FTinPRC
- 2018-08-18
I am reminded how difficult it is to gauge cross-cultural mania. I have lived in China the better part of two decades and speak Mandarin on an intermediate level. I am, however, unable to judge the personality or mental stability of Chinese for two or three weeks after meeting them, whether speaking English or Chinese. After a time, you can observe behavior, but the language and cultural cues of someone being 'slightly off' are almost impossible to detect.
Among the dozens of foreign teachers that I have work alongside at Universities in China, two stand out in my memory.
Jxx, a tall obese U.S. citizen, informed the Foreign Language Department head at a 'waijiao' meeting that it was necessary for him to fail 150 of his 180 students for the semester. When the other foreign teachers suggest ways to 'augment' his grades, he placed his fingers in his ears and flapped his lips, droning out our voices like a 3-year old told to eat his vegetables. It was the last FT meeting that year.
Cxxxx, a balding U.S citizen, always salivated from one corner of his mouth and observed the world around him like a chick newly hatched. He routinely sat in front of his class, smoking cigarettes, crying, sharing the tragic details of his life. The University finally moved him into a subsidiary 'xueyuan' class of students who were unable to understand anything he was saying. At year end he moved on to a first level university in Chengdu, but fell down the escalator stairs in the airport and ended up in the hospital where, detoxing, his madness became evident and he was deported.
As a New Yorker I am accustomed to people suffering from psychiatric and pharmaceutical challenges, but these individuals would never be hired as teachers while exhibiting symptoms that are obvious to native speakers. In China the FAO departments are unable to identify these poor souls when hiring foreign teachers. Only months later do they recognize they've made a mistake. Firing the teacher would be an admission of guilt, so routinely they are just not offered another contract but given a recommendation when hired by another clueless school.
It is merely coincidence, I hope, that these two most notorious misfits were from the U.S. They barely 'beat-out' the Australian ex-professional wrestler and his son, a commercial chicken executioner. Then there was the South African who for the entire semester after his girl-friend dumped him only played movies in class, sitting in the back, nursing the hand he broke assaulting a tree, scouring WeChat and TanTan for love.
And then there was the Brit who ....
Dr. Paul
- 2018-08-13
ONE month at Delter is it, IN PART OF THE SUMMER. I TAUGHT 12 YEARS AT TOP UNIVERSITIES IN CHINA
TEACHING OR RESEARCHING AN AMERICAN GRAD SCHOOL - I HAVE DONE BOTH..
BUT ONE DAY YOU WILL DO BOTH! YOU ARE YOUNG..ENJOY GOOD TIMES. I AM IN AND OUT OF CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS. YOU TOO WILL GET OLD. YOU WILL REGRET NOT BEING KINDER TO OLDER PEOPLE. THIS PAST WEEKEND I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
MY READERS ALL ARE PROFESSORS OR GOV'T PEOPLE IN THE USA AND CHINA.
GET .A HIGHER DEGREE AND .AND OF COURSE PUBLIISH. I HAVE HELPED BOTH AMERICAN AND CHINESE GET GRADUATE FUNDING. THEY EARNED IT ON THEIR OWN. I JUST GUIDE THEM WHERE TO GO.
I AM GLAD MY PARENTS TAUGHT ME MANNERS AND I AM SURE YOU ARE POLITE WHEN YOU ARE NOT TIRED. When we are rested, we are nicer.
I AM BUSY TODAY WITH AN ACDEMIC JOURNAL IN THE UK AND I HAVE NO MORE TIME...SORRY.
I NEVER SAID I WAS WANDERING. YOU DO NOT YOU WANDER EITHER
MY FATHER PASSED ON RECENTLY AND MY MOM IS IN VERY GREAT DECLINE. I AM CURRENTLY IN THE USA. I ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY BECAUSE YOU DID NOT KNOW. WE CAN SAY A PRAYER FOR EACH OTHER, IN WHATEVER FORM WE INDIVIDUALLY WISH.
I AM WRITING A LONG LETTER IN BIG TYPE TO MY MOM. I WILL HAND DELIVER TO HER. THAT IS ANOTHER IMPORTANT TASK.
IN LATER YEARS, YOU WILL BE HERE AND I WILL BE GONE. YOU ARE A PIONEER IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, AHEAD OF MOST OF YOUR PEERS IN THE USA. THERE ARE DEFINTELY GOOD AND BAD DAYS IN CHINA. KEEP WORKING HARD, WHICH I KNOW YOU DO! I tried to do spell check but it did not work. I was in the first year of my high school, when calculators first came out. Mao Zedong died my senior year. My father worked for the USA State dept, some in China , in 1983-88.
