Steven Katsipodas
- 2016-10-25
Wow! Is that the same group of schools? I just got hired to teach business in one of them. This is my second month here. Everything that was promised at the interview was delivered and more! I joined the school this last September along with 17 other new teachers all from Ontario! We have been treated with the greatest of respect. They did everything to get us visas, free living accommodations near the school, great salaries and benefits. They picked us up at the airport, took us on a dinner cruise, held birthday parties for us and are taking us on a trip next month fully paid by the school. Our principal is kind and nurturing, our teaching staff is fantastic, the admin support terrific in all respects and the students are to die for! They are respectful and very grateful! I have lost track as to how many times they have thanked me for teaching them! I must say that it is very rewarding to teach here. I have had zero discipline issues so far. Not one student gave attitude. The biggest problem is, every so often I may a have a couple of sleepy kids in class but how can they not be? they are in school until 9:40 every night! They have a 2.5 hour lunch break and that is it. They are in classes the rest of the day starting at 7:45! And this is middle school and secondary school! I find this unbelievable but true! So I have a great deal of respect even for the sleepy ones. We have never been coerced to hand out marks and we run our classes like we would back home. I have been teaching since the early nineties. I have loved my career as a teacher. I have loved every minute of it. And I love it even more now! I am saddened to hear about the bad incidents that fellow teachers may encounter around the world. But this is definitely not my experience here. I hope that new teachers do not get discouraged and follow their heart and their dreams! Just do it. And sometimes you can't appreciate the highs if you don't have any lows. Steven Katsipodas. Teacher of business and computer science.
Nick Grigoriou
- 2008-04-15
I wish to respond to the rantings of Mr. Evashuk regarding his experiences with the Huamei Group in Guangzhou.
Firstly, let me declare an interest. I run a licensed foreign program on the Huamei School campus, and as such I am employed by the Huamei Group.
It appears Mr Evashuk had a problem with his contract and accommodation. In the near 24 months that I have been employed on the Huamei School campus, I have employed no less than 12 teachers most of whom have come from abroad to teach in our program. None of them have experienced contractual or accommodation problems. The reason for this is simple. All of the teachers I employed did their homework before committing to an overseas employment contract. I wonder how much (if any) due diligence Mr. Evashuk conducted prior to him accepting his employment contract.
Mr. Evashuk defames executives of the Huamei Group in his posting without any evidence. Hearsay, is a powerful motive in Mr. Evashuk's ranting. The most defamatory aspect of Mr. Evashuk's ranting is that he demeans the English language teaching profession. I quote, "China is very foreign country and English teachers are for most of the part, cannon fodder." Ignoring (with extreme difficulty) Mr. Evahuk's generalization, has he bothered to ask existing teachers, especially those teaching English on the Huamei School campus, whether they are "cannon fodder?" Frankly, I doubt it. I suspect Mr. Evashuk would be alarmed at the (alternate) responses he may receive.
While I pity Mr. Evachuk's lack of thought and preparation in taking on his posting with the Huamei Group, I will applaud his courage for identifying himself in his blog posting. This is more than I can say for the cowards who have responded to Mr. Evachuk's blog posting and failed to identify themselves (admittedly, some did have the courage to identify themselves). I understand that it is not necessary to do so in the "blogosphere", however as any seasoned blogger will tell you, your blog posting is only as credible as its ability to identify its author.
To that end, I would like to remind the teaching profession to practice what they preach. If, as part of your profession, you set homework tasks for your students, then perhaps it is incubment on you to do some homework yourself. China is a culturally, legally, linguistically, and economically diverse nation and different from most parts of the Western world. Most of these differences can be overcome with a little bit of preparation.
Doctor, heal thyself...
disgruntled emloyee
- 2007-03-20
I have been a teacher at Huamei International for a few years here off and on with the Canadian program. Huamei International School never ceases to amaze me in how poorly this blundering Titanic of Academia is really run. Whether it is Burns, Panda, Monash or Rocky, they just can never seem to get it together. I see kids that will never even be able to enter a public university in China much less Canada or Australia. Who can expect anything? We all know that the story of Panda and three other people as returning oversees educators is a joke! Panda can barely speak English herselfWhat Panda is will shed more light on why the Huamei International School is so messed up!
