|
People in the PYF poo poo kids say thread have been asking for it, so I thought I'd start a thread about working at a high school in China. I'm hoping the former and present China goons will also be willing to answer some questions. China's a big country and people have tons of different experiences working and living here, so I hope we can get a lot of different perspectives in this thread. GBS China thread T&T megathread China LAN thread I know of one other goon who used to work at my school, and I have two goons as coworkers. (In fact, goons got me this job). BACKGROUND: I work at a dual-diploma program in Sichuan province. Our students take classes in both English and Chinese. In that way, it's much like a bilingual program in Canada, in that subjects are taught in one or the other language without being explicitly a language class. Upon successful completion of each side's courses, our students ideally receive both a diploma from the Chinese school and our partner institution in the USA. (Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out like this.) The program is small by Western standards and crazy small by Chinese standards; our graduating class this year has only 7 kids- and only six of them are actually graduating, to be honest. To compare, I've taught junior high classes here with more than fifty kids in one room. That is a bit more typical. We also lose a lot of kids throughout the year and over summer breaks; a lot of students sign up for this program because they assume Western education=easy, and find the reality of both behavioral and academic standards we enforce to be too much work. The program costs roughly $16,000 US a year (according to my boss- I have no evidence of this figure other than what she says) and most, if not all of our students are the children of the landowning rich. That means their parents typically have lots of money, but not a lot of education. A lot of students choose to enter our program not because they love and/or are good at English, but because they want to both avoid the gaokao and study overseas. Most of the kids I teach choose to study in the USA, but we also have kids going to Australia. At the other campus, there are also students attending Canadian schools next year. Students who are less savvy end up in Singapore (or even in the West) at tertiary ESL programs. Currently, our program has two campuses, one at an elite public school and one at a private school out in the suburbs. They're opening a new program next year in a different suburb. I only work at the private school because I don't like the students at the public school (they'll cuss you out for assigning homework...and that's if they bother showing up at all.) Our bosses refer to the two campuses as the "smart" school and the "dumb" school. I'll take the allegedly dumb kids any day. We have five foreign teachers this year- four Americans and one Indian guy. We had a Brazilian-Canadian teacher last year who ended up leaving because this job is a lot less cushy than the international schools she'd taught at previously. I teach the following courses: Senior English (with a writing focus) Sophomore ESL (speaking focus) Junior Biology Senior Anthropology I taught an environmental science course last year. I've also had to teach elementary and junior high English classes that were, as far as I can tell, just a way for the school to brag that they have a Caucasian person working at the school, because they were loving pointless busywork. Any China goons out there, please feel free to answer questions! I am just a very tiny speck in this ginormous place, and would love to have other viewpoints. Will amend the OP as necessary.
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 03:51
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:02 |
|
|
deathbot posted:I have a question! Were you already in China when you got the job offer, or did you migrate? I was teaching in Korea and got the job mid-year. Then when the school year ended in Korea and my contract finished, my husband and I immediately went to China. I was introduced by a friend, sent in my resume, and after two Skype interviews I was offered the job. I had to do a small demonstration lesson, but I don't really think that had anything to do with anything.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 08:13
|
|
|
fart simpson posted:Can you use chopsticks? You very handsurm! P.S. fart is also a Chinagoon.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 08:56
|
|
|
left_unattended posted:How difficult is it to teach English when you don't speak the local language? How do you explain what a word means? Not difficult at all. There's a reason there's a massive ESL industry in Asia where the majority of teachers are completely untrained/inexperienced. To teach English to someone who you don't have a common language with, you need the following: 1. Energy 2. Patience 3. Acting skills I have all these things (well, #2 is strictly for students and children; everyone else can get the gently caress out of my way MAN) and I also have the absolute most important tool: being willing to make an rear end out of myself. Do my students always understand me? No. Do I try new things until they do? Yes. Do I know when to let something go for the day and come back to it later? Yes. Also, having a VPN and access to Google images helps. One of the things I do to help students internalize new concepts/language is to have them experience it as many different ways as possible. Writing, speaking, moving, singing, whatever I can make them do to naturally repeat not only the word but the usage, I'll do it a few different ways. I would say, though, if you are very shy or don't like being laughed at, it will be a painful and frustrating process for you and your students alike. You have to believe in whatever you're doing, even if you're just faking it really well, or the students will sense it and not be pulled it. His Divine Shadow posted:So is the chinese educational system as broken as the GBS thread makes it out to be? And if it is, how the heck is the country working still? Yes. Yes. A thousand times YES. And there are so many reasons! I don't even know where to start. First of all, any score reports you see from China are bullshit. They report only the test scores from top institutes in Shanghai or Beijing and pretend they're from the country as a whole. Parents pay bribes to teachers so their students get better grades and sit at the front of the class; everyone else is sleeping, reading manga, drawing, fighting, etc. Learning seems to be done through rote memorization and repetition only. Appearances are everything; a school can't get an A rating without employing a WHITE English teacher. I've been called in to so many random events because "it's a favor, their native teacher is busy" and I always find out later that the real native teacher is black, or not as pretty as me (this means brunette), or an older man. Kids leave school for weeks at a time to get plastic surgery. I've had students literally never come to a single class all year, hand in anything, or even contact me in any way, and our principal would give them a passing grade. Kids from Shanghai and Beijing have lower university entrance standards to meet than kids from other provinces, which is doubly unfair considering people are frequently poorer outside those cities. I've taught in schools with no heat or A/C and the windows are never closed because it's considered unhealthy, which is hilarious on a 700 AQI day. The equipment is always broken. The computers are full of viruses. The conditions in the schools overall are not very good. Students "study" all the time while they and their teachers play phone games silently in the classroom. The SATs can't be taken in China because of all the cheating. Oh, man, I could go on forever; this is all just off the top of my head. Absolutely nothing here works except the Great Firewall. That said, people are tenacious and willing to get what they want. Sometimes this is off-putting, but overall I think it's pretty admirable. Grand Fromage posted:Most of the GBS China posters who talk about the education are also teachers so it's coming from first-hand experience. I would say that thread is basically accurate. Nothing has made me appreciate American education more than working at schools in East Asia. As for your second question I honestly don't know. It's debatable if the country is working. I have always said and will always say that everything I've seen in Sichuan is head and shoulders above anything in the Korean system. But, yeah, I never realized how strict my hippie-dippie private school was, with its consequences and emphasis on personal responsibility. I'm so sick of arguing with my coworkers over whether a student "really deserves" a detention. yes, he copied an entire Wikipedia page and handed it in as his final paper, he SHOULD be punished! Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Apr 7, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 10:12
|
|
|
And I'm gonna say now that I may come off as negative, but in general I like it here. Like 60-40 most of time, which is pretty good for me 'cause I'm a grumpwagon. But most of my significant moments with students have occurred while I lived here, and that's important to me. Also the food loving rules.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2017 10:17
|
|
|
