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Schools To Teach At Tianjin Civil Aviation University of China
Schools To Teach At Tianjin Civil Aviation University of China
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Civil Aviation University of China
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3.0 (1) |
General School Info
| School Description (NOT A REVIEW) |
The Civil Aviation University of China is located just outside Tianjin Airport, about 12 km from downtown Tianjin. As of right now, the school has kind of a deal going on with Rolls Royce, in which Rolls Royce supplies them with the bulk of their English teachers. There's also usually teachers from Sweden or the United States working in the Air Traffic Control College. They get paid quite a bit more, but are teaching specialized English for use in ATC. *Some of this information may be out of date, as this is a copy of a review I wrote from 2005 |
| Kind of School | Public University |
School Contact Info
| Chinese Name | 中国民航大学 |
| City | Tianjin |
| Address (English) | Tianjin, Dongli District, Jinbei Gong Lu Number 2898 |
| Address (Chinese) | 天津市津北公路2898号 |
| Telephone Number | (+8622)24092051 |
| This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
User reviews
Average user rating from: 1 user(s)
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A decent starter job.
| Overall rating: | 3.0 | |
| Accomodation: | 4.0 | |
| Administration: | 4.0 | |
| Salary Issues: | 3.0 | |
| School Facilities: | 4.0 | |
| Intangibles: | 2.0 | |
| Overall: | 3.0 |
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Reviewed by adminJanuary 29, 2009
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Review
| The Good |
Low hours Management is generally easy to deal with Large, spacious apartment is provided |
| The Bad |
Campus is about 20 minutes from the edge of the city, and about an hour away from anything interesting. Pay is quite low, (this is somewhat expected at public universities) Classes can be large |
| Overall |
Accomodation: Not bad, especially, (from the sounds of it), by Chinese standards. Your apartment will probably consist of 4 rooms: Bedroom, Living Room, Kitchen, and Bathroom. Both the Bedroom and Living room are pretty big. The kitchen features a gas burner and microwave, (although no oven), and the bathroom has a western-style toilet. The shower in the bathroom has hot water, although the hot water heaters on the first floor tend to hang from the cieling over the bath, meaning you have a pretty restprovided with a computer, (albiet a *beep* one), printer, and broadband Internet. On ricted area to shower in. You're the North campus there's probably about 8 or 9 Canteens, restauraunts, and bars (which stay open till 10:30 if you're lucky), and there's probably a few more on the South campus as well, although I tend to spend most of my time on the north. There's also several places outside of campus located nearby, which I like to visit from time to time. Accomodation score: 8, but I wish everything on campus didn't close down so early. Administration: This one I'm going to leave a question mark on. In general, I've had great support from the Foreign Affairs office and from my school when I've needed it, although they're overworked and understaffed. For example: about 2 months ago, we had an incident where one of the maids was trying to scam us out of a bit of money to get our water, after this happened twice, we phoned Foreign Affairs, and within an hour we had our water and our money back. Also, whereas most schools will make you purchase the ticket yourself, and refund you when you get here or at the end of your contract, (if at all), at CAUC they buy your tickets in advance and send them to you via courier. That's something you don't see too often. They do occasionally ask you to pick up extra classes, (which you can refuse), but they always pay you for it, even if you're contract says you can work more hours. That said, there are two teachers here who have described very different experiences. It's so different to what I've experienced that I have a hard time taking it at face value, but I'm not dismissing it out of hand. There's also administration for each college, and your interactions with them can be quite varied, as well. I'm most knowledgeable about the Cabin Attendants College, (Flight Attendants. I taught here last term), the Flight College, (Pilots. Where I'm teaching now), and the Foreign Languages Department, (Mostly English majors). In the Flight College and the Foreign Languages Department, interaction with the administration is fairly minimal. That means that if you're teaching there you won't get a whole lot of help, but you also can do pretty much what you want, (which I kind of like). This lack of instruction is something I'm told the Rolls Royce people are going to try to remedy next term, but I wouldn't completely count on it. We teachers, on the other hand, are going to try and give some guidance by leaving lesson plans and whatnot for the new people so they aren't overwhelmed when they get here next year. In contrast to that, in the Flight Attendants School I recieved quite a bit of guidance from everyone in the department. I have nothing but good things to say about the people in this department, as they did really seem to care and were supportive in helping me do some of the things I wanted to do. The only real complaints I had were that we were using an old, antiquated, and basically useless textbook (which I pretty much threw out the window on the