Teacher Abuse!

This was recently posted up on Metafilter. It tells several horror stories about contracts for foreign English teachers not being honored, horrid living conditions, and one man was even killed.

One of the reasons I chose to come to China was because it was the only place I had a personal contact abroad. Nina had worked with the company since the beginning and I knew it was a legit operation. I wasn't really willing to come 7000 miles on the "wings of Google," as someone once said of Korean ESL schools (excellent link, btw).

My contract has been fulfilled past my expectations. I have had very lite work hours and when I was asked to work 40 hours one week, I was given the next week off. When we were in Jixian they even brought a Chinese teacher for us to fulfill that end of the contract (5 hours of Chinese lessons a week). There were some issues with pay, but those were technical issues that have been resolved.

If there is a complaint I have, it's about Chinese business at large. Everything is last minute. I'm pretty sure I'll be leaving within a month, but I don't know where. It's probably Shanghai but I haven't been given any dates or confirmation. I was also old I'd be flown to Hong Kong this weekend. Never happened. Maybe it will be next weekend, maybe next month.

There's an overall efficiency lag here. People put in many long hours, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of work done. We have an IT office with two staff. We only have maybe 15 computers in the building. Most are virus-laden and one reboots every time you click a link. I have no idea what these guys do. We also have two girls who sit at a front desk eating and sleeping. I have no idea what their job is other than maybe be our own version of a Wal-Mart greeter.

I was warned by our head teacher that contracts don't mean much in China, but ACES strives to make them reality. I believe that much. "Rule of law" is not the first thing that should come to mind when thinking about Chinese business law.

Tags: Treyopia, China, jobs, abuse, TEFL, TESL, Teaching, English, ACES, contracts, business, Metafilter