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September 30 The Phenomenal Power of the Human MindThis may be familiar to some of you. It's pretty amazing. ...
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.
THE PHAOMNNEAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID.
Aoccdrnig to a rseearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht ored r the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Now I'm tinkihng aobut all the tmie I wtsead in sochol lrenanig how to slpel.
September 27 Evaluation of The Shanghai French School as a Place to Work, Part 2/2School's Name: The Shanghai French School (École Française de Shanghai)
Location: Qing Pu District, Shanghai, China
Rating
Administration / Management: ■■□□□
Curriculum / Class Structure: ■□□□□
Salary / Benefits / Holidays: ■■■■□
Recommendation
I would recommend against working for this school.
Students It Serves
Kindergarten, elementary, and secondary French children.
Personal Experience
Though I studied French for several years in grade school, I cannot speak nor understand the language. One of the reasons I joined the French school was that I saw it as an opportunity / excuse to finally learn the language. But I found that, working for the school without being able to speak French was inadvisable.
After I joined the school, I heard that most of the other English teachers had quit. I was to discover why.
I taught Primary school (grades 1 to 5) as well as kindergarten for them. Without a curriculum I found it very difficult. Though the school gave lots of holidays, I found I spent most of them preparing lessons.
One time, I walked into my CP (Grade 1) class. The homeroom teacher was there. The kids were noisy and she was about to leave. She scolded them all in French. One boy got up with his pencil crayons in his hands and she shoved him forcefully across the room, causing the crayons to spill all over the floor. He began crying. She shouted at him in French to pick them up. I was taken aback.
The next thing I knew, one of the Primary school directors met with me and told me that the CP teacher had complained about me, because she had helped out with the discipline in the class and I hadn't thanked her.
After three months of work, the contract stated that someone would observe one's class to evaluate the teacher's performance. One of the directors observed my class, whom I'll refer to as a female named Suzette.
At first, I had arranged for Suzette to observe my best class. The students were, in general, very well-behaved and conscientious. I planned a really good and creative lesson. But just before I was to teach, I was told that Suzette couldn't make it. The following week, Suzette cancelled out again for the class. The third time, Suzette asked to attend another of my classes. Apparently all the other English teachers got to decide which class Suzette would observe, but for me, Suzette, after cancelling out twice, dictated to me which class she would be observing.
For the class, I taught the kids the four seasons. The objective was for the kids to come up with some simple English sentences about the Four Seasons. For example: Summer – I can swim / I can eat ice cream. I divided the kids into four groups—one season per group. The groups had to come up with sentences and present them to the class. Each student in each group had to say one sentence. The kids were a lower level, so it was a bit challenging, but, in the end, every group stood before the class, and every child recited a sentence. I was really pleased about how it went. But Suzette wasn't so pleased.
I met with her after the class and she said that the class was inappropriate. She said I should've brainstormed with the whole class together and written the sentences on the board and had the kids copy the sentences into their notebooks. She said she would have to observe my class again.
The next time she observed my class I taught it exactly the way she had asked me to. I brainstormed with the class about the Four Seasons and wrote the resulting sentences on the board. Then I asked them to copy the sentences down in their notebooks. The kids seemed less enthusiastic doing it this way. Some of them even refused to write them down in their books, choosing instead to doodle.
Suzette met with me again and said that the way I taught the class (which was the way she had told me to) was totally inappropriate. She said that she would be observing one class from each grade. She ended up coming to a class of two grades only after that. I had evaluated the CE1 (Grade 2) class on time (being able to tell the time in English) and they had done poorly, despite their being the advanced English group. So I taught them about time. Suzette met with me and the big boss to ask why I was teaching an advanced class about time.
Later on, I found out that Suzette had also attended another English teacher's class to evaluate her. The English teacher, for the class, just showed the kids a DVD. She told me that, after the class, Suzette showered her with praise saying she was an excellent teacher. Something just didn't seem right. It seemed that Suzette just didn't like me and out of prejudice didn't want me working for the school and was just reaching for reasons to justify this. Whenever I had had lunch and Suzette was sitting near me, she would roll her eyes when she saw me sitting down.