Sorry for the delay; I had my first weekend alone (had houseguests for the past month with no break in between, and the last one was being a super space oval office) so I was grooving on actually getting poo poo done in my house!ladron posted:I mean, go ahead I don't want this to turn into a rant thread, so I'll just share one story in detail: At the "smart" school, I taught an AP Environmental Science class. Do we have anything in the form of official AP training or are we registered? No, we are not. I was initially really excited about this class because I had been told over and over how smart and nerdy and awesome this group of students was, and I had all sorts of cool labs and stuff planned. Fast-forward to October. Of the 30 kids registered from that class, maybe five or six showed up. The ones that did show almost never did their homework, were constantly using their phones (it's not sneaky, by the way, when you're apparently staring at your crotch for over ten minutes- I KNOW what you're looking at), and never made up missing work. Four kids from that class I never saw once all year. I gave one midterm and, while students did come, many of them I had never met before and were 1. angry at me because the test was difficult (you never came to class or did any work, ya think?) and 2. angry at me because I didn't know who they were and greet them by name (YOU NEVER CAME TO CLASS). One girl, in fact, folded her uniform jacket on the desk, took off her glasses, and went to sleep. She had asked me for a college recommendation letter a couple of weeks before and I had turned her down because- say it with me- I HAD NEVER MET HER BEFORE. Two weeks after that, she cornered me in the school store and screamed at me in rage because she had decided to come to class THAT DAY and she found out I was giving a quiz. How dare I? She finished her midterm by literally throwing the crumpled paper at my face. Nothing was ever done to discipline the kids, either for their rudeness or their absence. No, it is not typical to treat one's teachers this way in China. No, I am not an extremely bad teacher. So, all but two kids failed the class, mostly due to not handing in work and/or copying what work they did hand in from online sources. Our school has a comparatively strict anti-cheating policy, but the Chinese teachers didn't care and no one listened to the foreigners. The top score in my class was an 82; the next highest was in the high sixties. He literally passed by two points. How many of these kids were denied their American diploma for failing a required science requirement? Zero, because nobody failed. The principal let them all "write" a "paper" and gave anyone who handed one in a D. icantfindaname posted:is it true that the asians are a shame culture hivemind in which the nail that sticks up gets hammered down and people pre-emptively conform to the will of their superiors through reading the air? Not here. Ytlaya posted:Do you have any pictures around where you live? I like seeing pictures from random non-large city places. I took some pics on Saturday, but a lot of them were crappy, so I'll make them a bit prettier and post them later. I completely agree with the bolded statement. We warn the kids about this, in fact. Many people who have decent English on paper actually don't speak it very well because they've memorized a set of stock phrases. If I ask my students, "How are you?" they answer readily, but if I say "How's it going?" they freak out. And while I don't speak slowly, I do speak slower than my natural talking speed and I enunciate a bit more. It takes practice to do this and sound natural. Also, what part of China is your coworker from? They use different finger-counting in different areas. Here it's the same as Western countries until five, after which you have to be some kind of hand contortionist to get your point across. Warbird posted:Ask me about Forrest Gumping your way into somehow marrying WAY above your league despite not sharing a language or hemisphere with your wife's side of the family. Sure.  Dangeresque posted:Wow, I remember reading your post about teaching in Korea, way back when I was teaching in Korea, and now I'm teaching in Sichuan and reading your posts about teaching in Sichuan. YOU WILL BE MINE *heavy breathing* Where in Sichuan are you??? Deceitful Penguin posted:fleta tell me about the awkward romances and crushes you've had to suffer from your students On me? Nothing. By Chinese standards I am not very cute.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 02:46
|
|
|
The student coup story is really long and I'm typing it in dribs and drabs, but expect it in a few hours.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 02:48
|
|
|
Ein cooler Typ posted:Are Chinese schoolgirls as sexy as Japanese gently caress off.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 04:21
|
|
|
Choco1980 posted:Tell us about the student coup. OKAY poo poo GOT CRAZY. This is gonna be long. All identifying details have been changed. The Villains: Wilma- Wilma is the principal. She's Hong Kong Chinese, but lived in the US most of her life (longer than I did, in fact, and I was born there.) Wilma is better than the principal at the "smart" school, who is her husband, but she has no educational training or experience other than helping in the church nursery. Wilma was really cool last year, but has been a raging thundertwat this year, especially to other women in the office. Bob-- BoB showed up at the beginning of the year. He was given a desk and a lot of power, but no one had any loving clue what his actual job was. The students immediately identified him as a Party spy. He never spoke to anyone in the office except Wilma and his buddy, Joe. Joe- Joe also was new this year. He was given a single class period to teach, and was the head instructor for the sophomores. Again, nobody knew what the gently caress Joe was actually doing there, since he never taught his single class. He and Bob were rarely seen apart and the gay rumors flew like crazy. Tangy- Some kind of liaison between our program and the main school. Does nothing except scream-talk, make personal phone calls, and torpedo any attempts by the foreign staff to discipline students. I hate her, but I like her kid. The Victims: Nancy- One of the Chinese TOEFL teachers and the head instructor for the seniors. Nancy is the only one in the office who gets my jokes besides Florp. Sammy- Another Chinese TOEFL teacher. The best cussing you will ever hear from a non-native speaker. Also sassily wears his Republic of Taiwan t-shirt everywhere. The Heroes: Lily- The office manager and basically the person we all rely on for anything and everything because she's the only one who knows what's going on. Lily is basically Wilma's bitch and loathes her, but you would almost never be able to tell. Rihanna- Rihanna is a student and she is famous. Fleta- 'sup Florp- he's this weird guy who sits across from me and makes delicious food and is generally awesome. He mostly teaches science and history. Whenever we have a cooking activity, he has to be the head of it, for which I am forever grateful because I don't want to be in charge of that poo poo. Please note that all the events in this story are reported as they were told to me; I was not personally present for almost anything that happened and am piecing together the narrative from what The Victims and The Heroes told me. Prelude: A lovely September When the school year started, we were introduced to Bob and Joe. They never told us exactly what they did, but Wilma did privately tell me that Bob was slated to be the principal for the new campus opening next year. Fine. I wasn’t sure what Joe did other than gently caress up literally everything he touched and arbitrarily defend the students from being disciplined, but luckily Wilma didn’t listen to him much. Bob and Joe were being given power over the TOEFL teachers, though. Since this didn’t affect us, Florp and I were pretty much unaware of the issues until two weeks ago. However, we did notice that there seemed to suddenly be meetings every week, and we were never asked to sit in. nor were we informed what the meetings were about. Wilma became impossible to find; she was always out with Bob and Joe, or in a meeting with them. One of the first things that happened this year was that I was accused of saying negative things about the students’ mandatory military training. This is stupid for several reasons: 1. I have no desire to be fired and/or deported. 2. It’s barely military training; hundreds of lazy-rear end kids lined up doing half-assed jumping jacks and mostly playing on their phones. 