Rin
- 2010-07-21
Yes! I don't really get it.. Do they know it is not a summer camp? Do they know what a summer camp is? I was expecting the worse.. but at least thought it would be in the countryside... maybe they would do outdoor pursuits and stuff... haha.
It is actually a training mill all year round.. so where do they get off calling it a summer camp? I know we were going for the 'summer'... but we are the teachers not the kids! The kids are there all the time.
Migrant Worker
- 2010-07-20
Honestly,
You are lucky that they even paid you. They sounded like a sham from the beginning and usually these places would rather just not pay you at all for the inconvenience of screwing up their "Summer Camp". You know I really HATE that term too. It's not a summer camp at all.
Do you remember when you went to summer camp? Did it include shoddy buildings and horrible staff? Well maybe it did, but at least it was actually a CAMP with campfires, hiking, swimming and fun.
When Chinese children grow up and hear the word "Summer Camp" they will immediately collapse into a seizure from traumatic memories.
MW
This is a training centre.
They advertised a summer camp for one month. They also advertised that visa status did not matter. This is incorrect for a start. We found out about this after.
However, we travelled to Rugao. We got to the 'bus station' which was actually just a lay-by in the middle of bandit country. We called the contact number to be collected, however, they spoke next to no English.. bad sign already!! Funny how lots of Chinese people can communicate perfectly by email or QQ but when it comes to conversation.. no chance. Bear in mind this was supposed to be a Chinese English teacher! Finally, after a long time waiting I called my friend who speaks Chinese and English very well who lives on the other side of China and explained the situation. This was 4.30am. She finally managed to get through and eventually they turned up. They said they weren't expecting us 'til the next day.. a mistake, but one that should not be made lightly.. 15 hours on a smelly bus then over an hour waiting in the middle of nowhere is not fun... If this was the only thing, it would of been okay. Mistakes happen.
They took us to a guest house and told us to shower and rest and they would be back in the afternoon. This was 6am.We got woken before 10 and told we were moving. We struggled with our bags down the stairs and the street to another guest house. This one was bad. The carpet was filthy, there were cigarette burns in everything. There were no fly screens, the air conditioning stank.. July in Jiangsu... You need AC and fly screens!! The floor leading from the wet room to the dirty carpet in the living area was soggy and broken. The wi-fi didn't work. It was disgusting.
My boyfriend went to work for them the next day. These people are the most unfriendly and disorganised people I have ever met! They gave 50 RMB a day to us for food allowance, so I enquired 'Do you know of any cheap restaurants?' The reply was ' Work out your problems yourself!' I immediately bristled and said ' Well, I'm sorry but as Rugao is your city, I thought you would know some good places to eat!' to which they replied 'while you are in Rugao, sort your own problems out!' ... nice, eh? Needless to say I had little to do with them after that. My boyfriend however was treated like a performing monkey! They overwhelmed him with double classes of over fifty students. The students knew no English even though they had been 'learning' for two years. I'm talking, not even knowing 'what is your name?' How awful!! He was given one side of an A4 sheet of paper with a few illegible scrawls on and told to make a 2 hour 20 minute lesson from it. The few picture cards they had were spelt incorrectly also. This happened daily for one week. When he asked for information about student age and level to prepare his own lessons, he was either given wrong information or none at all!
Generally the kids were good kids, and the school building in itself was okay.. I'd even go so far as to say it looked professional. That's where the professionalism ended. It is a shoddy business and the staff are awful. They were supposed to assist in teaching... translating at least, but did not lift a finger. And would not put the AC on. One day after much searching for a launderette to no avail, I asked if there was one in Rugao. 'Wash them yourself!' was the reply!
After much trouble and nuisance, we finally managed to nullify the contract with them and return to our current city. They did pay a quarter of the monthly wage. And after I requested helped us get bus tickets back to here. That was it though. Oh, after longer inspection I found they had underpaid.. but that was my mistake for not checking correctly I guess.
In short, avoid like the plague!