Panda did go to Canada and had her bill flipped by a very wealthy Chinese man. This man is one of the chief investors of Huamei International School and the Huamei Group. Panda is also the mistress of this man! Most girls in Guangdong with the lack of skills that Panda has will just find a boyfriend and ride on the back of his bike around town and work in a shop but you do have to hand it to Panda, she has made some serious money as the other woman in the Huamei Group Chiefs illustrious life. I think that Panda should write a book about her lifeI would like to read it. Panda, the Principal of Huamei International School is very beautiful in a strange way.
Principal Burns is just the latest puppet for the Huamei International School. He begs, rolls over and might even shake if they throw him a biscuit! You should see the primary department! They cant even keep a teacher longer than a semester. The childrens uniforms are never washed and it is disgusting! I cannot believe that someone would actually spend 5,000 RMB per month at this dump! The Clifford School is so much better than Huamei International School! People sending their kids from all over the world to Huamei so that they can learn how to smoke cigarettes and drink beer and get severely depleted by malnutrition from the poor diet at Huamei International School, very sad! The teachers at Huamei are pretty cool but this is China and it is sad to see the way that Huamei International School treats the Chinese staff like slaves.
trang
- 2006-09-02
Can you tell me more bout your experiences in guangzhou?I have a cousin and she wants to study in GUangzhou huamei Inter school.she's from Vietnam and she's in grade 9, with a little knowledge of Chinese.would she have a good educatioin there?Espcially to transit, I mean to go forward to USA or Beijing later?
Past Teacher
- 2006-08-30
They are a for-profit private school that has been poorly run ever since they opened. They are located in one of the poorest districts outside of the city. Teachers leave in mid term and no professional teacher ever returns for a 2nd year.
They claim 100% of their students passed the Canadian High School Literacy Test (and an equally high number pass the CAEL test to get accepted into a Canadian University).
This is absolutely amazing and I wonder just how they do it. (I know how they do it - I was there!) All seems pretty strange considering our own Canadian native English speaking students have considerable difficulty passing the Literacy Test.
They hire puppet Canadian principals who pretend to run the show. There was one hand-in-his-pocket weasley principal a year or so back who hadn't been in a classroom for over 20 years, managed to run one of the school boards back in Ontario to the ground, and managed to alienate every teacher at Huamei in just a few weeks. Yelled at and criticised teachers in public and behind their back, and never provided any support. Not well liked in Canada and despised by the teachers at Humaei.
Still, the Canadian inspector passed this school - WOW! the principal bullied and threatened the teachers into doing a dog and pony show for the inspector and there was certainly some interesting paper shuffling going on.
Students just pay their way in. Most of them can't get into a Chinese university or school because their skills are not up to par compared to the rest of their peers. Their behaviour is rough and not at all typical of Chinese students. Oh well, they manage to get into Canada nonetheless! Aren't we lucky!
A school best to be avoided. Stay away!
Ivan Nalder
- 2006-05-30
.I have been a teacher in the Normal Middle School department at Huamei this past two semesters.It is the third Middle school I have worked at over the past 3 years. With my wife I can only say that we have been well looked after and have appreciated being treated as part of the teaching staff here.Huamei is a private school with many branches.The students come largly from rich families, some are great to teach and some are difficult, but that's been the same at the other schools. I don't understand all of George's complaints about Huamei, so I cannot make particular comment, but for me personally teaching in this school has been a good experience. The Huamie School group through 'the International department have really tried hard to make life here enjoyable. I'm happy to answer any serious questions about the school,just email me.
Ivan Nalder .Huamei International School, Guangzhou.
Raoul Duke LOOK! I BEEN TO COLLEGE!
- 2006-05-22
When it comes to Chinese English Schools, the bottom of the barrel is a pretty black place indeed. It sounds like this is precisely where you got sent, George, and I am truly sorry to hear it.
The solution lies in getting the word out, so I hope you are making a lot of noise.
