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caberham posted:You can stay in Beijing twice, as long as your final destination is not Beijing, you can stay visa free. And does anyone know how this was requested through the airline?
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Oct 4, 2013 08:58
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YF19pilot posted:I don't think I've applied to enough places for the former, so I'll tell myself it's the latter. It's English First, it's the latter; even if you are the former.
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Oct 4, 2013 09:05
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Was at Suzhou Cobblers today, someone at home will be very happy about this. Then I had a hellish return trip to my apartment in a cab with blackened out rear windows and a young, tatooed driver who tried to start a conversation with me. When that didn't work he started singing and then almost ran over some old guy on a bike - and kept yelling Chinese words after him which were probably not that friendly.
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Oct 4, 2013 11:22
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I spent a year working for EF in Changchun (Dec 2011-12) and it was a decent experience. The DOS was hardworking, made a point to communicate with everyone as often as possible, and was willing to help with any problems that came up inside or outside of the classroom. On average, I taught about 19 classroom hours a week. I lived literally a block from the school, and the neighborhood with all the foreign bars, coffee shops and restaurants was a $3 taxi ride away. The living costs were so low that I could live comfortably and easily saved half of my 7,500 yuan salary each month. Harbin, Jilin and Changbaishan are all close if you want take a weekend trip. Now, Changchun itself has a lot of problems. It's buried in garbage. I once had a week without water, and I lost power more times than I could count. Winter is a long, brutal slog. The expat scene became so ugly and embarrassing that I dreaded going out to my favorite restaurant. Still, I took the job with no experience and had an easier time than most people in my position. I would recommend looking into EF Changchun if you can tolerate long winters and developing world problems. I just moved to Dalian, and I'm about to start teaching at suburban middle schools. If anyone is in the area, hit me up.
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Oct 4, 2013 12:37
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bad day posted:Honestly you don't want to work for EF. When do you want to start? What experience do you have as a teacher? What is your race? If you are Asian, few schools will want to hire you. That's the vibe I get. Otherwise, I'm looking into starting as soon as I can, no experience, and I'm an American Mutt. So I'm probably hitting 2 out of 3 of what people want. New Coke posted:I had an interview with EF. It was possibly the worst interview I've ever given. Mine was over Skype, but yeah the interview felt terrible to me. We did some 'rapid fire one word answer' questions, and most of the questions are ones which really shouldn't be relegated to a single question. I felt more like I was on a quiz game show than an interview. Also the guy kept obsessing over my time in NoDak for some reason, wanted me to remember word for word a conversation I had over 3 years ago, and I had to explain in detail what it means to have to deal with an angry customer. Like, as in this person didn't know what an "angry" "customer" is. Alpacalips Now posted:cities That's one thing that's odd about this, is that the application wasn't for a specific city, just a general application. It seems to be opposite of what everyone else's experience with EF.
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Oct 4, 2013 13:37
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caberham posted:Who the hell believes in the AAAAA travel ratings? But seconding Xingping, Yangshuo is getting over developed. They are all within close reach of each other, really easy to move around.
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Oct 4, 2013 15:50
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YF19pilot posted:and I'm an American Mutt. So do you look white or not? If you don't then it's quite possible the interview saw you, decided immediately to reject you, but didn't want anyone to lose face so he went ahead with the interview anyways before sending you a rejection. If you are not white I would stay away from chain schools like EF because they are only interested in the appearance they give off to parents so they can get the most peoples money, I'd be surprised if they cared how you actually taught.
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Oct 4, 2013 18:05
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Man Chinese wedding drama  I kind of want to go on a rant but don't want to under this account. If someone get me a parachute account I can spill all the beans and of course, awesome lines of amusing Chinese dialogueSome examples: 四個人之中，他是特別平凡。可能在年小的時候，他燒了太多。 Out of all 4 siblings, he's the most simple minded. Perhaps his head got a bit too hot when he was young. How to say "your relatives are trash": Well I see you have a lively crowd and lots of relatives. Isn't that nice, but your newly wed husband is like an innocent rabbit. If you throw him to the den of lions, he's going to get mauled so you better protect him  When the other family has already tipped and but are very stingy "Well the other family were gracious enough to tip. This family is happy for the marriage too so will tip separately. We enjoyed the hospitality of the restaurant and wish everyone to be happy" Underhanded comment:  I'm drinking real alcohol, how about you guys I'm always the real deal, I'm never a small fryI may be fluent in English, but sometimes I wish my English is as sharp as my Cantonese. To me, higher level of Chinese culture is to be as underhanded passively aggressive as possible without other people knowing you are being passive aggressive. Just acting all snarky and all the way when everyone else is oblivious.
