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Q: "no class on this day..."
"so let's tell the FET at 2130 the night before."
I hate being the last to know stuff. Better than last week when I got a text ON THE WAY TO THE CLASSROOM that classes were canceled for that day. when is the latest that you have been informed of changes here?
9 years 12 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
I'm coming to the end of my third, and last, year at this school and I'd say my classes have been cancelled, without me haviing been told at all, about a dozen times.
Several times I've rocked up to find the whole school locked and no bastard anywhere.
They never tell me anything about anything and I believe that's because they absolutely don't give a stuff about me. And it doesn't help much that they are extremely incompetent to boot.
It doesn't really bother me much because I know they are part of a system that doesn't give a fuk.
The only way to get a spark out of Chinese people is when you mention "that small country near China", or "Japanese people are friendly, polite and clean".
Fuking arseholes.
RachelDiD:
I will probably make those comments more now that I am leaving.
'A Japanese employer would pay on time. People in Japan are capable.'
'A Japanese visa officer would not treat passports like toys. Japanese are respectful people.'
'A Japanese person would have told me this weeks ago!'
miss_selina:
Amazing idea, I should talk more about Japanese, too... next time, when my Middle Kingdom friends "accidentally" fuck up things again :)
I think the worst was, when they told me on Wed. afternoon, that Thu, Fri and Mon, School is closed, because of some holidays.
It was 'just on time' to book the train tickets for 5-days holiday
to see Khasghar.
Yep, welcome to China! Best thing to do is get yourself a list of Chinese holidays. Then Agee weeks before start pestering the school to confirm them.
hi2u:
The schools don't even know their holiday schedules until the week before.
Hotwater:
They should nowadays. The public holidays for the year ahead are published by the government at the start of the year. Yes there are occasional last minute changes but there is no need for this as everyone knows when Qing Ming, National day, Dragon boat festival, etc are going to happen.
Yep, welcome to China! Best thing to do is get yourself a list of Chinese holidays. Then Agee weeks before start pestering the school to confirm them.
Play their game and let them know about your personal plans at the last minute.
"Oh I am flying to Thailand tomorrow for a week.", "But, we have class", "Oh really, I thought there are holidays, since no one tells me anything until the last minute. Well I booked the ticket now so unless you want to reimburse it".
Or
"Why you did not go to that class?!", "I have heard the teacheds talking about "no class" in Chinese, since no one tells me anything I assumed that they were talking about that one."
Piss them off, you won't get fired, it has become really hard for schools in China to find new foreign teachers, fewer foreigners moving in than leaving the country.
The coming Monday 6th of April is Qingming festival, you probably don't have any class.
Hey, a day before is better than turning up to a classroom and no one is there. Like someone mentioned this is China. The land of "Someone has shit on my floor" "hey at least they didn't shit in your cornflakes." You have to deal with crap all the time, just try not to let it piss you off too.much.
This scenario is just another day at the office for foreigners. I just roll with it as no amount of logical argument will make any difference, nor will they care.
You mustn't forget that wherever you work, you are generally resented (and bitched about - but never to your face) because your salary is usually higher than the person responsible for sharing information/manager.
I'm coming to the end of my third, and last, year at this school and I'd say my classes have been cancelled, without me haviing been told at all, about a dozen times.
Several times I've rocked up to find the whole school locked and no bastard anywhere.
They never tell me anything about anything and I believe that's because they absolutely don't give a stuff about me. And it doesn't help much that they are extremely incompetent to boot.
It doesn't really bother me much because I know they are part of a system that doesn't give a fuk.
The only way to get a spark out of Chinese people is when you mention "that small country near China", or "Japanese people are friendly, polite and clean".
Fuking arseholes.
RachelDiD:
I will probably make those comments more now that I am leaving.
'A Japanese employer would pay on time. People in Japan are capable.'
'A Japanese visa officer would not treat passports like toys. Japanese are respectful people.'
'A Japanese person would have told me this weeks ago!'
miss_selina:
Amazing idea, I should talk more about Japanese, too... next time, when my Middle Kingdom friends "accidentally" fuck up things again :)
I had it once where I walked into class and there was no students, had to spend the next 30 minutes calling around until someone told me that the class was at a speech by a guest professor. Was upset but quickly realized that is the name of the game here.
Another school messed up my schedule and called me up one day wondering where I was because I wasn't at class. Fun times.
Oh god, I have always hated that. Especially if the class is canceled but then you have to wait a few hours for the next one.
That's the worst for me. What makes it even more annoying is that they always blame you!
Oh sorry, but you should come here anyway (because we own you). Or
Why aren't you here, it is class time!
BECAUSE NOBODY TOLD ME!...
I sent you a text...
Well, I didn't get it!
You should check your texts more often.
How does that solve... not receiving a text?
It's okay, next time... just be on time.
WTF?
Yeah, like others... walking into an empty classroom. fortunately, I lived on campus, and it was only a few minutes walk away. But waking up early for said classes was annoying... as well as rushing back from lunch to find nobody there.
How do I handle it?
I go rank!
Also, last minute additions or changes get ignored.
Fortunately, I don't really have this problem these days. (though, at the beginning of this year, there were some nasty words said about 'professionalism'. But, TBH, I have a fairly good crew, and my immediate supervisor did his tertiary studies in Germany, so he has a much better perspective than most others I've worked with).
Haha, when I started my job in China 6 years ago (not teaching) they pushed me to get here quickly which resulted in me arriving 2 days before Spring Festival, which I knew nothing about and they failed to mention. So I spent 10 days in a hotel waiting for them to come back from holiday.
RachelDiD:
Same thing here. I talked to a recruiter, she asked me when I might come to work for the school. I made the mistake of saying that I could work shortly after securing my visa. It took them weeks to get the documents, which they then sent to the wrong address (because they were stupid. No other reason). I finally got the documents, and was getting ready to go to the visa office when I get an email telling me that the moron had gone ahead and scheduled me to land in Shang hai in 2 days. I would seriously have to buy tickets and hop on board in less than 24 hours to make it.
I shot back an email bluntly stating that this would not happen. She huffily replied that she forgave me for not understanding the urgency of the situation, and that I could delay for 2 weeks, and no more. I flew in two weeks later...in time to sit in a hotel for National Holiday week. They just don't make idiots like Chinese idiots.
miss_selina:
"They just don't make idiots like Chinese idiots."
Amazing sentence :)
I kinda like that they do it that way because it ends up being a pleasant surprise.
