I totally agree with you on your post regarding the pathetic state of China's EFL and their totally backwards, cultural-biased, stupid, narcisstic attitude regarding "foreign experts" especially of the "white = good teacher only" ineptitude!!
Shows how much the Chinese have to go to be "worldly" and truly "developed" mentally and socially in their ways!!!

Hello there
More encouragement for us blue-eyed FT's to seek 'penance for atonement,' and to elicit self-flagellation at the same time as providing a tried and well tested way of villainising the Chinese. The Chinese preference for, blue, green, grey-eyed FT's has got nothing to do with colour discrimination and more to do with getting Native-Born English Speakers. Only native-born speakers should be allowed to teach as FT's and it does not matter a jot to the Chinese what colour they are. I have worked with real genuine(as opposed to pretend) British, American, et ceteras, coloured FT's, and they were treated as well as I was-it's the pretend ones who quite rightly do not command the same pay and conditions.

It's been a long time since I did my one year contract at Huijia back in 2004 to 2005.

I'm Canadian born Chinese, back then I just got my teaching degree & certification specialized in grade 7-12 biology/science.

I must admit I didn't do enough research online, got sucked into a contract at Huijia, and overall I did not really enjoy that year of my life.

It did not help me gain any real professional teaching experience, they really are not a school but a money scamming system to cheat rich Chinese parents of their money while the teachers and students suffer. I had to beg my sister to ship me some textbooks from back home, which the school actually took and made copies for all my students to learn from. They had no curriculum, no material, nothing.

My goal was to do some traveling after graduating, learn about my roots, learn some Chinese, get some teaching experience all in one shot.
The biggest regret was how little I grew professionally while teaching there.

Yes, most kids in the middle school were challenged, lacked motivation, and lost. But I was lucky and had the pleasure of teaching two out of my many classes where more than 3/4 of the kids genuinely cared about their future, and they really respected their teachers. I tried to do the best I could with what I had, I was heart broken at the end of the year when I found out that their assessment results from my tests didn't count for anything.

Especially when I put in so much effort through-out the year teaching, and the students really studied hard. Even though I hated the lack of resources, the administration, how the school operated, I fell in love with all my students, I even went back to visit them summer of 2006, they were so surprised and touched, it was very rewarding.

Living conditions. I lived on the first floor of the teacher's dorm. Not sure where the foreign teachers live now, but I was okay with my bachelor apt w/ washroom.

Rent was included in the contract, I was only getting paid 4,925rmb back then (I was pretty pissed when I found out other foreign teachers, some that were not trained/certified, got higher pay than me, but then I found out some got even less than me), when my contract was up they offered me 7,000rmb if I stayed, but of course, I just wanted to go home.

Power was included as long as I didn't go over the monthly allowance, and water was free. We all had little hot water tanks in the washroom ceiling so we could take a warm shower whenever. The room did get very dusty everyday and I only found out later in the year it was because of nearby coal burning stacks. Under-floor heating worked fine in the winter but it sucked up too much power so I bought a portable oil heating unit instead. The apartment was not fancy but it was ok, downstairs there was a kitchen only meant for foreign teachers and I always felt so guilty using it because there were some Chinese teachers that lived upstairs but could not use it. I was also ok with the cafeteria food, growing up eating my mom's Chinese (Cantonese style) home cooking, I easily adapted to the Northern Chinese food, but my fellow Canadian & American colleages did have a hard time.

We would crave western food so bad, often on weekends, we would go into the City for burgers and drinks. I remember on the second floor of the cafeteria they had chicken sandwiches.. sometimes it did the trick when I was just too sick of the usual Chinese food. Sometimes for lunch we would walk to the village nearby and get noodles. Sometimes we would take the black cabs to ChangPing for dinner.

Back then there was only 3 black cabs that waited at the gate, we got to know them very well, two of them were brothers, we could even call them to pick us up from ChangPing, it was only 10 rmb/trip.

We also got to know the guards at our gate, we gave them little gifts like snacks etc, and then eventually we didn't have to sign in/out or carry our pass. One thing that really made living conditions bearable was the dorm lady and her assistant. they weren't too involved with admin and all the drama, they really took care us like family. I remember one time I got extremely bad diarrhea, I thought it would go away but it lasted for a week, when I told the dorm lady, she helped me book a couple days off from work, took me a hospital to get IV antibiotics, then made me rice porridge three times a day for the next few days until I was better. By the end of the year I treated her like she was my mother and her assistant my sister, if it wasn't for them, living on campus would have been much more difficult.

They were still there when I went to visit in 2006, but not sure how much longer they stayed.

After about half a year the isolation of the campus gets to you. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, some hills nearby and a stream. There was a village nearby but we got to know it like the back of our hand after the first couple months. Back then the village was only one street, with a few blocks, and nothing much to offer. ChangPing the nearby town wasn't too far either, but on weekdays it was a hassle to go just for dinner, it would also burn up 20rmb each roundtrip. Going to the city was a must on the weekend, otherwise you would get cabin fever. We used to go as a big group or just a few buddies, eat, drink, hangout at the bars, vent about the school, and then stay in hostels. Eventually though we figured out the price to stay at a hostel (~100rmb/person) was more than sharing a black cab back to the school (~100rmb/car = ~25rmb/person), plus we would get to sleep in our own beds, and not deal with checking-out on a Sunday morning hangover. It was almost a ritual Sunday afternoon to go into changping and get some McDicks to fend off the hangover. I can admit I never drank as much in my life as that year in China. I think the alcohol helped all of us cope with a lot of things, not just frustration of the school, but also isolation, culture shock, boredom, everyone's own personal issues, etc.. and of course for fun! Most of us foreign teachers were still between 20-30 yrs old.

The best part of of that year for me was the friendships that I developed with a few of the foreign teachers. Like a team of soldiers on a life threatening mission, they bond and grow close. We survived together from the support we offered to each other. Even though at the end of the year when we farewell patted each other's backs, I knew we would each go our separate ways, but those memories would be cherished for a long time. I know this sounds so cheesy, but that's how horrible it felt sometimes living and working at huijia and that's how important those friendships were to make the year go by ok.

Not only friendships with fellow foreign teachers, but also Chinese teachers, dorm lady & assistant, students, black cabbies, gate guards, restaurant & bar owners, village restaurant owner who gave us oranges when we had our last dinner as a big group there.. I can actually say, for me, these were worth living and working at huijia for a whole year.

So, advice for teachers that have not signed up with huijia yet but are considering, don't do it. won't help your career, you won't gain much professional experience. It sucks to live & work there.

Advice for teachers that are already signed up, ignore the drama, stop fighting the system, you can't win anyways. Focus on your students, what difference can you make for them with the little that you have been provided with? Make friends, try to have fun!, it will be the only thing that can keep you sane. Learn Chinese.. you might as well, you are in the perfect environment to practice it.

The more positive you are, the less miserable you will be, and the faster your contract will expire. Then you will be free.. but cherish the good memories.. I'm sure you will have at least some.

Well, lets see how do I respond to what the Alchemist has said? Well, lets see, if you, the Alchemist, has not flown the coop from this crap ass Q@#$$!~~! then I dont know
why you are still sticking around. Why is that Alchemist? Why are you sticking around that @*#!)($!+_(+_~!?? Dont know?? As for the rest of you still working there,
whewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! You guys must be real troopers or what? So, Alchemist, are you still there???? OR whats your story NOW???

I use to be a science teacher in Huijia PVT School. I intend to resign but the big boss Victor adviced me to do an indefinite leave of absence instead...well I agreed. Sounds like a plan, I worked until September 2012, and told Victor my boss (per my formal meeting with him)that I'll leave on the month of October. He advised me not to tell anyone even our assistant dept head James, so I never told James though I know he knew im wanting to fly away from Huijia, everyone knews my plan, it's everybody's knowledge. So, I never have myself cleared, as I'm only on leave...came the payday, October 10, I was expecting my pay as I have worked for it, the pay never came. I called Karen the assistant HR, she told me my pay was already in the bank and there must be some glitch in the bank(WTF !), I sensed something that there is a bigger hand manipulating around. I kept on calling and finally got Amanda- The HR BOSS, whew!!!! It was October 11 2012, there was an intense phone convo, but still the bottom line is, they are not going to pay me unless I cleared up...WHAT!!!. My 6th sense is right! They lied...KAREN lied--bank glitch huh! they are making up stories to hold me up...to make the situation worst, they said that they're going to pay 15 days only...lol, I am a 10 grade teacher, it wasn't my fault that my students weren't there because of military training. No matter what, the 10th grade teachers are always paid a whole month, as a practice. Everyone in Huijia knew this, now it's different on my case...I felt like being framed, they framed up everything, they set me up in a trap.
My apartment was intact, many of my school stuff are still inside my apartment. I never cleared because I am just on leave. I trusted Mr Victor when he told me that everything is ok, that he'll talk to Amanda about our plans...
Poor me... My mistake was, I was too honest to them. We'll I learned my good lesson there, but despite of that, I will never compromise honesty because of that incident...it's a small thing. Whether they pay me or not, I never really care. But one thing for sure, this incident is a big dent in the schools reputation...Beijing Huijia Privte School, does it have a good reputation at all?

