Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College

Phone: +86 431 8688 8068
E-mail: merryinchina@yahoo.com.cn
Reviewer: China Teachers' Guide

Briefly

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College is worth considering if you're serious about being a teacher, and not just looking for a long holiday in China. If you want a reliable, stable school with a number of other foreign teachers and several years' experience dealing with foreigners, it's a good choice. The salary is similar to other Changchun schools, but few can match Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College's reputation when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers.

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The Big Picture

The Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College is based in the Guilin Lu Downtown area of Changchun. It currently employs 14 foreign teachers from a number of countries, as well as more than a dozen Chinese staff. The school is specifically an English-language school, which caters to all ages, levels and specialisations.

In the Classroom

Although the school has some on-campus classes and some classes taught by its Chinese staff, most of the classes are taught by foreign teachers, contracted out to other schools and companies in the Changchun area. Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College has contracts with several major private foreign-language schools, kindergartens, government schools and universities in Changchun, as well as some large companies. It also offers one-on-one tutoring with foreign teachers.

Keeping it Together

The school maintains a professional-yet-friendly environment for its foreign teachers. All Chinese staff speak some level of English and most are fluent speakers. Some Chinese staff are devoted exclusively to office work, which is not always the case with private foreign-language schools in China. The school also has foreign and Chinese staff assigned to specific management roles, such as teacher training and travel, which provides for a more familiar, Western working environment. Contracts are available for three, six or 12 months and the standard contract requires 20 hours per week.

The school often requires new teachers to submit teaching plans for their first few lessons and occasionally after that, but this usually stops altogether after a few months.
Teaching assistants are almost always supplied for regular children's classes, but not so often during the weekend. The teaching assistants generally have a good level of spoken English and are willing to take direction from the foreign teacher as to how they should help during the lesson.

Generally, the school provides teachers with their timetable at the beginning of each month, although it's common for staff to call with extra classes. Teachers are usually warned no later than the day before if there's an extra class and the school is generally willing to accept a teacher's refusal if he or she has already made plans.

The school regularly asks teachers to take on extra classes beyand their agreed 20 hours per week, but doesn't push the issue if the teacher refuses.

Teachers' timetables are generally well organised, with at least one day off each week and enough time between classes for lunch and travel. Occasionally, the timetable is a little too tight, especially if there are last-minute changes, but these occurences are rare.

Money Matters

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College offers salaries between 4200 Yuan and 6000 Yuan per month. Most new teachers can expect to start at the bottom end of this salary range for their first year, but the school is open to negotiate higher salaries with teachers who have several years' experience.

The school runs a monthly bonus system of up to 500 Yuan (although bonuses are usually about 100-200 Yuan) for good performance and most teachers receive some bonus pay every month. The school also advertises two sponsored trips per year. These trips are usually short, two- or three-day excusions to nearby cities and are only worth a few hundred Yuan each. However, the school recently appointed a foreign teacher and Chinese staff member to organise school-sponsored travel, and there are plans to make these trips more interesting and valuable to the foreign teachers. The school also offers airfare re-imbursement with its 12-month contract, although the 4000 Yuan cap will only cover about half the return airfare to most Western countries.

The school pays overtime for work beyond the standard 80 hours per month. The overtime rate in the standard contract is 80 Yuan per hour.

The Home Front

The school offers individual apartments for teachers and usually has an apartment ready when a teacher arrives. Instead of paying teachers' rent outright, the school provides an apartment allowance of up to 800 Yuan per month, although some fully furnished apartments in the nearby area cost as much as 1500 Yuan per month and the school does not pay for utilities.

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College staff have a lot of experience dealing with foreign teachers and know what foreigners expect to find in an apartment. They try to find apartments close to the school office or the area where the teacher will have most of his/her classes. The school-provided apartments always have a bed, sofa, fridge, TV, DVD player, shower and sit-down toilet. Most, but not all, also include a washing machine and some kind of desk or table for eating and working. Teachers can also request these items from the school and they'll be supplied if available. However, some of the school's apartments are in buildings that do not offer 24-hour hot water. Staff are generally willing, where possible, to help teachers who want to change to a different apartment.

Word on the Street

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College has a good reputation among both foreign teachers and other schools. Some foreign teachers have stayed with the school for more than two years and it was recently named the largest employer of foreign teachers in Jilin Province. The Chinese staff go out of their way to help their foreign colleages. The school recently appointed an American teacher as headmaster and he is working to make the school as foreigner friendly as possible.

Work/Life Balance

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College currently employs several teachers from Australia, the US and Canada, as well as some from Europe and South Africa. As with most foreign language schools in China, the foreign staff are mostly in their 20s, although the oldest teacher is in his mid-40s.

The school organises occasional social gatherings for birthdays or special occasions, such as Christmas. These usually involve dinner at a local restaurant.

The foreign staff at Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College have more of a focus on teaching than those at some other schools in China. The foreign and Chinese staff all generally get along well and many get together regularly in their spare time.

The school also gives generous, but unpaid, holiday leave during the two major quiet periods of the year in winter and summer. By first arranging it with the school staff, it's possible to get away for several weeks during this time.

The Final Word

Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College is worth considering if you're serious about being a teacher, and not just looking for a long holiday in China. If you want a reliable, stable school with a number of other foreign teachers and several years' experience dealing with foreigners, it's a good choice. The salary is similar to other Changchun schools, but few can match Sino-Australia Jilin Eagle College's reputation when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers.