Want to Teach at a Chinese College? Six Ways to Tell if You Have a Bad Foreign Affairs Officer

Teaching English in China can be professionally fulfilling, but for some it can be nightmare. Searching for and finding a job, as always, should be done with the utmost care. However, let's look beyond the hunt. Let's say you have landed a job, you are a month and a half into the semester, and you wondering if you made the right decision or not. Let's say you give deference to the local culture, your not a drunk, you are not bad mouthing China in your classroom, and you haven't been seducing your students. In short, that you have been trying to be a good employee. (It's sad to say that yes, those are real issues some schools have with their foreign teachers, but that is a topic best left for another time). Let's say you are brand new to the country and don't know any better. These are the signs that you have a bad relationship with your foreign affairs officer and/or your assigned Chinese teacher liaison.

1. They are not timely in responding to your Wechat, QQ, or mobile phone text messages. 

China is very much a cellphone culture. If your foreign affairs officer can't get back to you when you send a message on QQ or Wechat, that's a big problem. It should be noticed that this is different than email, which is seldomly used by most in the Middle Kingdom. Waiting for a long time for an answer to email is quite normal since most Chinese people don't use it all that often to talk to each other. 

2. They are always asking for free assistance with things that are not part of your job or in your contract. 

By this, I mean somebody wants your help with their personal pet projects. At a former job, the Chinese teacher assigned to me was constantly asking me for help with his personal Chinese-to-English translation work. There is doing a little of it to build goodwill, especially when you are new and want to make friends, but sometimes it can become an abusive habit. Mutual back scratching is not in your contract, and it's shady if somebody says, "Hey, before I call somebody about the internet in your apartment, can you proofread this for me?"

3. They lecture you on Chinese culture any time you complain about something. 

I get that there are work place taboos in China about making your boss lose face. However, you shouldn't be labelled as a "complainer" and not being a team player for complaining about the bad plumbing in your apartment, a washing machine that destroys your clothing, or heaters that don't work when it's the middle of winter. 

4. They play favorites with other foreign teachers. 

An example of this is the "Who gets what apartment" game. Two teachers are hired at the same time. One has an apartment that has been professionally cleaned and a brand new flat screen TV. The other gets a living space that has cat hair everywhere and broken TV from the 1990's. Yes, that is completely unfair, and if a foreign officer can't see that, they are not doing their job correctly. Keep in mind that this is specifically about teaching in a college or university. Most teachers in this part of the ESL industry are not given a choice on the quarters assigned to them. 

5. They assume you are always at fault and insult your intelligence if you ask for help. 

For example, I had electricity problems in my apartment at a prior job. When I called and asked for an electrician, they first thing they told me was this: "When you plug too many things into the wall, fuses will blow." Um, yeah. I know that. I didn't do that, and the person didn't bother to let me explain what the exact problem was first. It's one of the few times I started yelling on the phone, told them to shut up, and to let me get more than one sentence out before being interrupted. 

6. They always give you somebody else's phone number to call when you need assistance with something. 

There is "not my job" and then there is being flat out lazy. It's especially frustrating when you call that number, and then are told to hang up and call the your foreign officer -- who was the first person to refer you to somebody else in the first place.

Conclusion 

Are these the only ways to tell if you are being mistreated? No, not really. There are many. These are just some of the most common. However, if you want to make a career out of teaching in China, sometimes it takes working at a bad school to make you appreciate it when you end up with a good job and and good relationships with your Chinese coworkers. Thankfully, I am at a really good university, now. 

(The above image is my own)

Other posts about teaching in China include...

Three Different Types of Employers

Megacity vs. Smaller City