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[Leon Purvis]

Give this Big Burnin' Hunk o' Love a pass, folks.

When I arrived, my worst nightmares were realized: the apartment was a dormitory room that adjoined the boys' dorm. Bars crossed every window, and there was even a jailhouse-type of steel bar door with a lock on it (presumably to keep the FTs in in the event we tried to escape).

My first "apartment" was filthy. The second one was much better. It was only very dirty.

The toilet overflowed regularly, and the air conditioner and heater did not work properly.

Worse, the cafeteria doesn't serve round-eyed people. That requires you to walk thirty minutes to the closest Mom and Pop greasy chopstick to eat.

Shopping is about a half hour away by bus, and the city center is about an hour away.

The language labs (where your classes will be held) don't work. If you bring a flash drive to use on the computer, expect it to be corrupted or completely ruined. The language lab hard drives are filled with mp3 downloads, ICQ and QQ and other things that shouldn't be in the system. The guy who is supposed to maintain the equipment is clueless.

Did I mention that the language labs break down often? My recorded oral finals were shortened because the idiot who works in the language lab didn't know how to run the program. I couldn't grade one of my tests because the system froze and he couldn't fix it. he disappeared after that little problem arose.

Oh, the contract. Forget it. I signed a one-year contract. I was told that I would have to move to a hotel for the summer, but that the school would pay for that. The hotel move was not in the contract, so any promises regarding compensation were soon forgotten.

The last two weeks of school were spent in intensive "Teacher Practicals" during which I spent thirty hours with two classes each for two consecutive weeks. My overtime for this time spent was about thirty-five yuan per hour. I was given reams of paperwork to fill out at the last possible minute. Simultaneously, I had to submit finals for four classes, then when the practicals were finished, I had booklets of comments to which i was required to respond. Then I had to correct the finals.

On the last day of classes, I was terminated "for health reasons". I was never sick! My med exam revealed an irregular heartbeat, but while the school was in need, that didn't matter. When I brought the terms of contract regarding termination of contract by Party A to the FAO's attention. The sum of money was beyond their comprehension.

--- That's in our SAFEA contract?

--- What's SAFEA?

The FAO made too many promises that it couldn't keep. The solution? Get rid of the teacher. It was cheaper to hire a new teacher the following term than to KEEP a qualified, experienced teacher with thirteen years experience in academia and twenty years in the media industry. I am a professional.

I was taken down to the PSB, and a three day "L" tourist visa was stuck in my passport, and when it was returned to me, my residence permit was canceled. I had three days to get out of the country.

My head is reeling because I was reviewed by the dean of the FL Department and was given good reviews. My students liked me, and students from other FT's classes often attended my classes. I gave optional after-class night time test reviews (which were attended by all). THE DEAN WAS QUOTED BY STUDENTS SAYING HOW I WAS ONE OF THE BEST FTs IT HAD HIRED IN YEARS (This isn't saying much. Judging by the resumes left on my computer by former "teachers" their level of experience and education appeared to be lie somewhere between nonexistent and 'I got three weeks edjucation at a community collidge').

Being terminated on short notice was bad, but being terminated with no prior notice is inexcusable.

Did I mention that my access password to the internet was changed frequently (by god-knows-who), and that data from my computer disappeared on a regular basis? Worse, my incoming email often indicated that it had been read when I had never seen it before. Still worse, I often found my name and password on my email addresses SAVED so that I (or whoever else was accessing my email) didn't have to remember my name or password.

Avoid this place.

The Chinese teachers are wonderful. The Dean is great, but everything else about the school is just cr@p.

[contemporarydog]

Christ, that sounds hellish.

And yet you get numpties on China daily saying that each and every teaching job in China should only have fully licensed, PGCEd up, qualified teachers.

They should be lucky they get *any* person to leave the civilised surrounds of the west to come and work in a hellhole job like that.

[Leon Purvis]

The whole thing was a mess. I wonder if anyone at that school is capable of putting himself in my shoes: suddenly out of a job, 8,000 miles from home, and having to pack everything up at a moment's notice. It was like something out of a movie. (I have to say, though, that the guy who drove me to the [wrong] airport did slow down to 35 mph while I threw my bags and then myself from the van).

Before I had a meeting with the FAO and the dean , I went to see the vice president. Was that ever a joke.

He failed to understand the gravity of the situation (through an interpreter, then through the woman whom I thought was the FAO). He handed me the contract back and acted as if everything was okay. It wasn't. I had been terminated. I had been denied meals for two months--- oh, that's another story. Students bought me meals once and the cafeteria help stood at two corners of the table and stared at me with their arms folded. The next two times, the students were denied meal service because I was with them.

So, no. Everything wasn't okay. I needed a stipend to live off-campus close to someplace to eat if we're to proceed from here and negotiate.

"Nope. Solly Cholly."

---Okay, then pay me the money you owe me: the travel allowance, the $2000.00 (Yep you read it right: two thousand dollars) breach of contract fee, round trip ticket money." When I reminded the FAO of the breach-of-contract fees, she actually broke down and cried. 

"Nope."

--- You won't feed me. I need to live off-campus closer to civilization.

"That's not our problem. Your meal card has been sitting in my desk for two months. Why didn't you pick it up?"

--- Why didn't you tell me that the school finally agreed to issue me a meal card?

"You didn't ask."

--- Okay, pay my hotel up-front and I'll stay.

"Hotel? What hotel? You must leave tomorrow. There is no hotel provided for the summer holidays."

It's Saturday. Nobody except me and the two guys in the van and a woman passenger are on campus. The travel agent who sold the school the ticket rode along so she could visit relatives in Shanghai. As we passed the Foreign Teachers jail house (did I mention the bars on the windows and the steel jail house door that led to our rotten one-room hovels?) I saw a HUGE sign that had been erected on the boulevard overnight.

The travel agent translated: Promises are like gold. Always keep them.

Wow. What a send-off.

Form your own conclusions about the sign.

[Leon Purvis]

Christ, that sounds hellish.

And yet you get numpties on China daily saying that each and every teaching job in China should only have fully licensed, PGCEd up, qualified teachers.

They should be lucky they get *any* person to leave the civilised surrounds of the west to come and work in a hellhole job like that.

What's bad is that I have thirteen years' experience teaching.I am a real teacher: 2 BAs, an MA and an MFA. I am published. I absolutely love teaching Chinese college students, but the FAOs of some schools are impossible... what's the word....? I won't say it because it might be slanderous (though true).

This is actually a pretty good school except for the awful accommodations and the administration's oblivion to the needs of its resident teachers. The Chinese teachers are picked up by expensive tour buses in the morning, and they're delivered to their department buildings promptly at 8:40. Then, at lunch, those same buses take the teachers home for lunch at 11:40 and then return them to the campus at 2:10. Then, at 4:30, they're taken home.

My life? Not much different from a prisoner's. I was out in the boonies. When the food service stopped, so did the water delivery. Was there a connection? Hmmmm. My air conditioner also broke down at the same time, requiring a maintenance guy to flip a switch outside my cell two weeks later. Apparently, that switch also turned back on the water delivery service.

I chose the school. I knew that it was out in the boonies. I wasn't prepared to accept the rest that came with the package.

I'm not so sure that having just anybody teaching at a Chinese school can be a good thing. I've had my fill of those anybodies. One does not need fancy degrees to be a good teacher. I've seen high schoolers  teach classes, and I know that a bright mind can accomplish wonders.

What's bad is when those anybodies lack education, skills, and mental health. Everyone suffers: the students, the school, the faculty, the fellow foreign teachers.

I shouldn't get started...