Ess
- 2010-08-09
Funny, my friend and I had the EXACT same experience in 2006-2007. We had a fellow Australian woman working with us who also did the overnight escape but I don't think she ended up calling. I can't believe nothing has changed. When we first got to Shenyang we were naive and under the impression that we would get a decent home because Suzanne used to live in it with her 3 trillion biological babies. We assumed this because she is / was American so we just thought she would live under almost the same hygiene rules as us. Anyways, we got picked up by her giant intimidating husband and got dropped off to this home which at first glance after an 18-hour flight seemed decent. Then we realised nothing including the toilets had even been cleaned. Moreover, there were so many roaches, they were competing for space in the daylight! It was so bad. She offered to get the place exterminated and we said no. We checked into the Holiday Inn and told her to figure something out b/c we would not be going back there. She eventually moved us to Tiexi, which was far from town but it was a brand new apartment and conveniently next door to her! Oh, it was just a horrible experience. A word of advice, if you do end up working for the woman, do not let her intimidate you! She will try because she takes advantage of the fact that you are so far from home and leaving you feel like you have no other options but you do. English teachers are not dropping out of the sky in Shenyang and there are other great places to work. In fact, another colleague also left this awful school and is still in Shenyang!
Kung Fu Joe
- 2010-08-09
I am genuinely amazed to see that this school is still going! I had the misfortune of working for the vapid wh*re back in about 2004. It seems that absolutely nothing has changed. Including the heating situation! She did nothing but cheat and lie to everyone, was the instigator of workplace rumours, (which you might expect from an employee, but not the employer!!!), and generally threatening and abusive whenever she could be. I'm not even going to start on that bloody Iranian family of hers! She was bringing more and more of them over every year (and paying staff late because of it!).
It would be impossible to actually write about everything she did or tried to get away with in the space of anything less than a small book! And the stories from her numerous disgruntled (ex)employees would probably fill volumes!
What surprises me the most though is that she has very little 'guanxi' with the government or other types in Shenyang (except for certain members of the police whose children she lets study for free!) and yet has still not been shut down! I guess we have all complained to the wrong people? Perhaps if the local government knew that she, as Alifa, is in fact a successful, though small, import/export company, (according to her registration http://www.importersparadise.com/newstart/impex/alialifa01.html), and of textiles, precious metals, floor coverings etc, no less, then they may start to think twice about things!
Well, as much as I could complain all night about this tramp, I am going to finish off here. Good luck to all who read this and are going to work in China, and seriously, AVOID this school (Sushan English) like the plague, because it WILL eat your will to live much faster than the plague ever could!
Oh, and the ONE good review I found of this school on the net looks very suspiciously like it was written by the boss herself!
Theo
- 2009-04-12
Thank you, Leigh for your detailed account of working with Suzanne Scruggs and life in Shenyang. What I hope readers will understand (those still in their home countries considering teaching employment in China or Korea) is that what you describe is far too typical, not the exception. The chance of one landing in a working and living situation like the one you posted is more likely than not -- especially those coming in to China and Korea from the outside.
Your post is very much appreciated and people should consider employment in China and Korea (I've lived and worked in both countries) VERY CAREFULLY and be aware of the likelihood of great disappointment and exploitation.
I loved teaching Chinese students, but employers and "management" usually make the situation ultimately unbearable and intolerable.
To Foreign Colleagues contemplating working for Suzanne Scruggs at Sushan English in Shenyang. Don't !!!!!!
My colleague and I worked for Suzanne Scruggs for one year. Both of us are well qualified and experienced primary school teachers in our home country.
* Suzanne Scruggs uses her Iranian husband and his family as a form of "control" when foreign teachers question her lack of honesty. One middle aged Australian female teacher was so afraid to give notice that she fled to the airport alone. She telephoned Suzanne from the airport to give notice just as she was boarding her flight back to Australia.
* Payday was often a juggling act as Suzanne drove around the city trying to collect money to pay foreign and Chinese staff. Payday was often late leaving staff to borrow money from friends to buy food.
* Accommodation has to be seen to be believed. Filthy apartments in the slums of Shenyang cannot begin to describe the living conditions offered to foreign teachers. "This is China, get used to it" Suzanne would laugh.
* All gazetted public holidays are expected to be "made up". This means that foreign teachers would effectively not be given the public holidays as stated in the contracts.
* Classrooms at one of Suzanne's schools did not have heating or cooling. My colleagues and I would teach wearing our coats, gloves, scarves and woolen hats as the classroom temp. was -10c !!!! The students ranged in age from 5 years to 16 years. They would sit shivering and shaking from the classroom cold. Parents were unaware that their children were suffering as the parents waiting room was always heated or cooled.
* "Deductions" were often made from salaries and Suzanne called these "fines".
After years of international teaching experience, I must say that Sushan English in Shenyang China is the school to avoid.