Wolf
Charter Member and Old Chum
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
Posts: 1,150
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Post by Wolf on Nov 17, 2003 6:33:24 GMT 7
I think this topic might be just as useful as reporting crap schools. Is there a place that you've worked at in the past that you'd recommend to your fellow EFL teacher - like beings?
I'm not really expecting anyone to give away their current secrets, but if you've ever worked at a good school that you think is noteworthy, pop it down on this thread.
I'm still on my first job - a public university near Nanchang city. They actually honour contracts, but I'm guessing the salry would chase away many.
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Post by MyTurnNow on Nov 18, 2003 0:23:51 GMT 7
Indeed a very useful direction for this. Unfortunately probably doomed to be a very, very short thread indeed.
The school I'm at now seems to be a good place to teach English. That's SILC- the Sydney Institute of Language and Culture at the University of Shanghai.
I'm a Business teacher and the jury is still very much out on that...I'm not sure if the salary is worth the work load.
But the English teachers all seem very happy. They seem to have a reasonably high-quality program. The pay is acceptable and, with one small exception I'll address below, I've never heard of even the slightest contract dispute at this place. The DOS seems to be a reasonable fellow, the teachers are an affable lot, and the work conditions seem pretty good. It's the one collection of English teachers I've seen here that doesn't constantly bitch about everything.
A few minor downsides but apparently everyone has considered them to be an acceptable tradeoff. The one contract peccadillo concerns "paid" time off- you get public holidays and 10 sick days a year, but you are expected to "make up" most of these- especially the sick days.
First-year teachers (and yes, they do get quite a number of re-enlistments) are required to live in a serviced hotel on campus. It isn't too bad and it's certainly convenient. If you have a good resume and a smooth tongue you might be able to talk your way out of this one? The main school is in Jiading, a suburb of Shanghai. It's a nice enough little town, but it's pretty dull...and it's hard to get to and from the main part of Shanghai. The students are rich snots with the academic aptitude of a blowfish, but the English teachers don't seem to have nearly the problems with them that we do when trying to teach formal Business classes.
So it isn't perfect, but overall it seems to be an unusually positive teaching experience. Keep an eye on That's Shanghai if you're interested in coming on someday.
MT
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wOZfromOZ
Charter Member and Old Chum
Posts: 419
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Post by wOZfromOZ on Nov 18, 2003 7:36:58 GMT 7
G'day Raoul's - I finally found my way rpond the narrow alleyways here in cyberspace! Do any of you know that I've been posting on Dave's ESL for about 6 years now and it's never been like it has in the last few months. There used to be a LUNATIC named 'Jeff' who would f...king piss me off no end with his repetitious rediculous rantings and cyber assaults but anyway - here's RAOUL's SALON - neat and sweet!
This post of MTN is an accurate portrayal. This is the place I'm at too. I think the students are great by and large.. ( MT doesn't have the same teaching experience that I've had in the public high school system in Australia to base the same opinion.)
I'm going into my third contract with them now. I get along really well with all the staff there - both Chinese and ex-pat. too!
The Business teachers have got a heavy workload - just like the 'language managers' (= DOS). They really do earn the money they get!
I can’t agree with him about Jiading though. - I love the place but you know - 'horses for courses'!!
ANYWAY Does anybody want to make their way out to Jiading this Saturday arvo (5.00pm) to see the World Cup UNION final . ....pm me and we'll have an Aussie feed of steak, eggs and chips too! ...might have a beer (or 12) aswell
wOZfromOZ
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Post by Sunaru on Nov 18, 2003 13:48:18 GMT 7
My current school sucketh not. It is a private language school and well run at that, even by western business and school standards. They have mandatory assessment testing and placement so the classes are comprised of students at the same level. They teach through practical application not rote memorization. The schedules are busy when you work, you don't have hour or two hour breaks all day long. You might get three hours for lunch but the rest of the day its ten and twenty minutes 'tween classes. Makes the day fly. School staff have been responsive to the suggestions I have made to help them tweak the little stuff and I have seen RAPID response. I am very happy with this place.
Talenty School in Dalian
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Post by MyTurnNow on Nov 18, 2003 23:00:31 GMT 7
I know the name of your school....can you share with the other kids?
