Fuddland

Almost six months in, the last couple of weeks have been the lowest point of my time out here so far, in terms of homesickness. Whether I became ill because I was feeling down, or I started feeling down [in part] because I was ill, I’m not entirely clear, but certainly the two coinciding wasn’t particularly good timing.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget where I am: if I stay indoors, write one or two emails, visit some English-language websites, chat to a few friends over some instant messaging programme or other, and watch a couple of DVDs, then to all intents and purposes I could be anywhere at all in the world. But as soon as I step outside to head off to work or even just to buy a few groceries, then China hits me full in the face once more, and nothing is annoying me more these days than the whispers of lǎowài (老外), a slightly derogatory term for a foreigner that I can hear as I walk past — even in the city of Sūzhōu (苏州), which is home [temporary or permanently] to some ten thousand immigrants.

The teaching aspect is going well, with some new classes to keep things fresh, and getting to know students in the longer-running courses better and better, but I’m getting so tired with the antics of my boss that lately I’ve been wondering if it’s worth putting up with, or if I’d be wise to head off to pastures new before I become completely disenchanted with the entire experience. Up to now we’ve generally had three full-time teachers, but as of this week, due to a contract ending, we’re now down to two. The workload is not back-breaking, but we do need at least one more teacher [preferably two] to distribute things a little more fairly, and herein lies my main beef, having been witness to the so-called recruitment process.

The suitability of teachers can, apparently, be judged on the smallest of discretions: one guy made the mistake of turning up for his initial meet-and-greet in shorts — okay, so he should have thought to smarten himself up a bit, but it was thirty-five degrees outside, so perhaps he could be forgiven? No, it meant he wouldn’t be a professional teacher, even though he had several years experience of teaching in Chinese schools on top of a Masters degree in education.

On another occasion I was asked to explain what an applicant meant in their CV by describing themselves as “gregarious”, so I hazarded that he was sociable, out-going, friendly. This was interpreted as “probably going to be regularly throwing parties at his provided accommodation”, and his application summarily binned! I tried my best to explain that everybody sells themselves in CVs, and his use of that word was likely nothing more than him trying to be original when describing a personality that would be a big boon in a teacher, but to no avail.

More seriously, it seems teaching in China is one place where prejudice is alive and well, and unashamedly so: I’ve been told that people of certain races are not marketable as teachers, and hence will never be employed by my company; to clarify, if you’re not Caucasian, don’t bother applying. And even within this ethnic group, there is plenty of room for discrimination: according to my employer, Americans are generally not to be trusted, but, much to her distaste, she must have at least one on staff for the American-based companies which want to use our services. Luckily for me, British and Irish people are in her good books — which kind of makes me want to screw her over just to level the playing field for the other nations.

So I’ve been asking myself if I shouldn’t make a stand and leave on principle, and at the moment there are two main reasons why I haven’t:

• it’s not financially viable for me to quit right this second and move to another city in China — a couple more months and this won’t be a problem

• sadly, from reading a few things here and there as well as other anecdotal evidence, even when I can afford to hunt around for a couple of months for alternative employers, there’s no guarantee that I wouldn’t be leaping out of one frying pan only to land in another, equally sizzly frying pan, with a serious dent in my finances

There are some seriously good pros to staying put — lovely flat, nice city [once this summer heat calms down it’ll be even nicer], very decent pay-packet — and as I say, the cons could well be cons wherever I go. Of course, there are some enlightened schools around willing to take on foreign teachers from all backgrounds, which might mean a more pleasant employer, but the students I have here are good people and I’ve nothing against teaching them.

For now, I’ve decided the solution is to try and change things from the inside — I always seem to get myself involved when things aren’t as they should be [by which I mean, of course, they aren’t how I think they should be], be it being the postgrad representative or rearranging the kitchen to make it more spacious [last weekend’s task as soon as my soon-to-head-home roommate departed for a week’s holiday], so I’ll be voicing my opinions at every given opportunity, and if they get me in trouble, well, at least it’ll be for the right reasons, and I could well be supping a pint in the Lansdowne before Christmas.

#1

Jann | 2006 / 08 / 08 – 05:21

Sounds like you’ve made a pretty convincing argument to stay for a while longer. From the little I think I know about you I’m sure you have the strength to stay and to see through what appears to be the first major blip you’ve faced.

You’ve come this far, so you owe it to yourself to stay at least a little while longer until you’re in a better position to make a big decision.

Just remember all that trusty student noise about regretting the things you’ve not done rather than the those that you have etc blah-di-blah…

Failing that, chin the gimp.

#2

David | 2006 / 08 / 08 – 15:26

Re #1: Thanks for backing me up Jann — nice to have some words of encouragement, not to mention some worthy advice at the end there. :)

#3

Kav | 2006 / 08 / 08 – 17:51

Hang on in there mate. I think your decision is the right one for now. You cannot improve conditions by leaving though of course sometimes there is no other recourse. Stick with it and stick it to them in the most positive way possible.

#4

Gordon | 2006 / 08 / 08 – 23:56

I’ll add to the ‘hang in there’ comments.

Although I too liked Jann’s closing sentence, hey, it’s ALWAYS an option!

#5

Thane | 2006 / 08 / 09 – 19:02

You put up with David, didn’t you? Surely this can’t be any worse than that…

#6

David | 2006 / 08 / 09 – 21:33

Re #3 & #4: Cheers guys, still hanging in there, two days later! :)

Re #5: Believe me, the old boss was a dream compared to this one — I can’t imagine David turning anyone down if they applied to his school!

#7

susannah | 2006 / 08 / 10 – 20:52

Maybe I won’t go back to teach next summer. Good luck :)

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