In response to Ivy English School / Jiamusi, China (Every foreign teacher who has ever worked there)

let me just say for those considering the school. I worked there myself back in 2005- 2006. I know Mei's mom was originally a teacher and from thier website it says Ivy has existed since only 2004. Everyone has thier own experience of it. I hope I'm not responsible for some of the strict regulations, fears and suspicions about foriegn teachers. Full disclosure I left in the middle of the night after 9 months. I regret it, it may have been one of the biggest mistakes in my life as one poster phrased the idea of going to China at all as something they think they might regret. I regret leaving badly more than going there although i've left most my jobs under worse circumstances in fights with bosses or something. My reasons for leaving were partly my own and partly due to frustrations at work. It is what it is.

Many people are right in saying that you're not a teacher. You have no clue what youre doing. The teacher training I recieved and was promised wasn't very good. they didn't have a good format for what they will tell you to do. It went back and forth for me, they wanted me to make lessons and then they wanted me to stick to thier book and then they wanted me to try making lessons again.

I was overworked to begin with to try and teach myself how to be a teacher. 7 days a week, 10+ hours on saturday and sunday. I don't want to make this an all complain about Ivy post. I take responsibility for my own failures. Mei was nice on the surface most of the time. When i did leave (again full disclosure) I was talking to a girl in texas who was probably a fishing scam of some sort anyway which was pushing me to want to go home. Also it was mid summer and i knew she was having money problems and maybe partly because I wasn't a good teacher and partly because she just paid me for the ticket to get there after 6 months and I had to ask for even that money repeatedly. She may have known I was having designs to fly and didn't want to give me the money because i would use it to go. She'd also had my passport for some time.

They said they'd get me proper visas when i got there and i went on a tourist visa. I got 3-4 more tourist visas which she would go and get herself. I think she had Quang Xi or she liked to say she did because i don't think i was supposed to get tourist visas in country, I met with the local immigration sergeant and tutored her son for a English language job interview in exchange for my visas. Eventually I did get a residence visa after 6 months or more. She had had my passport to get the visas anyway and I stopped asking for it back at some point and before i left it took a week of I'm not supposed to allow other people to 'hold' my passport for me. I even had to threaten that if i don't get it back i am required to inform my embassy that i don't have it. Sucks because I knew i was playing Chinese gangsters with her.

All that being said I know its hardball and i don't blame her. She did try, she did have good intensions and it is what you make it. I'm just left wondering now that i do have a masters degree in teaching can i use this as experience if not a reference because i did leave but i can try to say it is justified. It is difficult and maybe they've gotten better over the past 6-7 years. The care and feeding of foriegners is a tricky business with many cultural differences. Around the 6 month mark where she tried to withhold the money for the plane ticket part of the reasoning or the reason why she did withhold a months pay was when i 1st got there about 1 month in we went to the ice festival in Harbin. I just tagged along wasn't asked to pay for anything until 6 months later when money's tight and it's time to give me the money for the plane ticket. Again in all reality part of the reason although not legal or legit was I was moody and performing poorly in class around that time. If she was entirely happy with me I don't think she would have tried that. Also around this time she said you're welcome to stay another year which at that time I was already planning my escape. maybe why she said it. despite my poor performance am welcome to stay, I was getting better and trying to get better. and it goes to show these aren't real schools, we're not real teachers, and they know that.

One of the most concerning issues I should mention is the teacher there before me. He was slipping out in the night too but he waited for me to get there. Mei first tells me how great he is and this and that, then i hear he is under suspicion for hitting a kid, then i heard he molested somebody and then he disappears. she didn't say he hit somebody or any of this until he left a few days after i got there. idk I think he did hit a kid and students told me he would be mildly abusive in ways that were funny, he was british, i'm an american so it was like some old thyme school marm, catholic school "love taps." To me I got the impression she was accusing him and the story was changing because he left. 2 cops even came to the classroom and i had to prove i was not a 55 year old Englishman, I was a 27 yr old New Yorker.

I had some good times there, I don't think they will try to screw you (anyone) over too badly. Like any job in China workers probably need to take extra steps to stand up for themselves. If it is still family run, Mei will welcome you into her home and wants you to be happy and successful. I know they have improved. I looked at thier website recently and the rooms shown are much nicer, the school is in a different building it looks like with 2 rooms which means another teacher, i was there alone. I must have been one of the better looking teachers as multiple of my pics are on the website. I don't like the ones they chose that much though.

I might have some suspicions, cautions and the like but you're not going to be thrown in the back of a truck and hauled off to Pakistan or anything like that. The city itself was undergoing rapid transformation while I was there so it should be a bit nicer by now with some more food stuffs the casual adventurer can tolerate. It's a tough call, it's not perfect and i've mentioned some things that are borderline illegal such as pay and passport issues but I would go back, maybe just to make up for my past and stick out the last 3 months, maybe time has frosted the glass, maybe i think I am stronger now. She's probably really pissed at me though. I'm just glad i didn't shut them down when i left and they managed to get someone and even continue on for these last 7 years.