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Oct 4, 2013 19:19
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Arakan posted:So do you look white or not? If you don't then it's quite possible the interview saw you, decided immediately to reject you, but didn't want anyone to lose face so he went ahead with the interview anyways before sending you a rejection. If you are not white I would stay away from chain schools like EF because they are only interested in the appearance they give off to parents so they can get the most peoples money, I'd be surprised if they cared how you actually taught. Yeah, I'm white. Though my last name is Hispanic, so perhaps that scared them.
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Oct 4, 2013 19:32
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Send them a photo of yourself next to the resume just to clear things up? Just stick around, you will be able to find a job. Somehow. Internet posts here and there are good foot in the doors. Network your way around, don't be a drunken douche bag then you can move up. Or just avoid teaching altogether, come on here on a Chinese scholarship, pick up mandarin and other skills, then find some employment. Magna can fill you in on the non teaching job part. And other goons can highlight more on the CSC.
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Oct 4, 2013 19:54
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种族: 老外（白: #FFCC99）
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Oct 4, 2013 21:04
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caberham posted:I may be fluent in English, but sometimes I wish my English is as sharp as my Cantonese. To me, higher level of Chinese culture is to be as underhanded passively aggressive as possible without other people knowing you are being passive aggressive. Just acting all snarky and This really does not make me want to have more to do with the culture than I already do, lol
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Oct 4, 2013 21:22
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I am sometimes overly passive aggressive so they can know I am not being subtle and they still don't get it.
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Oct 4, 2013 21:35
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Speaking of in-laws etc. The longer red line represents the amount of effort I have already expended to be able to communicate with my wife's family. The small red line represents the amount of effort they need to put in to communicate with me (and don't).
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Oct 4, 2013 21:43
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systran posted:Speaking of in-laws etc. e: whoops wrong thread!
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Oct 4, 2013 21:52
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Should I also not have posted this stuff in this thread? I honestly never really know the difference between the threads beyond, "Don't post chinese without translations or totally stupid poo poo" in this thread. I was trying to continue the conversation so I didn't switch to the other thread.
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Oct 4, 2013 21:57
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Arakan posted:So do you look white or not? If you don't then it's quite possible the interview saw you, decided immediately to reject you, but didn't want anyone to lose face so he went ahead with the interview anyways before sending you a rejection. If you are not white I would stay away from chain schools like EF because they are only interested in the appearance they give off to parents so they can get the most peoples money, I'd be surprised if they cared how you actually taught. Yeah, last week I saw three very qualified people (experienced, certified, degree'd)get turned down because they "weren't white enough". Parents freak out because they want white-only teachers, not good teachers. It's a racist status thing.
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Oct 5, 2013 03:52
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FearCotton posted:Yeah, last week I saw three very qualified people (experienced, certified, degree'd)get turned down because they "weren't white enough". Parents freak out because they want white-only teachers, not good teachers. It's a racist status thing. The racial discrimination seems to be focused mainly on people of Asian heritage, I've noticed. I'm sure there's some against Black would-be ESL teachers, but I have a good number of friends who are both ESL teachers at schools or english training centers and are black and hardly any of them complained it was hard to find a job whereas the couple of Asian ESL teachers I know are pretty vocal about how they had to invoke guanxi from this or that great aunt to get a job. Could just be the Asian-American/Canadians I know are less used to this particular kind of racial discrimination, though. Being Indian seems like the of the kiss of death, I ran across numerous DOSs who say they don't hire Indian/Indian looking people full stop.
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Oct 5, 2013 06:22
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caberham posted:Man Chinese wedding drama I don't know what's wrong with me, but I have no idea what's going on in these examples. I'm not really getting why the sentences are offensive, but also I'm not seeing subtlety. For the quote "I'm always the real deal, I'm never a small fry" is it underhanded? It doesn't even seem to relate to what the previous person said.