In my general evaluation, I mentioned the discipline of the kids. The discipline was so bad, especially in one of my classes, that I had nightmares almost every night. Another English teacher said she was in the same boat.
Kids in this class would not settle down: they would stand on their desks, scream, and get into fist fights. One day, like Matthew Perry in The Ron Clark Story, I yelled at them to get them to be quiet. The next class, several of the students decided to leave in the middle of class and began playing noisily in the hallway.
I consulted with the homeroom teacher about it, who would sit in the class only periodically. He suggested that we put a sign on the door. One side was "Oui / Yes" and the other side was "Non / No". I would let only one child out of the class at a time (who wanted to go to the washroom or drink water). When he left the class, he had to flip the sign from Yes to No, meaning that no one else could leave the class. When he returned, he would flip the sign back to Yes. It worked; after that, no groups were playing in the hallway.
When I met with three Primary school directors (Suzette and two others) to discuss how things were going, I mentioned this to them. They thought it was a great idea. They were also surprised that the kids had left the class to play in the hallway, as they hadn't heard anything about it. Later on, for my final review, the big boss (who hadn't attended the previous meeting) said, "I heard that kids are leaving your class to play in the hallway. Because of this, we are not renewing your contract."
I had already decided that I didn't really want my contract renewed anyway. The only thing that made me want to sign on for another term with them was that changing jobs in China is a big hassle.
For Part 1 of the evaluation, click here: PART 1 September 26 Gigi and Ports 1961Many fans of Gigi Leung got excited recently over a brief interview with her in New York. Gigi was there participating in a fashion show with Ports 1961. The reason for the excitement was that Gigi was interviewed in English. The interview can be seen on www.youtube.com at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl_waD3_7_k. More info on her trip to New York can be seen on her personal blog: http://www.gigiblog.com/wordpress/?p=1237.
For those of you with slow internet connections or who can't get the video to work, a transcript of the interview is as follows:
Interviewer Ani: Tell me what brings you to this specific show.
Gigi Leung: Well, I just arrived today especially for this fashion show, because I love Ports very much, because I like the mateial used and the design concept. It's very down-to-earth. This season is very exotic. And I found out they use quite a lot of Asian faces on the catwalk so I feel very happy about that.
Gigi can be heard speaking English on a VCD that accompanied a special edition of her 2001 album, Suddenly This Summer where she goes to Kenya, Africa and talks to a staff member about the history of her hotel.
September 24 Disabled Comments Feature1. I've temporarily disabled the MSN Spaces function of 'allow users to add comments' due to an individual or individuals who have been using the function to inappropriately advertise their business. It goes without saying, though I'll say it anyway, that any business that uses my personal blog to advertise will never get business from me and I will also advise others to snub the company.
2. A number of people who are strangers to me have invited me as an MSN Spaces 'Friend'. Maybe they like my blog or share common interests. Generally-speaking, I prefer to add only people I know personally to my 'Friends' module. So if I decline the offer, please don't take it personally. This policy of mine may change in the future.
3. For those of you who enjoyed my Quiz on Chinese Pop Stars, I've added answers to the questions at the bottom of the entry itself in smaller print. September 20 Marriage: Why Have We Gotten It Wrong?From what I understand, adultery is becoming more and more commonplace. Its ubiquity is deterring many young people from marriage. Like many immoral, unethical, and illegal acts, its increase in incidence is directly proportional to its being excused. A woman witnessed a male friend in China, whose wife is back in Britain, spending the night with a Chinese woman. She decided not to inform the man's wife, mentally justifying his behaviour with the phrase, "boys will be boys." This is naught but manifest ignorance.
A female friend of mine said her best friend regularly cheats on her boyfriend. The girl is promiscuous but conceals this aspect of her life from her boyfriend. The two of them are engaged to be married. I asked her to think about how her best friend's lifestyle is going to affect her family in the future—how will it affect her children growing up, for example?
