Re: Hanzhong Aston English School

Hello everyone,

My name is Claire and I am the current assistant manager at Hanzhong Aston. I have been working here now since March 1st 2012 as a teacher and I was promoted in September. The credibility for my entire statement is that I am here now!!!

I am sorry to hear that some people have not enjoyed their experience here, also I cannot comment on your experiences as I wasn't at the school when you were and I have never met any of you.
I would like to say though that I moved here with my partner and we have thoroughly enjoyed our experience here so far and plan to stay longer than our original one year contract.

This isn't a sales pitch (I don't need any new staff at this moment in time) and I'm not being paid so say any of this, I just feel that I can offer an honest opinion from someone who is currently out here and enjoying it. During my time here I've needed medical care, lived in 2 apartments and felt homesick, though these are things most people who work abroad experience at some point. I will be honest, as with working anywhere there are days when I lack motivation, I have seen staff come and go (both foreign and Chinese), but I still feel that in choosing to come to China and work at Hanzhong Aston I have landed on my feet and done well.

To update you on the issues that have been raised so far in this thread and our current situation here at Hanzhong aston in 2013:

When I joined Hanzong Aston there were 5 Foriegn teachers with Paul (my partner) and myself being the only white foreign staff. Since we have been here Maryann (from a Kenyan family) has left China having been here for 5 years (2 of which she spent at Hanzhong Aston). There is only one teacher receiving a lower pay as he is contracted for shorter hours, lives in another city traveling (expenses paid) to work a few hours on the weekend. Any further discrimination felt could be due to the fact that China only offers English teachers a visa if they are from a native English speaking country and I cant pick fault with a school that sticks to the law.

I personally think that Erin our location manager is lovely! She visits the staff rooms every day to see if we are OK, often joins/takes us for lunch, holds meals and activities for us all to celebrate both Western and Chinese holidays (being English this is the first year I've celebrated thanksgiving) and has a reputation for buying the most beautiful birthday cakes!
As for how she treats the Chinese staff I have NEVER seen her be cruel! I work longer hours as a manager, being in the school for 5 days a week and I have never seen the Chinese staff mistreated. In fact my experience is the complete opposite with shopping trips at lunch times, advice available at anytime and a good core friendship at the centre of it all.

Chinese and Foreign staff are paid differently, the Chinese staff receive the average Chinese wage and the Aston foreign staff wage is so good for a Hanzhong wage that we are paid more than the foreign teachers at our local university. Hanzhong is a particularly good city to work in as the cost of living is so low.

My contract has never been violated, in fact all of the teachers struggle to work their contracted hours as the school is only open for 18 teaching hours and the contracts are for 20 teaching hours and three office hours (plenty off time for lesson planning and meetings). We have all been allocated our own apartments (Paul and myself share as we are a couple) And when our old apartment stopped meeting the contractual requirements (the landlord started to renovate it with us still living there) the school rented and moved us to a new apartment.
We are paid on time every month (even if pay day falls on my day off, I'm in the office), we are paid in cash and the school phones us all up when the money is in for us to collect and you are each paid privately and individually. The only way you wouldn't get paid is if you were too lazy to come to the school and collect your wages and then they would be waiting for you.
All bonuses, end of contract payments, non taken leave payments have been made on time (happy days).

They would actually have trouble getting rid of us! We love it so much, we have our third friend coming out to China to join us (with two friends at our near by sister school in Baoji) We have heard a couple of personal accounts from people we have met here on awful Aston experiences, though on the whole Aston has provided us with many friends, a relaxed and fun environment and we feel lucky.
For the staff that have left we have held fair-well dinners, and have fond memories.

As a teacher I had to complete the compulsory initial teacher training with Aston at the beginning of my time here, we have also always (during my time here) had a meeting every Friday afternoon (when our work week begins) where we can demonstrate lessons, coach each other, share ideas and discuss problems. This has provided continuous support as well as guidance from our location manager and two parents meeting a term.
All of our students are issued with class-books, workbooks, notebooks, CD's, DVD's, a learning passport and access to an online learning program. Our teachers are given a class-book and teachers guide to each of the levels that they are teaching and access to books, flash-cards, toys and realia. From my experience if I have needed anything then I've been able to ask the front desk and they've supplied it.
I took my post as assistant manager knowing (and experiencing) that the school had had no foreign manager for 6 months, since starting I am trying to provide regular workshops, classroom observations and feedback sessions.
Aston also has 9 core principles, several policies and a lesson planning structure to help its Foreign teachers.
Our school is only open for teaching, Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday with the Foreign teachers having Monday to Thursday off (except for the occasional advertising event or hour long workshop), I could never call our teachers worked to death!
As I have already said about pay, there has never been an issue.

We are luck in Hanzong to have a nice (if a bit small) foreign community, I am lucky to be friends with foreigners that teach in the public school, university, Cambridge English, Peter's English Center and others who work for various businesses (there is currently a large group of Venezuelans and a few French that work at the aircraft factory). We all get along weel and see each other when we are free for food, sports and so on.
From what I gather our pay is one of the best and our hours are the lowest. :)

I personally love Hanzhong, for China it is a small city (easy to negotiate), the food is delicious and the people are friendly. As I said before the cost of living is low and there is a good foreign community here. We are also very central geographically which makes travel easy as we can catch a train to nearly anywhere.
There is hardly any pollution, the climate is good and there are plenty of sights to see in and around the city.

I wont say that we've had no housing problems, after all we had to move due to a landlord and her idea privacy and renovation, but all of our apartments are secure and provide everything that is stated in the contracts (which the teachers receive before agreeing to come to China).
Our apartments aren't the best Aston apartments I've seen (some people have really struck lucky) but they are defiantly not the worst! They all have wester toilets, hot showers and fully equipped kitchens. All of our apartments have a living room with a functioning TV/DVD system and furnishing. We supply new bedding for all new teachers and a welcome pack to keep them going until they have found their feet.
If there are any issues with the apartments (for example my air-conditioner is currently refusing to work as a heater) then we tell the girls at the front desk and it is fixed as soon a as possible.
You wont get the perfect western style apartment, Hanzhong is a small city in China and China is a developing country, but our apartment feels like home to us (I did buy a few home comforts and give it a few girly touches with photo's, coat-stand, juicer etc.) and we are happy.

In general what I'm trying to say is we are well looked after here, if we need a Dr., more drinking water, a repair or just a friend to talk to the school has been there.
We have not been mistreated.
They have not taken advantage of us.

While I have been here Our Aston has won awards and is making steps towards being the most advanced ESL school in Hanzhong.

If you need any further information on our school or want to discuss anything I have said I am available on Skype under clhudson87.

I wish you all well,
Claire