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February 24 5 Reasons to Reject a Job OfferThere have been times and there are places in the world in which the company is king. The reason? High unemployment. When there are many more job seekers than there are available jobs, the company has its pick from thousands of candidates. There have also been times and there are places in the world in which the human being is king. The situation? Many more jobs available (whether in a particular field or in many fields) than job seekers. In this case, the job seeker can reject many job offers and can make many demands of the company that's desperate to hire him. Whether an individual or a company is desperate, both try to put on a good show by maintaining a poker face while in the interview and negotiating a contract.
Wisdom and tact are essential. If someone is in financial straits and there is high unemployment, it would be unwise for him to be picky about choosing an employer. If a company is desperate and few people apply, it would be unwise for a highly qualified potential candidate to allow the employer's poker face take advantage of him by manipulating him into accepting a low salary and poor working conditions.
I've learned that, in China, because it is very difficult to change one's job, it is very important to research companies and employers (especially Chinese ones) in order to determine if they are worthy of your service. Experience with my previous employer taught me that. This research is especially important if you are moving to China. You don't want to be involved in a horror story of, after selling most of your belongings, closing your accounts, paying off your debts, and buying supplies to take with you, finding yourself in an abusive, degenerate company on the other side of the world. Alas, this happens all too often to many.
Provided you have some financial security, here are five reasons, anywhere, to reject a job offer. This is from an article by Caroline Levchuck.
1. The word on "The Street"
Is the company's stock price tanking? Or is there talk of a merger? Both of these things could indicate that layoffs loom large, and the position you accept today may not exist in a few months. To calculate your risks, speak with industry experts … and consult with family and trusted friends. If you still want to accept the position, try to obtain an iron-clad employment contract.
2. A revolving "Employees Only" door
A certain percentage of employee turnover is normal. According to the [United States'] Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average voluntary employee turnover in the U.S. for 2006 was 23.4 percent. However, high employee turnover should raise a red flag for any potential worker. Research a company thoroughly before accepting an offer. Also, be sure to listen carefully during the hiring process. Do interviewers keep referring to folks who've left the company or mentioning a total lack of redundancy? These could be signs that people are leaving faster than replacements can be recruited.
3. Money isn't everything; it's the only thing
If money is a major factor in your decision to accept a new job, think twice before you do. In fact, think three times. Even four.
Depending on your personal financial situation and how much more you'd be earning in a new job, money may not buy you on-the-job happiness or professional fulfillment. It may not even guarantee career advancement. Assess your finances. Revisit your career goals. Look at the situation with a big-picture view of your future. Making a move for a modest increase may not be worth it if there's more long-term potential with your current employer. Also, be sure to calculate your entire compensation package to make sure that you're not forfeiting a valuable retirement or insurance plan for a bigger paycheck.
4. All work, no life
There's a time in almost everyone's career where they have to put their nose to the grindstone and work almost to the point of burnout. If you're just beginning your career or starting a second one, this may be what lies ahead for the next few years. However, if you're a mid-careerist with a family and personal obligations, it may not be wise to accept an 80-hour-a-week job. Consider the impact your new schedule will have on you and your family. Will generous vacation make up for the longer hours? Is there flex time available so you can still attend family functions? Can you work from home? Forfeiting invaluable work-life balance benefits without assessing the consequences can have a devastating impact on your personal life.
5. A bad reputation
Going to work for a company with a reputation that's been sullied by a corporate scandal or that isn't well respected can, in turn, sully your resume. Investigate any potential employer's standing within their industry. Solicit opinions from within your network as well as that of an executive recruiter. You may learn that it's better to be a top salesperson at an admired organization rather than a VP of sales at a suspect one. February 21 BRIT Awards - WinnersAs previously mentioned, the BRIT Awards had honoured Canadian music with a nomination in each of the four international categories:
Arcade Fire for International Group
Arcade Fire for International Album
Feist for International Female Solo Artist
Michael Buble for International Male Solo Artist
Sadly, none of the Canadian artists won. But it was at least a privilege for the nominations. Note that there was no award for International Single. Here are the winners. More info on the BRIT Awards at www.brits.co.uk.