Many of today's youth are beguiled by the falsehoods about life which are proliferated by a media drenched in commercialism; they are ignorant of life's truths. This ignorance precipitates the cycle of family destruction. It goes something like this. Prior to marriage, many youth lead promiscuous lives. Foolishly, they tell themselves that, now is the time for fun, and promise themselves that, once they marry, they will remain faithful to their partners. The criteria they hold for finding a spouse has nothing to do with compatibility of personality, but, rather, has to do with finding someone for whom they have the greatest physical attraction. And they tell themselves the second untruth—that this intense physical attraction will keep them faithful because it will last until they die.
What ends up happening is of course quite different. The youth indulging in promiscuity find it difficult to part with this lifestyle after marriage. When one is accustomed to pleasurable experiences with many, it becomes mundane restricting oneself to only one. They justify their feelings of inadequacy by trying to focus on the magnitude of their physical attraction towards their partner. They become baffled when, two years after marriage (at the most), they no longer feel physically attracted to their partner. They interpret this to mean that they no longer (for some reason that is beyond their perception) "love" their spouse. They try vigorously to ignite the "love" without success. They may find themselves not getting along very well with their spouse and personality conflicts flare up. Eventually, they divorce, ruining the lives of any children they happened to create along the way.
Few young people are being taught the fact that physical attraction never lasts more than two years, no matter how drop-dead gorgeous one's partner is. A marriage that is based strongly on physical attraction will not last, as the attraction will not last. A marriage between people who are used to intimate coupling with many people will be on very shaky ground as well. If you can't be chaste before marriage then how can you possibly remain faithful to your spouse?
As promiscuity increases, adultery increases, and divorce increases. And as family disunity and divorce increase, children—the future leaders of society—don't develop properly. I'm certainly not talking about physical development: learning how to walk and eat. I'm talking about emotional development, psychological development, and, most importantly, education in virtue. How is this going to affect the future of the world? Think about it.
My best advice is to choose a partner who is a really good friend and don't get into any hanky panky with those who make your hormones wiggle before marriage. If this is too hard to put off, then marry young. Why not? When you are young you have a lot more energy to raise those little tykes running around! You and your partner can mould your young, still-flexible personalities together. You will have a much more stable marriage. And you won't have to worry all the time about your spouse cheating on you. September 18 Quiz on Chinese Pop StarsHow well do you know your Chinese Pop Stars? Test your knowledge by answering the following questions. I have posted the answers below in smaller print. Good luck!
1. Name the most famous Chinese pop star of all-time from…
a) Mainland China
b) Hong Kong
c) Taiwan
d) Singapore
2. Name the first…
a) Cantonese Pop Star
b) Mandarin Pop Star
3. What is the only Chinese album to sell 5 million copies in one year?
4. What was the first Chinese album (hint: mid-1990s) to sell over 2 million copies in Taiwan?
5. What is the most famous Chinese Pop Song of all-time?
6. Which singer released a song in 1997 that created a trend among Chinese girls to cut their hair short?
7. Which singer worked as a Los Angeles policeman?
8. Name two Chinese singers that grew up in Canada.
9. At the present time, who is the most popular…
a) Chinese male singer
b) Chinese female singer
10. According to many sources, what has been the most successful Chinese song of the new millennium?
11. This Sichuanese is the first Chinese singer to break out in Korea.
12. What "Supergirl" sang the song "Only For Love" for the Chinese movie "The Banquet" starring Zhang Ziyi?
13. Which "Twin" was born in Vancouver, Canada?
14. Who is the youngest member of S.H.E.?
15. Name the "angel girl" who was trained by Roman Tam.
16. Which singer retired due to mental illness?
17. Who was the only Chinese singer to make the cover of Newsweek magazine?
18. Name the Hong Kong male singer who grew up in England, studying architecture.
19. Name the Chinese singer who performed live at the Oscars in 2001.
20. Which singer's 11th album ("Heroes of Earth") sold over a million copies only 10 days after release?
21. Which Chinese singer sang a duet with Enrique Iglesias?
22. Which Chinese singer covered a song from Robbie Williams?
23. Which two singers were born the same year – Kelly Chen, Sammi Cheng, Rene Liu?
24. Which of the "4 Kings"…
a) collects sports cars?
b) is originally from Mainland China?
c) is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records?