3. I had actually told a class who complained about it to be quiet and not whine about something that got them out of classes. Later that day, Wilma sat Florp and I down and opened with, “Now, I know in the West you like to coddle students—“ HOLD THE gently caress UP. Florp and I are the majority disciplinarians at our school. We’ve had countless disagreements with even the best Chinese coworkers about whether it’s acceptable for students to refuse to hand in their homework, text in class, etc. We assign more detentions and have higher standards for written work than any other teachers. Plus, as the parent of a child born and raised in the US, she had a wealth of knowledge to compare how our students behave and are and treated compared to “the West.” But she was doing some kind of face thing, as far as I can tell. Finally, it came out that “some foreign teacher” had “said the military training ‘sucked.’” Uh, no. I kind of flipped out for a minute, then proved that wasn’t what I had said by having her ask the class in question. Did I receive an apology from her or from Tangy, who had told her this stupid story? No, I did not. I found out later that Tangy had been fed her lines by Bob. I’d noticed him hovering outside my classroom and listening to the class in question. So, this didn’t endear Bob and Tangy to me, and I especially hated Bob when he started walking around and telling everyone I was spreading a rumor that he was gay. All my coworkers know that my best friend is a gay man and that I am the one asking students not to use “gay” as a pejorative, but again, Wilma started yelling at me for starting such a crazy rumor. Of course, it started at the head office (and not helped by the fact that Bob and Joe were literally never without each other and they seemed to prefer being alone together, going so far as to stagger their lunchtime so they didn’t have to sit with any of the other teachers, except occasionally Wilma.) In fact, I knew of the rumor because Lily told me, but responded with “Oh, well, none of our business.” To shoot that down, I made a “casual” announcement at the next staff meeting asking everyone to be vigilant about students calling each other gay as an insult. It worked. Also, I spent about three months completely blanking Bob after this because I was so done with his stupid bullshit. What I didn’t know at the time was that Bob and Joe were already actively campaigning against the TOEFL teachers in a much more organized fashion. They’d apparently announced their intent to oust the entire TOEFL staff and replace it with their people, and from the beginning of the year started trying to make this happen. The details aren’t important or interesting, but their mistake was targeting Sammy and Nancy- coincidentally (?) the two most popular teachers in the school. I am still not clear on what their actual arguments were. They also started forcing the Chinese teachers, even Lily (who doesn’t have any classes) to attend mandatory trainings every Sunday, at which they received no training and were just screamed at for underperforming students. Remember how I said this program has a lot of kids who aren’t very academic? Yeah. Screaming at their teachers wasn’t going to change that, but okay. After we came back from the New Year break, it seems that Bob and Joe had really ramped up the crazy, despite rarely being in the office. Around this time, Joe was given the class “American Math.” What is that? One Twinkie divided by one bald eagle equals freedom? I have no loving clue. Neither did the kids. The only evidence I have of anything math-related happening in that class is a display Joe put up of Fibonacci coloring sheets. Like these high school sophomores were literally told to sit and color. I’ll post a picture later. Another thing you need to keep in mind is that our school is loving disgusting. There is a cleaning lady who only does floors, and she dunks her mop in the toilet. I am not making this up. So she mops down all the floors with toilet water and no soap. There wasn’t any soap in the bathrooms until Florp bought some, and even then, he and I are the only ones who use it. Teachers are supposed to be able to get toilet paper from Lily, but there hasn’t been any in months. Last time she had a pack, I stole half of them for Florp and myself because I was so pissed. A lot of the students and teachers don’t seem to use toilet paper for peeing. Also, Nancy had food in her desk over break and mice found it, absolutely destroying the office with poo poo and piss. We couldn’t turn on the heating units because the stink of urine was too strong (and no one cleaned them for almost a month after the fact). I spent my own money on bleach and Dettol to clean the office, but only Nancy and I bothered to use it- everyone else just threw out what couldn’t be saved and wiped the poo poo away with tissues. Every room was positively destroyed. About two weeks ago, my student Rihanna mentioned to me that Candance (another TOEFL teacher) might get fired because Bob and Joe didn’t like her. I also do not like Candace because she reported my husband to the “smart” school’s Party rep for some made-up bullshit because she once had to wait fifteen minutes for him to finish class so they could carpool, so I didn’t really respond. She then told me that all the students were upset about the conditions at the school- how dirty it was, how all the equipment was broken, etc. She was completely right, but Wilma had refused to bring in professional cleaning staff or reimburse any of us for our supplies that were destroyed, so I just encouraged her to write a note and give it to the principal, hoping that would spur some changes. Here is the note Rihanna and her class wrote and signed: quote:“Dear Ms. Wilma: They all signed it, too, and placed it on Wilma’s desk. The next day, Wilma comes in, sits down, and then shouts, “Fleta, did you write this?” Hold the gently caress up. Are you kidding me? You think a native speaker wrote that? Granted, it’s very good, but why the gently caress would I do that? And why wouldn’t I just sign my own name? I knew what she was talking about, but acted confused. She then showed it to me and I confirmed that I was aware of it, but did not write it. She then asked me if I had edited the documents, and again, I honestly said no. (I know who did, but I ain’t telling.) She immediately switched into Caring Mode and started cooing about how open communication was so very important, blah blah blah. I just nodded my head and said “Yeah…” a lot, then pointed to a few of the most pressing issues and reminded her that Florp and I had been complaining about these exact problems. “Well, they have to write it in Chinese or I can’t give it to the main school.” “okay, tell them that.” I knew she thought this was a discouraging tactic, but I also knew it wouldn’t work. The next two days, I was out sick with a virus. Wednesday afternoon, Florp informed me of the following: Bob and Joe had come into Rihanna’s class and announced that they would replace Nancy and Sammy, who were being fired. It’s March; Nancy’s students are a month away from graduation, and as I said before, they are the two most popular teachers in the school. None of the kids like Bob or Joe; they find them creepy. The response to this was to storm the office, refuse to attend class, and scream at Wilma, Bob, Joe, and even the principal of the main campus. Apparently the protest took a couple hours, and ended with Sammy and Nancy keeping their jobs, Bob and Joe being removed from the campus (but not fired), and the kids stealing a bunch of nice chairs from the teacher’s office downstairs. The next day, I privately congratulated Rihanna on her moxie and getting rid of those two useless walking skin tags. I was really proud and pleased to see that the kids defended their teachers and stood up against the lousy equipment and horrible conditions. Then my class was interrupted by a surprise visit from the main campus principal, who needed to talk to the students about a field trip that was happening the next day. Rihanna wasn’t going on the field trip and asked to sit with me in the classroom, and I said yes. Then Lily came in, and the two of them told me the following: 1. Sammy and Nancy had actually been fired before the announcement was made. 2. Joe earned more money than any other teacher or staff member, despite only teaching one class period a week and not doing much in said class. 3. Nobody knew what Bob’s actual job title was, not even Lily. 4. Bob and Joe were planning to replace Sammy and Nancy with a single teacher, who had no experience teaching TOEFL and had never even taken the exam. Nancy later told me: 1. Bob did have a job title- Quality Assurance. If this seems like a weird title for a school employee, IT IS. 2. The head of the company that owns our school had hired Bob after a single interview. The HR manager had asked her to please interview him a second time, as if standard at our company, but she refused. She also hired Joe sight unseen. 3. Bob initially had no job title, but was on the payroll all year and earning a shitload of money. The company head asked Wilma to create a job title for him so everything looked legit. 4. Joe had publicly insulted Nancy on WeChat Moments. This would be equivalent to posting the same nasty screed on our school’s public Facebook page, if we had one. Every student saw this nasty move, and a good number of the teaching and administrative staff. 5. Bob had a huge stable of teachers ready to replace us. He’d forced us to work an eight-hour recruitment session a few weekends ago; we are usually given actual warning, but this time we only found out two days before because it was sooooo last-minute and suuuuch a surprise. Imagine our consternation when we arrived to see several other foreign teachers, all of whom were weirdly nasty to us. We later determined that these were people gunning for our jobs. 6. Wilma’s husband, Fred, is currently the principal of the “smart” school. He is being fired after this year. I would imagine this is due to gross incompetence, as well as his charming habit of screaming for hours at a time at the Indian guy who teaches math. Granted, the Indian guy is a complete dumbfuck, but he’s a good teacher and a nice person. Fred just likes to take out all his frustrations on Indian Guy because he’s an easy target, in my opinion. I found out some more stuff, but it’s either too identifying or not relevant. Suffice it to say that Nancy was in tears at the end of her retelling, Lily was visibly angry, and I was, as every stdh.txt says, practically shaking because I wasn’t sure I would have a job in the next week or two. The dust has since settled. Wilma has someone come to sweep out the heating units every month, a lot of the broken equipment has been replaced, and Rihanna told me on Friday that they’re getting Smart Boards AND moving the whiteboards so they are in front of the students, instead of at the side of the classroom where half the kids can’t see. She’s in charge of where everything is being placed. So, that’s the story as I know it. Wilma of course followed me to lunch one day on the pretense of “spending time together” but immediately launched into a retelling that painted Bob and Joe as innocent victims who cared deeply about the students (despite not knowing any of their names). I don’t really want to talk about that now because it depresses me; Wilma and I had a very good relationship last year and now I know that I can’t trust her at all. Bitch is ruthless when it comes to money. Anyways, Rihanna rules. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Apr 10, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 04:22
