ESL Jobs Forum

[Enchilada]

This post has been moderated UJ

Pros:

Light workload - only 20 academic hours per week

Decent pay - starting 8000 RMB

Good holidays - you get the whole winter or summer break(depending when your contract starts) as a paid holiday + national holidays

Good expat community - 80 or so expats living on campus(most over the age of 50, not so great for me as I'm in my 20's)

Cons:

Way off the beaten path - there is nothing but a few restaurants and a grocery store on campus and you are a 90 minute bus ride from Guangzhou

The administration - see explanation below

Split shifts - most teachers work a class in the morning and a class in the evening

Housing - the apartments are decent size but are giant characterless cement blocks where you still have to use natural gas tanks for heating, hot water, and cooking, and the college internet is very slow(but you can get your own DSL)

Holiday pay - one month of your pay (February or August depending on which long holiday you are paid for) is paid at the end of your contract

I should preface my explanation for why I'm blacklisting this school with this: I spoke to other teachers on campus before coming, and they all spoke highly of it. I also recognize that probably 90% of expat teachers at this school stay here years with nothing more than minor and commonplace complaints about the administration.

My story: My girlfriend and I came to the school in late August 2010 for the 2010/2011 academic school year. A few weeks after our arrival we were taken for our medical checks to turn our single entry Z visas into multi-entry residency permits. Due to an illness a year ago in my medical history that came up on my initial blood-work I had to go into the office for a second blood test a week later. The school visa administrator (name removed) came with me, and the doctor assured both of us that my medical history would not prevent me from getting my residency permit if I passed the second blood test(which I did).

Before I even got my results through the (title removed) of the International Exchange and Cooperation Office, (name removed) gave me the option of resigning or being fired. My girlfriend and I resigned but agreed to work the last two weeks of September because we were offered the first full months pay and told the school would be willing to transfer our visas to a new employer if we found one.

In the next two weeks we found a job and asked again about transferring our working visas to our new employer. Despite his previous statements, (name removed) declined to transfer our working visas to our new employer. Our new employer even spoke with him in Chinese for an hour on the phone explaining that there was no risk of legal repercussions to him. He still refused and also refused to release from our visas allowing our new employer.

Faced with the option of no legal employment in China until 2011, we chose to go home. But, the administration insists on canceling our work visas and giving us tourist visas, presumably because they have a quota of active work visas they can provide. The icing on the cake is that they have been extremely slow in getting our passports to the Guangzhou Exit/Entry bureau to initiate the process which takes 5 business days. So our contracts ended September 30th, but we will not have our passports back from our employer until October 18th.

In short, I recognize that what happened to me is quite unusual and most employees will likely have no issues, but my dealings with the administration, especially (name removed) have been extremely unsatisfying. I have found him to be an extraordinarily stubborn and ignorant man, and his employees in the administration staff are unwilling to tell him he is wrong even when they know he is in your defense.

If you are willing to take the risk of being in the 90% he likes, then you may enjoy life here, but if for some reason he does not like you, he can and will make your life in China very difficult and no one will stand in his way.

Please contact the poster for further details