25. Name the popular Taiwanese male singer appearing in the late 80s who was born in the same region of the island as Teresa Deng.
26. This early Hong Kong star was nicknamed "Lucky".
27. Who is considered the Chinese…
a) Madonna?
b) Elvis?
c) Beatles?
28. Who interrupted her singing career to get a university degree in New York?
29. Name the Hong Kong beauty who had the first mega-hit in karaoke bars, "Everyone Has a Dream".
30. Which pop star studied Italian literature?
31. Name three Chinese pop stars from Malaysia
32. Multiple choice… which of the following pop stars is NOT from Mainland China
a) Dao Lang
b) Elva Xiao
c) Han Hong
d) Natasha Na
e) Sun Nan
33. Multiple choice… which of the following early pop stars was born in Macau?
a) Adam Cheng
b) Francis Yip
c) Jenny Tseung
d) Liza Wang
e) Paula Tsui
34. What period is considered the "golden age" of Cantonese pop?
35. Name the Chinese singer who starred in the movie…
a) "Hitman" with Jet Li
b) "House of Flying Daggers" with Zhang Ziyi
c) "The Killer" with Chow Yun Fat
d) "Rumble in the Bronx" with Jackie Chan
e) "2046" with Gong Li
___________________________
ANSWERS
1. a) Faye Wang b) Jacky Cheung c) Teresa Deng d) Stefanie Sun 2. a) Roman Tam b) Luo Da You 3. Jacky Cheung's "Goodbye Kiss" 4. Valen Xu's "Do the Clouds Know?" 5. Teresa Deng's "The Moon Represents My Heart" 6. Gigi Leung ("Short Hair") 7. David Tao 8. Sally Yeh and Angela Zhang 9. a) Jay Zhou b) Jolin Cai 10. Michael Wang's "Fairy Tale" 11. Zhang Li Yin 12. Jane Zhang 13. Charlene Choi 14. Hebe 15. Joey Yung 16. Mavis Xu 17. Sherry ("A-Mei") Zhang 18. Eason Chan 19. CoCo Lee 20. Alexander Wang 21. Valen Xu 22. Sandy Lam ("Better Man") 23. Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng (1972) 24. a) Aaron Kwok b) Leon Lai c) Andy Lau 25. Jeff Zhang 26. Alan Tam 27. a) Anita Mui b) Leslie Cheung c) Beyond 28. Priscilla Chan 29. Vivian Lai 30. Karen Mok 31. Penny Tai, Fish Liang, Michael Wang 32. Elva Xiao 33. Jenny Tseung 34. The Late 1980s 35. a) Gigi Leung b) Andy Lau c) Sally Yeh d) Anita Mui e) Faye Wang September 16 September 2008 Update1. Carolyn and I celebrated the Moon Festival by going to her parents' home. Her sister-in-law was there with her daughter (our niece). Carolyn's mom gave us a bag of frozen beef and chicken and a whole bunch of moon cakes. Unfortunately, we forgot the bag in the taxi. We called the company to no avail.
2. We will celebrate our two year wedding anniversary on the 23rd. Carolyn already bought me a gift – a beautiful, pure leather, soft briefcase. I don't know what to get her. She says she already has everything she needs.
3. In early October, Carolyn's mom will celebrate her 60th birthday. We'll have a restaurant dinner with all the extended family.
4. For Carolyn's 30th birthday, two of her friends with their husbands will join us for a hot pot dinner. Her two friends are also turning 30 (by the Chinese reckoning) and their birthdays are close to Carolyn's.
5. The lease on the apartment expires in mid-November. We've discussed whether to move or not. Our current place is close to Carolyn's work but very far from mine. Travelling to work everyday is tiring for me. One option would be to move close to Carolyn's parents' place (which would be closer to my work but far from Carolyn's). But moving is a big hassle in China and, next year, I don't know if I'll be working at the same place. If the landlord jacks up the rent, we'll probably move. If he doesn't we'll probably stay.