|
|
|
Oh, also: Wilma had promised Rihanna's class she would talk to them about their protest and their demands (which got to hysterical levels; Nancy was crying and screaming in the office with them.) She then refused to speak to any of the kids, which further pissed them off. They goon-rushed her on Thursday and demanded her attention, refusing to leave until she talked to them. Unfortunately, I don't speak Mandarin, so I can't tell you exactly what was going on, but it was after this that she started replacing the broken stuff and having things cleaned, so I imagine ti was related tot heir original list. Also, Sammy got pretty salty over text with me and wrote: "We are able to enjoy our peaceful working condition without those two loving dirty guys or gays." Sammy is cool.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 04:33
|
|
|
I can't speak to that, but most of the ads I've seen for university gigs- while definitely easier- paid less than half of what I'm making now. e: Probably depends on subject/experience, though.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 06:27
|
|
|
lemon-lyme disease posted:There may (or may not?) have been a few cases in there where you used real names instead of the fake ones. Or I could have misread. OH gently caress thank you. Fixed. Jimmy Little Balls posted:School salaries are around 10k-15k a month in Chengdu right? The low end of uni gigs here is about 6k I think, that's if you have no experience and just a bachelors. If you have some experience and you aren't a pushover with negotiations you can push it a few thousand higher easily. I know a couple of the unis are paying 11k-13k starting for 18 hours I think. Standard uni contracts are 14 or 16 hours but most of the time you don't actually work that much, in 4 years I've had 1 semester where I had a full class load. You also get about 5 months off a year. Generally you'll only work 2 or 3 days a week so lots of time for private tutoring where you can get at least 250 an hour, and if you have basic networking skills 500/600 an hour stuff isn't hard to find. Heck! Heck and darn, I never saw any ads for jobs that good! Well, thanks for the info- hopefully it will help someone else. Dangeresque posted:I'm in Chengdu just outside the second ring road. I'm not sure how cagey to be with the details. Oh, for crying out loud, I live in Wenjiang. Come hang out with us sometime. I also get two hours for lunch, so there! :P e; I reread this and it sounded way more aggressive than I meant it to. But seriously, come out with us sometime! I feel like a visit to Meat Factory should be in order soon. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Apr 10, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 07:38
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:There are still some inconsistent names - not sure if they're real names or you just forgot what your code names were. I read it again; looks like the latter, but thank you, too! Their "real names" aren't their real names anyways; I don't really know why I'm being so secretive other than I'm saying negative stuff about my boss. Jimmy Little Balls posted:The universities tend not to advertise, you have to dig through their websites that haven't been updated since the 90's and try and find the contact info of the foreign affairs/office of international cooperation person or whatever they're calling themselves and hope it actually works. Good to know. Thanks, Mr. Balls. Pixelante posted:Do you see any kinds of disability represented in your classes? Yes, and no. Yes because yes, and no because even if a kid had a learning disability, no one would tell me. Hell, I doubt the parents would disclose it to the school. As for physical disabilities, I know one kid has IBS and Rihanna had surgery to correct a heart defect as an infant, but otherwise none that I know of. Our classrooms and offices are on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator, so I doubt it. There are two students that come to mind: 1. Steve, who is now a junior, can talk a blue streak in English but has tremendous difficulty writing. He's lazy and insolent, but less so than many of his peers, and he's easily the best storyteller in the class. Last year, I asked my boss if it was possible he could be dyslexic. She did follow up, but told me that his parents said "no" and that she thinks they would have said "no" regardless. He's one of the kids who has serious performance issues besides decent skills and being intelligent, and it's not that he never tries, but it's a lot harder for him to read and write than it is for most of his classmates. 2. Linda, a graduating senior. She turns in the most insane gobbledygook I've ever seen. I taught fourth graders in Korea who could put together a more coherent sentence. I expressed my frustration to Nancy, who told me that she has just as much trouble understanding Linda's written Chinese. She cannot read aloud and she has no grasp of English phonics whatsoever. I don't think she's stupid, but there is very clearly a problem with even her L1 acquisition and it has not, to my knowledge, been addressed. No one in the office has exceptional student qualifications and I'm not totally sure that's something that exists here. In fact, my school in Korea only had one para for ELs and she only showed up once a week at most. I would imagine Chinese schools operate the same way. Again, though, the only public schools I've taught in are "elite" and a kid with a noticeable disability would probably not be allowed to attend for that reason. Brain wackiness is stigmatized in Japan and Korea, so I imagine it's the same here. I don't think this program would ever appeal to the parents of an exceptional learner, to be honest; it's a lot of work and a lot of personal responsibility. Linda didn't even qualify for the ESL programs in Singapore. Kids with a far worse attitude/work ethic get in all the time. I don't know what her TOEFL is but I can't imagine she did well. I'm very worried about her. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Apr 10, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 08:20
|
|
|
deathbot posted:What's the one thing you wish you guys knew in advance about living/teaching in China? Living- that there are almost no loanwords and that almost nobody speaks any English outside of tourist areas and the city center. Where I live, there are occasionally people who speak a bit of English at H&M and Starbucks, but that's it. Teaching- I wish they hadn't told me the smart school was smart, because it really hosed up my plans for the year once I realized it was literally impossible to get them to learn anything whatsoever.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 09:48
|
|
|
Deceitful Penguin posted:Well what about other, more waifish teachers That's loving rude. And not what I meant, incidentally. Ignoring the random act of cruelty, nobody has a crush on any teacher, as far as I know. Rihanna used to have a crush on Indian Math Guy last year and was really into studying Hinduism as a way to get to know him. I still haven't told her he's actually a Mormon because I like the idea of my kids studying other cultures. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Apr 11, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 01:24
|
|
|