BRITISH ALBUM - Arctic Monkeys, "Favourite Worst Nightmare"
INTERNATIONAL ALBUM - Foo Fighters, "Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace"
BRITISH SINGLE - Take That, "Shine"
BRITISH GROUP - Arctic Monkeys
INTERNATIONAL GROUP - Foo Fighters
BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST - Kate Nash
INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST - Kylie Minogue
BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST - Mark Ronson
INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST - Kayne West
BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT - Mika
BRITISH LIVE ACT - Take That
CRITICS CHOICE - Adele
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC - Sir Paul McCartney February 16 Most Populated Countries and CitiesA number of people have been accessing my statistics on the most populated countries and metropolitan areas of the world. But the data is two years old, so I've decided to update it. Here is the new batch.
Most Populated Countries in the World
(Jan. 2008 Data)
Notes: Since 2006, Ethiopia has surpassed Turkey and Bangladesh has surpassed Russia.
Most Populated Metropolitan Areas in the World
(Jan. 2008 Data)
Notes: Since 2006, Manila has surpassed Jakarta, Dehli has surpassed Los Angeles, and Shanghai has surpassed Cairo.
For more information, visit: http://www.world-gazetteer.com
With a population of over 37 million, Tokyo is, by far, the world's most populated city. February 15 Chinese New YearChinese Spring Festival, held in the winter and based on the lunar calendar, occurred on the seventh of February on the solar calendar this western year of 2008. Does that make sense? The festival includes a week of holidays. The year of the pig has ended and the year of the rat is upon us. In the Chinese language, rat is "big mouse", so often the two animals are seen as the same creature; many thus call it year of the mouse. How do the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year? In major Canadian cities, we usually see images of Chinatown parades on the news. Here, the Chinese do several things. The big celebration is on the eve—this year the evening of the 6th.
1. HAVE A BIG FAMILY MEAL. Of course the family will get together and of course they will enjoy a big meal. As you probably guessed, they don't gobble up turkey. What they eat differs quite a bit in various provinces and cities. In some cities, they eat fried dumplings. In Shanghai they like to eat some seafood, nuts, and seeds. In some places they continue eating from noon to midnight. A few decades ago when China was poorer, Chinese New Year was the only time when lots of food was available. So many Chinese are used to eating lots at this time of the year.
2. PLAY MA JIANG. The family plays this classic game of pictured tiles. And they usually play for money—kind of like poker. Here's a tip for being successful: rather than trying to save face, don a poker face.
3. SET OFF FIREWORKS. Fireworks go off. Not just one big half-hour show for the city but in everyone's backyard all night long. Traditionally they believed loud noises would ward off evil, like sea monsters. If only they'd come to believe that monsters are ATTRACTED to noise, then all would be nice and quiet like a mouse.
4. GIVE AND COLLECT HONG BAO. Literally "red bag", hong bao are red envelopes into which money is placed. China was the first country to use paper money. When Marco Polo advised westerners to follow suit, he was laughed at and told that, unlike coins of precious metals, no one could, nor would, ever see paper as having value. Employers give these red envelopes filled with money to employees and parents to children. Red is an important colour in Chinese culture. Blood is red, so the colour symbolizes life. On a side note: Nowadays at Chinese weddings, the western custom is followed of the bride wearing a white gown, but traditionally, the bride wore red as did the groom. Yellow or gold is another important colour in China as it symbolizes wealth. The Chinese emperors often wore yellow. In the west, calling someone "yellow" means he's a coward. But in China, calling someone yellow doesn't mean he's wealthy; it means he has a "dirty mind".
5. WATCH TV. There is a big entertainment show on with performances from many Chinese celebrities, broadcast from the capital of Beijing, a city which most foreigners mispronounce. Instead of saying the 'j' as it's normally pronounced in English (which would be correct), they pronounce it as the 's' in the word 'pleasure', strangely. This year, performers included Gigi Leung (!)
