Mahoma Iza
- 2010-05-13
Well, sadly as you said foreign bosses in China are the same crap. Most of them even come with that in mind: "OMG, it's paradise, a land of cheap slave trade, this is for me". I met a few of those. But they are easy to tell. The real danger are the friendly foreign bosses who sell you an idea of progress against the problems you mentioned with Chinese bosses, because at least with the them, after a while, you learn to expect that, and how to dodge and counter, but with the foreign "I understand you, I have been there and that's why my spirit of miss universe (I love everybody and want world peace) guided me into opening my own hole in the same shit". Is that hole any better? or are they here just because they couldn't succeed in their own homes?
Stay away from training centers, that's the only option I see...
kayla kelly
- 2010-05-13
I completely agree with you Pilgim. If you are to do as you see without thinking, then there is no more education in your brains than there is on the locals', and you may as well throw yourselves in group off a cliff. On the contrary, educated people need no rules to follow. We don't follow rules because we are obligated but because we understand the reason they are there and would do it without them. Needless to add that I don't think K L does as Chinese and takes 1200 kuai a month.
As for the children compensating for the bosses, I think those are non related fields. Why should I choose one or the other?
If you happen to teach at public middle -middle high level high schools, you won't even find any respect from the students. They are so used to having a clown dancing for them when it comes to the foreigner that they won't care. I have to say, though, in the poor corners they behave much better.
One final thing, I find this unbelievable. Everywhere in the world, and for other jobs but ESL teaching in Mainland China, you need to be a capable individual with a degree, and experience, and speak 2 languages, and computer knowledge, etc., being often hard to even meet the requirements for a position. Don't you dream of working abroad without the same and having a successful background in your own country.
Here, as long as you a native speaker, with no studies, no experience and no clue, you get access to "great" salaries. Well, these are the teachers that don't complain and walk behind their bosses, boosting their already overgrown egos.
Pilgim
- 2010-05-12
Hey Kl:
Good point you brought up, and one I agree with wholeheartedly. The students are generally well behaved and a pleasure to teach, while I might dread teaching their Western counterparts. Here I'm talking more about the children and teens, though I've had a few spectacular brats in China. Most my Chinese students are quite nice, though in the public school system they can be more lackadaisical and it can be difficult to keep the energy level a high as I like it to be.
The students CAN make up a lot for the bosses, as can the chance to travel and the opportunity to live in another country to begin with. But you'd still have all those same things if you had a good boss, and if the boss is bad enough he or she can ruin almost everything. In just the last couple years schools have become more corrupt, inventing or borrowing new duties to assign foreign teachers, and finding new ways to cut corners or cheat teachers. I just heard of a school making the foreign teachers call students on the telephone after the day's classes. That's new and clever, but sucks for the teacher, who wasn't offered any extra money for doing so either. I heard Aston has pushed back it's monthly pay date from the 10th to the 15th, and also no longer pays overtime (100 yuan and hour) to teachers who do Summer Intensive teaching on top of their regular classes. These are new developments, or rather, regressive practices. Public schools are getting cozy with the PSB personnel they had to answer to in the past, and now they can all profit off of the exploitation of teachers. Universities are playing clever games to get out of paying teachers for holiday and end of term allowances.
As for joining the Chinese in smoking in public, or in restaurants, you say it's your "right". An interesting idea that I don't have a firm conclusion on. As a smoker you may think it's fine to smoke wherever you want. Non-smokers will disagree. If I am driving a motorbike, in China I can honk at you if you are trying to cross a road and it's your light. In China that's my right. I can honk at pedestrians if they dare ever cross my path, no matter if it's their right of way or not. Similarly, I can spit on the floor in restaurants; litter on the stairs in my building; habitually visit pink houses; cut in line at every opportunity; and if I were to own a business I could fleece my employees. For some of those things, I guess, one has to ask oneself what one's own conclusion is and act accordingly. Personally, I think the traffic laws (as they are practiced) in the West are superior, more effective and efficient than the "might equals right" traffic rules of China. So, it may be my right to barrel-ass down on pedestrians while blasting my horn, but I'd be a dickhead to follow through with it. Gotta' think about other people's rights, and not just one's own.
K L
- 2010-05-11
While it IS true that Western bosses here can be just as bad, taking advantage of the situation just as Western smokers might of lax smoking prohibitions to light up in restaurants without restraint, in general Western bosses heads aren't so far up their arses.
Beware the Chinese boss.
As sb who left no boss to come to China initially for a job, I was determined to stick it out irrespective of the negative aspects of the culture shock. Though the accommodation was sometimes not so good, it was adequate and, more importantly, rent-free. After 3 years without a job back home, I was extremely happy to get a job teaching English in China.
Chinese bosses regard themselves way above their employees, true enough. But this is more than compensated for by the great respect that the young learners of English here have for their foreign teachers.
As for smoking, I'll do as the Chinese do. At the school I'm presently teaching at, the Chinese teachers smoke on campus, me too, that's my right!
One thing people need to consider before teaching in China is the phenomenon of the "Chinese boss." Don't think of a kindly, reasonable man in spectacles, though some may outwardly appear to be so. Think of someone who thinks he's infinitely above you in a rigidly stratified society, and who considers you inferior, or if he doesn't will still treat you as if you are. The boss is held in much higher esteem than in the West, and the gap between employer and employee is enormous in China.
If found myself working for someone who is younger, less educated, less traveled (really no comparison there since he's never traveled), and I dare say less clever or charismatic, but who nevertheless would try to treat me like a chump at any and every turn. It was a bit like a Kung Fu movie, where I got to be Bruce Lee (I appreciate the cultural irony here). I could predict the bosses next moves and effectively counter them, though it was a pain in the arse to do so and resulted in a continual state of stress. The boss lost every fight with me, including the final battle in which I quit, but managed to get all money due to me (despite his efforts to rip me off), and got a better job in the same city.
The overarching problem, other than just the typical corruption of bosses in China, was that he treated me just like he (mis)treats Chinese teachers who are often quite desperate for employment and at least initially before they ultimately quit grateful for the opportunity to work in a school. I didn't end up working for a crappy private school out of desperation, because I couldn't fin a job elsewhere. Rather, it was a deliberate and planned lifestyle choice to do with traveling, experiencing other cultures, and learning from teaching. I wasn't desperate, a chump, or in any way inferior to my boss. And yet, in his mindset, I must be inferior because I am a mere employee and his is my lord and master.
The jerkwad would even schedule monthly inspections of the substandard (for China) shithole of an apartment he put me in. He would brag about, "teach foreigner good habit."
As I said, I managed to extricate myself from the situation without taking any hits other than inconvenience (or from the bong while traveling afterward), and ultimately landed a MUCH better teaching position. But I learned of the danger of working for Chinese bosses, and I've seen it in more than one school and it also applies to the Chinese managers of schools as well. Hierarchy goes to people's heads here. They have no concept of your life in the West or wherever you've been and taught and traveled. You just magically appear in their world one day, little more than a hologram with no tangible reality for them, and they only recognize that you are technically in a subordinate position to them, and hence they only can see you through the dual lenses of manipulation and exploitation.
While it IS true that Western bosses here can be just as bad, taking advantage of the situation just as Western smokers might of lax smoking prohibitions to light up in restaurants without restraint, in general Western bosses heads aren't so far up their arses.
Beware the Chinese boss.