Teriyaki Koinku posted:Are there noticeable differences between private and public schools in China? The company I'm interviewing with would have me teaching high school to college-aged students in 'government-owned public schools' similar to boarding schools near Beijing. Oooh, I'm not the best person to ask about most of this, but I'll try: Private vs. public: it depends on which public school, and then it depends on whether they're being honest. The most prestigious public school in our city franchised the name and anyone can now open a crap school with the prestigious name attached. I am not at all sure how this works, but this is what Chinese coworkers have told me, so I believe it. The scenario you're describing sounds to me like you'll be teaching catchup courses at a gaokao boot camp to kids who hosed up the first time. I COULD DEFINITELY BE WRONG. Please make sure you ask questions about everything you can before you sign the contract. One of the biggest mistakes I see for ESL teachers in Asia is not reading and/or questioning things in their contracts. Oh, and a lot of schools here are boarding schools, public or private, which I hate because I think kids under the age of eight or so are too young.  Locations- I have only taught in the Chengdu area, so I can't really answer this, but I have heard good things about Tianjin and Dalian. I like Chengdu because I like being rained on. Not sarcastic. When it comes to where, I think the best criteria are as follows: 1. Public transit. It takes me between 40 and 120 minutes to get downtown because of construction and traffic, and I have to take a bus (between 15 and 60 minutes) just to get to the end of the subway. Pain in the tits. I walk as much as I can, but that can be dangerous on very polluted days because the visibility is low and people still drive like maniacs. But if I have to choose between dodging cars and getting physically stuck on the bus because there is simply not enough room to get to the door, I'll take the cars! 2. Pollution. This may or may not seem like a big deal, but you'll definitely feel it. I have to give up running for most of the year because it's simply not safe, and the breathing masks fog up my glasses YEAH I'M loving COOL. Also I had my hair trained to be washed every three days- took a year- and I can't do that because the air is too gross in winter. So if you have asthma or are prone to respiratory/sinus issues, I would try to pick a place with less pollution. 3. Other foreigners. Everyone gets mad when I say this, but it's true. I'm not even saying people from your own country, just other foreigners who speak the same language as yourself. Of course, the ideal is to have lots of local friends, but if you don't speak Chinese, that might not be possible, just based on location. As I said before, I rarely meet anyone who speaks English in my area, and a lot of the people around me speak better Sichuanhua than Mandarin. I can listen to and get the gist of Mandarin if the topic is everyday stuff, but Sichuanhua is impossible for me. Your question about studying Chinese, I'm sorry, but I don't know. For China compared to India, you should ask Haier.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 01:49
|
|
)
|
Skoll posted:How is you deliberately misleading one of your students in any way not as rude as that guy? Oh, I didn't realize that not disclosing something personal about a coworker that would have had no effect on my student except discouraging her from independently researching a topic she previously had no knowledge about was deliberately misleading. Perhaps you would like an English lesson? I usually get about $50 USD per hour. I should probably close this thread, if all people are going to do is insult me randomly.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 02:00
|
|
|
The Great Autismo! posted:I have all kinds of stories of crushes but none of them are that interesting. I did receive a text from a student asking if I would sleep with her and another student tried to kiss me after I helped her prepare for an interview. She also invited me to a private KTV which I declined. Private KTV is always a come-on. Give us a story, TGA! I hope you are thin enough, that is very important for storytelling.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 02:10
|
|
|
Skoll posted:I'm not insulting you and I find this thread, and the China thread ( which I've been reading three days straight now ) absolutely fascinating. It just seemed sort of like a double standard to me. If I overreacted, I apologize, but my personal life and the personal lives of my coworkers are not something that is owed to our students. Especially concerning talking about religion. Oh, man, are we ever not supposed to talk about religion. China, remember? Me encouraging my student to be autodidactic and look things up when she's interested in them- which is rare for kids to do here and absolutely a skill they need to develop- is not at all representative of a double standard. Light trickery? Sure, I guess, if you really gotta assign a negative connotation, I'll give you light trickery. In the long run, the important thing is she became proactive about answering her own questions and relied on herself. My students almost never do that unless we make them. The Great Autismo! posted:It's not much of a story, I helped her prepare for her interview to get into college. She was really excited she got in. The day after they had their ceremony where they become adults she said she booked a private KTV room for me and her to celebrate. I told her I didn't think it was a good idea and she was really hurt. I said if she really wanted to do something we could go do something in public with one of her friends. I ended up taking them to Harry Potter 7 and then her friend snuck away and she tried to kiss me and I told her that wasn't a good idea. Yiiiikes. I would poop my pants in terror if a student tried to kiss me. The weird HR lady kissed my hand once and it was scary enough.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 02:31
|
|
|
Skoll posted:Since we're on the subject of religion, do any students ever actually show an affinity towards The Three ways or is it just so thoroughly stamped out that people keep their old holidays and festivals but without recognizing what they meant? There are students with religious associations, as others have said, but they never talk about it. I was teaching kayfabe classes at a junior high last year and one kid told me, "You know [classmats]? He believes in GOD" and I just shrugged and said "Okay!" They do stick to some of their traditional beliefs around here. Burning paper goods for the dead, for example. There are a few religious centers downtown, and most cars I see have a Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel on the dashboard. I'm not sure which of the holidays are Communist retreads of former religious holidays, but we still have things like Qingmeng Festival (that was last week, I think; we got two days off!) that are tied to ancestral veneration. There are also a shitton of Mormons here, both foreign and Chinese. If a student asked me directly about religion, or if there is a religious concept they need to know for comprehension in a literature class or something, I will tell them honestly. I don't otherwise talk about it. I was also raised nominally Wiccan which is hard to explain even to native English speakers, so I kind of fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to anything Abrahamic outside of major holidays and the few Bible stories I do know from university lit courses. I am agnostic, but if the students ask, I will usually tell them I'm atheist, unless I know for sure that I can trust them. That is probably being a little paranoid, but I'm okay with being paranoid. deathbot posted:What's the WEIRDEST thing you guys have seen there? OhmygodhowdoIanswerthis. Uhhhh...I'm just gonna write a list of top contenders. I'm probably forgetting something hilarious, but I'll do my best: 1. A kid peeing on a tree, his brother sticking his hands and feet into the stream and laughing, and mom watching this happen impassively. She then took the kid's hand without so much as a wipe. 2. There's a bar named gently caress Beer downtown. 3. A junior high "English Festival" where kids booty-danced to "Die Young" by Ke$ha. Inappropriate on so many levels! And I ended up having to stay late to give an "interview" where I repeated the same three stock phrases of praise over and over again with various degrees of enthusiasm until the head teacher was satisfied. 4. A kid at the "smart" school who submitted a poem about Hitler for every homework assignment. I don't teach either poetry or history and I have never talked about Hitler. 5. Kids popping zits in the middle of class  6. A pizza topped with fruit cocktail from a can. 7. A woman picking up her child's poo poo using a diaper. The kid was not wearing the diaper; it was wearing the usual split-pants. Mom pulled the diaper out of her purse, picked up the poo with it, and didn't wipe the kid. 8. A man who pulled up next to me in his car, stuck his head out the window, screamed "FOREIGNER!!!!!!!" before driving away. I only consider this weird because he said "foreigner" in English. If he had said "waiguoren" I would have barely noticed because that happens all the time. It struck me as particularly odd- who was he informing? Did he think I didn't know? There was no one else around me. This baffles me more than any of the above. If you're talking about in our high school specifically, I would say the six-foot canvas posters of MIT, the Golden Gate Bridge, Harvard, and other famous American universities and landmarks that were a priority over replacing the mouse-poo poo-ridden heating/AC units, as well as a display of websites the graduating class "likes". I don't know why no one checked it (there's literally a line that's "choosing the right graduate school.") and I don't know why half a wall was devoted to such a stupid list, but hey, kayfabe. I'll post a picture later if I can get one. Dangeresque posted:We definitely should. I don't know where the Meat Factory is but, it looks like you are west side. I'm east side, and before that I was Far East side (practically 龙泉驿) so I don't really know anything west of downtown. Meat Factory is....in...Tai Koo Li? Maybe? I've only been there once. It's Korean BBQ run by actual Koreans; good as gently caress. Thanks for the invite, but I already have plans on Sunday. But join the wechat group; we can coordinate something! e: I'm on Wechat as bringmyfishback, I can invite you if you're not already in there (there are a couple people who've never posted) Warbird posted:I proposed at once such place, so take that as you will. Pretty sure the party present booked it for the "on the tin" use though. Awwwww! 
Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 12, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 03:13
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:You were teaching what? Wikipedia definition: "In professional wrestling, kayfabe /ˈkeɪfeɪb/ is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true," specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not of a staged or pre-determined nature of any kind." In other words, I am (or was; last time it happened I got super salty about it and they haven't made me since) frequently loaned out to other schools for the purpose of making the school look good by having a not-hideous blonde American female "teacher". Kids will pretend to know me and constantly call me beautiful and want to "spontaneously" take pictures with me while there just happens to be a man with a professional camera nearby. For example, the last time we did this, my boss and I were taken by company car to a random junior high school 45 minutes away. We were met by a nervous-looking woman who guided us through the school and told me, "Thank you for coming for our English celebration!" I had been alternately told that this was a demonstration for the government to check for any ideological differences and "their regular teacher is not available," so I gave my boss a pretty good side-eye. When I got to this totally normal seventh-grade classroom, it was interesting to see that every student was a foot taller than me and many of the boys had a five-o'clock-shadow. You know, like seventh graders typically do. Oh, and there were three cameramen at the back of the room with tripods. Then I started my "demo lesson"; the kids somehow knew all the potential questions I was going to ask and had prepared answers in front of them. This was a lesson I'd taught at my regular JHS and I knew the vocabulary should have been new to them, because the class was about- and stop me if this is a topic your language classes covered in middle school- food production and manufacturing. I didn't get to choose the topics for those classes. After the "class" was finished, the students stood up and bowed to me in unison, and I couldn't help but cackle because usually what happens with seventh graders when a class ends is they all start beating the poo poo out of each other. Then we were all warned not to move for a minute and the nervous lady hustled us out as fast as possible, but not before I saw every member of that "class" split up and head for the ninth-grade classrooms across the hall. I yelled at my boss because this was obviously just a way for them to excise the actual teacher, a Cameroonian dude, and bring in perky white titties for their stupid loving "celebration" or whatever other lies they had concocted. This was the fourth time I had been brought in to Caucasian a place up and I was really angry because I had a long talk with her last year about how I was not comfortable and that if she had guangxi favors to fulfill she should hire one of the do-nothing consulate wives at her church and not cancel my ACTUAL classes so that I could be her performing monkey. She gave me the rest of the day off, but I was still pissed. I also consider my regularly scheduled junior high classes to be kayfabe because they gave me an insane list of topics and just told me to stand and talk. There were fiftysomething kids per class, so most activities were difficult to do, and there was no academic component whatsoever. Every day I was there, someone would pop by and either take pictures of me "teaching" or film me. No one ever gave a poo poo what I was actually doing, no one ever checked, and most of the teachers there spent the whole time asking me to visit their children's kindergartens for free. Yeah, nah. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Apr 12, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 05:40
|
|
|
ladron asked a good question in the other thread that I think fits here:ladron posted:have you talked to [student] about her future plans, what she wants to study in the US (or wherever), etc? Fleta Mcgurn posted:Oh! Neither. She's never told me what she might want to study in the future.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 07:41
|
|
|
hi liter posted:What is mental health like in the schools, and is there anything remotely resembling counselors in US high schools? There is nothing resembling mental health counseling on either of our campuses, and I doubt that it exists elsewhere. Maybe in international schools. There are many suicides associated with the gaokao and academic pressure in general- Korea and Japan also have those problems- but I doubt the actual numbers are reported. Thankfully, our kids don't take the gaokao and they can retake their TOEFLs and SATs, so I am grateful we're spared from having to deal with that. A friend in Korea lost her favorite student last year; he committed suicide because his grades were too low. He was in seventh grade. I would be shattered if that happened to my kids.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2017 08:20
|
|
|
lemon-lyme disease posted:Question-wise, it seems like the teaching/working conditions are less than ideal. How does the living situation compare? Are you paid well enough to afford a decent home/apartment/what-have-you? I like "squinge." The teaching and working conditions are less than ideal, true, but they're a metric fuckton better than my last gig. When I told my Korean boss I was leaving at the end of my contract, she chucked a stapler hard at the wall and ran out of the room yelling in mixed Korean and English about ingratitude and treachery and I don't even know what the gently caress else. She also rearranged my apartment once. But that's another story for a different thread, I suppose. In terms of working conditions, this place isn't as good as either of my jobs in Japan, but it's a million light years better than Korea. At least I can teach subjects in which I have an interest and/or training instead of going  THE APPLE IS RED! THE APPLE IS RED! HAPPY HAPPY DAY THE APPLE IS RED or similar inanities.Living situation is pretty good. We have a two-bedroom apartment in a decent complex that also has a grocery store and other businesses inside it. We don't pay any rent or maintenance, unless my landlord needs to call a plumber. The apartment isn't perfect by any means, but it's large and has lots of light. Our neighbors used to be really loud and annoying but they've quieted down a bit now. Our landlord speaks a bit of English and is unbelievably nice and patient. Stuff keeps breaking through normal use, but he replaces it readily enough. He did tell us we should stop flushing toilet paper and keep our used buttwipes in the freezer, because he doesn't believe us when we tell him something is about to break, and assumes the problem is us and not the fact that the toilet is broken and has been the entire time I've lived there. He told us to replace the showerhead when we told him the hot water heater was going; turns out we were right after many, many discussions! Also it broke completely and then he believed us. tl;dr- Actually pretty nice!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 02:33
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:The main bad things are: GF's post is overall excellent; I wanted to highlight these two things because they are the ones that I hate the most. The pollution and filth I generally ignore as much as possible for my own sanity, and E is annoying as gently caress but they're better here than in Korea or Japan. porkswordonboard posted:As an avid reader of both the China and the poo poo Kids Say threads, I'm a bit curious about what kind of flora/fauna you guys get where you are. I am one of those people who would wither and die without some trees/plants/woodsy areas etc around, are there any places you can go that are at least somewhat "natural?" GF's post basically covered your first question better than I could. There is actually a lot of green space with beautiful landscaping and trees, but nothing natural. They're also not much on the maintenance- for example, our school plants lovely flowers, waits for them to die, then replaces them. My apartment complex has a large manmade pond. Every few months, they muck it out and replace all the dead plants with living ones. It's nice for a few days until people start sending their kids into the pond to pick the waterlilies and/or everything dies from being poorly installed. Rinse, repeat. I hear they used to put fish in the pond to eat the algae but the fish mysteriously disappeared... As for your second question, Rihanna is a lot more outspoken and gutsy than she was last year. I think she's naturally a shy person, but does a good job of being social when she's comfortable. She is more playful and outgoing with the teachers than with her classmates, but she's intellectually and emotionally a lot farther ahead than they are. This year, she's doing a lot of math competitions and joined an a capella group, whereas last year she didn't do anything like that (to my knowledge). Most of her friends (who don't attend our program) are older than she is, and she also tends to seek out people from different walks of life. We initially bonded over having a gay male best friend because she'd never met anyone else who had a gay male best friend. I think Rihanna is going to take to Western culture like a duck to water. ladron posted:Chinese homeowners insurance doesn't cover acts of god or giant American dooks, no doubt My husband managed to clog it by peeing once! It's just a lovely toilet, no pun intended. lemon-lyme disease posted:Free rent is awesome; being asked to keep used buttwipes in the freezer, slightly less so. Is that a thing people commonly do there or just a last-ditch suggestion prompted by a strange stereotype? Considering a lot of my students and coworkers don't seem to use toilet paper for number one, I have to wonder... I once managed to block it by accidentally flushing a small piece of plastic wrap. Incidentally, the taboo about flushing toilet paper usually means people just keep the soiled specimens in a bucket until it's full. I've traveled all over the world and for some reason this is just something I cannot get used to. Especially when someone at school chucks a big, soggy maxi pad in there on a hot summer's day. I have gotten more mosquito bites in my dark places than I ever thought I would...Let us English posted:The freezer thing was a common advice I heard in Korea. Yeah, but the freezer was already full of the food garbage we were only allowed to throw out once a week. Where would I have put the poop?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 04:50
