No fast internet

This past week Tim and I tried to get really fast internet in the rooms. 

Long story short, a man came in, realized water had seeped into our land lines (the only way to get fast internet as no one would give us fast internet otherwise; we'd have to buy fast internet for the entire hotel), and said there was nothing he could do. 

My money was returned. 

I would so have liked to have been able to load webpages in the evening. 

It's not all bad- now I have wireless in my room. Slow, but doable. 

Taobao

Taobao is the Chinese ebay.

I have bought me some things from the Chinese ebay.

The first is a lockpicking set.

The second is a pair of steel toed boots.

The third is a yoga mat.

The lockpicking set and the boots are about the quality I expected them to be. The yoga mat is fun. :)


For those worried, the issue of extra teaching was settled- it was not from the department, but it was the office of the president. Two teachers are teaching two hours per week for 80yuan per 50 minutes; two of us are not teaching. I am not teaching.

I could not be more frustrated at the department

 The department has responded to our offer of 75 yuan per 50 minutes- that's 150 per two hours. That's 25 yuan more than what we are normally paid. By the way, 25 yuan is equal to 4 bucks. 4 dollars more for 4 extra hours of work.

This is all about their new flagship class program that is supposed to bring the university great glory... but it revolves around us coming up with the lesson plans and teaching the students. Were we told about it ahead of time? No. Were we talked to about what our opinions might be? No. 

This was my response, "The class is a lot more work than what we normally do, and that's an offer of about the same amount of pay, plus we'd have to start right away. That's too much work for such little pay- about a month's worth of pay for what amounts to more than 30 weeks of class, plus working with the other teachers to make sure the students don't have repeat lessons and all the double lesson planning? I'm rather offended at the offer. No way."

It is so much more work than what we normally do. It is working together, all of us, to plan 5 intense lessons for students for the same pay?

No. No.

I feel extremely frustrated. I told them no. If they try and force me to take extra classes, I'm out. This department has tried a lot of manipulative games this year, lots of promises that did not come true (see my pay last semester, arriving a semester late than what was promised), tried to force us to have double classloads for no extra pay (when they add more pay to their own Chinese teachers if they do such a thing, which I was informed about by a Chinese teacher), tried to play us all against each other, and tries to guilt us into teaching extra classes.

None of this happened last year. I don't know what changed. But I do know that if you are coming to this university to teach, be prepared to fight the department with your contract every step of the way. You do not have to teach doubled-up classes. If you say no or argue with a contract-breaking arrangement, it is the department's fault, not yours, if someone else is assigned such classes, no matter what the Dean tells you. If they say they will loose face by not having someone teach an extra class that they did not tell you about beforehand and originally planned to pay you less than what you are already paid, you can say no.  You will have to push and shove the department, which I fear hinders what is otherwise a very enjoyable teaching experience.

I'm writing to Betsy. This is… no. No. I feel insulted and manipulated and though I have said no, I feel like somehow this class will go on the other girls. 

I hate this feeling. But I've said my piece: "No way". 

Work Woes

I'm starting to think I might have been a union organizer in a past life.

 

Here's what's happened.

 

A couple days ago, about Tuesday, Callie went to pick up her paycheck. Jackie mentioned in passing that the University would like us to do some extra conversation classes for teachers- an additional 8 to 10 hours worth. We could divide the hours between us. That's all we knew.

 

We talked about it, and Ellen was certainly out- she'd had a kerfuffle with teaching rural teachers where they wouldn't let her go (every week she had to teach them despite an initial agreement of once) and it brought back bad memories. It also brought back to mind to me a very difficult last semester, where I was scrambling to get work done, generally unhealthy in my lifestyle, and while driven, certainly torn from a lot of socialization. I'd rather not go back to that lifestyle if I can help it.

 

I decided that I didn't want to give up my free time, as I'm cramming a lot of language learning for my trip to Europe (DID I MENTION I'M TOURING EUROPE, 'CAUSE I TOTALLY AM), and though I'd like extra money to make me comfortable, I have enough to pay for my trip. I was out. About this time Jenny and Callie felt the same way, and since our response was to be given by today, Callie texted and let us know.

 

The response she got went along these lines, "Ah, actually, I'm really sorry, but if one of you can't do it and we have to find other foreigners the school will loose a lot of face."

 

Which called us all into a guilt-trip emergency. I got the text during listening class; both Callie and I were trying to get some sort of response to Jackie. The response was we would meet him at 2:30. My text to her read: "I want to talk to him with you later today- i'll do it but I want a lot of finances out of it". 

 

Mostly because last semester, at this time, they offered us Tessa's classes at about half of what we taught them. This time, I was worried- we didn't know how many students we'd be teaching, how often, or how much work would be put in, so we'd place something high. Or at least, I would. I was prepared to take 4 of those 8-10 hours if need be. Callie and I chatted, and I replied to her again with this text: I have class until noon. For me, I want to know how many people, how long it lasts and at least 200 per hour, not per session, and get paid each month guarnted".

 

We get paid currently 125 per two hours. If you do the math, that's about 3.2 times our current pay.

 

Part of this is: that's how much we'd make from tutoring. That's how much a tutoring gig can go for in Kaifeng. It's on the upside (maybe 150), but it's a lot of money.

 

The other part is that I was going for a high amount so that we can walk away. As it stands, what we'd all really, really, like to do is walk away.

 

At about 2, we talked about what we felt. I felt emotionally guilt-tripped with the: "if you don't help us, we loose face" feeling, and responded to the girls, "if this were America, we'd say, 'You can just go ahead and fall on your face'." We're stuck; we know this is the Chinese way, the Dean says jump and you do it, but I'm increasingly concerned with how this year has gone. I've been pressured into extremely heavy workloads; I've been offered extra classes for half pay, I've been playing "Where is my extra class paycheck" for months. While all of these are now solved, they do not make me any less flexible for bargaining with the University.

