China "land of courtesy", WTF! Someone was smoking the wacky tobaccy when they came up with that one!
"China: the land of courtesy," never heard that one before...as I told Andy and am now telling you, the problem is not the students, it is the management staff. You are (maybe) a student so your experience is very one sided.
Hello "Andy," if you are in fact a real student, I'm sorry your school put you up to writing that message; it's not your responsibility. It's sad that the school had to stoop this low to make you do so. I'm sure you are very nice to the foreign teachers, however the students are generally not the problem. The problem lies within the administration and management. Clearly they are lying to teachers, telling them that the school is in Fuzhou when it is actually in some tiny suburb an hour away. Every university has it's shortcomings, so for you to say "it's perfect" leads us to believe this is a scam. I have heard of this uni and the reviews are not good-- one of the many issues being that they don't pay salaries on time and the salaries are not consistent. Any foreigner living in China knows to do their research first.
Can anybody say scam?
You can't say anything bad about your school? Really? Nothing?
No, lol, nothing like Oxford or Cambridge. I assume you are being sarcastic. Fuzhou University town is a dump. The area near Minjiang University in particular is filthy and disgusting. If you are expecting the next Stephen Hawking to emerge from there please don't hold your breath. You might be waiting a long time, like a million years, haha! Oxford or MIT this place ain't! Turnoi is way to far up the ladder of the academic elite to be seen slumming it in Fujian. Harvard or Oxford is more suited to him. Anyway, I'm about to board a plane, chat later.
bo shi hou'
Sorry, in a rush today. The post doctorate degrees we were taking about i forgot the 博士后
Let's hope Turnoi can be persuaded back to enlightn us. I only know about a post-visit-to-khaosan Rd degrees.
Your qualification must be adequate to work at this Fuzhou joint ,SB?
I lived near Fuzhou University Town for six months. Minhou , bo shi ho area. I know of your college and personally never heard anything bad about it, although there is nothing special about colleges and universities in Fuzhou.Minjiang University in particular has a bad reputation.
WOW is that 'bo shi hou' area? That's talking about pretty high degrees. And this is one area where I would concede to Turnoi to tell us all about it-Perhaps he could make a temporary guest appearance to do just that??? I normally keep away from this recruiters review.
Just want to ask you ,SB. this Fuzhou University Town- is is like Oxford or Cambridge. Not many degreeless heroes teaching there I bet?
Let's hope T has a few minutes to spare?
I lived near Fuzhou University Town for six months. Minhou , bo shi ho area. I know of your college and personally never heard anything bad about it, although there is nothing special about colleges and universities in Fuzhou.
Minjiang University in particular has a bad reputation.
Andy,
It's unlikely that your school will be able to attract quality FTs without raising salaries, reducing hours, and improving housing. You are competing with every other university in Fuzhou College Town for FTs in the dwindling cohort of FT applicants that meet China's new stricter requirements.
Many universities have simply allowed Chinese English teachers to teach oral English. Many other universities have chosen to use recruiters to provide FTs that are now working in China illegally. I know for a fact that other universities in Fuzhou College Town are currently doing both.
Your university's senior administration either will or will not empower the FAO department to improve the situation for FTs.
Negative or positive reviews on this on other FT forums are not the problem.
Dear Nancy,
Foreign teachers seldom complain about students. Most foreign teachers treasure their time with Chinese students who generally treat teachers with much more respect than Western students.
Foreign teachers in China are concerned about a university's housing for FTs, the university's salary for FTs, the number of hours that the university requires FTs to teach and attend meetings and produce reports, and the location of the university, its distance from downtown.
I've taught in Fuzhou. The University Town is quite far from downtown and University Town is only now developing shopping and entertainment. Fuda and Fushida are more than 5 miles from Cangshan Wangda. Your school is about 10 miles away.
The school has asked you to write this post because they are having difficulty recruiting for September 2017. This is a problem throughout China because of the Native English Speaking, Criminal background check, and degree apostillization requirements. There are simply more teaching jobs than qualified applicants now.
If you school wants to hire competent FTs, they need to raise the salaries, reduce the hours, and improve the FT housing.
For your benefit, and your classmates, I hope that they do.