|
|
|
I don't think anything is quite as good as this collection of answers from GF's history class:Grand Fromage posted:One question was about who John Brown was and what his legacy has been. This was a check if they did their reading. So far I have learned the following things about John Brown: The angriest I've been this year was when a students texted me at 11 PM on a Sunday to ask "What is Times New Roman?" I was so annoyed that I almost sent her a lmgtfy link, but I restrained myself. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Apr 13, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 07:13
|
|
|
I just watched someone copy and paste from Wikipedia into the body of their essay. She is aware that I am sitting behind her. She failed the last two projects because of copying. She knows that this class is required to graduate. Welp. gently caress it. They're a week from graduation; I won't be torn up if this one doesn't get the chance to attend. *throws everything out the window; kills self*
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 08:17
|
|
|
Let us English posted:Q: The difference between the initial position and the final position of an object is its _____. COME ON, THAT'S TRUE
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 08:26
|
|
|
Vegetable posted:This is gonna sound pretty random, but have you heard of students memorizing TOEFL tests so they can tell people who take the test later on the other side of the world? I've never heard of that exact situation, but I'm sure it's true. A similar thing happened last year in my Environmental Science classes; kids memorized the whole thing and then told the other class. Which is actually hilarious, because they all failed and the class they gave the answers to didn't. (Well, until I failed them anyways for academic dishonesty.)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2017 11:16
|
|
|
green chicken feet posted:Great thread. I'm really enjoying learning about how different education is in China. It's not exactly artificial inflation, it's more than China chooses which scores to report, and from where. This article explains part of the problem. I'm off to work in ten minutes so I didn't have time to dig deep, but google around if you're interested, there's a lot of information.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2017 01:16
|
|
|
For anyone who wants an inside view of the fake university entrance application industry, there's a good article on Vice: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/i-ghostwrote-hundreds-of-chinese-students-ivy-league-admissions-essays-897 I hate this woman for making my life harder, but I could also totally do this job and I'm about to be unemployed, sooo.... (Just kidding. I would not do this.)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2017 02:32
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:There's a lot of fair criticism to make, it's just that specific subgenre of "American education is failing, we should copy China and South Korea!" that have literally no loving idea what they're talking about. Yeah; neither country has a stellar system in place, but I doubt that's going to change as long as China keeps lying and the USA continues making all the worst decisions possible. I do think the USA does a better job, but that's like winning a pants-pooping contest, soooo... The Slaughter posted:I taught chinese students how to fly in Phoenix, AZ before they went back to their respective airlines.  *whimper*
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2017 06:58
|
|
|
RocknRollaAyatollah posted:The people with no known title and no recognizable function at the school is a pretty common thing. When I worked in Zhengzhou at a college there was a guy who had the title of director who did nothing but drink baijiu and sit at a desk, staring off into space as he nursed his last hangover. All he did was drink in a dining room made specifically for him, his assistants, and the Communist Party apparatus at the campus. He would also try to get us all black out drunk at the mandatory banquets we had to go to for every Chinese and American holiday. We also had a useless office assistant who was supposed to help us do things, go to the bank, order things online, etc. because most the teachers spoke very little Chinese and couldn't do it for themselves. She was goony as gently caress and just browsed the computer all day or napped. She was the daughter of a former dean or something and since he died she got the iron rice bowl. We had an assistant who did help us, usually an intern who was rarely paid*, as is the custom in China, and they were always awesome. Thanks for the information; this was an illuminating read! "Bob" is the first example we have at our school of this kind of pointless guangxi position. The thing I don't understand is why none of the teachers seemed to pick up on it. When Nancy told me the details, I asked her point-blank if this was a guangxi thing, and she said she didn't know. What else could it be? She's not very concerned with saving face or promoting the company- she was ranting to me in the first place, after all- but she didn't seem to want to say why she thought Bob had been hired. I am lucky to always be paid on time here, and I doubt my boss would allow us to e paid late without some warning, if at all. I wasn't as lucky in Korea, where I was dutifully paid on time for my regular classes, but frequently late for my overtime classes (for which I was also forced to pay a "room rental fee" even though I had tried to refuse the classes and I was using my regular classroom, which was also the only room I was allowed in.) Grand Fromage posted:Summer has arrived all at once so now it's the time of year when the office is full of wasps because screens on windows are impossible technology. Probably bad for healthy. Incidentally, the AC units being out of commission means we'll have fewer "If you leave the windows open, the cold air will go out." "But it's not healthy to have all the windows closed!" conversations this year. Hopefully. green chicken feet posted:So, it sounds like critical thinking skills are being largely ignored in Chinese education (not that American education teaches enough of this, but better than nothing). Chinese university is a four-year party, just as in Korea or Japan. After killing yourself to get in, you coast. When we tell the students that Western universities are usually a lot more demanding than high schools, they don't believe us. Hard lessons await. Also, I bolded part of your entry because that's exactly what happens. hi liter posted:What is the standard of living for your kids? I know things aren't easy to compare across borders and continents, but are their basic needs and poo poo all being met? Extremely high at home (parents pick them up in Mercedes SUVs and Porsches, international travel is common, everyone has multiple iPhones, etc.) and extremely lovely on campus. Their basic needs are being met in the sense that they have free food at appointed mealtimes, a place to sleep, bottled water to drink, and a place to wash, but if you actually look at how they live, it's pretty crap: - The food is rotten sometimes and disgusting all the time. Even the rice is bad. Everyone hates school lunch, but if you look at countries like France, you can see it's not impossible to provide schoolchildren with a healthy, filling lunch. Considering Sichuan is the breadbasket of China, it's doubly shameful. When our kids are lucky, a teacher will look the other way while they order food for delivery, which has to be handed over through the fence. They can get passes to leave campus, but usually not just to get food. - There is no heat or A/C in their dormitories. - They sleep four to a room. - There is no electricity, even in the bathrooms and common spaces. I'm not sure if there's never any or if it's just off between certain hours, but the kids don't ever seem to be in their dorms except during appointed sleeping times, so it might not really matter. - There is no school store or anywhere to buy snacks, drinks, etc. This would matter less if the kids weren't squirreling food away in all their possessions and eating constantly in the classrooms. - There is no student space, like a lounge or a kitchenette or anything. Kids therefore spend a lot of time seeking out empty rooms, bathrooms, etc. - There is no health support of any kind. - The school facilities are very nice, but not maintained. As you may have gathered from my previous posts, things are very dirty and usually broken. This isn't particularly unusual by Chinese standards- I think- but when you consider the cost of the school and the luxury to which these kids are accustomed, it's kind of odd. The Great Autismo! posted:You should read "Catching Up or Leading the Way?" by Yong Zhao. He has an entire chapter on China and really does a good job of laying out what the American education system does well. This post rules. Yeah, the lack of extracurriculars sucks. We've been trying to have clubs and stuff for years; the kids haaaaaaaaate it and get annoyed with us, even if it's something they like. I was in charge of the Drama Club last year and the kids never once stopped complaining that I was making them do awful stuff like play improv games and read lines and poo poo. They ASKED for a Drama Club. That's what a lot of stuff here feels like: "We want XXX! It's so important! We bought all the stuff! We are so excited! Oh, wait, I have to do something? UGGGHHH WHY. Why are you making the students do something, I don't understand." So dumb. So much time wasted.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2017 06:41
|
|
|
