Jack
- 2008-08-11
I think Paul would do well to purchase copies of the Lonely Planet Travel Guide for both China and Taiwan and read them. Before giving anymore of his "expert opinion" about China or Taiwan. Anyway interesting to see Yuncheng IELTS in indulging in some shameless misleading adertising as shown below notice how the accomodation details are completely false in regards to the accomodation provided in Yuncheng IELTS teacher compound
Yuncheng IELTS School
Poster: School
Specialty Category:
Location: Shanxi
Employer Description:
Travel and Teach in Yuncheng IELTS School Introduction
Information on Recruiting Foreign Teachers
Vacancy:20
Nationality: USA, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Language: English
Courses: Oral English, Reading, Listening, Writing.
Workload: 20 school hours/week
Monthly salary(RMB):RMB4000-6000（Depends on working experience）
Air fare: a round trip for one year contract
Travel allowance(RMB) in holidays: RMB2000 in Summer Holidays and RMB1000 in Winter Holiday
Free boarding: a furnished apartment with necessary electrical or gas appliances (a TV set, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a microwave oven, a shower water heater, an gas stove, telephone, etc.)
Contact: Kelly Zhang E-mail:nativeenglish@126.com
Tel：086-10-65718081,65718082
Foxy
- 2008-08-11
Not exactly a glowing description of life as a neighbor of Paul,and of course subject to his paternal instincts on a more or less daily basis in the good doctor's compound,methinks.
But there are those who enjoy being servile to others and being reprimanded from time to time by such a domineering colleague who is their senior in terms of age.
When I stayed there,Max wasted no time in spilling the beans to me.That's why he was moved out asap in order to keep the newbies in the dark.Thank you,Max for that.
I remember hearing the following story re Paul:
One morning he taught students the word "proscribe".He told them that doctors "proscribe" medicine to their patients.But one of the top students in the class took the trouble to try to look up this new word in her Longman's dictionary.Alas to no avail!When she mentioned her problem to Paul,the latter coolly told her to purchase a better dictionary!
Choatle
- 2008-08-07
Finally, someone else who has worked for the sham outfit that is Yuncheng Ielts and is willing to speak up.
I worked for these hacks years ago, when first coming to China, this was before they had the genius idea of starting a teacher compound for the dual purpose of saving money and keeping an eye on you.
This place is a total scam outfit. Basically they are the worst type of recruiter. They don't just get a finders fee for locating teachers, they also take money from your salary every month, and give you the leftovers. They work primarily for schools that can not hire teachers legally, hence those schools must use a middle man who employs them as a third party. Schools pays them, they pay you, and they make a decent profit every month off your hard work. What do they do? Absolutely nothing, but hey, so what. I refuse to work for these type of companies on principle alone.
I knew Paul when he first started for them. The man, while seeming very kind and almost sickly sweet on the outside, is really an absolute weasel and yes, a kiss ass. He is their whipping boy, and he pretty much acts as a buffer between you and the Chinese management. The truth is nothing ever gets done when you talk to him, or anyone else there, but he's very good at placating teachers, and making them think things are being done. He's also about the most arrogant sod I've ever met, who believes he's always right, never wrong. He's wrong quite often though, but his position affords him the luxury of not being challenged very often, which he likes a great deal.
Though they work with schools all over that province, they have many in Yuncheng, so they created their own teachers compound. I find this sad, as if they don't make enough money, now they need to try and save even more by shacking you all up together?
Stay away from Yuncheng Ielts, while such places can be an alternative for the teacher with a certain type of visa, you can also find work yourself at many other schools, and have your own place as well. You also don't have to deal with people like Paul, who go out of their way to make others feel small and stupid. That guy is more than enough reason to avoid Yuncheng Ielts like the plague. The place isn't even a school, and only call themselves one to fool people into thinking they are more legite. Their really just scumbag recruiters though.
If you see ads here and elsewhere for Yuncheng, 9 times out of 10 it's for them. They have a deal with the towns mayor, so they operate with impunity.
To be avoided at all costs, trust me on this.
Jack
- 2008-08-06
I have to admit Paul does act a bit like a pet and an enforcer for the Chinese management. When the management decided to move all the teachers in Yuncheng city into a compound which was in clear breach of teacher contracts due to the fact half a dozen plus teachers were expected to share a communal kitchen and laundry facilities. Which meant numerous people being cramped into a small kitchen with one stove and shared cupboard space in addition only two fridges were provided meaning that you had to fight for your own shelf which lead to inevitable disputes with allegations of food going missing. Whats more the compound had its own resident village elder who felt she had moral authority in regards to dominating the kitchen and nagging foreigners about how they lived their lives. Thats right you may have left your mother at home but Yuncheng IELTS was good enough to provide their own middle age nagger. Paul was even good enought to relay threats of curfews and compulsory guest sign in books which meant being harrassed by a middle aged Chinese woman if you brought guests back to your apartment ( no kitchen, laundry facilities and only one bedroom/no office) if all the foreign teachers didn't behave like good boys and girls.
Paul certainly did behave like a know it all. Despite the fact that so of his "facts" were completely wrong. Like claiming Taiwan was a tax paying S.A.R. of China. I see validity in avoiding sensitive political issues in China but making completely false claims in order to suck up to the Chinese management only causes embarrassment.
Choatle
- 2008-06-09
I would say that your words hold even less weight than my own, since I have a lot more experience with the guy. As for hard evidence, please, it's clear you work for the company or have been paid. Likely you are Paul, how you doing Paul?
