Turino
- 2010-06-01
And then there are the people who do not even live in China, work in China, and aren't even employable in China; so, they spend their inordinate amount of free time online complaining about China.
It all adds up.
True, it does that! But I for one would never work for a training centre nor a private school here in China. However, I wouldn't go so far as to condemn either kind of institution as always lousy employers from every FT's point of view. I'm sure some are better than others, and maybe better than state schools/colleges. Nevertheless, I won't risk it for a biscuit.
As for the rest of you, please feel free to do as you please. But if you end up being burned, that's your folly.
As for complaining about China, there are those who thrive on it!
I would suggest that readers who are perplexed read the 'Middlekingdom' site, and the site compiled by the US consul in Beijing to get additional information written by impartial commentators. This board has kindly provided the URL's of those two sites for its readers.
doloctored
- 2010-06-01
We must be careful not to generalize when we have dicussions about EFL in China. Posters making statements like 'all Chinese training centres are crap' are undeserving of our trust.
Another thing that I've noticed is that posters tend to care little about individual complaints made by posters in trouble with their employers. Yet, they will make general statements about those exact same problems. This indicates that many posters distrust what posters in trouble are posting about their own personal problems, or simply just don't care at all about the plight of such posters.
It also seems to me that there are many, many self-serving foreigners teaching EFL in China. By being disunited in the workplace, they reduce the options available to them that could have been used to prevent an unscrupulous Chinese employer using or abusing them. United we stand, divided we fall, as the saying goes.
Then there are those who are academic snobs in terms of what they are teaching or where they are employed or how good they are at teaching based solely on their own opinions only, of course. EFL in China covers the teaching of English to young children up to businessmen and company employees. If a person wants to find reasons for complaining about anything in EFL in China, it's not hard to do so. EFL in China is far from perfect. But there are clearly many foreigners here who have been teaching it year after year without feeling the need to complain online, and enjoy living in China. In contrast, there are the China school bashers, and there are the foreign teacher bashers too. When someone starts bashing away about a part of EFL here, it's all too easy for others to jump on the bandwagon. But, as I said a little earlier, an individual's complaints about something unfair that's happened to him are often ignored altogether, and sometimes it is even suggested that the complainant is lying. Anyways, we can make our own judgments by trying to analyse what we read. It's a case of trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without the forums, we wouldn't be able to get much useful information.
And then there are the people who do not even live in China, work in China, and aren't even employable in China; so, they spend their inordinate amount of free time online complaining about China.
It all adds up.
Franzen
- 2010-05-31
Between black and white is a whole lot of grey. Polarized views serve only to distract from the issue and support prejudice. Attempting to polarize others is dishonesty and serves only to support an established polarized view.
Turino
- 2010-05-31
We must be careful not to generalize when we have dicussions about EFL in China. Posters making statements like 'all Chinese training centres are crap' are undeserving of our trust.
Another thing that I've noticed is that posters tend to care little about individual complaints made by posters in trouble with their employers. Yet, they will make general statements about those exact same problems. This indicates that many posters distrust what posters in trouble are posting about their own personal problems, or simply just don't care at all about the plight of such posters.
It also seems to me that there are many, many self-serving foreigners teaching EFL in China. By being disunited in the workplace, they reduce the options available to them that could have been used to prevent an unscrupulous Chinese employer using or abusing them. United we stand, divided we fall, as the saying goes.
Then there are those who are academic snobs in terms of what they are teaching or where they are employed or how good they are at teaching based solely on their own opinions only, of course. EFL in China covers the teaching of English to young children up to businessmen and company employees. If a person wants to find reasons for complaining about anything in EFL in China, it's not hard to do so. EFL in China is far from perfect. But there are clearly many foreigners here who have been teaching it year after year without feeling the need to complain online, and enjoy living in China. In contrast, there are the China school bashers, and there are the foreign teacher bashers too. When someone starts bashing away about a part of EFL here, it's all too easy for others to jump on the bandwagon. But, as I said a little earlier, an individual's complaints about something unfair that's happened to him are often ignored altogether, and sometimes it is even suggested that the complainant is lying. Anyways, we can make our own judgments by trying to analyse what we read. It's a case of trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without the forums, we wouldn't be able to get much useful information.
Dragonized
- 2010-05-31
Turnoi, people believe what they want to believe. You can base what a person's ideaology is like based on the things they say from your response. Some people may feel comfortable sitting back and pretending to understand something when they don't. I doubt some of the detractors even understand Chinese and how Chinese bosses/owners actually think.
Chinese Newspapers overseas who don't have to worry about the policing of things said in the media also write about the blatant exploitation of workers and the lack of rights experienced by anyone who isn't running a business. Our opinion on the crappy world of ESL stretches across boundaries and millions if not hundreds of millions of people would agree with us. It's just that many of us are too shy/intimidated to speak up.
To the people out there who want to compromise with the situation, you are only speaking for yourself. There is good and bad in this world, but the bad must be exposed to better inform all of us. I've been accused myself of not having any "experience" in the ESL world and therefore it's almost as if I deserved everything I got. Well I'm sorry to tell everybody who expects everybody else to agree with them on what a good place the ESL world of China is that you only make it more obvious how you don't care about the plight of others.
There is no excusing crappy behavior, there is no excusing shady operating. I am sick of people trying to sugarcoat a load of crap and calling it a candyball. Just because someone doesn't speak the same language as you doesn't excuse them to use "culture" as a shield.