6. My series on Chinese Pop Stars has been very popular. Hits to my website are way up because of it. Because of this, I've been revamping the entries and will be adding an entry of quiz questions on the singers soon.
September 14 Human Relations 17: Seek Companionship with the Virtuous
When we buy something, like a chesterfield, a car, or a stereo, we have many choices. We can choose a reliable brand, with the particular features we want, at a price we can afford. But you still hear people complain that there are still not enough choices—they found something they liked but it didn't come in the colour they wanted.
In choosing friends, however, we have more choices than anything else. There are several billion people in the world. But we often content ourselves with making friends that aren't very good people, who don't treat us right, or with whom we don't get along very well.
Carolyn stays in touch with her classmates even from elementary school. I ask why. She says it's because they are the most pure friends. They are thrown together beyond their control, so there can never be any selfish or ulterior motives for their seeking friendship with you.
We can avoid being treated badly by others simply by choosing the right people with whom to associate. The wrong friends will also annoy us to the point where we find ourselves treating them badly. Certainly we cannot determine all of our associates. When we acquire a job, we may find ourselves working with people we can't stand. But at least we can try to find friends who really uplift us and brighten our spirits. Rather than just making friends with whomever we run into through work or school, we can make an effort to find really good people to acquire as friends.
True liberty really comes from experiencing real fellowship and love; it surrounds us with peace and composure. People who are ungodly, who backbite, whose hearts are infected with hatred, who curse, who are boastful, who are worldly, who abuse, and who vilify give us sorrow and turn the radiance of the heart into an infernal fire. Why associate with such people? Have you ever started reading hate literature written by web bullies and found anger welling up inside? Why read such junk? It's only extinguishing your light of joy. On the other hand, those who are truly good, humble, sincere, kind, caring, and loving have the ability to cleanse the rust from off our hearts, the rust that accumulates through the daily grind.
In addition to seeking those who uplift you, work on your own qualities of uplifting others. Be a haven for the distressed, a defender of those who are oppressed, a mountain of strength for the emotionally vulnerable. Cheer the hearts of the sorrowful and encourage those whose confidence has faltered. Don't let the defilement of the world's darkness eclipse your splendour. Act in the opposite way. Let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who cross your path.
One time, when I was a boy, I went to a shop with my paternal grandfather. He paid a huge compliment to the clerk. When we left, he turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said now the shop clerk will be smiling for the rest of the day!
September 12 Evaluation of The Shanghai French School as a Place to Work, Part 1/2School's Name: The Shanghai French School (École Française de Shanghai)
Location: Qing Pu District, Shanghai, China
Rating
Administration / Management: ■■□□□
Curriculum / Class Structure: ■□□□□
Salary / Benefits / Holidays: ■■■■□
Recommendation
I would recommend against working for this school.
Students It Serves
Kindergarten, elementary, and secondary French children.
Background / Overview
The large, modern facilities of this school are shared by the French and the Germans. The school has been in operation since the late 90s. Recently, a branch of The French School opened in Pudong.
In order to teach at The French School one should be able to speak French. It is school policy, though they have made exceptions in some cases, like when they are desperate for new teachers. But I would not recommend working for them without knowing French for several reasons. First off, teachers are required to attend meetings which are conducted in French. If the teacher doesn't know French, he cannot understand what is going on, let alone contribute to the discussion. All papers, contracts, notices, and announcements are in French too. In general the students at The French School are not disciplined. In order to inspire good behaviour, an English teacher must be able to reprimand naughty kids in their own native tongue; otherwise, it is ineffective. Finally, parents of the kids often want to meet with the English teachers to discuss how things are going. If the parent cannot speak English, and the teacher cannot speak French, such discussion is unfeasible.
Administration
The French School, as compared with most Chinese schools, is a much more professional institution. Everything is signed and stamped, proper receipts are given with detailed summaries, and so forth.
