Monitor
- 2010-01-13
It has been noted that a fairly recent thread re Sunny's English Club on another ESL forum was deleted all of a sudden, presumably due to the non-complimentary nature of the contents of some of the posts re Sunny's outfit. By the way, said forum has its name associated with somewhere you'd go for a non-alcoholic beverage and a snack, in case anyone is interested.
Chengdu FT
- 2010-01-13
Someone sent me a message asking for more info on Sunny's English. So I thought I would post here for all to read.
Actually I have never worked directly for Sunny. I had some dealings with her about four years ago. I don't know how but she got my number and called me up. She wanted to talk about teaching an adult class in the evening. So we schedule a meeting. So we meet, actually on the street, I thought we were going back to her office.
At any rate she shows up, and wants to give the text book, schedule, and tells me she will pay a 100 per hour. Keep in mind that is what inexperienced teachers were making back in 1999! I told her that I was available at the scheduled time, but she was going have to come up on her pay rate. She said she couldn't because it was another Sunny that actually lived in Canada that owned the school and she could make decisions like that. (Yeah right, you have Sunny the school owner and another Sunny who is the school manager?)
After that she tried to pressure me into taking the class. Typical Chinese boss style. "Oh no! I don't have a teacher for tonight. Can't you just help and do the class? NO! Well can you just help me find a teacher?"
Shortly there after I met a number of people that used to drink at our local bar that worked for her. They had crap contracts! They got proper work visas, but they were only paid 50RMB per class. So that meant that were not paid over holidays. Most of those teachers were having to do about 30 hours per week at multiple schools.
Most public schools offer about 4000 +/-500 in this area and your winter vacation is paid with a small bonus. Generally your vacation is about 1-2 weeks longer than the schools because your class get canceled because of final mid-term exams. Same thing usually happens at the end of year.
Most recently I had a neirghbor that got stuck for a visa during the summer of 2008. That was a messy time wtih visas because of the Olympics. Sunny managed to pull some strings and get his visa sorted out. He had his own job arranged at a Kindergarden, great money! It was about 8000 a month for 2-3 hours a day; five days a week. At any rate Sunny started taking about a third of his salary for doing nothing. Well nothing other than making problems. On top of that, she wouldn't let him break the contract or get of the deal.
My advice is to look for a job direct with a junior high or high school. Do NOT use a recruiter. Many people on the board thind they are lying scum. In reality they can not lie, because the simple fact they don't even know what the real situation is to start with.
Also Chengdu is two and a half hours away from Leshan. I bet you Sunny has never even seen the accomodation they are going to stick you in, but she can tell you all about it.
> Hi,
>
> saw your post about Sunny's. Is that from first hand experience? she's
> offered me 4500/month and housing in LeShan. I have no prior experience
> teaching, so I'm okay with that money (I think). Wondering if it's all
> as bad as you say or not and curious to know if you worked through
> Sunny's before and, if so, when.
>
> Any thoughts or advice appreciated. Semester starts in a month and I'm
> hoping to have a job.
>
RS
- 2009-12-23
Thanks for your input re Sunny's English Club of Chengdu, Chengdu FT. What you've said has saved me wasting my time with her.
I guess there will be very few foreigners who are so desperate that they will sign a teaching contract with Sunny, perhaps only an occasional backpacker with no academic background.
Chengdu FT
- 2009-12-23
Awful!
Total joke, unless you like monkey work.
She will sign you to a contract and hold your visa. Once she has your visa, you are SLAVE!
She doesn't pay a flat monthly rate. Instead it is 50 an hour, or at least, that is what I last heard. Doing monkey work, 50-75 kid classes in the public schools. Then the holidays come around and you have to a choice, either do camp work, or starve.
I am not sure about whether she supplies "housing" or not. I don't think so.
Signing a contract with her is probably worse than being homeless!
The bottom of the bottom feeders!
RS
- 2009-12-22
What's the score re the recruiter Sunny's English Club of Chengdu? Is it really "a professional agency", as Sunny claims, or just another Chinese bottomfeeder? (I thought you might have some local knowledge of that agency, as you are a foreign teacher working in Chengdu.) Cheers!
ChengduFT
- 2009-12-22
I thought I was the only one that used "White Monkey." That has been the standard phrase in Chengdu for sometime. Really crappy jobs are usually refered to as monkey work or monkey jobs.
I think the schools here do a very good job on performance evaluation. If you are a good performer the students like you and they come back for more. If not you failed to perform and declining attendance in your class is a reflection of that and you get a bad evaluation because the students stop coming. The
As for working in the education field I would suggest you move to another country. It really doesn't exist in China. It is all business! When you get down to it even the government run schools are trying to make a buck!
I just hope the Chinese boss don't figure out how to get monkeys to speak English or I am going to be out of a job. :(
Monitor
- 2009-12-21
You say you've 'badly failed in your last gig'. The reasons for your poor evaluation as a foreign teacher may be many and varied. They needn't have anything to do with your performance in the classroom. In my time in China, I've seen employers discard the best teachers as and when their initial contracts are up. One thing that really irks Chinese employers is when any of their foreign staff expose a school's shortcomings online. Foreign teachers who dare to do so are regarded as traitors, as they have shown their individuality and disrespect for their employers for all to see on the net. Being perceived as a troublwmaker or a whistleblower will close many doors for a foreigner in China. Go with the flow is the name of the game here, unfortunately. Keeping your mouth shut and being able to turn a blind eye to injustice and dishonesty is the way to proceed for many foreigners. Group culture is prevalent here, and there is very little room for individualism. Many laowai teaching here will never rock de boat, unlike you. As you are not one of them, you've probably been scored low on your teaching. Revenge, pure and simple, and a convenient way for the goons at GAC/Owens (pretend) School to repay you for the bad publicity you've given them online. Of course, there are laowai here working as academic managers/DOSers for such shonky schools who are just about as low on morals as their Chinese bosses. Such immoral foreigners will turn against you too. Losing them money by means of bad publicity is unforgivable in their eyes, even if a lot of what you say is constructive criticism. The touble is it'll always be regarded as destructive criticism. Take care, my friend. Watch your back!
englishgibson
- 2009-12-21
the term i've been using is "exotic dancers", but i've been shot down a few times for it which is possibly due to the fact that my foreign expert booklet leads peoples people believe i work in education as oppose to the entertainment. and, to prove that they even make me sign the clause with "their moral standards" in. however, i do unveil my hairy chest on and off depending on the weather and/or the audience. that often helps me on the students' feedback of their teacher and consequently reflects on my evaluation form. although i have to say that i've badly failed on my last gig and that probably due to the never sunny chongqing weather as well as my aging body that offers more often the grey hair chinese younsters do not want to see.
cheers and beers to white or grey monkeys, beautiful pandas and above all cheers and beers to exotic dancers that're either in front of the white/black boards or around the poles working so hard to attract :)