This is a great site, and I hope you're on all the other "Good Guys" web sites with this story: English School Watch (http://www.englishschoolwatch.org), TESall (http://www.tesall.com), Nate's China School Review (http://www.chinaschoolreview.net), and Raoul's China School Review (http://chinateachers.proboards17.com) You might also try getting a voice on That's Guangzhou and China Daily's online versions.
Good Luck!
Robin, I understand your logic and the benefits you seek, but I personally have never encountered schools that would ever send an air ticket in advance to prospective foreign teachers! I gather you've found at least a few?
The reason for the reluctance is that too many teachers take contracts to work abroad, and then for some reason never appear for work. I myself have made a few airport trips to pick up a new teacher that wasn't on the plane... If schools did this, they'd be sending out thousands of dollars a year worth of tickets out for nothing.
The standard practice in China is a mid-year and/or year-end reimbursement of airfare. There's a new trend that's pretty disturbing...what you get is an "allowance", not a "reimbursement"...and of course these allowances don't cover the round-trip costs of your flights. Please don't be silly enough to take these deals!
I would advise anyone to turn down most jobs that don't come with full airfare reimbursements, including for teachers already staying here in China. But I feel that telling people to insist on incoming airfare in advance will cause a lot of people to not get some pretty good jobs over a point that most school owners simply aren't going to negotiate.
Robin Day B.Sc. MSc. B.Ed.
- 2006-05-22
George, yours is an example of why I suggest teachers insist on getting the ticket to China prepaid. If the school has invested nothing you can be dumped for someone else, maybe someone they think is more suitable. If the school pays the ticket they have invested a lot of money. They will want you to be happy and seek cooperation.
DB
- 2006-05-12
Hey George - Your recent post rightfully outlined the problems you had with the school in Guangdong Province. Yes, you will find that in China, as in many other countries, there are countless unscrupulous people jumping on the ESL/EFL bandwagon. The money is there to be made and yeah, the Chinese can be pretty darn clever and unconcerned about others when it comes to making a dime. However, your post implied that honor and justice do not exist in China. Such carte blanche statements diminish the validity of your claims against the school you were temporarily employed by and serve only to highlight your own status as a culturally insensitive foreigner.
When you do find a school that suits your needs, and when you have spent enough time in China to meet some truly just and honorable people, I hope you will take the time to recant your current bigoted attitude.
Good luck. Truth is just around the corner.
The Huamei Education Investment Group in Guangzhou includes Guangzhou Huamei International School. guangdong Training School for Studying Abroad, Tianjin Yinghua International School, Guangzhou huamei Bond International School, and most recently The Pre Masters Program, which is affiliataed with the Wales International Consortium, a group of Welsh universities looking for high-fee paying international students.
The job advertisment said I would be working at Sun Yat Sen Univeristy or the Guangdong University of Business and all the correspondence was signed such. It wasn't until I arrived that I learned it was a private school and that the contract was only for 6 months instead of the advertised 12. Also, I was told that I would be sharing my apartment with a Chinese student because it was "so expensive".
The manager, Mr. Huang Guang, is a xenophobe and had no interest in making a successsful working relationship. He seemed only interested in humiliating and abusing me, not in providing the paying customers with a quality education, and thus making a profit. After the mosts junior employee on the staff let himself into my apartment with the mangers approval and berated me for not respecting the Chinese, not saying thank you and showing gratitude for all they were doing with me, I was summarily fired three days later, which left the students without a teacher. I attempted to contact Mr. Huang's boss, the president of the Huamei Group, to discuss the issues, and even though he told a consular officer at the Canadian consulate, who intervened on my behalf, that he was eager to meet with me, he never did after four requests. He fully supported the criminal actions of his employees. Almost everything these people said to me was a lie. This definitely is one outfit to avoid like the plague. the most difficult thing to understand was why they would treat the only member of the staff qualified to do the work in such a poor way. They were unaware that it was in their own self interest to make the working relationship a success. China certainly is a very foreign country and English teachers are for the most part, cannon fodder. Honour and justice are foreign concepts here.