The biggest problem with the administration, I found, was the presence of prejudice, backbiting, and hearsay. Negativity was prevalent. Parents would complain to the administrators, teachers would complain about other teachers, and administrators, under tremendous pressure, would blow up in anger at teachers. What would happen is that a homeroom teacher or a parent would decide, out of some form of prejudice, that he didn't like the English teacher. So he would begin backbiting to an administrator about him. The administrator, rather than investigating the allegation to determine whether there was any truth to it, would mentally blacklist the teacher. After this, he would take note of only bad things the teacher did, ignoring what the teacher did well. The gossip at the French School was very divisive and damaging.
Curriculum / Class Structure
I taught mainly primary school with some kindergarten. Primary school in the French system has five grades: CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, and CM2. Homeroom teachers taught most of the subjects. The students went to other classrooms with other teachers for music, art, Chinese, and English lessons. For English classes, the French school divided each grade into five levels based on the students' English ability: Advanced, Intermediate A, B, C, and Standard. Each teacher taught one of the five English levels for each grade. For example, I taught the Advanced group for CP, CE1, and CM1, the Intermediate C level for CE2, and the Intermediate A level for CM2. Any given group had an English class everyday from Monday to Thursday.
The French School operated in this way without any English curriculum. The school provided a number of materials and books for the teachers to use and on which to base their lessons. Because a teacher had to teach presumably a different English level for each of the five grades, this meant that the lessons for each class he taught were completely different. If a teacher taught the advanced CM2 kids, he could have them read a Grade 5 English novel. If he taught the Standard level for CP, he could only teach some words. Because English class was everyday (from Monday to Thursday), the teacher, then had to prepare up to 20 lesson plans per week. If he also taught kindergarten, this meant even more lessons to prepare.
There was virtually no time in the teachers' schedule to prepare classes. The school gave Fridays off for the language teachers to give them time to prepare their lessons, mark assignments, and so forth, but the English teachers found that they were swamped with work.
It was also difficult to figure out what materials were appropriate to what grade and English level. Often, an English teacher would realize that a particular assignment was too easy or too difficult for the students in a given class. It took time to come up with suitable materials.
The behaviour of the children was, in many cases, deplorable. Children screaming, not paying attention to the teacher, getting into fights in class, leaving class to play noisily in the corridor were not uncommon. Many children, perhaps because their parents did not educate them on the importance of language learning, felt that Chinese and English classes were playtime. Teachers had to enforce harsh discipline and come up with systems of rewards and punishments in order to establish order in the classroom.
When the English teachers talked with the administrators about the poor behaviour of the kids, management asked the homeroom teachers to stay in the classrooms for English class to help with the discipline. But many homeroom teachers did not comply.
Because no curriculum existed and the behaviour of the French children gave teachers nightmares, many English teachers left the school.
The school administrators realized that things were not well and good having no curriculum, so, beginning in the Fall 2008, they will be changing things around. The plan is to have only two English levels per grade and each teacher teach only one Grade. They've also had the classes divided into half groups for some lessons. They have decided on and equipped the students with an English text book, so there will be more of a curriculum.
Salary
The French School uses a calculation, based on teaching experience and level and type of education, to determine one's salary. Like other international schools, the salary is high but apparently a bit lower than the other international schools in Shanghai. The school will deposit the employee's salary directly into his bank account every month.
There was a base salary, then additional money for living costs. Unlike a lot of Chinese schools, employees didn't have to give them receipts to claim the extra money, as the school didn't engage in tax evasion. Finally some extra money was given for attending meetings.
Holidays
The number of holidays the school gives would make managers of any Chinese school faint. Language teachers worked only four days a week and got all the Chinese holidays off. Additionally, all summer was off, a couple weeks at Christmas and a couple of weeks at Easter. For all holidays, employees received their base salary only.
Facilities
The French school's facilities, in comparison with Chinese schools, are wonderful. First off, the school is insulated and heated / air-conditioned. It has a nice theatre, a gym, playgrounds, and a racetrack. It has a computer room, a copy room, a large cafeteria, a library, many meeting rooms, and a teachers' lounge with a coffee machine.
Benefits
Accommodation: The school does not provide accommodation for its employees. But the salary is high enough to cover condo rental fees.
Sick Leave: The school doesn't worry about doctor's notes and what not. If a teacher misses any classes or days due to illness or any other reasons, this is simply deducted from his salary at the end of the month.
