The review below is based on my own personal experience and perception. Other foreign teachers may feel differently about various issues.
Software Technology Institute of Dalian Jiaotong University: A Review
The good: Quiet area; close to the sea; off-campus housing so foreign teachers don’t have to listen to loud morning wake-up music or announcements blasting from loudspeakers like in most Chinese colleges and universities; free and fast ADSL Internet in one’s apartment as compared to slow Internet speed on college LAN’s in Chinese schools; one can buy a good variety of very fresh seafood at the open market; cleverly-designed campus which makes going from one classroom building to another a very short walk (the classroom buildings are positioned into a semi-circular fashion); friendly FAO who, though a bit inexperienced and clueless sometimes, is usually in the office and willing to run some errands for you like making currency exchanges and paying your phone bills; all-you-can-eat lunches for 5 RMB at the teachers’ canteen (make sure you get there early or there won’t be much left to eat!); relatively short semesters (16 weeks long, with last two weeks used for exams); morning classes not starting until 8:20am; free school buses that go to Dalian Jiaotong University every day.
The bad: Drunken construction workers shouting at night; other than some pool halls, there is absolutely nothing to do in the area except watching TV, watching movies (downloaded or rented), surfing the Internet, and playing computer games (that is why yours truly decided to type up this review); foreign teachers have to walk or bike for over a kilometer, or take the bus (1 RMB, 3 stops) between their apartment and the campus; higher cost of living in Lvshun than in Dalian; 1-2 hours for trips to and from downtown Dalian (9 or 11 RM
; 20 minutes (30 minutes between 11am and 1pm) between buses for trips to and from downtown Lvshun (a 2 RMB, 45-minute ride); because of the various military bases, one needs to inform the FAO in advance in order to notify the PSB before one could go into downtown Lvshun; frequent foggy days; frequent windy days; dusty roads (muddy after rain) because of heavy constructions; the area becomes a ghost town after 10pm and during Spring Festival, with most stores and restaurants closed; afternoon classes not starting until 1:50pm and ending as late as 5:15pm; foreign teachers teach all non-English majors with English skills ranging from middle beginner to upper intermediate; no teaching materials provided; blackboard-and-chalk-only classrooms with desks and seats bolted down; typical inept and uncaring Chinese public school administration who don’t inform you about lesson cancellations because the students have to go to Jiaotong University for experiments and thus leaving you with a half-empty classroom when you show up for class; make-up lessons for missed lessons; foreign teachers have to attend mandatory weekly English Corners that end at 8pm.
The ugly: Frequent water shut-offs (average once a week) that last for hours if not days (every foreign teacher has a big pail filled with water in their bathroom just in case, and even fill the washing machine with water if given sufficient notice before a long stoppage); foreign teachers have to pay for the resident permit themselves (820 RMB for a year); foreign teachers live in different apartment buildings, with some apartments better furnished (imagine arriving in a new apartment and not having any curtains, closet, table, fridge, or washing machine, and having only a sofa-bed, two chairs, and a small coffee table) and better equipped (imagine having to buy your own TV because the one provided by the landlord doesn’t have a remote control and can only receive two-third of the available channels) than others, while some having fewer problems than others (e.g. water seeping through walls and roof during heavy rainfalls, or not having any water or electricity for days while other apartments do); huge class sizes (50 to almost 70 students) with two groups of students (most have very poor English and/or have absolutely no interest in English whatsoever) combined for one lesson; strict, unchangeable contract clause that states the school will only reimburse round-trip plane tickets to the nearest international airport from the foreign teacher’s home, thus making life difficult for those who wish to go directly to another school to teach without returning to their home city for the summer vacation, or those arriving from another school in China.
awm