6. BUY NEW CLOTHES. Clothes make the man (and the woman) and a new year means new apparel, rather than "the emperor's new clothes". February 06 Canada Honoured by 2008 Brit AwardsCanada is NOT a republic. We are a dominion. So it is a great pleasure to post info on the Brit Awards 2008 (http://www.brits.co.uk/)! This wonderful awards show will be broadcast on Feb. 20th. Live performances include Rihanna, Leona Lewis, and the great legend, Sir Paul McCartney. The latter will be receiving a special award for achievements in music, some of which are:
- 24 U.K number one singles and 29 U.S. number one singles makes Paul the musician with the most number one hits ever. Elvis only garnered a paltry 21 chart-toppers.
- He’s sold 100 million singles earning him five-dozen gold discs. Not impressed? Well the Guinness Book of Records was, inscribing him as the most successful musician in the history of popular music.
- There are nearly four thousand recorded versions of his 1965 hit "Yesterday" making it the most covered song in the history of the world. More even than "Happy Birthday".
They say that a prophet knows no honour in his own country. So, get this: Canadian band Arcade Fire was nominated for best International Album in Britain but was not nominated for Album of the Year in Canada! (They are nominated for Alternative Album and Group of the Year in Canada). Arcade Fire is also one of five nominees for Best International Group at the Brits. Calgary Alberta's Feist is nominated for International Female Solo Artist. And Burnaby, BC's Michael Buble is nominated for International Male Solo Artist. So the Brits are honouring Canada with one Canadian nominee in each of the four international categories! Nominees for the 2008 Brit Awards include:
BRITISH ALBUM
Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare…
Leona Lewis: Spirit
Mark Ronson: Version
Mika: Life In Cartoon Motion
Take That: Beautiful World
INTERNATIONAL ALBUM
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
From: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Eagles: Long Road Out Of Eden
From: Los Angeles, California, USA
Foo Fighters: Echoes Silence Patience…
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
Kings Of Leon: Because Of The Times
From: Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, USA
Kylie Minogue: X
From: Melbourne, Australia
BRITISH SINGLE
The Hoosiers: Worried About Ray
James Blunt: 1973
Kaiser Chiefs: Ruby
Kate Nash: Foundations
Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love
Mark Ronson: Valerie Ft Amy Whinehouse…
Mika: Grace Kelly
Mutya Buena: Real Girl
Sugababes: About You Now
Take That: Shine
For further nominees, check out: http://www.brits.co.uk/nominations/
Album and Single of the Year (1980-Now)Juno Awards for Album and Single of the Year, since 1980 are as follows. For info on other past Juno Award winners and nominees, visit:
Album of the Year:
1980, Anne Murray, New Kind Of Feeling
1981, Anne Murray, Greatest Hits
1982, Loverboy, Loverboy
1983, Loverboy, Get Lucky
1984, Bryan Adams, Cuts Like A Knife
1985, Bryan Adams, Reckless
1986, Glass Tiger, Thin Red Line
1987, Kim Mitchell, Shakin' Like A Human Being
1989, Robbie Robertson, Robbie Robertson
1990, Alannah Myles, Alannah Myles
1991, Celine Dion, Unison
1992, Tom Cochrane, Mad Mad World
1993, k.d. lang, Ingenue
1994, Neil Young, Harvest Moon
1995, Celine Dion, Colour Of My Love
1996, Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
1997, The Tragically Hip, Trouble at the Henhouse
1998, Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing
1999, Celine Dion, Let's Talk About Love
2000, Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
2001, Barenaked Ladies, Maroon
2002, Diana Krall, The Look of Love
2003, Avril Lavigne, Let Go
2004, Sam Roberts, We Were Born In A Flame
2005, Billy Talent, Billy Talent
2006, Michael Bublé, It's Time
2007, Nelly Furtado, Loose
Single of the Year:
1980, Anne Murray, I Just Fall In Love Again
1981 (Tie), Martha & The Muffins, Echo Beach
Anne Murray, Could I Have This Dance
1982, Loverboy, Turn Me Loose
1983, Payola$, Eyes Of A Stranger
1984, The Parachute Club, Rise Up
1985, Corey Hart, Never Surrender
