South China Normal University (Nanhai College):evil:

[JTB]

Hi,

I've just completed a 1-year contract with Nanhai College SCNU.

Usual Chinese story - the contract hasn't been honoured! I've had 2+ years in China and not once has a negotiated contract been honoured!!

This College is isolated from both medical and dental care. Shopping of any description is a mininum 20-minute bus ride away and the accommodation is dorm room with Chinese teachers who come in at all hours of the night talking at the top of their voices and banging doors!

They run the Australian RMIT-TAFE Diploma of Business programme and the cheating that goes on to ensure students are passed is unbelievable!

Foreign teachers are left to their own devices when it comes to obtaining visas, medical health certificates etc.

Avoid the place if you're thinking of a China sojourn!

I'm out in 3 days and will consider the entire China experience a huge learning curve and hope the world doesn't become like China someday!

[bigrocco]

South China Normal University Nanhai College NOT evil!
This old and incredible post almost kept me from finding one of the best university teaching experiences in southern China a few years back. I've taught here for two years and likely will return for a third. In that time I have seen a handful of hateful and exceptionally non professional FT's roll through here. (Anybody that reads teachers' forums on a regular basis know this bunch, all they ever do is spew venom and drink too much. And foreigners wonder why other foreigners don't openly go out of their way to befriend them in China.) Despite that, I have had the pleasure of working with some really great FT's from Canada, France, Australia, India, USA, and the UK during my stay here. My wife and I find the FAO to be more than accommodating and they have done everything in their power to make sure we have what we need to live and work here in China. Yes, the campus is remote by why would you want to live on campus? We have developed a sense of community with the Foreign Language Faculty and that makes this a friendly and pleasant place to work. Academically I've only witnessed the highest standards of ethics among my colleagues and won't dignify such a hateful remark with a response. When I read this post I was still back in the states and forwarded to FAO who were understanding and addressed the issues raised in a professional manner. I'm glad that I took the time to do my own research and not took the first thing that comes up on Google as gospel.

[bigrocco]

Just a quick update: SCNU Nanhai has gone through some dramatic changes in Administration, Leadership, Mission, Delivery (of content), Financing (To quote one of my 5 bosses here, "I don't know where the money went, but it's not being put back into the Foreign Language Faculty Program.", and I'm not convinced all these changes have been beneficial for the common good of the students and teachers (but that's the nature of Administrative Academia). Perhaps this microcosm of rapid development is reflective of the systemic challenges of this country as a whole. As we contemplate a fourth contract, we really have to do some real soul searching to consider if the positives still out weigh the negatives at this semi-remote location. I still stand by my original reply that SCNU Nanhai is not evil...but it is definitely darker and less fun than before. Ultimately I suggest you read every word of any offer you may receive from this or any other institution in China and even then it may not be as simple as "black and white." In the end I humbly suggest that we don't change China....China changes us.

[Trifaro]

If Big Rocco is still out there, or anyone else familiar with SCNU - Nanhai -

How far from downtown Foshan is the campus? I read on another forum that bus service is sporadic and that there are rarely any taxis waiting outside the gate.

Please be specific. Remote - how remote? How many minutes in a taxi to downtown, how much would it cost, approximately? How about a bus, how many minutes?

Besides that, I've read that the Guangyao/FMetro goes to Xilang in GZ. How many minutes does it take from downtown?

I also read something about Guicheng. I could be wrong, but, Guicheng seems close to the school. Could someone take the FMetro to Guicheng and then a taxi to the school? Again, how much money & time are involved?

Thanks

[TheTruth]

You are in the middle of God's green acre at South China Normal University at Nanhai. The end of the world. You can take the subway to Foshan and bus to the school. The subway service is great; bus service is highly sporadic at best. TianHe to the Foshan on the metro is probaby 30-40 minutes on a good run, even shorter.

Taxis at the gate? You must be kidding. You will need to ORDER a taxi from Foshan and hope that it comes to pick you up. The school is at the end of a long, long cul-de-sac of a road, past a nice lake, past Neusoft Institute of Technology, and a few other things. A taxi to downtown Guangzhou? What exactly do you define as downtown Guangzhou? Xiamen Island? TianHe? It's a city with many little cores. Anyway, South China to TianHe, the last time I did the run it was about RMB 150 - 200, or something like that. Not cheap at all.

Living conditions at the school are just terrible. Just, just terrible. You are given a dormitory room, maybe even two or three, just awful and nothing more than a dormitory room. If you complain, they will upgrade you to two dormitory rooms. Really awful.

I wonder if Frankie C. is still their pointman in the FAO for recruiting. He gave new meaning to the word "dishonest".

That is ONLY the Nanhai campus however.

If you can land a job at the real South China Normal University in TianHe, that would be great for you. Beautiful campus, central to everything but wages on the low side compared to this place.

Anyway, if you want the feel of a labor camp in Siberia, then please go to work for this branch of SCNU. Otherwise, run.