

They might be using the university's credentials to get you a visa, then they will subcontract you out to somewhere else. Hence, teaching high school students at that program. Technically last semester I worked for university A, as they were the name on my work permit, but actually I taught at university B most of the time and only taught at university A if someone got sick and needed a sub. Made no difference to me, the students were better at university B anyways, but if you want to teach at a university and you had to teach high school students I can see how this would be a bad situation.

[nateliu99]

Thanks for the response, the university is SCNU

I thought the shared housing was pretty bogus

They insist that the program is open to anyone 18-20, and that COULD include freshmen, and they said faculty instructors may teach some of the classes, they said this in response to my inquiries.

However, I am starting to feel this is not exactly the job situation I would be looking for.

I am thinking I might just go back to Taiwan for a year, work in a bit of a remote location, but make more than double the salary, be able to afford a really comfortable 2 bedroom modern place, be able to travel around asia, and still be able to save more than 20 grand.

Too bad this situation wasn't what I was looking for, I was more than willing to make less money for a legitimate university experience

Thank you for the advice everyone!