1986, Glass Tiger, Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)
1987, Glass Tiger, Someday
1989, Blue Rodeo, Try
1990, Alannah Myles, Black Velvet
1991, Colin James, Just Came Back
1992, Tom Cochrane, Life Is A Highway
1993, Celine Dion/Peabo Bryson, Beauty And The Beast
1994, The Rankin Family, Fare Thee Well Love
1995, Jann Arden, Could I Be Your Girl
1996, Alanis Morissette, You Oughta Know
1997, Alanis Morissette, Ironic
1998, Sarah McLachlan, Building A Mystery
1999, Barenaked Ladies, One Week
2000, The Tragically Hip, Bobcaygeon
2001, Nelly Furtado, I'm Like A Bird
2002, Nickelback, How You Remind Me
2003, Avril Lavigne, Complicated
2004, Nelly Furtado, Powerless (Say What You Want)
2005, k-os, Crabbuckit
2006, Michael Bublé, Home
2007, Nelly Furtado, Promiscuous feat. Timbaland Evaluation of Jazz English as a Place to Work, Part 2/2EVALUATION OF SHANGHAI ESL SCHOOLS AS A PLACE TO WORK
ESL School's Name: The Shanghai Jazz English Training Institute
Location: Xuhui District, Shanghai, China
Rating
Administration / Management: ■□□□□
Curriculum / Class Structure: ■■■■□
Salary / Benefits / Holidays: ■■□□□
Recommendation
I would strongly advise against working for this school.
Students It Serves
Mainly kindergarten, Chinese children with some classes for primary, secondary, and adult studetnts.
Personal Experience
I worked at The Shanghai Jazz English Training Institute from March 2003 to November 2007. The first few years, I enjoyed the teaching and the curriculum; I did not enjoy the apartment intrusions, the invasion of privacy, the low wages, the last-minute schedule changes, having to work seven days a week during one stretch, and the verbal upbraiding from managers. Two years after I started I agreed to stay on because the new management looked promising and they finally jacked up my salary to a decent amount. But, along with everyone else, I found the new management to be increasingly abusive.
At the time I submitted my resignation, all the other foreign teachers had left due to the school's mounting abuses. For me, the school had ruined my honeymoon by interrupting it demanding that I come into work. When I failed to reach the school due to holiday road closures and rain which made taxis unavailable, I was delivered a patronizing lecture. The assistant manager lied to the manager saying that I hadn't informed her about my being stranded when I had and by saying that the school receptionist had seen me getting into a taxi.
The school then proceeded to ruin my trip to Canada with my new wife. The assistant manager, in order to coerce me into teaching some classes on my days off, lied by saying that the manager had already cleared the entire month of February and that I could take it off; the manager hadn't. After I bought my plane tickets, she tried to cut my holidays short even though my contract granted me 30 days. She tried to force me to sign a statement saying that I agreed to the breaking of the contract. She said I would get the extra holidays off at the end of the summer. At the end of the summer I ended up getting less holidays than all previous years I'd worked for Jazz.
I got sick after my return from Canada because I had to work right away despite suffering from jet lag and the big time difference. I was accused of feigning the illness. Along with the other teachers, Jazz tried to force me to sign a new contract which stated that if I missed any days due to illness I would receive only half to a third of my monthly salary. They asked my wife to sign it even though she didn't work for the school.
I was asked to teach overtime on weekends because a foreign teacher had left. They had failed to hire a new teacher after firing him. When I refused, they began harassing me and my wife.
They demanded I get a new health certificate because the last one was out of date. They promised to reimburse me for it. After I got it, they refused to reimburse me.
Although my landlord had fixed up my condo spending out of her own pocket and my apartment was close to my wife's work, Jazz abruptly asked me to move to an apartment closer to the school at which I taught. When I refused, they stopped reimbursing my taxi fares.
