I worked at Hui Hua University in Shijiazhuang (Hebei province) for a little over three semesters. I had to end my fourth semester at this school prematurely because I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's (cancer). Before getting into the meat of the email (my experience with cancer), let me make a few comments about the university and some of the people I had to deal with. Feel free to skip the first half or so.

1. Although this is an unknown (franchise) school, even by Hebei standards, and although this is a place where students who really messed up on their guo kuo go to study, the students were harder working than expected. Other than a few of the male math/science majors, the students were a real credit to this University, as far as I could see. I would even go as far as to say they were the best thing about Hui Hua. I actually felt sorry for the students in some ways. They pay 10,000 RMB to go to a school that has no name recognition. To remedy this, Hui Hua takes half the money they get from each student (5,000 RMB per student x 10,000 students) and pays Hebei Normal so they can attach "Hebei Normal University" to the Hui Hua name. Clever I suppose, but still a lie and there are 0% academic ties, aside from a few HNU professors who teach at Hui Hua part time. The ties are in name only and if Hui Hua ever stopped paying the fee, they would have to drop Hebei Normal from their title.

2. The University is located just outside of Shijiazhuang. As soon as you pass under the bridge near Hebei Normal UNI (which almost seems to be the city boarder), you know you are in a different world. I have been to many countries on this earth (numerous other Asian and African countries) and this area of the "city"/village" was one of the dirtiest places I have ever seen. It is dust and dirt and on rainy days, mud, with gray skies 90-95% of the time. If you are at all concerned about your health, avoid this place, it is NOT clean! Any food around here, fruits/veggies or other wises, is toxic, no question.

3. One of my major problems with the school: They did not seem to make any effort in hiring a competent foreign liaison. In fact, my dealings with one FL, "Catherine" (to avoid giving away her real Chinese name,) was the worst Chinese person I had the mis-pleasure of meeting in my two years in China. She failed in being professorial, responsible, kind, patient, amongst many other things. For example, one day, when I was about to sign the contract in front of her, I had a few questions for her. They were legitimate, sincere and honest questions. I wanted to ask for more details on "breach of contract" (this comes into play later), force majeure and what was meant by "acceptable living standards." I asked the third question first and was met with extreme rudeness. She scoffed and gave me an awful look as she said "You ask too many questions, just sign the contract!" I was unable to ask the first two questions. Maybe that is for the better, as judging from her overall performance throughout her one year tenure, she probably did not know. But she could have at least directed me to someone who did know (again, judging from her overall performance, this was not likely either). She warned me another time about asking questions too. Well excuse me for growing up in a culture that values questions.

In fact, Catherine showed a complete inability and total disinterest in getting to know anything about my culture or any other cultures. She even had the audacity to tell my gf I "needed to change." Well, as far as I am concerned, when two cultures come into contact, BOTH PEOPLE need to change, 50/50, a mutual attempt to meet each other HALF WAY. But she never mentioned anything about changing herself, in any way to make communications better. She somehow expected me to fully change, without any realization of her own faults. I apologized many times, but I think I would die before getting a "sorry" out of her.

She was extremely petty and made rude comments about my style of dressing: Such as, I dressed to dark and needed to wear brighter colors, or my undershirt was the wrong color. SERIOUSLY! When I addressed the other foreigners about this issue, they all said my dress was fine, my colors were okay, and quite a few even admitted I dressed better than them. BETTER. But none of the other teachers got any trouble about their style of dress! Hell, one of my colleagues and friends wore the same pair of jeans and sweatshirt, basically, every day! (No offense buddy). Funny thing is, I often wore dockers pants, polo shirts, famous French fashionable brands, J crew, LL Bean and collared shirts from various known brands. I am not even trying to brag, but show how clueless and petty she is, and what she actually focuses her energy on, as comments on my dress were frequent.

She gave me so much grief over asking for a little 500 RMB/month salary increase during contract renewal, lying (as she does best, though poorly) that the school could not afford to give such a raise, or something along those lines. Yet, if you were to look at the parking lot at the entrance and see all of these new, stylish cars, the teachers make a lot of money here and I've seen them driving around in all sorts of imported cars, I even got a ride in 2-3 from a few kind teachers. Plus they get loads of bonuses (unlike the FT who get nada bonuses). They actually end up making more than the "Foreign expert" foreign teachers.

She failed to give me many important documents, such as a copy of my signed contract and important medical (Picc) documents, among many other papers. The second was especially inexcusable, especially when I developed a serious health condition later on. Within two weeks or so, the newest FL, I'll call her Bian, gave me all important paperwork Catherine had failed to give me during her one year tenure. It is NOT my job to remind Catherine to do her job (give me the paper work).

She failed miserably as a professional and I am afraid of the negative impact she will have on the Junior English majors, the students she is in charge of as a tutor. I am sad to say, many of these students, most of whom I met at English corner, have confided in me that they really dislike her. But China, being the way it is, these students are afraid to complain about her, for fear of getting in trouble. Yes, students who pay 10,000 RMB (to an unknown school no less) are afraid to exercise their rights and simply complain about a poor tutor. That reflects poorly on the overall environment of Hui Hua. A few of the monitors even told me she bothers them in the middle of the class, for the smallest things that she could and should be doing and are not even urgent! She never had high amounts of common sense though. Sounds the exact same as when she was a FL "working" (if she actually did any of that) with the foreign teachers. Her assistant, Steven (I'll name him), actually did most of the work for her. If this is the person the school hires to deal with foreigners, they obviously don't take us very seriously, because she was not experienced. So don't take this UNI seriously and ignore it. The new FL, although very nice and actually caring, does not speak much English. Please HH, hire someone who is 1. competent 2. speaks English. Not one or the other.