Hello,everyone . I am just a student from Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade . At first , our school never lied to people ,especially the teachers who work in our school . Every teacher works in our school has signed contract , so both of sides should not breach of the contract . Why I reply here is just I don't want others to talk something bad about my school . Our school is very good at least in Fujian Province . I major in translation ,so I think I know more about foreign teachers . All the students love foreign teachers ,I think .We respect every teacher in our school ,not just Chinese teachers especially foreign teachers . When I see a teacher ,we always greet with them even though we just say hello or just give them a smile . I guess that is why China has been called a land of courtesy . Moreover, I hope our school can be better and there are more international friends coming to our school.
As a teacher of Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade ,I have to prove for my school that our school can not be better . To be honest , I was not that good at English, but I have been interested in English . So I have been studying it under the help of the foreign teachers for a long time .I have made great progress I think .In return , I helped them with their Chinese or something I can do for them . What i mean is the relationship between foreign teachers and people in our school is good . You can see the foreign teachers and the students are just like friends . Meanwhile ,every foreign teacher has a student and a teacher assistant to help them with not only working life but also daily life stuffs . As I think ,we have regarded them as a member of our school . All in all , we welcome anyone to come to join us if you have responsibility and ability .
Avoid like the Plague.
This college is the most incompetent place I have ever worked at in China. They have lied about everything on the contract.
Their communication to the foreign teachers is non existent. They love to quote the contact however do not honor their part on the contract.
They are now attempting in change the contract midway through the semester to charge the foreign teachers for water, electricity and internet.
Bags of raw sewerage are piled up in bags for days outside our apartments. Water is constantly turned off in our apartments for hours without any notice. Internet that was promised to be free, that we are charged for works only half the time.
The administration is a joke, teacher visa were screwed up so much that some foreign teachers had to travel to Hong Kong more than 3 times to get their visa due to the administrations total incompetence. At the teachers on expense!!!!!!!
The foreign teachers are treated worse than second class citizens by the college admin and staff. We are now told that we must perform in a teaching competition that is mandtory and if we don't perform we will have pay deductions.
Foreign teachers are evaluated by popularity of the students to get a so called bonus, which nobody has seen. This might be due to the admin instructing students to give poor teacher reviews. The students are the only honest people at the college.
They have changed the college name to Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade. Maybe in an attempt to escape bad reviews.
The worse thing for me is that I am now being charged for water use whereby there are constant leaks in the pipes to my apartment that the school will not fix hence I am paying for their incompetence. When this was brought up at a meeting I was told, "too bad."
If you are thinking of working at this college, please think again. You will be constantly told how bad foreign teachers are and the conditions will constantly decline. Be prepared to have you pay deducted with no notice for reasons beyond your understanding and you will be given a couple of hours’ notice that certain paperwork (in Chinese) will be due and if not completed you will have consequences........
Avoid this place like the plague.
Oh and the college is 90mins outside of Fuzhou in a counrty farming area with next to nothing around.
yes, please let us know about your experience
The students are great. So many nice people and often willing to help you out. Management are up and down, while I was there, Ms Sunny was awesome, her replacement, Emerson, not so much. His assistant, Elaine, was much more helpful.
As to the college itself, be prepared to hike up and down the hill. It's steep, and in early Autumn, and early spring on-wards can be damned hot.
As to the contract: they're lying to you.
1. It's not in Fuzhou. it's at least 2 hours away, add in waiting times and walking; 3 hours.
2. You replied to an advert that stated round trip. It's not, it's return journey ONLY, and ONLY to your home country - nowhere else.
3. 2 teachers last year, ending academic year 2015, were not paid the February travel allowance - oddly, neither teacher returned this year.
4. The bi-monthly bonus is actually a bi-semester bonus - if you look at the contract offered, this loses you 2000RMB over the year.
5. They'll offer you international calls, good luck getting that. I was told to book a room in a hotel.
6. You're offered free wifi. This doesn't exist. For your room you'll need to buy a contract from one of the mobile companies.
Basically, this place lies profusely to get you there, once you're there - tough.
hi, do u mean fuzhou college of foreign studies and trade ? if so, let me know and i can give u some perspective .
Fuzhou Technical College of Foreign Studies
Has anyone got any experience of this place?
I'm due an interview on Tuesday and it all looks promising so far, but i just want to know of anyone else's experience.
Thanks in advance!