SDA Language Institute in Yuxi, Yunnan

I responded to an ad on GoKunming with a brief message, and today got a response. I'm a bit hesitant to send them more information since I can't find anything about them online other than their ads. Is anyone familiar with them?

This is the email I sent:

Shim,

I am writing regarding your ad on GoKunming for an English Teaching position. I was hoping to get some more information about the position, as well as about Yuxi in general.

My qualifications are:
-Native English Speaker (U.S. Citizen)
-Fluent in German and Spanish
-Bachelor of Arts degree from the Colorado College (a top 40 Liberal Arts college in the US)
-CELTA Certification
-1 year private English tutoring experience
-1 year Teaching Assistant experience (Elementary Education - Creative Writing)
-Available to start as early as August 2013

Regarding the position: What are the class sizes and average ages of the students? How many teaching periods would I be expected to teach per week, and how long is a teaching period? How far is the teacher housing from the school, and what does the apartment include? How many other foreign teachers are at the school?

I would be happy to provide my resume, copies of my B.A. degree and CELTA certificate, and other information upon further discussion of the position.

And this is their response:

Hello Sarah.
 
how are you?
I am very happy to hear from you.
I hope that we can make a good cooperartion in China and be good friends each other.
your profiles are very good and proper for us.
and to help you decide soon I will answer few of your questions;
 
Regarding the position: What are the class sizes and average ages of the students? we have students from 5-adults. all ages, but most children classes, we have Chinese teacher, you are assistant. there will be no big problems to manage kids classes.
 
How many teaching periods would I be expected to teach per week,
we have two systems, during normal semester we have fewer classes during the week and most classes are in the weekend, but during vocation we have classes on week days and no classes are in weekend.
normal semester, in every week you are supposed to teach 12~20 classes hours. during vocation you are supposed to teach 15~25 hours.
 
and how long is a teaching period?
we want to make one years contract, but depends on you, one semester in OK. we hope that you can stay here as long as possible with us.
 
How far is the teacher housing from the school,
we have two schools, both are about 15 minutes walk away.
 
and what does the apartment include?
one sleeping room, and other staff are common use, like kitchen, washing machine, bath room, but don't worry here are not so many people living together. we have enough rooms and spaces.
 
How many other foreign teachers are at the school?
we have usually 2~3 teachers together.

I would be happy to provide my resume, copies of my B.A. degree and CELTA certificate, and other information upon further discussion of the position.
please send me resume, copies of my B.A. degree and CELTA certificate.
and also need the copy of your passport, and need to know your age.
and tell me your detail plans.
how long you canstay here, about your dream in china, or when can you start teaching if you want, and wether you can visit here very soon to understand each other. we are in Yuxi and it is about one hour away from Kunming.
 
thank you again.
 
Shim.

Any red flags go up? This is another case of somebody apparently thinking I'm already in Kunming, so maybe I need to rephrase the email I'm sending out. :/

This is another case of somebody apparently thinking I'm already in Kunming, so maybe I need to rephrase the email I'm sending out. :/

People here are very good at not listening.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'd be very wary of a language school in a 3rd/4th tier. I've been to Yuxi, have a friend who is married to a woman from there -- I attended their wedding, which was in Yuxi. I can text some friends in KM and see if anyone has heard of this school.

Yuxi is where the Hongta tobacco company is headquartered, so there's a lot of money there, but the people there have this kind of provincial money, Saloonies will know the type -- fancy cars, gold chains, chain smoking, but very little education, which tends to be a pretty obnoxious kind of wealth.

Did their ad state whether they can get you a proper visa and residence permit or not? That would be my main concern. Yunnan has a lot of fly by night sort of schools that take advantage of the fact that the province is full of backpackers and hire people who are just passing through. With a little known training school in a small town, I'd want to be 100% sure it was all legal. If they even mention coming over on a tourist visa I'd drop them immediately.

Thanks for the info, TLD. You've been phenomenally helpful. As mentioned before, I would gladly repay you for your help with a beer. That being said, I've been told that beer is not a good payment in China so.... I shall upgrade that to a full meal.   

It's good to know the "type", and to beware of Yuxi schools. I've seen a number of ads there and I'm not completely sold on living in a huge city (by my standards...), so I was definitely considering Yuxi as an option. I'll be sure to be more careful. There's no way I'm coming to China without the proper visa, but I may be betraying my German roots/type A personality there.

Thank you again for the warning about the fly-by-night schools. If I were only planning on being around for a few months, I wouldn't care as much, but I'm interested in staying in China for at least a year, if not longer. I'd rather not run the risk of coming on the wrong visa.

One thing about coming to China is you really have to let go of your idea of what is "the big city." Kunming, by Chinese standards, is smallish.

I grew up in a city that, I am pretty sure, has yet to break a million inhabitants (Charleston, SC -- back when I lived there it had about half a million people, not sure about now). But in the States, it was a good sized place. It wasn't tiny by any stretch. In China, a place with a population of less than a million is very small indeed. Everything is scaled up here.  Kunming is a 2nd tier city and not a particularly large one at that. It is not going to feel like a New York or LA or even really a Dallas or Houston. When I lived in Dallas it always felt much more "big city" to me than Kunming ever did.

One thing about coming to China is you really have to let go of your idea of what is "the big city." Kunming, by Chinese standards, is smallish.

Yeah, I'm definitely still working on that. Kumming definitely seems my speed from your descriptions. I think I got a bit turned around by the suggestion on my Kunming thread that I look into 3rd tier cities... I don't mind being a bit in the boonies, but I think for now I'd rather be in a city with a decent expat community and resources. If it's too big, it'll be way easier to transition to a smaller area after a year of acclimation.

Quote from: The Local Dialect on July 07, 2013, 03:29:43 PM

One thing about coming to China is you really have to let go of your idea of what is "the big city." Kunming, by Chinese standards, is smallish.

Yeah, I'm definitely still working on that. Kumming definitely seems my speed from your descriptions. I think I got a bit turned around by the suggestion on my Kunming thread that I look into 3rd tier cities... I don't mind being a bit in the boonies, but I think for now I'd rather be in a city with a decent expat community and resources. If it's too big, it'll be way easier to transition to a smaller area after a year of acclimation.

The reverse is often true too. I've found people would rather step up than down

Also regarding the "small town feel", when I first came to China, I was sent to a village that some people in the province have never heard of, it had a population of 1.9 million! Yet it was a one horse town (and 97 mules, 23 oxen, chickens as pets and all feral animals consummed)

For ease, just take the Chinese city's population, divide by 10 and you'll get a better feel. Its not an exact science, but give or take I've found it fairly helpfull