English teachers learn hard lessons at China schools
By Audra Ang - The Associated Press | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
August 6, 2006
Tanya Davis fled Jizhou No. 1 Middle School one winter morning in March before the sun rose over the surrounding cotton fields covered with stubble from last fall’s crop.
In the nine months Davis and her boyfriend had taught English at the school in rural north China, they had endured extra work hours, unpaid salaries and frigid temperatures without heating and, on many days, electricity.
Hearts pounding and worried their employer would find a pretext to stop them from leaving, the couple lugged their backpacks, suitcase, books and guitar past a sleeping guard and into a taxi.
As they drove away, “the sense of relief was immense,” said Davis, a petite, soft-spoken 23-year-old from Wales. “I felt like we had crossed our last hurdle and everything was going to be OK.”
It’s a new twist on globalization: For decades, Chinese made their way to the West, often illegally, to end up doing dangerous, low-paying jobs in sweatshop conditions. Now some foreigners drawn by China’s growth and hunger for English lessons are landing in the schoolhouse version of the sweatshop.
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This is another case of instructors not taking the time to research facilitites before heading out. Stories like this exist in every country and this can usually be traced to the teacher not corresponding with teachers who are working or have worked in the past at the school.
This is a terrible story and hopefully it will spotlight the need to do a little homework before signing a contract. For the few horror stories there are thousands of good experiences out there.