Lesley
- 2009-11-23
To those who have entered into some 'discussion' about this, well Silverboy's doesn't count as discussion, just diatribe. All I am trying to do is present my viewpoint. I honestly believe that if you are seeking work as a teacher of English in China, you will miss a great opportunity if you don't listen to the view of someone who works here and plans to extend to another contract. Why would I stay here if I was not happy? I can easily just go. What experience/present situation do you have to enable me or anyone else to take your viewpoints seriously? You know mine, I am an Aussie currently employed at the school and loving it. Have you taught, or are you teaching in China? Are you trying to say that cultural differences don't exist internationally,be that between Australia and China, or India and England, or anywhere else? Then all these international companies that spend bucket-loads training their staff to live and work in foreign countries are wasting their time and money. When I worked as a counsellor for Relationships Australia before coming here, they were very vocal about tailoring their services to allow for the cultural diversity of their clients. Are they also misguided?
Why not give me a reasoned view based on your bona fide experiences?
As for culture-shock, I can vouch for the fact that it is very real. For months I was emotionally up-and-down, sometimes loving the country, sometimes hating it, missing too much of my own culture. After 10 months I have worked through this. In our TESOL course they emphasised this experience, and how to deal with it, were they conning us in your opinion?
And yes, obviously there are limits to what you accept as cultural difference, and what becomes downright intolerable bad management, and that limit will be very different for each individual. Bluniverse has never begun to impact on my limit.
All the expats I know talk of both cultural differences, and culture shock, whether they be in China,Vietnam, or Malaysia, and I have friends in all these, and they go through the same things.
Of course online like ths, one can remain 'anonymous' and talk any sort of crap if one wants to, but that's not where I am., My 2 daughters are comng to visit this week, and I am looking forward to inroducing them to our Chinese colleagues, both teachers and management, because they are good people.
What is your actual experience?
cheers,
Lesley (my real name, I don't need to hide)
P@3
- 2009-11-20
I'm curious to know what you mean by, "and there will be 'culture shock', and one must be determined to 'go with the flow' for a certain amount of a different approach to life and business."
So, what exactly is the limit?
From what you've written, it seems that your experience has been pretty good. And that's great for you. Of course, a lot of what you read here are terrible stories perhaps simply because that's what people are more inclined to write about.
But in view of your good experiences, I ask gain: What exactly is the limit? What would YOUR limit be? Is it a late salary? How about many late salaries? Is it unnecessarily filthy working conditions? Lack of supplies? Improper documentation with the government so that if the day of reckoning comes for your employer, they can feign ignorance? Or perhaps a culture of blame, mistrust, deception, duplicity, threats and intimidation in the workplace, all of which are possible precisely because you're a stranger in a strange land?
In the end, for anyone who has dealt with these things, I agree with Silverboy that "it's a different culture" is a crap excuse. More than that, it's a worn-out excuse.
It seems easy enough for people to put up negative comments on a school, but more difficult to get a current view accepted. I'm sure that many people, and we have met them, come to China expecting things to be done 'as we do them back in my country'. The reality is, if you are going to teach here, things WILL be done differently, and there will be 'culture shock', and one must be determined to 'go with the flow' for a certain amount of a different approach to life and business.
I would like to express my experiences as a teacher at Bluniverse Foreign Language school for the past 9 months. I have been entirely happy, and received nothing but great care and support from all the staff and management here, accepting that things are done a little differently. If we wanted things to be run in exactly the same way, why are we in China, and not back home? The school has been unfailingly supportive of me in my efforts to live and work successfully in China. Our manager has even taken time from his very busy schedule to help teach me Chinese. I have made many lovely friends amongst the staff, who have made things easy for me who doesn't speak the language, and I'm sure will be lifelong friends.
They have been willing to admit that past problems have occurred with different management systems, but I see a company striving to provide excellent services, to support their teachers, and build a modern, professional organisation.
On a basic level, the accommodation is excellent, the pay is likewise, and is always on time. In that respect we foreign teachers are surely privileged compared to our Chinese counterparts.
I have felt lucky in the choice I made to come to this school when I finished my training. Any small irritations in day-to-day functioning I believe would occur in any school, either in our home countries or abroad, .. well, in any job!
I have seen absolutely nothing that could in any way correspond to the negative aspects that are supposed to have occurred in years gone by.
Happy teaching