tianjindave
- 2012-08-17
I didn't think Yuncheng IELTS hired native born English speakers any longer-you must be a token one-they must send you to all their finest Middle schools.?
Their teachers' compound was notorious, a lock up at 2300 hours prison-Ive even heard it mentioned in the Australian outback, as far away as that, such is its notoriety. The poor Aussie ex-teacher at Yuncheng IELTS, got so drunk ranting and raving about the place, that he passed out in the Dunny, and came too yelling "bloody River(Mr River) I'll smash his face in!). Of course, they may have tarted it up since then and relaxed the prison rules.
I know a few other chaps that worked there, nice African blokes(mind you, accents were a bit iffy) they told me that The big boss(name?) hired a bruiser to beat up any disagreeable FT's, but he got over zealous and attacked Mr River himself-the poor bloke was off sick for yonks.
They appear to have reduced their pay, it was more than 4000 six years ago.
That place made straightforward English Centres pretty good places to be.
If you are a natural born English speaker your accent should not matter.
I want to say, if you get paid by a place like Yuncheng IELTS you do not work for a state school, even though you may teach in one. You do work for a private school/teacher supply agency. It is the agency who pays your wages. So ,if you are happy with your employer(the agency) you should support private schools on this forum, because that is the category you slot into.
Will
- 2012-08-17
Linyi University was formerly known as Linyi Normal/Teachers' University. Read all about it!
foxy
- 2012-08-16
I'm a native speaker of English with a lot of years of teaching under my belt in China. Not long after arriving at Linyi university, after having been invited to teach there, I was refused a job on account of my accent without ever being given the opportunity to teach there! That left me in the mire. My chances of finding an alternative teaching post were not good as it was the middle of March when thing s suddenly went pear-shaped in Linyi.
Luckily I was accepted by Yuncheng IELTS School at very short notice, actually it was the start of my second stint with them. I got a significantly better deal there than I would have got in Linyi. I'd say 4,000 a month is not good nor are shared cooking facilities. But I had my own flat rent-free in Yuncheng, and 5,000 a month and air fare allowance instead of air fare reimbursement, which suited me better. I had the services of a Chinese teaching assistant employed by the company. I stayed with the company for three semesters and was permitted to teach with L visas for that entire period. There were other advantages too, I won't go into them here.
In retrospect, I'm glad Linyi rejected me - almost everything went very well in Yuncheng. I have left there because my wife insisted on returning to her hometown in the north of China. Now I'm there with her.
It seems my accent was not good enough for Linyi University's English majors, but it was acceptable to the senior middle school students of Yuncheng and its associated county towns!!
YCYS
This is to certify that Foxy, Reynard
Has worked with this company for one and a half years.
In that time he has performed
his duties in an examplary manner. In
recognition of this fact, he is granted this
Honors Certificate.
Mr River
2012:6:14
Anonymous
- 2012-08-16
Before anyone say anything, sorry if there are mistakes in my English, correcting it is not the thread, thanks for understanding.
Ok, for those interested I took this job opportunity, I'm the one who worked as French teacher in LYU during the academic year 2011-12.
I must say most if what you can read about it on internet is true, Linyi is a kind of backward city, dusty, oily, because of fast growing and construction sites everywhere and there are not many things to do there. However locals are friendly and some girls are pretty.
Local people are friendly although don't expect to meet anyone speaking English, there are some people but they can probably be numbered on one hand's fingers. There are no scams and crime rate is very low, local cops are doing a nice job it seem. Traffic can be insane but not as much as China's main cities of course, be careful when crossing the streets.
Girls in the city are not as "westernized" as girls in Beijing or Shanghai but some are willing to date with foreigners for serious or less serious intentions, in any case I advise you to respect local customs and "way of doing things in couple" as Shandong people are more traditionalist than most of places in China.
About the university, you must be aware that the campus where you live (North/Old Campus) isn't the campus where you work (New Campus), there are 20 min of schoolbus between them, that mean you must take the schoolbus everyday to go at work and same to come back home, note that the schoolbus' stop is on the opposite from where you live on the campus (5 minutes walking).
You can also chose to live on the other campus (the New Campus) which is more recent and still under construction, the big problem is that there's nothing to do over there, no supermarket and it's pretty much outside of the city. The Old Campus is located on the "main street" of the city, much better location with supermarkets and entertainment (karaoke, pool, ...) around, but it's old and dusty, buildings (including your) are almost falling appart.
The accomodation (on the Old Campus) is located in an old "hotel" above a restaurant, probably built in the 50s or 60s, dusty and without any proper safety exit in case of fire. The Chinese woman in charge there is friendly and helpful. Rooms are about 20m² including private "bathroom", working aircon and all you need to start. Notice that the doors aren't that safe once locked, they can be opened by sliding a bank card between the door and the wall (from my experience the day I forgot my key inside), fortunately you shouldn't have any problem with thieves as there's a security guard 24h at the entrance of the building. Kitchen are shared, there's one on each floor with very basic stuff to cook, most of foreigners aren't using it and prefer to go outside to eat, there are many cheap restaurants and street food around.
