Chinese Teacher1
- 2018-10-13
I confirm what you mentioned above as a Chinese who know them very well. First "Times" "Uncle Sam" "New Channel" is an agency in Jinhua city not a school , they rent a very expensive place in Jinhua city center near Walmart to impress the parents, they have almost 30 students at max who are asked to pay for intensive useless classes since they have no business. So instead they depend on foreign teachers from Aiqing and other schools by cutting from the foreign teachers salary which is unprofessional and so grey area in the terms of legal part. Mrs.Zhu has a lot of connections in the local government ,foreign affairs in Jinhua , Jinhua Polytechnic and Zhejiang Normal University , the reason she stills can run her agency and run away from troubles. Times often sends rich people kids abroad to the USA for summer camps mainly with their low-paid Chinese teachers but they will arrange the whole program via another agency.
This is a Blacklist review of the Academy of High Bluff Academy based out of San Diego, California. They partner with a Middle School known as Aiqing based in Jinhua. However, they are not direct partners. Instead, a Company currently known as "Times English" who has their own Training Center is the intermediary. This has led to numerous problems such as:
1. Complete disorganization and shirking of responsibility with getting the proper work visas for foreign teachers on time. If the Company and the School does not like you, they will purposefully delay your working visa process until you need to leave the country. This has happened to at least 1 foreign teacher within the last 2 years.
2. Putting unqualified Chinese teachers on post. There are 3 classes that are taught by foreign teachers. Each class should have 1 Chinese Head Teacher who can speak good English. Instead, each class has a Gym Teacher as the Head Teacher. Only the Grade 1 High School teacher makes a small effort to learn English. The other 2 are useless. The Grade 2 Head Gym Teacher hates foreigners and purposefully will not want to communicate with the foreign teacher. The Grade 3 Head Teacher is also the Head of Security at the school. He has followed foreign teachers outside the school to local restaurants and dug personal information on at least 1 foreign teacher.
3. Each class is supposed to have 1 foreign teacher who teaches them. This would bring the total foreign staff to 3. However, during the last 2017-2018 Academic School Year there was only 2 for each semester.
4. Unclean living quarters. Brown water was in the pipes in the teachers' dorms. There is consistently NO HOT WATER. What 1 saavy foreign teacher found was that you needed to go to the rooftop and navigate your way around the infrastructure until you saw a panel which controlled the water flow. From there, you have to reset the hot water. Jinhua during the winter has a lot of snow and slush. You need to reset the panel at least once every couple days. You can imagine the inconvenience.
The Boss of "Times English" is called Zhu Xiaoling also known as Mrs. Zhu. She has changed her company name at least twice before. They were called New Channel and Uncle Sam's English. Their training center still uses the uncle sam's moniker as of early 2018 but they may have changed. Mrs. Zhu and the teachers who work at Aiqing School in Jinhua pocket a lot of cash from the International Program. There are actually over 50 students in the international program who are not taught by the foreign teachers. This is where they make a lot of their money. As for the Aiqing side the head of the international department is a vice principal who likes to give platitudes and waste everyone's time in his weekly meetings.
Jill, who runs High Bluff seems to have given up on putting in any effort to straighten out the program. She used to go to Jinhua herself and visit Aiqing School, but she does not do so anymore. She will admit that this job is a Hardship Position. Go at your own discretion.