After working in Thailand teaching every level of students, from A. B. C. 1. 2. 3. to Business English I decided I would have a change in my location. From the metropolis of Bangkok to rural Songyuan in Northern China. I took the flight from Bangkok and 7 hours later I was in Beijing. I was met as soon as I had cleared immigration by a representative of the agent who arranged my job in China. After a 45 minute bus ride I was at Beijing railway station the representative booked a ticket for me. Only a 9 hour journey. We went to the waiting area where local people were sprawled everywhere on the cold concrete floor, some where asleep. A shock to my system to see people doing this and thinking it is normal. I asked the representative what time the train was 12-30 am, only 6 hours to wait. So I informed her I was not waiting 6 hours in a cold, damp, crowded waiting room. She tried to tell me I would have too, but my reply was put me in a taxi back to the airport. After a phone discussion with her boss it was decided I would wait in a near by hotel. At midnight we left the hotel to go to the station, it had started to snow about 2 inches of snow lay on the ground. We took the 5 minute walk to the station it felt cold to me after living the last few years in Bangkok. I boarded the train and said goodbye to my chaperone. The train was warm and I had a bottom bunk. There was only one other person in the compartment unfortunately he spoke no English, so I went to sleep. I woke at about 8 o’clock the next morning. Looking at my watch, I thought only another hour. I looked out of the window to discover the train was not moving. 3 hours later it was still not moving. Eventually the train did start to move again, but not for long. I later found out the train could only move after the snow had been removed from the tracks, cleared slowly by an army of workers. So my 9 hour journey took 36 hours. I eventually got to Changchun station, when I got off the train no one to meet me. I went to the closest hotel as I needed time to think about what I was going to do next, only to find none of the staff spoke English, so I left and headed for KFC. On my way to KFC I was stopped by a guy Simon who turned out to be the headmaster of one of the schools I was going to work for. After something to eat and a coffee, we caught a bus to go to Songyuan. It was dark when we got there, Simon had told me my apartment was not ready and I had to stay in a hotel.
The next morning he met me at my hotel and took to his main Earth Village School. It is in the center of the city. The school was worse than anything I could imagine, the desks and benches looked as if they were painted white in a previous era. There was work on the walls that some students had done; some of the work has mistakes in the grammar that had not been corrected. The toilets are shared by the students and the staff. In the summer as I later found out you can sometimes smell them as you are climbing the dirty stairs that lead to the school. We discussed teaching that morning, it was then I got the impression that he had not much idea of how to use a foreign teacher. He showed me a book that his Chinese teachers use to teach English, some of it was written in Chinese and asked if I could teach conversation English using it. I then told him about two companies who make books for native English teachers to teach with. As I had no Z visa I could not work, so as I agreed not to be paid any salary as I was told it would not take long to get, only a few days. It took just over 2 weeks, really glad it was quick as I was not being paid salary. Simon took me to see the other 2 Earth Village Schools. Instead of just looking at the schools we spent hours at each, showing his students parents he had a native English teacher working for him.
After a few days my apartment was about ready. I was so glad to move in as I was sick of living at a hotel where nobody could speak English. It was a new building, very nice. Nicely decorated to Chinese standards. At first glance it had everything I would need to be comfortable. In the next few days I discovered there was nowhere comfortable to sit and relax, the so called sofa was a piece of hard patio furniture. There were also a lot of essentials not in the apartment. Ironing board, coat hangers, plates, glasses, knives, tea spoons ect. Simon had bought 1 cup, 1 knife, 1 fork and one of most things. I was lucky there were no other English people around to visit me. After pointing out to Simon there was a lot of essentials missing he agreed to take me to the supermarket to get them. When we got to the checkout Simon said I will pay for some, and took the items he was going to pay for out of the cart. I had to pay for the other things they cost me less than $10. I thought what is $10!
After been put on show at his schools for nearly 2 weeks, he had all the paperwork ready for me to go to Hong Kong to get my visa. He gave me the money to go and get my visa. No problem in obtaining the Z visa, there and back in 4 days. He had given me the exact money for the flights and hotel, it was a good job I had taken money of my own to pay for all the other expenses. Too my astonishment when I got my salary he had deducted half of the money he had given me to go for my visa, I phoned him and told him straight if my salary was not paid in full I was leaving. He tried to tell me I had agreed to pay half, I am sure I would have remembered if I said that. He refunded me as he knew I meant what I said.