BTW...I just heard a news...they hired Bobby and they fired him in less than a month...Bobby moved from the US to China because they hired him, that's a huge move, tell me if it's a joke. They should have at least give him some few months, for him to prep-up to move back to the US...Amanda hired him...it was entirely's HR Fault. These people thought of teachers as commodity, a total disrespect to the profession. Very INHUMAN!!!

I was once told that black people scare the kids so they won't hire them!

Yeah this school's obvious position with being anti-black, islamophobia, anti-Jewish, and just about anti everything else tells me that these people truly are the reincarnation of Nazi's. It's too bad we don't have some good Basterds (pun intended, Tarantino fans would know what I'm talking about) to go and do something about this atrocity!!

Legally retarded people really ARE ALLOWED to open schools in China!! What a world we live in!!

This is China. Unfortunately if you lined up all of the bad apple schools, academies, or institutes, it all boils down to trash. None of that surprises me. Most schools want to see your full head to toe photo to see if you are handicapped, fat, etc. What that school says online is just more of the same old same old in China. The Chinese don't care, their government does not care, and the Chinese students and parents don't care. If one is a non-white, one is thought to be incapable of being a good teacher. Its the same in Korea and in Japan. More bone headed losers with money but no class.

chinese recruiters LYING!! I am shocked, shocked and appalled, I tell you!

Beijing Huijia Private School. The Chinese deserve what they get. If they can speak the lingo there is no reason that anyone in their right minds would sign with such a hole in the wall. Teachers have some excuse since they may not know just how bad of a trash bin the Beijing Huijia Private School is, but in 2011 with the age of the Internet, everyone that is looking for a job should know better than to work up in that hole. Chinese students have choices in a city like Beijing. Shop around. Schools are like cars. There are good ones and bad ones. Never mind the man in the cheap suit selling Huijia like a two dollar whore. The tramps that push those people around up there are all rejects from small towns that sucked their way into the jobs that they have now by pulling the old man's slinky.

Beijing Huijia Private School is not a school. It is a farce. I worked there 2-years ago. It never ceases to amaze me how they can manage to keep that piece of property alive and breathing. You must give them credit for running a fake school for more than 15-years and pulling the wool over everyone's eyes with non-teachers, no curriculum, and programs that are laughable at best. As to how they ever managed to obtain an IB license for the high school is far beyond my grasp mentally because the school is so far from being in compliance with the mandates that are required for an IB license that it smacks of corruption and payoffs. If you have ever seen their fire trap kinder-care dumps which is where they make their bread and butter, you would know that it is an enterprise based on lies. I think they now own something like 40 kiddie centers and just like the Beijing Huijia Private School primary, middle, and high schools, the students learn nothing and pay top dollar to learn nothing and they keep going back for more as do teachers that never worked in China before. Crap, crap, crap.