Last year, Florp and I both read a speech at graduation. The kids did a musical performance; they learned how to play the ukulele just for the event. There were proud parents everywhere. I cried like a four-year-old and had to force myself to leave the room so that I would stop hugging everyone. This year? No graduation. Nobody wants one. None of the teachers are happy with the graduating class and none of the kids give a poo poo. Tomorrow is their last day and I'm guessing half of the kids won't even show up. This kind of apathy is why I'm happy to be leaving. I can't believe that we've ALL given up on these kids. Even me, and I never give up on anyone. It's just so depressing to have worked this hard for two years and have nobody give the tiniest poo poo. Ugh. Ten more weeks.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 04:21
|
|
|
The Great Autismo! posted:this is what happened to my company when i was on my way out this past winter. it means it's time to leave your job and find a new one YUP. We're all leaving this year except for one foreign teacher, and I think they would leave if they thought they could get a similar job easily. ladron posted:what sort of fire bomb mic drop poo poo do you have planned? I plan on reporting the American partner schools to NAIS. It probably won't matter because this program brings in so much money for them, and as an alumna of an independent school, I know how desperate they are for money. However, Rihanna told me today that students are planning to leave because they've realized they can just pay money and get their US diploma, and apparently there is a good chance this program will not exist next year. I don't know if that's true, but it wouldn't really surprise me at this point. Oh, they offered my husband the position of principal next year. I think they were looking for a way out, themselves.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 05:56
|
|
|
The Great Autismo! posted:I'm hoping to come through Chengdu before y'all bounce would be cool to meet y'all before you go. Might be late May if people are around. Yeah!! That would be very cool! Unless our program folds so spectacularly that we're already gone....I am joking but maybe not 100% joking.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2017 07:40
|
|
|
Teriyaki Koinku posted:I'm really enjoying the thread, thanks for making it. 1. Yes, all the time. If we catch them, we take their poo poo away and give them a detention. They'll just go smoke in a different bathroom. I'm more worried about the lighters than the actual smoking; they're going to smoke anyways, but the lighters are a dangerous thing for a bored teenager to have. I saw a toddler buying cigs once. They obviously weren't for herself, but it was still a very wtf moment. The sophomores brought an assload of alcohol to school for their Christmas party. I caught them because they were keeping it IN THEIR CLASSROOM. The school ultimately decided to punish the three girls who admitted to bringing some, even though they were not the ringleaders and it was definitely a group effort. They learned that being honest gets you in trouble. I learned that it's better to ignore certain things so that kids don't get arbitrarily punished. If that happened again, I'd probably just take it and throw it out of school property without telling anyone. 2. It'll be easier than you think. Also, if you have multiple classes of 50+ kids, you're not expected to remember everyone's names. The Chinese teachers sure don't. What I used to do when I had very large classes was to have the kids make nametags for their desks (fold a piece of white paper in a triangle shape so it stands on its own) and keep them in their classroom in a bucket or a large folder. After a while, they'll jump up and start handing them out when they see you, and you probably won't need to them after a month or so. 3. Most of the things I've wished I'd known before coming are specific to my job and area. The thing I wish I'd known the most was that the level of English is so low. This probably would not be a problem in Beijing, however. PT6A posted:I've heard that many Chinese people prefer English speakers to use their chosen English name, because the odds of a non-Mandarin-speaker actually pronouncing their name correctly is next to nil. Is that true in general, or just with some of the people I've dealt with? (I had a professor say, "my name is such-and-such, but you'll probably pronounce it wrong, so just call me Steve"). Yeah, I hosed up and called my student Mr. gently caress by accident because they didn't write his name in pinyin and I didn't know the tones. He took it pretty well, though. I usually call him Toilet King these days because he always has to pee right as class is starting.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2017 04:43
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:Does Chinese have actual curse words (for example words that children generally aren't allowed to say)? Because I know that Japanese doesn't really (it has words that are crass sorta, but not treated in the same way English speakers treat "gently caress", "poo poo", etc), though Japanese is obviously a dramatically different language from Chinese. Oh, Chinese definitely has swear words! Sometimes things that aren't even actually naughty phrases take on worse meanings. Kim Jong-Eun, for example (yeah, I spelled it that way. It's a girl's name lol). They started calling him Fatty III online and the phrase actually got banned. Buzzfeed has a surprisingly coherent article about it: https://www.buzzfeed.com/beimengfu/china-doesnt-allow-kim-jong-un-to-be-ridiculed-but-on-social?utm_term=.chx3r5A8G#.asQ3ykR0b Teriyaki Koinku posted:MindXplorer. An alumni friend from college referred me to them and recommended it. They seem like a good outfit. I almost cried laughing at this; thank you. I didn't know that. If flat girls are "airports" and dicks are "airplanes," there's a weird implication there... Anyways, taking a midterm here sure is fun: - One girl sleeping (she was very embarrassed when I woke her up, but she'll probably do fine) - One boy caught cheating. - One boy picking his nose and eating it with such intensity that he's sucking on his fingers and gnawing the goop out from underneath his nails. For 90 straight minutes. This is better than his popping zits and eating the contents, which is what he was doing in class on Wednesday. - The water delivery guy who not only interrupted the class, but then interrupted my student by asking HIM to sign for the water. I was so mad I literally hit his rear end with the door after kicking him out. - A teacher from the Chinese side, who shoulder-checked the door open and started quackyammering at supersonic speeds as loud as humanly possible and who could not understand why I told her to get out immediately. I JUST WANTED THEM TO BE ABLE TO CONCENTRATE. Every time there was an interruption, it took everyone five minutes to settle.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2017 05:33
|
|
|
The boss of the "elite" school got fired. I heard it was because of his abusive behavior towards Confused Indian Man, but today I was told it was because he is too ugly and doesn't inspire confidence.  *sigh*
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2017 09:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:02 |
|
|
sneakyfrog posted:I suppose its kind of morbidly refreshing that its basically so blunt, as opposed to couched in american right to work legally cleared bullshit haaaahahaha, I didn't think of it that way, but that's one positive aspect! Also, he does deserve to be fired anyways; they might be letting him save face by coming up with a cosmetic reason. But I'm so cynical that I immediately called it into question because I simply don't believe what people here tell me about big decisions. Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Well he does sound like the sort whose outside ugliness matches his personality. They specifically said it was because his hair was messy. I would have guessed it was because of his piano key-sized veneers. It's like talking to a racist horse. This morning, came in after a much-needed long weekend to see that my detention assignment was, once, again, undone and very likely detention had not been carried out. This was literally the only thing we had to discipline the students with; now we've been completely defanged. Also. My boss- who, may I remind you, is the freaking principal- actually took my Friday classes so that she had an excuse not to attend the parents' meeting. Everyone was asking me why; I just said "I dunno" even though it's either a face-saving move (after being exposed for mismanagement so spectacularly) or pure avoidance because she no longer gives a poo poo. She also assigned our office manager as translator for Florp and myself, which she doesn't like. Thankfully the parents didn't want to talk to us, so we just gossiped. Fun fact! Apparently, our illustrious leader doctors the graduating seniors' grades. So, even though only three kids passed my class, she straight-up added thirty points to everyone's score. Office Manager refused to do it. She also got screamed at and shamed in front of the head of recruitment because I asked my boss if our weekend recruitment plans were going to proceed as originally planned, since literally everything else has been canceled this year and I'm weirdly interested in, you know, seeing friends and doing stuff, and like to plan for it. Why she was angry at me for asking, I don't know. Why she went after OM, I really don't know. I figured she was fudging the scores a bit so that more kids would fall into the passing range, but I didn't expect her to be this blatant. She told me a long, elaborate story last eyar about how she TOTALLY fails kids and is sooooo merciless about it and totally understands why it's important to let these kids fail. We were all complaining about her inability to keep her stories straight. To paraphrase Florp, no one in the history of earth has ever "sent" so many emails that went missing.Two more months.... Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 02:38 on May 2, 2017 |
|
#
¿
May 2, 2017 02:32
|
|