Once back in Songyuan with my visa I could work. Simon’s great idea was for me to write 2 different lessons plans and teach them to his students. So I did as he had no books for me to teach from. A huge disaster to me, as each class was at different levels. Too difficult for some, too easy for others, but he was happy he has a foreign teacher working for him. I went to his partners Joy School to do a trail lesson, his partner is a guy called Kevin. As soon as arrived I was offered a cup of coffee, something that had never happen at Earth Village School until the next day. Simon must have felt guilty as he bought a box of coffee. Sorry to any teacher who works at Earth Village, I drank it and there was never any more. Teaching at his partners Joy School was totally different from his school. The classrooms are quite nicely decorated and have modern combination desks and chairs. The Chinese teachers at Joy school look smart as they all wear the same sweatshirts. The Chinese teachers at both Joy and Earth Village Schools are very friendly, I feel sorry for them as they have little or no recourses. They even don’t have access to an online computer linked with a printer. The 2 schools only have 1 online computer and 1 photo-copier to share between them. As I took my own printer to Songyuan, it was no problem for me.
Eventually he got some books almost suitable for an English speaking teacher to teach with. Within a few weeks after that I had my own classes. Simon’s idea of of assessing a student’s level of English is by using age, regardless of ability. In one class I had a student who had the ability to hold a good conversation and a student who could not read. After a few weeks I was teaching lessons at Joy school, it was nice to teach children at the same ability. After a few more weeks I was only teaching at Joy as Kevin had discovered, the children enjoy the TESOL methods I use and the parents were happy. Hence the rapid growth of the school 70% increase within the range of students I taught. I got plenty of positive feedback from Kevin and he kept asking me to stay at Joy and sign a new contract.
When it came to contract negotiations I had a meeting with Kevin and his partner Simon, Simon was going to do the translating as Kevin speaks very little English. I agreed to sign a contract for another 6 months taking a 20% increase in salary as stated in the Joy advertisements, and medical cover. Simon said straight away you can only have 10% if you only sign a 6 month contract. I showed him a copy of his advert, after that he told to me it was stated in my previous contract. I told him to show me as I knew there was nothing in my last contract, after reading my previous contract for 30 minutes, he told me it was on another document I had signed. So I told him to get it and show me. We all left the meeting. That afternoon I phoned Simon to ask him to give me my airfare for completion of contract. He told me he did not know if I was entitled to it, I knew I was as it was in my contract. When I went to Joy to teach that afternoon Simon was there, he tried to tell me I could only have my airfare if I signed a year contract, I told him I wanted it as it was in my contract and I was not signing any contract. I was leaving. I told Kevin I would stay for 14 days so he could find a new teacher to replace me. The next day when I went to Joy school Kevin asked if I would talk with him via a Chinese teacher from his school. He asked me to sign a new contract 6 month with the medical cover and the increase as stated in the advertisement. I agreed as long as the contract stated I worked only for Joy school, I even signed for 12 months. As I told him the money was not the issue, the fact Simon had lied time and time again to me was. After I signed the contract Kevin asked if there was anything I wanted, I said yes Chinese lessons and the truth. As I later found out I got neither. I asked him to find a Chinese teacher who was not too busy to teach me, he never did. After about 3 weeks I asked about my medical cover, his words it’s important to you isn’t it? Then he told me things take time to sort out in China. 3 weeks after that I asked again and he told me, he was just waiting for it to come back. After another 3 weeks I explained to his assistant other schools in the city only take 2 to 3 weeks to get medical cover and I had already waited 9 weeks. He told me he could show me an e-mail about my medical cover, I told him to make me 2 copies as I was going to have it validated. The next thing that happened was a young teacher (a scapegoat) had been sent to tell me it had been her responsibility to send the e-mail last week, but her computer had broken so she asked her friend to do it and the friend had forgot. Kevin had me fooled for a long while, I did think Kevin was a genuine and honest guy. But after the amount of lies Simon had told me it is one too many. I feel sorry in some ways for Kevin, not speaking much English and having to have Simon translate for him. As the guy would not know the truth if it jumped up and bit him.
Simon at Earth Village School uses Joy to advertise, hence the e-mail address evflssimon@163.com (Earth Village Foreign Language School). Even his write up about his home city is copied from another language school in the city. If you ask to speak to a foreign teacher working at his school, it is very doubtful the person you speak to will actually work for him.
Songyuan in layman’s language.
The city of Songyuan is a quite modern but you won’t find a western toilet outside of your apartment, don’t even think of using a public toilet as the smell of most of them will make your eyes water. There is no cinema, bowling alley or other types of entertainment apart from karaoke, Chinese songs only. The supermarkets have nothing western, if you want to buy butter, cheese, bacon ect you must spend 2 hours travelling each way to a larger city.
Most of local people are very honest and friendly excluding the 3 or 4 who mugged me one night as I walked home. They are traditional people very few speak English, most know none at all. This makes shopping and eating in a restaurant very difficult. A lot of local people have a disgusting habit of spitting, urinating and emptying their noses anywhere, including in restaurants. The weather is very cold in the winter sometimes lower than minus 15, and very hot in the summer. The heating in your apartment is not controlled by you, it is controlled by the calendar. It is turned on and off at a set date regardless of the temperature outside, so sometimes you are in your apartment, it’s so cold you have to wear your outdoor clothes. If you have any questions please ask me antonyforster@msn.com