I submitted my resignation the last day of August 2007.
For Part 1 of the evaluation, click here: PART 1
For a more in-depth story of my working at the school, click here: STORY Evaluation of Jazz English as a Place to Work, Part 1/2EVALUATION OF SHANGHAI ESL SCHOOLS AS A PLACE TO WORK
ESL School's Name: The Shanghai Jazz English Training Institute
Location: Xuhui District, Shanghai, China
Rating
Administration / Management: ■□□□□
Curriculum / Class Structure: ■■■■□
Salary / Benefits / Holidays: ■■□□□
Recommendation
I would strongly advise against working for this school.
Students It Serves
Mainly kindergarten, Chinese children with some classes for primary, secondary, and adult studetnts.
Background
A school (under a different name) was first opened in Guangzhou, China using a curriculum from Taiwan called Little Dragon English. Later, it developed its own curriculum—NewBeat. Due to the success of the business a second school was opened in Shanghai in 2001. A campus was acquired on South Shaan Xi Road. In 2005, there was a change in management as the owner moved back to Hong Kong. In 2007, a second campus was opened near Xu Jia Hui.
Administration
The school was managed deplorably. Management constantly fired teachers for petty reasons, continually broke promises, insisted that teachers make great sacrifices to the school, and did not allow them a life outside of work.
During the four and a half years I was there, one-third of the teachers were fired and one-third quit before the end of their contracts. The administration never hired a replacement to a teacher who had left until the end of the semester; instead, the remaining teachers were expected to work overtime, often without compensation. When parents of children enquired as to the whereabouts of the teacher who had absconded or been fired, Jazz would lie to them saying that the teacher was ill.
The administration demonstrated dishonesty by continually breaking promises. They would make a promise to an employee to coerce him into doing something for the school, whether it was reimbursement for obtaining a health certificate or overtime pay for working 30 days straight without a day off. When the employee asked for the reimbursement or overtime pay, he would be refused. The school would also promise an employee a certain length of holidays to get him to take on extra classes on his days off, but when holiday time rolled around, they would do an about-face and cut the employee's holidays short.
To summarize Jazz's pattern of abuse, they would continually insist that teachers work beyond what they had initially agreed to do and expect the teachers to make great sacrifices for the school. These sacrifices were seldom rewarded and, when they were, a very small token of appreciation was given. The administration itself persistently did less than what it had promised to do. On the rare occasion, when it fulfilled the bare minimum requirements (whether in terms of their legal obligations or what they had promised verbally), or would dish out a few perks, it would act like it had sacrificed an arm and a leg to the teacher and expect the teacher to return the "gargantuan favour" by making further sacrifices to the school. If the teacher refused, he was reprimanded behind closed doors and asked to be grateful to the school for everything the school had done for him. If the teacher protested, management would justify its behaviour by saying that this was how things were done in China. This was rarely true and, even when it was, blind imitation can never be used to justify unethical conduct.
Jazz did not allow teachers to have a life outside of work. They would set up a host of activities which the teachers were expected to attend. They would mess up the plans of the teachers by informing them of these activities at the last minute. They continually interfered with the teachers' personal lives as well, poking their nose into the teachers' activities outside work and judge them for it. For example, they would dictate whom a teacher could or couldn't date and whether or not a teacher could engage in tutoring. In general, they would try to take over and control the teachers' lives.
A prime example was when a teacher whose brother with cancer had a near-fatal heart-attack. She was told that she couldn't leave to return home until a month and a half later!
Curriculum
The school has used a series of books and CDs called NewBeat, which is, with only the occasional glitch, very good for teaching oral English to kindergarten children. The school has not yet come up with an effective curriculum for other age groups to satisfy its desire to expand outside of kindergarten classes.
NewBeat is a syllabus that seeks to develop in kindergarten-aged children intelligence, morality, and emotional maturity. Clipart images from Art Explosion are used in the books and graphic cards (laminated A4 paper) with English words and phrases. The CDs contain English songs, words, and phrases with Chinese translation.