TAKE CARE, Paul 
Dr. Paul
- 2018-08-13
I clearly said I taught very little time at Deter and those idiots who have compared Delter to Peking Univ are stupid. I saw this many times, 20 yrs ago. A punk would come to China, teach at lesser places and then make the preposterous statement. that ALL Chinese colleges and universities are like Delter. At least one person on this thread, made such an insane statement. I do not give wholesale approval to anything.
I taught at small places like Delter a few weeks at higher pay then others on finance classes and that was it. Simultaneously, I never left the good universities as my primary employer.
Get your self a PhD, publish some books and articles.....you will get there. Be glad for your youth. I promise you will later miss it. This is my second message on this today. If someone cannot read it all, fine. I taught math, finance and econ in China. I had to teach in Mandarin. I did well. I do not like ESL and so I did not pursue that.
If you are unhappy, then you can easily find a new employer. ESL teachers seem to have no trouble there.
American PhDs who speak Mandarin are very rare over there and so the Chinese value that. Please read my other comment of today. I have given you 40 minutes to try to clarify all this. If you are angry, go and have some fun. I was in China back in the 1990s. And I stayed as long as my health permitted me to.
Take care, Paul
ftinprc
- 2018-08-08
From visiting faculty at Peking and Renmin to wandering the halls of Delter/Telfort, I offer my condolences. The lure of Maotai, Macau or Changping?
I
know I do and that makes life worth living.
(I too finalize my comment with an incomplete sentence. In tribute to your decline.)
Dr. Paul
- 2018-08-05
There are many great Chinese colleges and universities. I I was on visiting faculty at Peking University, Renmin Univ and some other great places. ? I worked there and other places and had some great colleagues in international trade. We published a lot. At those universities, the undergrad and grad students will make you see how hard Chinese can study. I wrote lots or rec letters for Chinese students from many places.
You comments should only refer to ESL or the Business program at Delter/Telfort. As far as that goes, it must depend on where you work. I worked for short times at Telfort Beijing and found the Chinese to be fair. I was in China a dozen years and I knew to get most of your advice from the Chinese because I got the best information from them. I was polite and listened foreigners and it is best to listen to experienced ones and not to be swayed by people who just came to China and are experiencing culture shock. We were all in that boat to a degree in past times. At every place I worked in China, I was paid on time.
As far as work visas, that requires experience to know how to get them. Most Chinese students work hard. I have taught in America and the Far East. We all have much more to learn. I know I do and that makes life worth living.
educate.america@yahoo.com
- 2016-01-13
Telfort, or Delter (as they also refer to themselves in different cities) is not a Ministry of Education degree granting institution. They are a business and they operate out of leased space at several legitimate universities in China. They say they are from Canada, but they do not exist anywhere else but in China. They have agreements with host universities to offer ESL and business classes, but they are not a legitimate degree granting institution in China.
The Ministry of Education provides a list of recognized institutions on their website: http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_2812/200906/48836.html
The website pictures of Telfort campuses in different cities are of real universities where they lease space. One campus is Shanghai Institute of Technology (SIT), which is a reputable Ministry recognized degree granting institution. Telfort calls their Shanghai operation, "SIT - Telfort International Business Institute" and projects an image that they are the business college of SIT, which they are not.
The appearance of legitimacy is creatively obtained through the "Permit of the People's Republic of China for Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running a School". This allows foreign institutions to cooperate with legitimate Chinese universities in offering foreign degree programs in-country. There are many well known institutions from Europe, Asia and the United States operating in China under this permit process.
Telfort is not a Chinese institution - they are the foreign partner in the permit agreement. This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that Telfort does not exist anywhere else but in China. Institutions which unwittingly transfer credits from this business run the risk of credit laundering.
Bill Dan
- 2015-11-27
I worked for Delter from 2004 to 2007. I got a Z Visa as did all the other teachers I worked with in Beijing. I never heard of one single teacher being given only an L visa and an unfulfilled promise. I was never paid late. While not heavn on Earth I did not encounter those issues myself during those years. Maybe things went down hill later. "It is a scam designed to steal as much money from parents of lazy kids ..." And this makes Delter different from basically every other private (and to be honest public) school in China how?
Fred Spec
- 2011-07-28
My first job in China and I went to a school called Delter. DELTER TELFORT or Delter Business Institute. It has several variations that they use.
I came in as a replacement teacher. It means every other teacher had quit and I was recruited to work the rest of the year.
Let me start by saying that Delter is a horrible place. There are so many things to say about it but I will just focus on the worst aspects of this school.