 

This was not at all how we were treated last year. Being told they'd arranged this class and then asking us to do it, when we are the key components of this class, is, to us, a bit like treating us like a pet monkey. Normally the university is good about pretending that we are actual teachers (we have no qualifications, I'm not going to kid myself on that), but this takes us from "interns" to "pets".  Plus, there's the whole desperation- we're all taking time so one of us doesn't have to suffer under a heavy workload again. It's extremely manipulative.

 

I also brought up with Jenny and Callie, the two teachers interested, that Callie and Ellen (we included Ellen as Ellen is game if it is 10 hours per week) will leave early to attend weddings- if we get paid as we were paid this semester, they won't get paid at all (and Jenny and I will have a slim chance). So I argued we should have monthly payments, and get that in writing.

 

I did pull a dick move- If the hours are 8, then I'm teaching half of them. If the pay is less than 200 yuan an hour, I said I was out. I meant it, too. Given how I was pulled around last semester, already frustrated by things like classes and lesson planning and grading, I'm not keen on going back for more work. And so for this to be mutually agreeable, well, those are my terms. This means, if I'm out, Callie and Jenny can either also pull out or take those hours and suddenly double their hour allowance from 2 to 4 hours per week. They said they'd be out, so our minimum payment is 200 yuan per 60 minutes.

 

The last thing we wanted, other than the information, is a contract with all of this in writing. Last semester we were told we'd get our extra classes pay monthly; it didn't happen. This time, I want it in writing that I can enforce in some way. I want the 200yuan per 60 minutes, and I want the monthly pay, and I want a signature in some legally binding form.

 

Callie and Jenny wanted a couple days no classes guaranteed, but I'm okay with whatever. I have my weekends.

 

Our support for these points, as I wrote down on a piece of paper to take with me, were that we felt jerked around last semester, we were not told about this class ahead of time, there's lots of prep time to consider, and we're going in blind. We have no idea what the classes are or how large they will be.

 

We talked about the questions we'd give Jackie, and we met with him at 2:30. He told us a couple of interesting things: This was a program designed by the President, Vice-President, and Dean of our University/college, and it was for students who felt unready to be English teachers because of their spoken English. We asked our questions and found that Jackie was walking on eggshells, but answered anyway. The class was 25 students, and they seriously met that often per week, several times a week, which meant a hell of a lot more work for us. We couldn't trade lesson plans- we would have to work together, making several lesson plans per week. We wouldn't have to give grades or final exams.

 

Jackie was interrupted by a phone call and so we talked; then the call was done and it was our time to talk about what we wanted. Jackie mentioned he'd told the dean to go back and ask for more pay- that we would be paid more than what we earned, not equal or less than. We appreciated that. I told him we wanted pay for 200 yuan per 60 minutes, or hour (sometimes hour means class session which is two hours, so I wanted to be perfectly clear), because it was a lot of work, especially if the same group met twice, and we wanted to be compensated for doing a good job. We didn't want to stand there and look pretty- we wanted to work with them, but this is the only amount of money we find acceptable for all of the work we will be doing. I also said that we want to be paid each month, especially because Callie and Ellen will be out due to weddings before the semester is officially over, and if last semester's promises/payment schedule happens (we got paid on our first day of the new semester), neither will see their paycheck. I also said we wanted a contract in writing, signed by everyone.

 

Last time I did this I was arguing against breaking my contract- originally I was given double loads for a class and told them to switch it or give me money. I was threatened by the concept that someone else (Jenny) would have to take my classes, then, and so I replied that it breaks everybody's contracts equally. Eventually, the dean caved and I got what I wanted- none of us teaching extra classes for no extra pay. Before that, I got them to agree to pay us not half, but equal the amounts of what we were currently getting paid for the extra classes.

 

It's stressful, but we are only in win-win situations here: We don't want to take these classes. If Henan wants us to, however badly, that's what must be done.

 

I am glad for Ann and Tim, though I didn't use either for this particular bargin/debate/meeting/I dunno. They've been useful for me keeping a cool head. Today it was Callie and Jenny who did. I know I get very ruffled, and when I get ruffled, I tend to… explode? I think explode is a good word, but having them there evened out my thoughts a bit, and we went and left on what I thought were good terms with Jackie; he's just the messenger, and we know that. I even threw in a joke about one of our demands being the Dean in a dress.

 

I don't actually want the dean in a dress. It would not suit him. 

 

I dislike this bargaining, but I think it needs to be done. Otherwise, I think it's too easy to give in. What I dislike more, however, is that this year I've been doing bargaining. I dislike that this year I've had to put in all the strong arms and options I can. It's tiring. It's frustrating. I don't want to be that person all the time.

 

I guess, when I came to China, I thought I'd be haggling over used DVD prices or fruit prices or market prices. I didn't realize I'd be haggling over teaching hours and pay, especially with a contract in place.

 

…

 

 

In other news, I'm having issues with paypal verifying my bank account. Despite promises of money being deposited for me to look at, nothing was sent by them after 9 business days.

 

Also, La Wong was fired. As I saw him on Tuesday, this is a huge surprise. By "fired" I mean he was let go- the college thought as a 75 year old man he was too old to have around. I'm rather sad- I wish they would have let him stay out the year, at least. It was a good job for an old man.

 

Matthias, the German teacher, now lives upstairs next to Tatiana. Callie and I saw him on our way to class.

 

I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but my plans for taking the Trans-Siberian are once again in place. My plan is to take that train and head to Prague for teacher training, and then go home on October 1. I'll arrive in the States on Oct. 13.

 

I'm taking a boat.  Though that has been in plan since July or August. : )