Since the change in management in 2005, the school, however, has moved in new directions, including testing, and relies less on the NewBeat series.
Class Structure
Jazz English entered into a partnership with various local kindergartens. Generally speaking, the kindergartens collect 40% of the tuition for the NewBeat program and Jazz collects 60%.
Jazz foreign teachers are paired with Jazz Chinese teachers. The foreign teacher leads, teaching the children words, phrases, and songs from the book. Bodily motions / gestures have been developed for various words and are used in dances for the songs. The Chinese teacher translates when necessary (explains how to play games, role-play, stories, etc.). The Chinese teacher also helps maintain the children's discipline and focus. Classes are held from between 30 to 40 minutes.
In order to make extra money, the Jazz English school holds weekend classes for children who attend kindergartens without NewBeat programs. These classes are 90 minutes long with breaks in the middle. Most teachers are expected to work on part of the weekends.
From my experience and that of most other foreign teachers, the curricula and structure of the classes were a wonderful experience. The support of the Chinese teachers was invaluable as they kept the children focused. On the downside, Jazz often hired new teachers at the last minute without giving them adequate time to be trained in using the curriculum.
With the change of management in 2005, however, Jazz got into new schools by doing away with the Chinese teachers, arguing that translation was detrimental to English learning, but what happened instead was that classes became bland for the children without role-plays and games, as foreign teachers could not explain activities. Also Jazz began to step away from its initial vision of enhancing morality and emotional stability in the children because such learning requires translation. The program became whittled down into rote English learning. And even the English learning was less effective because the children would often misinterpret the meaning of words. Without a Chinese teacher there to check, the children would, for example, upon seeing a picture of a cup of tea, comment in Chinese, "beizi" (cup), thinking that the English word "tea" meant "cup".
Jazz also agreed to stretch out the curriculum where a unit covered five classes when it was designed for only one or two.
Salary
In the early years, despite doing very good business, Jazz English paid its teachers ridiculously low wages, in some cases lower than the legal minimum wage for local Chinese in Shanghai. Foreign teachers were paid as little as RMB 1,000 per month. Schools in poor regions of the country paid four and a half times that amount.
After the change of management in 2005, the salaries went up significantly (though still below standard for Shanghai).
Holidays
Holidays were fair in the early years: all the regular Chinese holidays, one month off during Chinese New Year, and 10 days off at the end of the summer. After the management changed, despite contracts stating that teachers were to get 30 days off at Chinese New Year, the administration announced that teachers would only be getting three weeks off. They tried to force the teachers to sign a statement to that effect.
Jazz would also change initial promises about length of holidays, often at the last minute when teachers had already purchased air tickets.
Chinese law states that employers are to grant employees 7-10 days off for their marriage / wedding / honeymoon. Several employees got married and Jazz rarely allowed them to take the time off. In one case, when they allowed one employee a week off, they interrupted his honeymoon asking him to come into work.
Benefits
Accommodation: The school provided its foreign teachers with apartments. They gave the teachers a list of rules, one of which was that, the school needed to be informed about any guests staying at one's apartment. If anything in the apartment needed repair, the school would pay for it as long as the tenant wasn't responsible for breaking it. Later on, despite this latter principle, the school began asking the teachers to pay for the repairs themselves even if it involved a leak that was the result of normal wear and tear. The school tried to justify its low wages by arguing that it rented nice apartments for its teachers. But it often expected teachers to share apartments. The Shanghai Jazz English Training Institute kept spare sets of keys to its employees' apartments and entered them without warning. Managers, at will, entered apartments of employees of the opposite sex when they were in bed or in the shower!
