Mount Royal International Business Institute in ChengDu

[Hypiereon]

This school offers you 4,000 Yuan and all the usual contract benefits, but will also work very hard to stick you with as many hours as they can. I was able to get away with 14 hours on mine, but one unwary soul was signed up for 22. I educated him.

I'm not much one for word of mouth stories myself, but how else are you ever going to find out anything? Anyway, take what I say here with a grain of salt as it was told to me by others who experienced it themself. Cliff Liao, the hiring face of Mount Royal in ChengDu, was said by a male foreign teacher to have gotten into a shouting match with him, and another female foreign teacher also told me Cliff yelled at her for which she later demanded (and received) and apology. For my money, Cliff is a pretty nice guy under a lot of pressure and it comes out in all the wrong ways at times. However, he does not really try to go out of his way to keep everyone informed about the classes that pop up and send you off to who knows where - and therein is the gist of my major complaint.

Whatever hours you're signed up for will not be what you put into this place. The worst case being the pour souls who were sent all the way out to DuJiangYan (about 1 1/2 hours of travel time one way) and were not compensated for that travel time, nor did the travel time count toward their weekly hours they were expected to fulfill. There was a lot of griping, and that's when Cliff went off on them.

Next comes the math. They agree to "over hours pay" but then calculate it over the entire month. For example, me working a 32 hour week for the first two weeks of January and then not working the last two weeks because of the Spring Festival break should have equaled 36 over hours in my book - but wait, this school will spread those hours over the entire month, and so now instead of 32 over hours at 100 yuan per hour and a 3,600Yuan little bonus for that month, you're instead stuck with 8 over hours and 800 Yuan at the end of the month. You THINK I'm joking. They will work you to death and then try to pay you as little as they can for it. But then again, that's most schools I know - this one just tends to be a little more aggressive and backhanded about it.

In all, take the words of the female teacher who was yelled at into consideration: "Tell everyone you know to stay the hell away from this school!" As for me, I started in August on a one year contract and terminated it prematurely on January 31st of 2006 after I had a better deal in my pocket somewhere else. This place just isn't worth the headache. One more thing - it's NOT a school, it's a business, and as with all things business the only thing they care about is the bottom line - and you are therefore an automatic liability that has to be contained as much as possible.

Mount Royal International Business Institute - ChengDu Branch - is located at the following address:
19 QingHua Rd, Qing Yang Gong, ChengDu China 610072
ChengDu Hydroelectric Power College (The business institute has their office on the campus of this college.)
Cliff Liao contact info: liming611@yahoo.com.cn Mobile number in China 139-8210-7252
Other phone numbers of the "Institute" are: 028-8733-4764; 028-8734-2963; 028-8734-6180

One other fact to keep in mind. Cliff works for a guy that goes by the English name of George who is an old college buddy of a man by the name of Deng Hegang who works for another training "Institute" at SiChuan University. It's called ILTC - Intensive Language Training Center - and is not directly affiliated with SiChuan University no more than Mount Royal is affiliated with the Hydro-Electric Power College. The difference being that I've worked for ILTC and really enjoyed working there without any problems what-so-ever.

Only reason I mention the relationship is that Mr. Deng was the one who referred me to his pal George on the other side of ChengDu. I'm still learning my way around this city, so to speak, but while I wouldn't mind working in the ILTC program, I'd NEVER go back to Mount Royal as a full-time teacher. Part-time work would be something I'd only consider on a case by case basis, and only if they paid me up front. I'd never let them be the ones pulling my strings again.

[thehybrid]

Dear Friends,

This is actually quite useful information for me to find. I've been teaching for a year at Changsha and am now attempting to move to and teach in Chengdu.

I've actually also met Prof. Deng, and after finding that the ILTC didn't have any more openings, he was kind enough to offer referring met his friends in the city. However, luckily for this message, if I'm referred to the mentioned school, I'll carefully try to avoid it.

I can say that the school I taught at in Changsha also felt like a mere business, especially because of the elitist students (it was a private school for the rich) and a non-professional opaqueness in the way they do things.

I would recommend public schools, but openings are sometimes scarce, and benefits somewhat pale in comparison. Of course, this is only from my short experience, so perhaps its not so. On the other hand public schools can also have lousy treatment of foreign teachers, I suppose.

For my own info, are there other official feedback forums for relating experiences of English teachers abroad?

Thanks!