To anyone thinking about the idea of working at the Beijing Huijia Private School, perhaps I can chime in. I am currently employed at the Beijing Huijia Private School. I am comfortable typing this document now as I am off of the campus and away from their prying eyes. I am not going to state where I work exactly due to the potential for retribution. I can tell you however that the school which is not really a school, is basically a boarding house for disturbed Chinese kids. Most of the kids are dropped off by parents that don't really care about the kids and they are tired of the kids being kicked out of other schools elsewhere. There are no valid placement tests to measure the students' level of achievement at other schools. The school does not provide a valid curriculum. That is true. There is no syllabus of any kind that I have ever seen. The teachers are by and far some of the most unqualified teachers that I have ever seen in China. I should qualify that by saying further that there are a few licensed teachers there. As to why they are there, I don't know. The comments on here that make reference to drinking heavily is true. The housing at the Beijing Huijia Private School is not at all within the SAFEA guidelines. Many FT's have fallen ill and one nearly died. She is still in France and may never return. Many teachers believe that they were made sick from something in the teachers building. Another woman has cancer but no one knows if that could be connected to the housing situation. Several teachers are chronically ill and many have various forms of allergic reactions. The smoke from the coal stack pipe blows directly into the teachers' housing unit area and that certainly cannot be good for anyone. Someone else on here addressed the bowling alley, they gym, and other areas of the school being closed down, and those statements are true. Another person commented about the school being far off the beaten path which is also true. The illegal or black taxis as they are called, are saturating the school. There are no real taxis anywhere to be found and so a ride that might cost 12 RMB costs a minimum of 20 RMB. Those opportunists sit there all day at the east gate and prey on foreigners who don't have cars or find it too cold to ride a bike. When I signed my contract and for the first few weeks, I thought that things were more or less OK. Over time I regretted my own stupidity for believing anything that anyone such as Amanda Chen or Joy Yu ever told me as they were all lies. Like most teachers at Huijia, I will not resign. I have been visiting many other schools and submitting my resume and I have gotten some hopeful news from a few perspective employers in the Beijing area. I was frankly and directly asked by one international school why I would ever sign with Huijia in the first place and that question says a lot. The school overall looks nice online and if you walk around the owner's house, things appear normal enough. But if you really pay attention you will see that the Beijing Huijia Private School is really another prime example of how well the Chinese can build a front or place a face on something and sell it well. They are masters at making a box of crap look like a bowl of sunshine. Think of the Beijing Huijia Private School like a trap because that is exactly what it is. A trap. They get you sniffing, they show you a few samples, and then get you feeling good about about the deal and then when you sign the contract, their friendly masks fall off and their lizard skins are exposed. The family that owns the Beijing Huijia Private School could make a mint selling snake oil because that is exactly what they are in fact best at doing. Stay far and away from the school and don't fall into the pit like many teachers did. If you can speak and understand Chinese it is worth listening to just what they say about the foreigners and none of it is good. The owners of the Beijing Huijia Private School are laughing all the way to the bank and their students and teachers are crying in the isles. Its a lose lose situation.

Fix or condemn building 10

I worked at Huijia a few years ago and generally liked it, though I didn't teach in IB. Unfortunately, though, I have to agree with some of what was said in the previous posts. The primary school has a good rep but the IB and other departments have their problems. There's a small minority of students that attend Huijia who are serious and work hard, but I think the majority of them have no intention of doing anything other than playing computer games. Also, the environment at the school is not positive or conductive to serious learning.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Try Harrow or maybe Yew Chung International School. It depends on where you live in Beijing although I can tell you that you would be very well advised not to even consider that Beijing Huijia Private School. We examined that school last year and found it to be full of poorly behaved misfits that were rude and it had a teaching staff that was less than energetic or motivated. It tends to be a shite magnet for rejects that could not make the grade at some of the more elite and respected schools in the city. That is true for students and teachers alike. We put our daughter into Harrow and it has been a positive experience.

Anyone know anything about Beijing Huijia Private School? It seems that they spend money on glamorous adverts and make-up but their human resource personnel cannot seem to answer questions easily. I spoke with two people there. One was Joy and the other person was Amanda. They each told me two different things about wages. I drove past the place and it looks like a prison with some kind of guards all dressed up in black para-military gear. They told me that it was an IB school but only part of it is and when I spoke with a few white faces in the adjoining market area that worked there, I was advised not to bother working there because the place was struggling financially. Its hard to imagine a school with such a big face doing so poorly. Anyone got the real scoop? Any better options for international schools in Beijing worth considering? I also interviewed at Western and it seems like it would be a winner. My wife and I have 3 kids and we would need to enroll them nearby where we worked or maybe at the same school so it is a double edge sword situation. I would like to make the best decision. So many of those international schools are a total crock.