Phil, I wasn't the one that accused you of hitting a child; it was the people at the summer camp. I just wondered why they accused you of it. (Generally its best to come nowhere near touching children at all, not even shaking their hands or patting them on their backs. Even staying out of schoolyard games. Take your cue on this from local teachers. There are just too many things that can be read into our body language, their body language, and perceived notions!)
Summer camps can be pretty tough duty; they can really make you earn that money. But nobody ever really takes them too seriously. For the parents, its getting the kids out for a while and the status and bragging rights of spending money on their kids. For the managers, its advertising and a way of getting more customers. Remember, its a business first for the managers and owners, just like selling cars, real estate, or pots and pans. But English is the product, and you and I and Frank and Tom, Dick and Harry are the real sales staff. Really, if you truly want that good feeling that we all want from doing this, you'd probably find it best as a volunteer teacher somewhere in adjunct to your regular job.
Often, managers and teachers and staff can be utterly clueless about how to get things organized in something like that. Thats why they have so many meetings. And meetings really are a way of life for all of us, like them or not!
Don't let the problems become so insurmountable that you feel forced into a corner and feel pressured to do something rash or regrettable. None of it is worth it.
Frank, after spending the last 29 and 3/4 years teaching on four different continents, I think I've seen a lot. A lot of good teachers and bad, a lot of good situations and bad. A lot of good managers, business people, and politicians, and a lot of bad. I learned a long time ago that the accuracy and truth lies somewhere in the middle between the two sides. And its usually nowhere to be found in emotionally charged situations.
Just because somebody is a foreign teacher, and just because he's said he's been done wrong by somebody, doesn't mean he's right. Its not an "us vs. them" thing. As soon as it does become an us vs. them issue, the whole thing falls apart, and diplomacy and recovery may be lost.
Both of you might want to review some history of China of the last 50 years, in depth. Not the Chinese propaganda versions, nor the western propaganda versions, but some autobiographical versions. A book called China Blues by Jan Wong (a Canadian woman, one of only two foreign students in China in 1972) can be quite enlightening. (You will need somebdy to send it to you.) You may begin to understand why so many of their business practices are so corrupt and backward, and develop some ways of coping with them.
And if anybody thinks that business practices in China are any more corrupt than anywhere else, you may want to step out of teaching for a while and step into the world of business and politics.
- Best Time International/Dongguan Shizhu School Attached to Beijning Normal University - ESL school review -- Phil -- 2006-08-24
- Chuck = John.. Ignore - ESL school review -- Yi -- 2006-09-01
- Most definitely not a republican fundamentalist. - ESL school review -- Chuck -- 2006-09-01
- I agree Chuck - ESL school review -- DB -- 2006-09-03
- "lost in the shuffle," DB? I can help you! - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-04
- Best English Academy (Gangneung)/Recruiter -- Jini Kim - ESL school review -- steve -- 2006-09-08
- Please consider moving your question - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-08
- Best English Academy (Gangneung)/Recruiter -- Jini Kim - ESL school review -- steve -- 2006-09-08
- Wow, Chuck, amazing! - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-01
- "lost in the shuffle," DB? I can help you! - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-04
- I agree Chuck - ESL school review -- DB -- 2006-09-03
- Response to Phil and his summer camp blues. - ESL school review -- Chuck -- 2006-08-24
- Response to Chuck - ESL school review -- Phil -- 2006-08-25
- Phil and Frank. - ESL school review -- Chuck -- 2006-08-26
- Chuck's Book Club - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-02
- Chuck and Phil - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-08-26
- Chuck's Book Club - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-09-02
- Chuck, what's up??? - ESL school review -- Frank -- 2006-08-25
- Phil and Frank. - ESL school review -- Chuck -- 2006-08-26
- Most definitely not a republican fundamentalist. - ESL school review -- Chuck -- 2006-09-01
- Chuck = John.. Ignore - ESL school review -- Yi -- 2006-09-01