Overtime and Days Off: The school would often promise overtime pay for extra work done or classes taught but then would renege on that promise. They often used psychological manipulation: phoning and harassing spouses of the employees who refused to work overtime or presumptuously reporting to other school managers that the teachers had already agreed to work overtime when they hadn't. One of the problems was that the contract stated that "overtime" meant teaching more than a certain number of hours per week. So if a teacher worked seven days a week but taught less than that number of hours, it was not considered overtime. Teachers were frequently asked to come in on their days off to teach an extra class or engage in some work or activities for the school. They were usually informed at the last minute.
Sick Leave: In the early years, there was little regulation about sick leave. It was an honours system. The teachers would not be docked any pay for getting sick (the salaries were extremely low anyway) and they weren't asked to produce a doctor's note. But administrators still demanded that teachers come into work while ill and praised those who did. After the change in management, the school began to insinuate that teachers feigned illness in order to get time off work. Teachers were asked to sign a new contract which stated among other things, that, if they got sick they had to produce a doctor's note. Even then, the school still reserved the right to dock their pay: 1/2 to 2/3 of their monthly salary depending on how many days were taken off. This new contract stated, as if it was compensating for this new ruling, that the school would now be paying overtime. But this was their legal requirement anyway. When the foreign teachers, save one, refused to sign the new contract, the school began harassing them. They asked the wife of one teacher to sign the contract even though she didn't work for the school.
Other: Jazz reduced employees' benefits over time, like reimbursing taxi fares, even though the school's business was increasing. It also asked teachers to change, to the teacher's own great inconvenience, their apartments so that they lived closer to the schools at which they taught, simply so that Jazz could save money on taxi fares.
For Part 2 of the evaluation, which is a summary of my personal experience working for the school, click here: PART 2. February 03 Work Permit ObtainedEFS was able to get me residence and work permits. I picked them up today. For teachers, the work permit is actually called "Foreign Experts Certificate". It really is an unusual name. I certainly am not an expert of foreigners; in fact, I know very little about foreigners. Because the school term begins at the end of August, my work and residence permits expire on August 20th, at which time, EFS will have to renew them again.
The final step in the lengthy process of getting my new job is to obtain a certificate of no criminal record from Canada. I emailed the Canadian Consulate in Shanghai to ask them about it. They replied with the following:
"Canadians are advised that Canadian Consular offices overseas cannot conduct criminal record checks on its citizens living abroad.
"Should you require information on a Non-Criminal-Record certificate, you may wish to refer to the following Web page: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/crimrec/finger2_e.htm. For your convenience, a portion of the text is copied into this email for your reference below. We also encourage you to review the entire section regarding fingerprinting on the RCMP Web site to ensure that the package you sent in is processed in a timely manner. Please be noted that the Consulate General does not take fingerprints. However our Embassy in Beijing, which has staff qualified to take fingerprints, does offer this service for a fee. It can be reached at beijing-cs@international.gc.ca
"If you are OUTSIDE OF CANADA: contact the nearest police force which offers fingerprinting services. The RCMP will accept fingerprint forms from foreign countries that contain the following:
• rolled and flat impressions of all ten fingers taken with black ink
• full name, date of birth and sex of the applicant
• the name and address of the police agency
• the signature of the official taking the fingerprints" February 02 Snow in ShanghaiFor the past week, it's been snowing off and on in Shanghai. This city rarely receives snow. Supposedly, this has been the biggest snowfall in 24 years. Last week schools were closed for a day as the authorities were worried about kids slipping on the sidewalks. If this rule were applied to Canada, the kids would get the whole winter off school. The Shanghainese are happy to see snow grace their city. However in cities like Guangzhou in southern China, half a million Chinese are not so happy. They've been stranded at the train stations as railway workers are busy de-icing the train tracks. Travelling to visit family during the Chinese New Year season has not brought them much luck.
In Shanghai, records have been broken for daily use of utilities. In a city without central heating and insulation in residential buildings, Shanghai citizens have been running their heaters non-stop, driving up electricity use. And they've been boiling water and taking lots of hot showers, driving up gas and water use as well. The government has had to cut back on electricity provided to industrial areas in order that city residences have enough juice to meet the demand. Here are some photos Carolyn snapped of the snow here in Shanghai.
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