MT
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Roger
Upstanding Citizen
Posts: 243
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Post by Roger on Nov 24, 2003 21:59:33 GMT 7
I stood in at two privately-owned institutes that have left me with reasonably good memories. One was LINGUAPHONE in Guangzhou. To this day, I have not been able to find out whether it was a branch of the worldwide LINGUAPHONE SCHOOLS, or whether it was a franchise. Recently, I tried to visit them, but they had relocated to nobody knows where! Anyway, I remember very good colleagues both from the international scene and local ones, and excellent materials. Plus, I had a lot of leeway. I did have a little problem with one class, and the school mishandled them the way most Chinese outfits do - they gave way to the students' side. It meant that their parents were given a fake "exam", but an exam nonetheless; as you probably know, parents always insist on exam results, even when they put their kids through cram schools. I was replaced for the bogus exam by a Chinese teacher so that my somewhat negative opinion would not disturb any illusions the parents clearly wanted to entertain...
Another school that I can recommend was PROFICIENT in Guangzhou. It has several branches and specialises in preschooling and primary school education. The owners are mainland Chinese and Hongkongers, and they sometimes disagree over some issues, but it never affected my work. I taught at one of their kindergartens for a couple of months as a stand-in. When the time for me to leave came, they asked me to put in extra time at their primary school, and I agreed. After two weeks into a 4 week summer camp job they unilaterally decided to up my hourly pay. Not only did they graciously acknowledge my efforts in a very unambiguous manner, they treated me throughout my time with the utmost of courtesy. Let me add that the salary for the full-timer that had that job before me and the one that took over from me was 8000 a month in a place where it is common for schools to pay around 4000 to 5000. The workload was by no means overwhelming.
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wOZfromOZ
Charter Member and Old Chum
Posts: 419
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Post by wOZfromOZ on Dec 3, 2003 16:04:35 GMT 7
G'day
I want to go a little further about SILC - the college/uni where mtn and I work. First, I want to relate the shift in emphasis from spoken Ebglish to written English. SILC is now offering 'Academic Communication' 1 and 2.
This is a fairly significant shift in thought. Students now need to pass ac1 and ac2 for their degrees.
Two of our English managers went back to Australia last week for a bit of in-service for 2 days...... and I was privy to a conversation today about UTSs' best overseas students.
This is [/b]not BS[/b] - they're from China - 'dead set'! ....and what makes it even more satisfying is that they told the EM (English Managers) that the best were from SILC, Shanghai.
'Jeff' - THERE used to be a 'Jeff' (1998) in ESL cyberspace (Dave's ESL)....- oh, how I wish you could read this post you m'kaying spaced-out bozo!
wOZfromOZ
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Post by Chinasyndrome on Dec 3, 2003 16:24:29 GMT 7
Hey Woz, please feel free to say m'kay or any of its derivatives in here without using a dot.
[shadow=red,left,300][/shadow]
Easy when you know how!
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Roger
Upstanding Citizen
Posts: 243
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Post by Roger on Dec 10, 2003 10:59:39 GMT 7
A timely reminder, Les, as simpletons such as myself are not yet fully used to this American habit of spelling the F word. There might be misunderstandings as a consequence!
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Post by George61 on Dec 11, 2003 12:08:52 GMT 7
I'm a Taishan International School...Private with a bit of Govt cash...Brand new, only opened in Sept.. I have no serious problems..6000, dormitory room,but private housing is on the plans, meals in the caff,cheap enough, and usually edible, kids are great.. I have the Primary School, an American bloke has the Secondaries. We are 25Kuai out of town by taxi, but the bus is 1.5 and runs past the front gate.I have just opened an English classroom...new concept, but everybody seems to like it.It means each class now comes to me rather than vice-versa, and I am in the process of decorating with pictures,words, etc. Makes life easier.
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly!
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Dec 11, 2003 18:24:58 GMT 7
My first school in China, Yingcheng No1 Senior Middle School. I was there a year, one of the best years of my life. I went back 6 weeks ago for the 75th anniversary of the school to celebrate. I took them the whole interchange package the training manuals, vcds teachers books the lot as a present. God I love that school, They are still looking for a replacement, well ,someone like me. Now some of you may disagree with me about these teaching materials, I think Minghang Oz likes them. But let me tell you, m'kay off if you do, so we don't have to enter any boring arguments about teaching materials. There is the rarely visited teachers forum for that .
I plan to keep visiting this school and keep up our history together.
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
Posts: 264
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Post by roaming kiwi on Dec 21, 2003 17:11:17 GMT 7
Umm......I'm at Baoding Teachers College (90 minutes south of Beijing) working "with" Hamish. Or that was the impression I got when we were discussing the job before we came. The reality is that he gets the elitist cream of the crop (English majors), whilst we get the general riff-raff, yet get to have the greater influence on campus (non-English majors).
I must tip my woolly hat to Hamish, because he did a hell of a lot of groundwork before we arrived.
We get paid (I would put "according to the date stated on the contract", but one or two days doesn't concern us).