To begin with this school has no real accreditation of any sort and no physical campus or locations. They are parasites that live in a host school. They are not legally authorized to get you a working visa and they cannot get you a working visa.
They outright lie to you and tell you to come on a tourist visa and they will change it for you but they cannot and do not do that. They have your tourist visa extended and if they want to get you a working visa they have to ask the host school to do it if the host school can. In fact I never worked for Delter, I worked for the host school even though Delter said I would work for them.
This created many problems, because EVERY teacher got cheated repeatedly out of salary, over-taxed, cheated out of airfare, and never got the traveling money as promised in the contract. When the teachers went to the host school with these problem the host school said You DO NOT work for us, regardless what the contract says and Delter tells us how much to pay you and if there is a problem you need to deal with them. What happened is all the teachers got screwed, repeatedly.
Some teachers got taxed way too much. One teacher couldnt understand why his salary of 6000 rmb had 2300 rmb taken out in a month of taxes. The finance office at the school told him to talk to Delter, Delter said talk to the finance office. Needless to say he quit soon after.
Every teacher got cheated on airfare. It was a shame. Delter made up numerous excuses as to why their airfare was shorted or not paid; the favorite excuse was that school was over and the finance office was closed for the summer and if they wanted their airfare they need to come back in September.
As mentioned EVERY teacher worked on a tourist visa. This is a reason no one should ever do this. One man was teaching English and they didnt seem to like him much. He came on a 30 day tourist visa. After 28 days in China and working for Delter full time they called him into the office and told him they couldnt give him a working visa as promised. They kept his passport the whole month. They told him he had to leave the school that day! On top of it, they didnt pay him his salary saying he didnt work the whole month so they wouldnt pay him. He had 2 days left on his tourist visa. He told them he was going to the police and he said they laughed at him and told him he would be arrested for working illegal at their school. He had no choice to leave China and lost much money in salary and plane tickets. He was screwed royally by Delter.
Delter frequently makes teachers work overtime and seldom pays the contracted overtime making up excuses like Well last week you worked less than the contract house, so this week you work more, its even, even though the contract says a certain amount of hours per week. They outright lie about everything and anything.
The Delter location I worked at went though about 8 teachers in one year. ALL (except the one man) quit. Most did runners, none gave notice.
One local guy came to Delter to do some part time work. He was told he would get 150 rmb an hour/class. After a month he went to get his pay. It was shorted by half the promised amount. He worked 24 hours a week. They told him that the salary was correct he was paid 150rmb for 2 periods, they considered that one class. He had the agreement in writing BUT they decided to change it and he had no recourse. For the rest of us 2 periods was two hours. But they openly cheated him.
I will tell you that complaints to the host school and complaints to Delter corporate go unanswered. Many teachers sought help from the host school or called the Delter corporate office. The responses were simply (from the host school) you need to talk to Delter directly, we have no control. From Delter corporate was always a lame response that the local Delter locations were franchisees and we had to sort the problems out with them.
I can tell you that I did not do any research before I accepted the job at Delter. Had I, I would have stayed away. I hope anyone out there considering a job at Delter heeds these warnings. I will tell you that I, like EVERY OTHER TEACHER there, was cheated out of money and worked long hours and got cheated out of promised overtime. They have an excuse for everything but the truth is they cheat everyone their foreign teachers, their Chinese staff, the host school, and the parents of the students. Delter cheats and lies to everyone.
I will tell you that I bear no malice in my writings. This post is not a fallacy and not a payback in any way. I learned much from this experience in China and this job at Delter. First China seems to have zero standards for what seems to pass as education its only about money, nothing else. I will NEVER work in China again. As for Delter, it is the absolute WORST school in China. If someone every goes to Delter to work then they deserve whatever they get. Delter is the bottom of the bottom of companies in China they are worse than those companies that sold tainted baby milk.
There are many more things I could say about Delter, but I hope you got the gist. I have simply stated what I encountered, from teachers knocking on my door at night wishing me luck and heading to a better place, to students telling me that in the last two years they had 9 different teachers teach them the same class saying that every year all the teachers quit none every stayed more than a few months, and even the Chinese staff turns over rapidly.
Delter is the worst school. It is not from Canada as they promote themselves, and has no physical campuses as they show on their website.
No matter how desperate a person is, Delter is far below your desperation. There is nothing good that can be said of Delter or the people that run it.
Peace out.
If you have questions feel free to pm me. I left out the names of the people who ran the school just to keep from making it sound vindictive or like a personal attack. And I met several other teachers who worked at Delter in my travels around China ALL had similar horror stories and they worked at other locations.
