James Riley
- 2016-06-22
I have to agree with most of that. Guangxi University is certainly second rate. There are a hundred things wrong with that place, but non-payment of salaries is the biggest problem I feel. The Chinese teachers there are indeed incompetent and racist and stupid but I suppose they can be ignored. All in all, this is a very mediocre institution and foreign teachers there are just commodities to be used and abused. Thanks for your warning to others.
goldenboy
- 2016-06-21
Teaching IELTS at the SCIC language school is elected as additional income by some SCIC and Xida FTs. I never taught for the IELTS school, so I have no information on their payment process. SCIC college always paid us on time.
The campus is old and not unlike every other legacy college campus in China.
I cannot imagine any university without a cohort of incompetent professors, any language school without arrogant employees and any school of any type in China without unhappy FTs.
Yes, Northwestern Nanning is not Chaoyang.
As for Nanning, rude and racist, uncivilized population.
Your comments about Nanning are rude, racist, uncivilized, largely erroneous and, though written by a foreign teacher of English, grammatically flawed.
in the know
- 2016-06-21
In contrast to what you say, I know several people who taught IELTS at Guangxi University who were not paid for months. The OP is right, GXU is actually quite a dump, it is dirty, polluted lakes, rats, etc. That story about "can't and c..t" is actually true and many Nanning foreigners have heard about it. That professor is obviously still there, a bit of a worry. I met those SCIC women that Mark mentioned: yes, arrogant, racist, uneducated, and lazy. Guangxi University is not "downtown", it is in Xi Xiang Tang, it is not even close to Chao yang. Yes, it has a Starbucks, who gives a shit! As for Nanning, rude and racist, uncivilized population. It is a backward city. I would also avoid Guangxi University and SCIC.
goldenboy
- 2016-06-21
SCIC (Sino-Canadian International College) is two entities, one is an actual 'college' of two years which guarantees entrance into Xida (Guangxi University) and it is also a prototypical language training mill. Teaching at the language mill is optional, a way to increase your income for the FTs.
I taught at the SCIC college for a year and worked closely with several FTs from the Xida foreign language department.
The FT housing varies widely in quality. Much of it is wonderful... best I've had in China. But some apartments are far across the campus in a construction area.
The rats do exist... in large numbers.
I was always paid on time and the FAO department (which administers all FTs), when I was there two years ago, was competent.
The student cafeterias are, well, cafeterias.
The advantage of the location is it is 'downtown', not in collegetown, and there is a Starbucks and Walmart outside the gates. A subway is either just opened or will soon open in front of the main gate.
The foreign language school has only 3 or 4 teachers at any given time. But the SCIC college has around 25. Yes: around 25.
The SCIC teachers are recruited by a former teacher in Canada and a local FT, so there are none of the customary FT raging idiots and the qualifications of the SCIC teachers are routinely exemplary for China.
It must be said, however, that SCIC has a startling number of FTs who are, shall we say, 'reborn' in His image. The students are all from Guangxi but their gaokao couldn't qualify them for direct entry into Xida. It's the secret 'back door' to the 1st level university for students whose parents have some connections in the province and are willing to pay the high tuition. As such, the students don't really want to study English and they are immersed in the large pool of foreign teachers who teach many English subjects (including the Bible) that most of the students cannot comprehend and have little or no interest in.
Nanning as a city is not the den of iniquity that several posters on this site have painted. It is a third tier city and a small province capital with a modern city center and a low cost of living. The high speed train to Guangzhou/Shenzhen takes about 2-3 hours.
Not a bad place for a year or two if you don't need to frequent expat bars.
I don't really like to rip into people on a public forum but here goes. I worked at this "university" for a year, it was a disaster. Guangxi University promotes itself as being a "prestigious" university in China, nothing could be further from the truth. I was not paid for over a month and my visa was screwed up. I could have been deported. They wait till the last minute to do everything. The leaders in the foreign language department are totally incompetent. One professor was asked about a point of grammar by a student, he did not know and told a student to "go to the library and look it up". Another female professor did not know the difference between "can't " and the slang word for a woman's vagina, C..T! The campus at Xi Da is not beautiful, it's famous "lotus lakes" are dirty and polluted ponds with small toads, and at night, mosquitoes. I was told, "we don't care what you teach the students, just give them high scores on the final exams". This university is also in cahoots with a terrible training centre called SCI C. ( I E L T S ) I did not work for them but I know many people who did. There are three incompetent and stupid women controlling SCIC, Nana, Amanda, and Daisy. They can't teach, but they like to brag about their teaching skills. They just sit in the office and play computer games all day. They refer to foreign teachers as "the dogs", especially Amber in admin who is a stuck up snob. As for Xi Da itself, the accommodation is crap, there are often power failures and no water. There is rubbish in many places on the campus and there are rats. The uni is also "famous" for it"s canteens, but I can assure you the food is nothing but slop. I could say a lot more, just keep away!