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Oct 5, 2013 06:38
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Don't worry about it, caberham has a long history of posting things that make no sense to anyone else. He makes up for it in other ways.
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Oct 5, 2013 06:54
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I spent a year at EF from 10-11, had an awesome DOS that got promoted to Regional Manager down south and replaced by a guy that thought everyone was career-track and wanted us all to get DELTA certified (hella expensive and practically useless in China). The job was decent hours-wise compared to our competitors though apparently that's changed since I left. If I had been single, I would have cleaned up with the CCs (the hot girls that cajole students into buying a ton of course hours). Not a terrible job, but more work than I was willing to put in for what it was. Also knew a DOS at another center that smoked weed at work and would sell to interested parties. Everyone I met from Disney English seemed like sex pest burnouts that had overstayed their welcome and were on their last legs anyway. fake edit: Caberham makes up for any perceived deficiencies because the first time I met him, he came to pick me up sight unseen at my hotel wearing a Star Wars shirt and gave me a ride in his BMW. Dude is a legend. I've also stayed at Bloodnose's place twice (for multiple days) and never met the guy.
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Oct 5, 2013 07:45
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LentThem posted:I don't know what's wrong with me, but I have no idea what's going on in these examples. I'm not really getting why the sentences are offensive, but also I'm not seeing subtlety. I am not sure but I just assumed caberham was drunk posting after the wedding because I didn't understand any of it
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Oct 5, 2013 08:33
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Magna Kaser posted:The racial discrimination seems to be focused mainly on people of Asian heritage, I've noticed. I'm sure there's some against Black would-be ESL teachers, but I have a good number of friends who are both ESL teachers at schools or english training centers and are black and hardly any of them complained it was hard to find a job whereas the couple of Asian ESL teachers I know are pretty vocal about how they had to invoke guanxi from this or that great aunt to get a job. Yep, Asian or Indian is  OH NO CAN'T HIRE ; from friends I've heard it's far worse to be a black guy esl teacher than female. It's absolute bullshit, and oftentimes what's the most annoying is everyone knows it but the parents...who would rather have a "pretty white lady teacher!" than a dude with a MA. That is a direct quote from a recent meeting. We don't work with those people anymore.Also caberham is a boss, and was super nice when he came to Maine this summer, even though I kept abandoning him and Blinky for GRE study sessions.
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Oct 5, 2013 08:48
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caberham posted:Man Chinese wedding drama I went to a big fancy wedding at the Hyatt on the Bund on Wednesday. It was an insane pastiche of what might pass for romantic if you'd never progressed past the emotional age of 14; a hideous amalgam of a small girl's 'dream wedding', cobbled together chiefly from watching too many Disney movies, and one of those game shows where the sole objective is to humiliate the contestants. But then again, it was also kind of lovely because the bride and groom are properly in love in and it was exactly the wedding they wanted. I was there as the groom's guest, but hardly know him. I was really the plus-one of my best friend, who was... not really a groomsman, but kind of a guest of honour. Anyway, I tried telling the couple's parents how honoured I was to be at their children's wedding, but they wouldn't hear of it. As the sole white guy in the room of about 300 (and hilariously overdressed at that, because apparently tracksuits are acceptable wedding guest attire), I was pretty much the second biggest focus of attention after the bride. It was pretty loving bizarre. Everybody seemed gobsmacked that this laowai would come all the gently caress way from Australia to attend this dude's wedding - really it was just the excuse to go to China with my friend that we've been looking for for like 8 years. Anyway. Chungwha and hysterically overpriced Australian red wine were consumed by the truckload, the bride and groom danced very awkwardly to Scarborough Fair (why?), the parents spoke, everybody got red in the face and hosed off upstairs to the hotel bar at like 9pm. Was weird, but pretty fun. Not a wedding I'm about to forget, that's for drat sure.
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Oct 5, 2013 11:24
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Smudgie Buggler posted:[the wedding] was an insane pastiche of what might pass for romantic if you'd never progressed past the emotional age of 14; a hideous amalgam of a small girl's 'dream wedding', cobbled together chiefly from watching too many Disney movies, and one of those game shows where the sole objective is to humiliate the contestants. lol i like this guy
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Oct 5, 2013 12:23
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That whole post is pretty much asia.txt.