The job is easy and the working load is light, a few hours/week for most of teachers, far from the 25 hours/week announced in the contract. Nobody check what you're doing, they just don't care as long you do, correct and give them back your examinations. One hour is 45 minutes and you will have 2 hours together then 1h30 with 5 minutes off after 45 minutes.
Students are lovely but shy, some are lazy bugs sleeping and using QQ on their phone during the class, just take their phone, bring it home and give them back the next day and say "Next time I keep it until the end of the year", they'll stop for the year. Their English ability is low even those who studied English for years, some rare cases can speak fluent English and are more opened with foreigners.
The staff from the FAO is nice and helpful, they do their job and seem to have the local PSB in their pocket then no problem for the visa even if you work on F or L nobody will question you or them when you go to renew it.
The foreigners over there are alright although some of them could be rude as they have different culture (I think about one of two Russians who seen to be still living in the USSR era and criticize everything from the West) and there is a kind of communitarianism among the Russians and the Koreans. However they will speak to you, but you need time to become friend with them, they're distrustful at the beginning.
I have never seen any drunk foreigner falling on the way to his room nor anybody making loud noise or disturbing people in the building. Some of them are long time alcoholics that's obvious but they aren't dangerous nor aggressive, they'll only invite you to drink with them.
For the salary they pay you on time and call you if there's a problem or a delay, salary is 4000 for bachelor and master and 7000 for phd, not 9000 as you can read on some ads.
I had a great time there, I can't tell it's bad, but neither the best place I worked/stayed, now in Beijing, much better conditions and salary but much more workload also.
If you have any question email me, I'll be happy to help you.
Chris
arpo
- 2011-08-01
Thanks C. Worthington for these informations. I now know that it's a sad town, where the conditions of living are deadful and there's nothing to do... great;)
For the other thing, I don't care if the posts have been made by chinese, australian or english people, the main goal is to discuss and to be understand.
And yes, I'm french... et quand je pense que certains ne font aucun effort de comprhension quand ils vont l'tranger, a me fait peur ! L'anglais est la langue internationale mais je m'en fiche tant que j'arrive me faire comprendre et que Tournoi arrive crire en franais sans faute ^^
Anyway, I've just avoided to lose one year, thank you
Dragonized
- 2011-08-01
You seem to be talking about Linyi Normal University, right? If you are I can agree completely with you as I worked there myself. The FAO was an absolute b**** who didn't help me out in any way whatsoever. Yes there are drunk teachers passing out in the hallways. They also held a silly "foreign teachers holiday" in late May when what they really asked for was for us to donate money for whatever cause/agenda they had planned.
As for the students at that university, there are few who actually are cooperative. Mind you I did meet a few good guys/gals whom I became friends with but I would say the vast majority are just there to pass classes.
C. Worthington
- 2011-08-01
I did not work there but that being said my best friend at my previous job worked there for almost two years.
The accommodation remain dreadful. She told me that for a fact. Some FT's live in the equivalent of third class hotels. Others live in apartments where the heat barely functions in the winter, without washing machines, etc., etc., in truly primitive conditions. This lady was a Ph.D. on sabbatical from a university in the United States and she and her husband had been brought over especially to "upgrade" the ESL program and teaching. They left every weekend and took as much time away as they could and yet they were conscientious, hard-working, professional persons and remained so until the end of their calvary.
Linyi is a grimy oil-town with a manufacturing base. The university provided some FT's with Z visas and others were forced to exist on F visas, on L visas, etc., etc. The teachers on F visas and on L visas who were under hours were farmed out to various technical colleges, nursing schools, etc., etc. to make up the hours. Additionally, it is not considered a particularly safe city in the general scope of things.
She told me that it was a real motley lot of teachers until the end of this term -- a good handful of covert missionaries (M****ns), a good handful of American drunks (one got so drunk that one night when he came home late from his drinking he had to roll himself up the stairs to his flat - by the time he had reached his third floor landing, he passed out, and then careened back down to the second floor landing), a good handful of Europeans without degrees or some with only TEFL or CELTA (those were the ones on the F and L visas), etc., etc.
According to this kind lady, they were paid on time and they were paid overtime on time if it were worked. Other than that, they received precious little assistance from the FAO. She did say, again however, how much she actually enjoyed the students that she taught.
Strangely enough, however, many of these teachers actually stayed a second and sometimes even a third year...oh, well, go figure that one out.
Hello
is there someone who recently teached ? I would like to have informations about the conditions of living for the foreign teachers, in their flat in the University campus.
A vacancy is offered to me and no explication was given to me !
Thank you