first day), and that I wished the classes had been separated into different levels so that it was easier to teach relevant material, (see my commentary on students to get a better idea of what I'm talking about). Administration score: I'll give it an 8, but with the caveats I mentioned before. General Area Info: We're not in the heart of Tianjin. In fact, we're quite a bit on the outskirts. A taxi cab into town generally runs between 25 and 35 yuan, (although the bloodsuckers on campus always want to rip you off for more), which is quite a bit more than it would be if we were closer to the main part of the city. On the plus side, the air is much cleaner than in the main part of the city, and the relative isolation makes it easier to save money. And if you really want to, a cab or bus ride into town isn't all that difficult. Tianjin is also only an hour and a half from Beijing by train, so if you're in the need to try something new, it isn't hard at all. Tianjin as a city isn't as happening as Beijing or Shanghai, but I kind of like it that way. I feel like the city has character, even if it doesn't have all the famous attractions of other places. That also means that you stick out a bit more. I've also recently started up a website for expats in Tianjin, the cleverly named www.TianjinExpats.com, which should prove to be a useful resource for you if you're looking to find out about things happening in and around the city, or want to find out about shopping, sightseeing, etc, in Tianjin. Area score: For some reason, I really like Tianjin, although I kind of wish I was more "in the city" than I am. I'll give it an 8. School Info: Teaching: This seems to vary depending on the program you're in. If you're with the RR group, you'll probably be teaching both Oral English as well as "Listening and Watching". Classes on the whole are big, although average by Chinese standards. I averaged about 30-35 kids a class, (7 classes once a week for 90 minutes), and some of those for other teachers were as high as 50. In the Foreign Languages Department, you aren't really given any guidance, whereas in my department I had regular contact with department management. The lack of supervision in some departments can be a curse and a blessing, as it also means there aren't a lot of restrictions. Students: Once again these vary greatly from class to class, and even within class. Some are great, and really surprise you with interesting comments from time to time. Some are more like talking rocks, devoid of expression and imagination. In the Cabin Attendents school, they are probably the worst students all-around. There are some really bright kids here, don't get me wrong. But there were some who were so bad they had to get their friends to come in and tell me they couldn't speak any English. I recommended to the school that next year they should put the students into different levels of English so that you don't have situations where the worst kids just aren't getting anything because they don't know enough language to understand the basics, or where the best kids are bored to tears because you have to talk down to everyone else. They need to start some kids out on lower level English, and give some of the others a greater challenge. In the Flight School, you basically have the same thing. In my experience though, there is a smaller gap to work with in the Flight School. The worst pilots aren't as bad as the worst Cabin Attendants, and the best ones aren't as good as their best, either. The Pilots are also a bit more willing to speak as well. I would probably put overall teaching and student experience to be around a 7 or so. I've enjoyed it, but there are obviously things I wouldn't mind seeing improved. Pay: On the whole isn't all that good. You could get better pay at many schools, but at CAUC the hours are generally a lot easier, and with the Rolls Royce group of Brits that come in every semester they get round trip airfare for a 6 month contract, which is unheard of in most schools. I'm on contract for 16-18 periods a week, but only teach 7 90 minute classes for 4k/month, (that was last semester. Now they've got me up to my full 18 period quota). And as I said earlier, the distance from city center also helps that pay to stretch out a little longer than it would in other places. Probably give that about a 5. Intangibles: There's no requirement for insect repellent, but you sure as hell want to have some handy. You can get that in Tianjin. Right now it's too cold for bugs, but in the summer they're going to be hellish. In Minnesota, we call the Mosquito "the state bird", but the ones in Tianjin are quicker and meaner, in my opinion. I have a bunch of doxycycline, which is an anti-malarial, which I'll start taking again once it gets warmer again. I was also recommended to get the shot for Japanese Encephalitis, but never did because it was too expensive in the U.S. I'm told they have a cheaper variant available here, but if you have NHS you might want to take care of that in Britain. I'll give a big "Boo-Hiss" to the mosquitos. Overall: Things could be better here, but they could be worse, too. The biggest thing dragging the school down is pay, although some other areas could definately use some improvements as well. I'll give it a 7 for now, but there's potential still for rise and fall. A decent starter job for someone who wants an easy introduction to China, and isn't too concerned about location or money. |
| Would You Recommend It? | Unsure |
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