Re: NDI (New Dynamic Institute)
Reply #3 on: September 27, 2008, 05:43:59 AM

I hope I got to you in time. NDI has been the worse place that I have worked in China and now comes my story. First I came to their new training center in Beilun (close to Ningbo, Zhejiang province) where I had been on a travel visa over the summer. Before deciding to go to teach there, I asked their foreign affairs guy, Phillip, if he would have any trouble arranging my visa and said that me working there was contingent on it. He of course lied and said no problem, we can get it for you easily, don't worry.

Anyway, I go on working there for a month. My visa situation hasn't been solved and was coming close to expiring. I said what is going on and why have you waited so long. They told me, don't worry it is being handled, everything will be fine (phillip again). So again, stupidly being a trusting person, I believed them. Finally, about a week before my visa expires they come to me and say we can't do what we said we could do. I said OK, I am done teaching here. I need to find a new job and a place to live. You need to pay me what you owe me and I would like you to say thanks for screwing up my life.

Now, after I quit, the other teachers that are working there are nervous. They decide to quit before the same thing happens to them. The school blames me for it and this Phillip fellow, calls the police and says that I am a bad foreigner and borrowed money from a family member in Ningbo. They did this to spite me, though it seems that the 20k Yuan I have lost due to this ordeal hasn't been spite enough for them. This of course was a bold face lie and was meant to ruine my reputation and give me further problems. He also found out where the new position that I have obtained and told the police where that was as well. So the police called my new job, before I even started working there and said that I am a shady individual. This of course is all totally untrue and fabricated. This was just a malicious evil thing to do because they some how felt that it was my fault that their teachers were leaving. Afterall, why else would they leave? Of course they left because they are afraid. Of course they left because they are afraid of their passport and visa status. And of course they left because of the mounds of other problems we had prior: being paid late, swing schedules, trying to force things that aren't in the contract, and new to the box; slander and deformation of character.

I have reported their school to the police as being unlicensed and some of the practices that they have participated in. I sincerely doubt that anything will be done what-so-ever. In China, justice is only available to those who have enough money to bribe the cops. The legal system here isn't exactly fair. It is as fair as you can afford it to be. But at anyrate, maybe a cop will poke his head in and start asking them for bribes and give them something to sweat about.

In the end, they forced me out of my apartment after laying me off, leaving me with little money and means to move and start my life over. Many of their facilities are not licensed and have some backdoor sort of practices to obtain teachers in unlicensed schools. Don't go to NDI. Actually, I would pretty much warn you off training centers period. The money is tempting but it isn't worth the hassle. You will get yourself in a lot of trouble. I found this out after the fact but learn from my mistakes. Work for the public sector. God knows people don't come to China to make money, if you want to be rich, go back to where your from, you won't be able to be rich as a teacher in China. Anyway, I hope this advice reaches a few peeps.

Trevor