Transportation: The French School has a number of shuttle buses running throughout the city. An employee need only make sure he lives within walking distance of one of the hundreds of shuttle bus stops. The shuttle bus to and from the school is free.
Other: The school gives all staff meal cards with RMB 12 per day. To eat a reasonably sized meal, one needs about twice that amount, so we can say that the school covers half the cost of meals.
For Part 2 of the evaluation, which is a summary of my personal experience working for the school, click here: PART 2 September 08 Why "Shanghai" is a Verb in the English LanguageShanghai: To force someone, by trickery, into doing something.
No offence to the Shanghainese. There are some really wonderful people in this city and I've made a lot of friends. But … here is a true story of something that happened to a friend of mine while working at a school in Shanghai.
Mark had signed a one-year contract with a fairly prestigious Chinese school in the city. The contract stated that he would have a two-week paid vacation in the summer. He bought tickets to travel with his wife during that time. The very last day of work he was told to go and see an administrator at the school.
She asked him to teach summer school for two weeks. He explained that he was on vacation for two weeks and he'd already bought his plane tickets. The administrator became firmer and said that he was contracted to teach summer school. He asked for a copy of the contract to check. She became angry and assured him that it was in the contract. He said, "Well, if it's in the contract, I guess I'll have to."
Mark went home to read through his contract. It said nothing about teaching summer school. He met with the administrator again. He showed her the contract and said that it said nothing about his teaching summer school. The administrator retorted, "But you've already agreed to teach it. I've already told everyone that you will be coming." Mark said, "I said I would teach it simply because you told me it was in the contract, and it isn't." The administrator reiterated that he'd already agreed to teach it, and that they would not renew his contract unless he taught the summer school.
After some arguing, Mark told her that he would be able to teach for only one week. The administrator said that they would have to ask another teacher to teach the second week and that he would have to pay for the other teacher out of his own pocket. The school weaseled RMB 3,000 out of Mark with which they said they would pay his replacement.
Later on, Mark found out who had replaced him for the week. He asked her how much the school had paid her for teaching. She replied, "1,000 RMB". Not only had the school succeeded in shanghaiing Mark into teaching a week of summer school for free, but they had extorted money out of him, giving only a third of it to his "replacement".
This is a very typical scenario of how Shanghainese employers shanghai their foreign employees. My best advice is that, if you're going to teach English in Shanghai, you must learn to say "No" very assertively and repeatedly and not fall for any of their tricks. Before they meet with you they've already decided on several "tricks" in case you refuse to acquiesce to their demands, so be prepared!
September 04 Pyongyang's Hotel of DoomSpeaking of tall buildings, North Korea takes the cake for the world's ugliest building, a financial and engineering disaster of embarrassing proportions. Their one-hundred-and-five story Ryugyong Hotel is hideous, dominating the Pyongyang skyline like a twisted version of Cinderella's castle. Not that you would be able to tell from the official photos of the North Korean capital—the hotel is such an eyesore, the government apparently covers it up, airbrushing the photos or cropping it out of pictures completely.
The 3,000-room hotel consists of a series of three gray 100 metre-long concrete wings shaped into a steep pyramid. With 75 degree sides that rise to an apex of 330 metres, the Hotel of Doom (also known as the Phantom Hotel and the Phantom Pyramid) isn't the just the worst designed building in the world—it's the worst-built building too. In 1987, Baikdoosan Architects and Engineers put its first shovel into the ground and more than twenty years later, after North Korea allocated more than a whopping two percent of its gross domestic product into building this monster, the hotel remains unoccupied, unopened, and unfinished.
Construction on the Hotel of Doom stopped in 1992 (rumors maintain that North Korea ran out of money, or that the building was engineered improperly and can never be occupied) and has never started back up, which shouldn't come as a shock. After all, who the hell travels to beautiful downtown Pyongyang?
With Pyongyang's official population said to range between 2.5 million and 3.8 million (official numbers are not made available by the North Korean government), the Ryugyong Hotel—the 23rd largest skyscraper in the world—is a total failure.
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