Your defense of the fellow is too familiar for someone who is just an aquintance, and completely undeserved. Why exactly would someone who was treated so poorly defend this school? Give us a break, not everyone is as stupid as you would like them to be. Hard evidence, this is a forum, what hard evidence do you want?
Fine, hard evidence is facts. The school employs teachers on F and L visas, illegal. The school is sos tupid, as are the people who work there, that they failed to get you a new visa because they had no idea the olympics were coming and that the visa laws would change. This happened even though every other person in China that worked as a foreign teacher pretty much knew these visa changes were coming. Verdict, incompetant. Not to mention the fact that I have personal experience with these people and clearly know more than you do about, well, everything, well, that's all that needs to be said. Your not a longer timer, just someone working there who decided to make up a fictitious person and give a fake tetimonial by this made up person to make your company look good.
Yuncheng Ielts also has come close to being shut down on numerous occassions, and it's also a known fact that they have the mayor of Yuncheng in their pocket, and he won't let the authorities shut them down.
Yeah, geez, this company, not a school, is great, let's all go work for them. Oh, I have only given you all the tip of the iceburg, there is so much more, but I'm tired now, I think the point has been gotten though. Avoid Yuncheng Ielts at all costs. Peace.
Foxy
- 2008-06-09
FAO Choatle:
I beg to differ with your assessment of Paul.
As every story has two sides,please allow me to express my assessment of him.But before doing so,let me stress that I'm merely an acquaintance of his.
He claims to have the right to attend lessons of new foreign teachers,but I for one chose not to recognise that right,and told him so face to face.And it's true to say he and I have little in common.Even so,I respect him as a motivated and respected foreign teacher of English in Yuncheng.In my humble opinion,he is undeserving of the personal attacks against him that have been posted in this thread for all and sundry to see.Perhaps his "critics" are either envious or jealous of the status they presume him to have in the company.I think that it's at the very least ignorant to launch personal attacks on individuals without hard evidence.Doing so merely on the basis of hearsay is without foundation,and even worse,libellous.
As I've already stated earlier in this thread,let's live and let live.Better to be more tolerant with one's fellow man;life's too short to be spoiled by being over-critical of one another.
Ian McAllister
- 2008-06-08
Choatle, how can you expect anyone to take you seriously? Blowhard, liar, ignorant, semi-illiterate. Shut up, drink your milk and go to bed will you. I know plenty of teachers who work for the company on Z visas. I must admit that I too was puzzled by Foxy's statement that he wouldn't be reapplying. You, on the other hand, are just an anonymous irritation out to do harm to anyone who you happen to feel superior too, that's the rest of us I guess. I completed my contract, was paid in full and have had very few issues with the way my employment here has been handled. I'm going back to Korea to make a bit of cash over the summer, but I'll be back in September.
Ian
Ian McAllister
- 2008-06-08
My apologies, I missed the email from Foxy explaining the ending of his contract.
Ian
Choatle
- 2008-06-07
This person is a plant of some sort, he speaks far too highly of them, right up to being forced to flee to Honk Kong to get a last minute visa. Anyone else who was for real would have been pissed off to the max. Can you imagine these people are so dumb that they actually were totally unaware of the new visa regulations?
This company is a joke, period. They don't hire people with degrees, just backpackers with little or no experience, and they get you to work on L and F visas. That is bad enough, but when they don't have any idea as to what is going on with the visas they are having people work on illegally, well, that says it all.
This person is a plant, Mister River?No has ever spoken this persons name before, my guess is that this person posting is actually Paul, their head of foreign teachers who is a know it all loser from Canada, who by the way just happens to be married to a Chinese, what a coincidence. U
Uh huh, a newbie teacher, but married to a Chinese, would work for this two bit company? You have to be a retard and a moron to hook up with thse folks if you have lived in China long enough to have a wife and know it inside out. This fellow is no newbie and no long timer works for these folks. No, this smells like a set up to me, a pre emptive strike as it were, to try and make this school look magnanimous and caring, when they are far from either. Gimmie a break.
Foxy
- 2008-06-07
FAO Turnoi,
Question:Did I feel happy there?
Reply:In fact,I was only with them for a very short time.They switched a foreign teacher to another school because the initial school he was assigned to was dissatisfied with his teaching.I taught there briefly in place of him,after which the headmaster expressed his satisfaction with my teaching.So,the company tried to convert my almost-expired L visa into a 90 day F visa in Yuncheng shortly after I'd taken a medical in Taiyuan and signed a teaching contract.But I ended up getting an L visa of 6 days' duration instead!At that time the company was unaware of the changes in the visa regulations,as was I.Luckily I had sufficient time to exit China to a neighboring foreign country by rail before my visa expired,in order to obtain a new Chinese L visa there on the basis of my marriage to a Chinese.Before my departure,the company gave me a tidy sum to cover my unforeseen visa problems.So we terminated my contract by mutual agreement.Earlier,during the negotiations I had found Mr River to be understanding and more than fair.He was very kind indeed,even treating my better half and me to a slapup meal with as much high quality beer as I could drink at one of Yuncheng's premier eateries after the contract had been cacelled,something that he needn't have done!
By contrast,the ignorant way in which I was treated at the visa office in Yuncheng has put me off teaching in the area under its control ever again.
As far as the company is concerned,I'm not in a position to pass judgment as regards matters of teaching - I feel my time with them was too short for me to be able to do so.