The school failed to fix many important things in my apartment and Catherine never seemed to care or help the process move quicker (by making phone calls to the repairmen, her job as a FL). In fact, I went an entire winter, in Hebei, without heat! Even the students get heat in their dorms in the winter! Not only was she useless throughout the winter with this situation, but the "repairmen" (if you can call these bumbling fools that) could never fix the darn heater! I also went a summer with out my aircon! In a city surrounded by mountains, the heat climbs! It was fixed about six weeks into the hot period the second year. I also had problems with electricity and had numerous problems with my circuit breaker (which should have been cause for concern, for a normal person). I won't even mention smaller problems like showers, toilets, etc. The apartments, though big, are not nice. Instead they are old and dirty and was not well cleaned when I arrived.

Anyway, on to the most important part of the message. I am sad to say I received NO support from the school during the end of my stay when I was diagnosed with cancer. My interaction with any of the "leaders" were limited to a few brief conversations (my Chinese gf helped with translation) and they were merely a few of the lower level "leaders":

1. Upon hearing that I was diagnosed with cancer this is what "Cooper" (boss of the FL) said. Keep in mind this was his FIRST reaction! "We won't pay your October salary because of breach of contract." First of all: 1. Is this man human? He never said "sorry about the bad news." No "hope you get better." No, the first and only thing he mentioned was breach of contract. Now I am pretty sure that even in China, illness, especially a serious one like cancer, is NOT considered a breach of contract. My gf argued this point, as expected.

2. So he asked to see the medical form. However, he did not understand the medical form we gave him, even though it stated, in clear and plain Chinese, that what I had was Hodgkin's. Though it did not say cancer, Hodgkin's is obviously cancer, any adult knows that. Rather than admit his glaring and obvious ignorance, he said that without any proof from me, it would justify a breach of contract. My gf and I told him we would call the hospital and he could have a talk with the doctor. Rather than lose face (and further make himself look like an asshole) in the FAO, he instead suggested we go out of our way, to the other side of the city, to get a note from the doctor. Because of his ignorance, we needed a doctors note and stamp from the hospital, as if cancer is something someone would lie about. Come on man. Plus, one of the symptoms of cancer is frequent fatigue, showing a complete lack of understanding for my situation and illness. Thanks for being sensitive, d-bag.

3. Also, this man expressed annoyance in the fact that I did not warn him sooner, because, many students would be without an oral English teacher. SORRY MY CANCER GOT IN THE WAY OF YOUR SCHOOLS OPERATION! Once I was diagnosed with cancer, everything moved quickly and I purchased a ticket to go back home just one week in advance (from the diagnosis). I notified the school the next day. How much advanced notice did he expect? I struggled to even tell my mom for crying out loud! Realistically, I told him as soon as I could, but it sounds like he is not very realistic. The only thing he seemed to care about were a few Freshmen Non English major classes that would not have oral English for one semester. Never did he express any worry, sympathy or empathy for my situation, or attempt to even fake any of these feelings. This has nothing to do with culture differences and everything to do with simply being human. Not just with Cooper, but with Catherine too, two of the worst humans (not only Chinese) I have met in my life.

They also refused to pay my plane ticket home. Normally I would expect this if this was a more typical breaking of contract, but my situation is unique and the school could have (and probably should have) responded in a more positive way regarding my trip home. I offered my best effort for a little over three semesters, and met with a very unfortunate situation, and think they could have handled this situation better. I decided to let this issue rest quickly however, and decided to just get the hell out.

What can I say about the higher ups, like the president and vice president of Hui Hua? THEY WERE NON EXISTENT! I never even saw them during my last week at Hui Hua. They never came forward and offered their support and overall, in my opinion, they failed as leaders. They never confronted me to thank me for my hard work over the past two years (the students really liked me), never wished me well or showed hope that my health would improve. Not even a letter or email, totally invisible! The leaders couldn't care less, so I couldn't care less in posting this. If they do not care about one of their employees being diagnosed with cancer, what exactly do they care about? Again, this has NOTHING to do with culture difference and everything to do with being human and showing empathy - Reaching out to those who worked for you. How could the leaders not make an appearance? Sorry guys ("leaders"), a ten minute biajo toast at x-mas DOES NOT COUNT! Especially since you leave briefly after sharing a shot with each of the foreigners. You aren't "cool" or "connecting" with us. Pathetic attempt that they might as well stop.

A synopsis:
1. Most of the students were good, and the high point of Hui Hua.
2. Hui hua pays Hebei Normal UNI a lot of money so they can use the name
3. The location of Hui Hua is terrible and extremely EXTREMELY dirty with a lot of noise pollution. Also, just now, I remembered, an agent working on the schools behalf sent me an email that described a very beautiful location. Basically a lie, don't believe it. If the school can not hire honest agents, how can you trust the school. Guilty by association.
4. Hui hua, at least once, has hired a FL (Cat.) who was completely useless, impatient, not knowledgeable and petty, among other things. If the school can't even hire someone who can properly communicate cross culturally, how seriously can we take the school? As much as China is changing socially, here is an example of someone who is stuck in the past, and not very flexible in dealing with other cultures or ideas, instead expecting those around her to do ALL of the changing.
5. If you get sick at this school, expect extremely cold responses, or even totally lacking, especially from the leaders.

In closing, If the leaders do not care about you, even if you are very sick or hurt, why would they care about you under normal circumstances? DON'T GO!

[Edited by Administrator (admin) Sat, 14 May 2011, 03:46 AM]