Finally some good news for China's 29,000+ foreign teachers and other expat workers who seldom ever collect their last paycheck when changing jobs. President Xi Jin Ping sent a directive to China's courts that legal discrimination between Chinese and Foreign plaintiffs would no longer be tolerated and now even punished. (No specific punishment was specified, however). Apparently, this message went out six months ago, and the last three cases brought to China's courts for violating the employee rights of expat workers gained traction and prevailed. Although China's court records are not public, we learned that the three teachers won settlements that average 570,000 or roughly 90,000 each in cases alleging forced unpaid overtime, an illegal contract, and violation of China's Privacy Act...
Education
The hijab. Something so spoke about but known very little of by the majority. At the beginning of each and every day, I wear the hijab as a religious obligation and as a reminder of my faith and my duty to inform those who know very little about it or of its significance. But the issue regarding the hijab is one that has been in the air for quite a while, whether that may be showing the hijab in a positive or negative spotlight—most likely the latter. Of course, the media and other outside sources just add gas to an already blazing fire by eloquently reciting the age-old statement of the hijab being a tool of oppression used against the women of Islam by their male counterparts, which I’m here to say is completely and utterly false.
You sir have played a vital role in my life, not in...
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Back in Marchof 2017, Deputy Administrator Song of China's SAFEA bureau (State Administration Foreign Experts Affairs) in their Beijing HQ office, openly admitted that "China has a big problem with fake foreign teachers estimated to now be one-third of all the foreign teachers working in China." That "one-third" equates to roughly 10,000 "teachers" that really never taught anyone anything before they arrived to China. In fact, many were unemployed and a few hundred even have criminal records.
The following month, over 1,000 fake foreign teachers were arrested under China's "False Documents Law" for using faked or forged diplomas, TEFL Certificates, and even phony police certifucates, which were provided by shady and unlicensed recruiters. Both the recruiters and those arrested are...
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A Letter To The Kids Who Just Don't Get It
I'm not a writer. I'm not a blogger. I'm not an English major, and quite frankly, I don't enjoy writing very much. I would much rather say what I have to say in person. However, there is no way I can say this face to face to everyone who needs to hear it. I see these "a letter to" posts often shared by people on social media that go viral because they resonate so deeply with everyone. How clever.
I'm not writing this to go viral. I'm not writing this to be clever, BUT I am writing this with the hopes that the right people read it.
Dear kids that just don't get it,
I have one thing to tell you. One thing that might save your life.
You. Are. Not. Indestructible.
Now before you skim over those words, I want you to really let...
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This is an open letter to Minnesota Department of Education's Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, Mr. Wethington of SSTAC, and posted for the community at large.
I recently came across a draft of the gender identity toolkit and was concerned by a number of things in it.
First of all, I would like to thank you for the time you are putting into addressing this very real concern that affects the lives of individuals. Thank you for the detail included in the toolkit – it shows that a lot of thought went into legal requirements schools must consider and past recommendations from federal departments. I appreciate the goal of ensuring that students are feeling safe and supported.
Unfortunately, as a citizen of the United States, I have found the entire conversation around gender identity...
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I wanted to write to the French Ministry of Education to suggest some changes that I feel are necessary in the French educational system in regards to the harshness of French classroom culture.
I was a student at an international school in the United States and I noticed some differences between the French system I was immersed in and the American one that were shocking to me. I often felt humiliated in front of my classmates for small things like spelling errors, and I observed a lack of positive comments or praise when I did good work. Considering the national motto is “Liberty, equality, fraternity” I cannot understand why schools are so unaligned with the values of the country. The French system discourages and shames kids for what they aren’t good at instead of...
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Imagine walking barefoot through a cow pasture on a moonless night. You can smell the danger all around you but you can't see it until you suddenly step in it. At this point it is too late for you but you can at least warn the others following in your path. Thus you can now understand the purpose of this blog.
For the last 7 years we have been warning people ar our website and at City Weekend magazine but it time to spread the message to every Province of China to save you all time, money, and grief. Be aware that half of all the scammers in China are NOT Chinese, but fellow-foreigners. We start by introducing you to some great websites that name and shame those who prey upon us all in China...
http://reddit.com/r/chinascamcentral
http://chinascampatrol.wordpress.com
http://...
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Those making millions of dollars from the TEFL training industry have been allowing and even instructing their sales reps to lie to new inbound teachers to China by telling them "YOU MUST HAVE A TEFL CERTIFICATE TO TEACH IN CHINA". For the record, this is ONLY true if the teacher applicant does not have two years of previous teaching experience that can be verified.
TEFL certificates do NOT replace nor substitute the mandatory Chinese government requirement for a bachelor degree from an accredited university. Many unethical China job recruiters are now trying to pass off this BS as fact and gullible people are shelling out $199 - $2,999 to take a TEFL course that is not really needed.
Yet other shady China job agents are just selling fake TEFL certificates for $500, and we are...
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in 2016, over 1,200 English teachers working abroad reported being victims of either identity theft or short-term kidnappings as reported by Interpol in their annual report. How many victims did not report their experience out of embarrassment or for security reasons is anyone's guess. Here is a summary of how the scam works and every English teacher in the world needs to pay attention:
The "VIP Tutoring" ads often appear in the following places:
Craiglist.com
Gumtree.com
Echinacities.com
TheBeijinger.com
ESLCafe.com
Sinocities.com
ChinaTEFL.com
Xpatcn.com
The ads generally read like this:
"VIP Family in Colombia needs Native-English Speaking ESL Tutor for immediate live-in assignment to teach family English for 6 months - $50,000"
(Various countries will be cited...
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Dear fellow high-school students and teachers,
Why does everyone in the school systems of the United States seem to be itching for their next vacation? Schools are places of enlightenment and learning – are these things something to dread, something from which to run away and hide? I believe that students and teachers do not dread learning and teaching at all, but instead dread the stress of grades and tests - things of utmost importance to each student and teacher. These are the stresses from which students and teachers continually want a vacation. No one wants to stop learning. It is human nature to want to learn and to be curious. I, as a sophomore in high-school, believe that schools have strayed and continue to stray from what is most important: learning and teaching. Other...
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