Pretty disappointed with huayang right now. I have emergency surgery that needs to happen and told huayang id miss some class, and they told me the psb wont help because ive been in my home country too long. They said my visa will most likely be cancelled or ill be deported if i get the surgery and miss class. Seems to me they really dont care about their students.
seems to me like huayang are unable to move right now. suggest retaliation by competitor
Huayang - voted best and worst Mandarin school by gok.
^ Pretty sure a lot of the votes that were cast for them to win the award were made by their own staff, family and friends. During the voting week, there were also a lot of 5-star Chinglish reviews from newly registered members that kept popping up on their listing page here, and were later moderated.
I've been at KCEL nearly three years and am on my 4th visa with them. I've never had to do a PSB interview and although my attendance is good when I'm in Kunming I have often gone home for extended periods including a 7 month chunk - and I've never had a problem. In fact I've been 100% happy with them on every aspect including quality of teaching, visa application and the general friendly and helpful atmosphere. I'm sure there are people who have felt they have been ripped off in the past, but I think a lot of it is to do with unreasonable expectations - like the other chap who started the thread with the ridiculous title of "KCEL - a profit making school" - as if he was upset they're not a charity. Of course I'd be pissed off too if they didn't give me my money back or let me transfer but I don't think I would have gone in with that expectation in the first place; you have to be realistic. The best thing of course is to come on a tourist visa and sit a month of classes and then only when you are satisfied should you pay for a longer period. Maybe I'll have to eat my words one day but I just think there are a lot of cry babies out there who throw the toys out the pram whenever things don't go 100% their way.
Tonyaad - without meaning any disrespect, I think what you wrote is just alarmist nonsense. Yes Chinese people are becoming more realistic and sober-headed towards foreigners (instead of the universal adulation we may have received in the past and more often than not still do) but saying that we will soon be seen as white devils who need to be eliminated from society is just completely ridiculous. As if we're on the brink of another Boxer Rebellion. We can easily take Japan as a model of where China is going - western employees there are treated well but in a way which is commensurate with their actual ability and qualifications as opposed to simply the colour of their face. I'm sure there are plenty of loafers and wastrels in Japan but they don't get the free ride they may get in China and usually end up in a role more fitting to their abilities.
chris, with you positive attitude you wont have to eat your words. i recently transfered, rarely attended class, and traveled. its the penny pinching guys with an entitled attitude that are getting their rear end rammed. if you dont follow the rules and are so unreasonable to let go of some pennies, you deserved to get the boot. the school isnt the problem, its the students with an unrealistic attitude. there are many people here who dont see eye to eye with the school, but they admit the school took care of them.
@chris8080, with all due respect, the language I used was a hyperbole used in a cultural context. I am merely pointing out that how the Chinese government and the Chinese people views foreigners are changing and that the free ride we have been getting will be coming to a close as some point in the future.
Whether or not there is another wave of nationalism on the scale of the Boxer rebellion remains to be seen. However, one can see first hand of what that irrational nationalism looks like via the anti-Japanese protests not too long ago. And with the Chinese government and military taking a tougher stance against the west thereby causing more confrontations, it is not difficult to foresee such anti-Japanese hatred turned towards the West. You probably were not here in 1999 when the US mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, there were massive protests against the US, definitely not the safest time for Americans.
To use Japan as a model for future China/US relations is wrong on so many levels. It took two atomic bombs to bring Japan to its knees and break it's fighting spirit, something that has not happened yet in China. Many Chinese (especially those who grew up on Chinese propaganda or are fairly uneducated) believes China will be able to beat the US in future conflicts (and in some sense they are correct. The US military is far superior but to completely subdue a nation you need boots on the ground. Even with all the US's military assets in China, it will be difficult to quell a nation with a population of 1.4 billion as Japan found out. Look at Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan for further proof.)
Second, the partnership between China/US and Japan/US is different. The Nippon-US relationship is more of a symbiotic, strategic one where as the Sino-US is one of a competitive partnership, each one in it because something can be gained from it, creating an uneasy and tenuous balance.
Where as Japan has come to seen itself as something of a little brother to the US (although years of economic stagnation has caused nationalism to slowly creep in as demonstrated by Prime Minister Abe), China see the US more as a necessary evil. They want US technology, they want US innovation, etc. The moment they feel they have surpassed the US, national arrogance will set in as it always has been. While this is well into the future and perhaps beyond our lifetimes, it is the trajectory China is on. Things are changing, but don't take my word for it. Do whatever it is you want to do.
Ciao~
If you want to see idiotic nationalism, look at any powerful nation.
