Re: reply to NPN Gains

As VSO's interviewers are predominantly members of the middle class or the upper class, VSO tends to employ British people from the same privileged backgrounds.
Class consciousness is endemic in British society today, and always has been. Very often the wrong people get the top jobs, according to their accent and class, instead of their ability. Of course, that's bad for Britain's economic development. In fact, the UK is notorious worldwide for its discriminatory class system, which is being perpetuated by the government of the day.
In contrast, across the pond, Americans are being urged by Obama to forget about their class differences and unite in order to pull their country out of recession.

Re: reply to NPN Gains

John, I'd been told some sensitive inside information by a couple of 'volunteers' in confidence re VSO's problems in the field, but I didn't know they were so widespread.
Laughable that that organisation is led by such incompetent upper class twats and yes men in China, of all countries. Typical British mismanagement resulting from the leaders being chosen on account of their bull in the mooth accents and private school backgrounds.
In hindsight, I believe it was a good thing for me to have been rejected by them. Otherwise I may have become a grovelling weasel to the Chinese bosses too, surely a fate worse than death!

Re: reply to Turino

I was deemed unsuitable for teaching abroad by VSO in the spring of '94.
Dismissing that disappointment and continuing my job search, I applied for a teaching post direct to a couple of colleges in North China, and was accepted by one almost at once.
Since then until the year 2000 I've occasionally bumped into VSO in North-Eastern China, but I felt I'd little in common with them, so it has usually just been a quick hello and goodbye, interspersed with small talk.
After all, I'm very different from them, in the sense that I'm not sponsored by the British taxpayer to fly the flag. And that's what many of them are here to do.
I agree with you that it's better to be unaffiliated to groups like the British council and VSO. I reckon they'd cramp my style!

Re: reply to Turino

Thanks for the info re VSO in EFL in China.
As a matter of fact,I was rejected by them in the early 90's.But that didn't stop me from coming to China to teach English,and I've been doing so here ever since.
At that time I happened to meet two volunteers.They told me that VSO only accepts 1 in 7 applicants, contrary to the impression their ads give readers,and that they were disgusted with the charity because they hadn't gone into detail about the cheating,both by students and by teachers that is rife here,so they felt misled by deliberate non-information.
Both they and I thought that the VSO description of volunteers' salaries as 'allowances' was both unwarranted and haughty.
Semmingly the VSO field officers were not good at dealing with teachers' problems in the field,leaving many of their colleagues feeling cheated and compromised because the organization did not want to lose teaching placement opportunities.
Prince Philip being their patron wasn't clever either.He had earlier visited China and made a racist joke re the shape of foreign teachers' eyes changing if they stayed too long there!Needless to say,that did not go down well with the locals!
But VSO does do good things abroad,let's not forget that!
Even so,I'd rather be independent of that kind of organisation - having one boss is better than having two,and I reckon Chinese bosses are by and large easier to deal with than foreign ones when problems arise.

Re: Living and Working in China: a guide

When I first came to China,more years ago than I care to admit,VSO teachers were working for a considerable number of normal colleges located in the less affluent provinces of the country.
Do you happen to know if said charity is still sending FT's to such colleges?
If so,I'd surmise China is still deemed in the UK as a developing country in need of assistance from the British taxpayer rather than one that has become semi-developed enough to deal with its own educational problems by allocating the necessary funds to do so.
VSO's guides are indeed accurate and useful for all foreigners,especially FT's working and/or living here.Thanks for having taken the time and trouble to post them on the board.