It's in the contract to teach 16 hours/week (I did 11 this past semester) and the accommodation is what you make it.
We’ve still got to iron out the communication issues with the foreign expert office and the department. How are we s’posed to know that your bank book has a separate number to your bank card? Where exactly is the place to recharge your power card? No I mean EXACTLY where… You mean you want the exam next week.
Most times we've found it to be beneficial to be proactive, but...in China, how do you know what to defend for if the target keeps shifting without you knowing?
We’re thinking of writing a guide for the next intrepid foreign teachers that come here. If it ever gets passed on is another thing.
Working with the non-English major department has been a roller-coaster ride at times, but we have had a breakthrough of sorts. The teachers are actively coming to us for lesson observations and critiques. Some are trying to move away from the memorising and blather that usually comes from a Chinese teacher teaching English. Our colleagues have said that they don’t know what to do to make the classes less boring. They’ve asked us to help.
Plus, we've had the "go-ahead" by the ineffective (but watch your back) Dean to reform the department. Well, that's what I like to call it. Really, it'll just be us two foreigners assessing their systems of teaching, assessment and resource choices, and having productive meetings. I figured we've got nothing to lose. Even if nothing changes, we've learnt lots in what it means to be an EFL teacher.
We're not into finger-pointing; we want to help this department. Don't worry, we haven't come with a missionary zeal (we're NZ’ers, we've seen the negative results of this).
In saying all this, I guess it boils down to why you’ve come to China and what sort of person you are as to whether it’s a good school or not.
What motivates us to teach English to these people? Gut feeling? A good time? Meet some new people? Escaping from home? Professional development?
I think if some of us swapped places, I may find that your fantastic school is an up-hill battle and vice versa. This is not to say that some places are full of m'kayed up, insecure, money grubbing, kitten kicking people who are out to make up for their lack of…
Many times, its what you make it. But to qualify that, we had a lot of the groundwork sorted out by a grumpy old American who won't stand for poo. ;D
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Post by Raoul Duke on Dec 21, 2003 22:26:39 GMT 7
Kiwi, in the great coin-toss of Sucks/Doesn't Suck, sounds like the coin is spinning on its edge with this one... Do you get paid extra to work with Hamish?
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roaming kiwi
Barfly
Cum'ere, boy, un let ol' pappy tell ya a story.
Posts: 264
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Post by roaming kiwi on Dec 27, 2003 8:18:41 GMT 7
If we renew the contract, I'll be demanding danger money. Remember the biggest culture shock is often not from the country but the observation of dealing with the "familiar" cultures within.
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 3, 2004 22:08:30 GMT 7
Depressing that this is the first posting here in over 2 months... Again, HAOSHI FOREIGN LANGUAGES SCHOOL I dribbled on and on elsewhere about this place, and yes, technically, Raoul asked about FORMER schools, but this seemed the best place to spill.
I got a company class: 7 of the most spoiled, rude princesses you could imagine. They talked on their cellphones at langth in class; they showed up very late, then made snide comments when I took the standard hafltime break (90 min class); worst of all, they were rude to my regular students. Bunch of snots! I went to Sunday class ready to tear them new ones. After all, they were only sticking around for 2 months. I didn't need them. Well, lo and behold, when I went into class they kissed my ol' white behind and behaved like angels! I found out later that Wild Bill the headmaster (think George Jefferson: "Weezay!!!") called their manager and laid down the law. Poop rolled downhill, and my life is smoothish again. Nothing like admin backing you up
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 4, 2004 21:36:36 GMT 7
To date Xi'an International studies University is very good. Paid one month in advance. An apartment with bedroom, living room, western bathroom, and kitchen. There are 2-bedroom apartments as well. Internet connection from the university LAN, teachers canteen with OK food, close to transport, restuarants etc. Students great.
Only grips to date:
Teach each day of the week - really wanted a Monday or Friday (or both !!) off to travel in.
Teacher in charge asked me for the papers I have been giving ONE of my classes (not the other 5??)
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Wolf
Charter Member and Old Chum
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
Posts: 1,150
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Post by Wolf on Mar 8, 2004 9:39:15 GMT 7
Only grips to date: Teach each day of the week - really wanted a Monday or Friday (or both !!) off to travel in. Teacher in charge asked me for the papers I have been giving ONE of my classes (not the other 5??) "Each day of the week?" Do you mean 5 days a week or all 7? Having taught EFL for private companies, I have heard of the latter.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 8, 2004 18:05:02 GMT 7
Sorry - 5 days - Mon-Fri. I'm an Aussie - I come from the land of the long weekend!
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