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Oct 5, 2013 12:25
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Going to my girlfriend's friend's wedding, it was really weird when I heard the World of Warcraft theme and apparently we had to trick them into drinking some disgusting drink with the most horrible ingredients (dark soy sauce, baijiu, other random poo poo)??? I don't understand but I got really drunk and said 干杯 a lot.
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Oct 5, 2013 13:39
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We also met a very pretty girl, a professional trampolinist, at that wedding, who showed us around Shanghai the next day. She and my friend were discussing their favourite luxury brands (stereotypes ahoy), when, trying to include me in the rapid Shanghainese conversation, she turns to me and half-shouts, "I love buggery!" I look at my friend, and he just shrugs. I look back at her, and she goes on, "Buggery! Buggery!" She's pointing at her fingers now. I'm desperately confused as to what she's on about, because I know it can't really be what it sounds like. Not being able to make sense of my not making sense of her, she gets embarrassed and changes the subject. 10 minutes later on West Nanjing Road we pass a Bvlgari shop and she jumps up and down pointing, "Look, see, buggery!" Smudgie Buggler fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 13:58
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Smudgie Buggler posted:a professional trampolinist What? Who pays people to... trampoline? Is that a verb? To jump on a trampoline?
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Oct 5, 2013 14:03
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Bloodnose posted:What? She's an athlete, is what I mean.
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Oct 5, 2013 14:08
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Bloodnose posted:What? I was more interested in how this intersects with buggery.
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Oct 5, 2013 14:13
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Bloodnose posted:What? Cirque Du Soleil
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Oct 5, 2013 14:19
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blinkyzero posted:I was more interested in how this intersects with buggery. 
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Oct 5, 2013 14:20
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Yeah all I'm getting out of this is that you turned down a crazy night.
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Oct 5, 2013 14:39
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Chinese weddings are fun. We're through the looking glass here. Did something get lost on the boat over from China for our local Chinese diaspora? Where's the talk about endless ceremonies dressed like Klingons, a total lack of rehearsal dinner entertainment, obsequious attention to custom, excessive displays of wealth, everyone sitting around round tables relatively sober gossiping for hours and then nothing else?
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Oct 5, 2013 18:02
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I've booked my ticket and I'm ready to go, but I can't decide whether I will be better served in my daily commute by a Giant Plastic Bag Of Fresh Air Protecting My Head or Holding My Breath For A Long Time. (Any advice on air pollution masks, goons?)
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Oct 5, 2013 21:44
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Ceciltron posted:I've booked my ticket and I'm ready to go, but I can't decide whether I will be better served in my daily commute by a Giant Plastic Bag Of Fresh Air Protecting My Head or Holding My Breath For A Long Time. 3M N95, any variety. Search for that on Taobao and you'll find not just 3M stuff but similar products from competitors, most of which that look comparable are comparable. You want a mask made of that kind of material, shaped to fit around your nose and mouth tightly. That probably means having that metal bendy piece to go over the nose.
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Oct 6, 2013 02:39
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YF19pilot posted:For better or for worse, EF has sent me a rejection notice. I'll keep plugging away at it, because honestly spending time in another country sounds fun, and teaching English in China has to be better than being a retail wage slave. EF rejected you??? Haha I bet it was because you were asking too many questions. Plus the people in HR dont know jack poo poo. I met some of them before and when you look into their eyes...you see they drank the kool aid. No worries, keep looking and you'll most def find something. Really emphasize that you're WHITE because being white means you speak better English. Sounds terrible but its the reality here. On another note, I had dinner with the GM of Crown Plaza the other night. He's British, funny guy, and balls hard. We had good conversation. I kept it light and fun. He treated me to a nice steak dinner! He offered me a job...the pay is 5000 rmb a month with no housing. After taxes and insurance, I would be taking home 3800. gently caress.
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Oct 6, 2013 03:42
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Yeah those hotel positions pay nothing, I've heard.
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Oct 6, 2013 04:36
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I figure if you're working as some sort of concierge it wouldn't be difficult to make lots of money on the side helping people find imported alcohol/prostitution/drugs for VIP clients.
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Oct 6, 2013 04:47
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