I have to admit I have done the China drift which included a short stint in Yuncheng. In a way looking back on it now I have to admit that I feel a sense of warped fondness and amusement for my time spent there. Sure Yuncheng I.E.L.T.S (even the name is misleading as this outfit has no affiliation or legitimate right to use the term I.E.L.T.S in its title) has scant disregard for the contracts it writes and continues to indulge in false advertising promising apartments with kitchen and laundry facilities even though it has no intention of honouring those contracts. I am not just talking about the Yuncheng City Teacher Compound as I have seen other creative solutions that Yuncheng I.E.L.T.S resorts to for getting out of providing apartments for its foreign teachers in the areas outside of Yuncheng City. Which include rooms around a shared courtyard where you has to share a kitchen and laundry with a complete stranger and make use of a public toilet close to the courtyard. But one has to remember this is China and contracts aren't really seen as being that important and attempting to get a Chinese school/employer to actually follow a written contract is literally seen as a foreign concept here. As attempts to get a Chinese employer to actually provide accomodation in accordance with what is written in the contract can be met with wry bemusement as with the case of Yuncheng I.E.L.T. S or in the case of some other schools with hostility and guilt inducing statements such as "we give you a room but our Chinese teachers have to share a bunk room with 3 other Chinese teachers"!

The frustrating thing is that while there are schools that provide actual apartments whereby foreign teachers can live out there own lives and do things which Westerners automatically assumes that foreign teachers can so such as have visitors of the oppostie sex visit you in your accomodation (shock horror) and not worry about things such as curfews and collective punishments (which is kind of pathetic as many foreign teachers are in their thirties, forties, fifties and beyound) if one of the teachers is naughty is that all schools pretty much print out the same contract with essentially the same wording. Which leads me to believe that that schools are essentially cutting and pasting from the same generic contract that was written decades ago and are simply not bothering to read the contracts which they themselves print. So basically while you are in China you have to view written contracts as being in themselves essentially worthless.

From my own experience you really have to do the research before you even book a ticket for China. Ideally this would involve asking for digital photos of the accomodation. For these digital photos do not allow your perspective employer to simply get away with some wide angle photos taken from the corner of the room making everything seem large and glossy. I am talking about squre on photos that prove that your accomodation does actually have an actual kitchen with a stove, kitchen bench and sink etc and not simply a fridge in one corner and a microwave in another and "if you want anything more than that you can use the school cafeteria/communal facilities like everyone else". I know that you may think I am being pedantic about the whole kitchen issue as the cost of eating out is cheap in China but it is not the whole issue of the kitchen itself but the fact is if your accomodation has an actual kitchen then there is a good chance that the school is providing you with an actual apartment. Where you can essentially have a life of you own. I am speaking from my own experience from my own recent foray into English teaching whereby I got a job with the Australia China Cultural and Educational Exchange Centre (ACCEEC). I incorrectly believed that everything would be straight foward as the ACCEEC was affilitated with an Australian university. However making assumptions about China based on Western perceptions can be dangerous as I was to discover when I arrived at my host school and was lead to my accomodation which was essentially and couple and conjoined converted bunkrooms in the boys's dormitory. The school has essentially ripped the bunks out, thrown a bit of furniture in, placed a fridge in one corner and a microwave in another and intalled a western toilet. Aside from the issues of my accomodation was the fact that as my quarters were actually located in the boys dormitory was the fact that the school essentially expected me to live like a twelve year old boy. What was particularly annoying was that the other host schools provided off campus apartments. This was particularly ironic as my host school had requested a white teacher while the African and Egyptian teacher were sitting smug in their apartments.

Whenever I raised the issue of my accomodation with the host school I was met with hostility and whenever I contacted the ACCEEC I got a frustrating response that the ACCEEC enjoyed a good relationship with that school. My host school justified my accomodation on the basis that the Egyptian teacher who was previously based at my school had lived in my accomodation for a whole so if it was good enough for him is must be good enough for me. What the school didn't mention was that the Egyptian's quarters were actually in the girls' dormitory building which enabled him to bring back numerous Chinese women which of course created a bit of a scandal. So the solution was to house me in the boys' dormitory.

Another thing that was particularly frustrating about the whole thing was that the school complained that almost all of their foreign teachers didn't see out their contract and that the Egyptian was the only one who stayed the term. For me the solution was simple provide decent accomodation but then again I am not Chinese. Needless to say I didn't finish my contract and returned to my own country only to contacted by the ACCEEC who were desperate for a foreign teacher for a school they had signed a contract. Interesting the ACCEEC was desperate engough to largely pay my airfare and assured me that in this case they would provide me with accomodation in a dedicated building for teachers and so I wouldn't be subjected to living in a dormitory building. Unfortunately I had had enough of the English teaching thing and was attempting other things at the time.

So the point that I am attempting to illustrate is that when dealing with China you have to ditch all your assumptions as a Westerner about an "apartment" being an actual apartment and a "kitchen" being an actual kitchen. In addition to this numerous schools are desperate to find foreign teachers that are prepared to finsih out their contracts and perhaps even sign on for another term which saves the school the hassle of finding a replacement but the frustrating thing is that often those very schools that constantly complain about not getting foreign teachers or when they do get a foreign teacher that the teacher doesn't hang around are those very same schools which insist on messing foreigners around with their accomodation. But again you have to remember that as a Westerner it may seem that the painfully obvious solution would be for the school to simply provide apartments but you are not dealing with Westerners.