I will post more later as I record more of my bad experiences at Delter
Michael Moore
- 2011-06-24
Delter International Business Institute China is not a real school at all and is not a Canadian school. It is a scam designed to steal as much money from parents of lazy kids and also from gullible teachers who are stupid enough to believe what anyone from Delter tells them. High turnover - 100% at the center I worked at. 6 teachers quit during the first 4 months. All teacher get cheated and lied to. Forced unpaid overtime, always late on the salary that is wrong, promised about being paid for overtime that never materialize.
Delter CAN NOT get their teachers working visas and teachers come and work on tourist visas ILLEGAL. One guy was promised a working visa and asked to work on a tourist visa - 3 days before his tourist visa expired they gave him his passport back and told him they didn't get him a working visa. He left quickly and lost all his salary.
DELTER IS THE WORST "SCHOOL" IN CHINA AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED BY ANYONE. There are no teachers there now and any smart person will avoid it.
DELTER/TELFORT
There has been a great deal of negative treatment of this business on many forums, particularly Dave's ESL Cafe. Since I do not play in Dave's sandbox, with all of those spoiled brats, I would like to have my say on Delter/Telfort here.
Delter gave me my first job in China. I took the job against the advice of many. I walked in with my eyes wide open.
I asked for assignment to the middle of the middle kingdom and that is where I went. I was met at the airport and ushered to a very nice apartment that fulfilled all of the promises made to me.
I worked for a great Chinese Manager and American DOS. The classes were small. There were abundant teaching materials available. The students were great. Yes, this was a business! Business came first, but it was never at the expense of education. Our teachers were a very mixed bag. Some qualified, some committed, some who should have been committed (locked herself in her apartment with loud music blaring for several months, refusing to come out to teach. She eventually did a midnight runner.), and several backpackers. But what can you expect from a long distance hiring process with no pre-employment face-to-face interview?
Unfortunately there was a wannabee DOS, a hillbilly from North Carolina, who was friends with the school owner and some of the board members. The hillbilly was a terribly disruptive factor and eventually was the cause of the resignation of the great American DOS and my transfer to another branch of the school.
The wannabee became the new DOS and then there was a full on mutiny with several teachers leaving.
When I transferred to another branch of Delter I also found everything more than adequate. To explain what happened next I need to explain Delter's business model.
Bing Liang, a Chinese National, naturalized Canadian Citizen, taking advantage of china's foreign investment policy, joint ventures each school with a local third tier college. The local college provides the physical facilities for admin, teaching and foreign teacher housing. Delter pays for this by teaching EFL to non-English majors enrolled at the third tier college. These classes can be as large as 90 students. In terms of real education, there isn't much happening in this particular set-up. However, these kiddies must be kept happy because they are the bread and butter of Delter's financial success.
After meeting its commitment to the third tier college, Delter is free to use the facilities to MAKE MONEY running a private business institute. Here classes are no larger than 15 students and often less. There is real education happening in these classes and real money being earned.
Although I was hired as a business teacher, I was also required to teach one of these third tier English classes. This was Delter's first mistake. I took attendance. I would not let kiddies sit in the back and sleep or be disruptive. I assigned homework and required that it be done. I failed 12 out of 68. Word spread that I was a bad teacher and the kiddies refused to come to my classes any more. This threatened Delter's lucrative business arrangement with the college so I was expendable, no; I had to go to appease the college.
Delter's second mistake was in not informing me in advance that I was just a baby sitter for the college students. My mistake was in taking my responsibilities seriously.
I was given an adequate 30 days severance pay.
I was neither angry nor bitter. I considered this to be a learning experience and I moved on to a much better job.
I was paid on time and an amount adequate for the duties. The only person in the organization I did not like was the Seminary dropout hillbilly from North Carolina.
Many teachers at Delter went through variations of my experience and from what is posted on various web forums; it appears that nothing has changed.
But when understood in perspective, Delter is a great entry to teaching in China. It is a very good first job.
Once in China, other opportunities unfold and reveal themselves.
I can honestly say that Delter has a very successful business model and provides very good entry jobs for foreigners wishing to teach in China.
Yes there are communication problems from time-to-time. Yes there are administrative problems. But, these can be much worse at other educational businesses in China. Have a look at www.usingenglish.com articles "Dissatisfied Customers: Chinese Business institute Students Speak Out The subject of that article is a JV between a Shanghai second tier university and a foreign university. Things can be and are much worse than Delter!
At any given Chinese school, at any given time, there can be problems. Many can result in self-inflicted pain due to a lack of, tolerance, appreciation for cultural differences and culture shock. Learn to go with the flow and remember, fixable people do not break.
In fact, I recommend Delter to anyone seeking his or her first teaching experience in China.