Just to clarify to those that don't know, I came to Shanghai to attend a 4 week Mandarin course to see if it would be a possible interest to pursue a more serious Mandarin course in the future (obviously 4 weeks is nowhere near enough). But in case anyone is ever planning on coming to Shanghai to study Mandarin and randomly stumbles upon this blog in their search for school reviews (there are many...many...here), don't go to SISU (Shanghai International Studies University). To say they are unprofessional would be a complete understatement. The pace of learning is a little slow (as a local I talked to asserted). And for a school catering to foreigners, you would expect most of the staff that directly deal with the students, or at least the Office of International Student Affairs (which deals directly with the international student population at the school) would speak some English, or other languages besides Mandarin. But when I asked them where I could find a side course they offer, it took 3 staff members (and only 1 spoke very broken English, she couldn't even say "second floor", but fortunately I could recognize them saying it with my bare grasp of Mandarin), to find out and then try to tell me where it was held.
But these are minor issues I could live with and not really that major of an issue (yet?). The "dorms" I stay at, aka SISU Guesthouse, which was built by the school as a hotel (their wording) for its students and advertised as such, is the main problem. Sadly, all my classmates who live there can only wholeheartedly agree with me, so it isn't just me haha. So what's the problem? Well for one, it is filthy: water-stained-carpets-cracked-dirty-walls-bathroom-covered-in-water-mold dirty, equivalent to 2-star motels in Canada (at best). I don't think it's snobbish of me to desire some bit of cleanliness (especially after living in Canada all my life)? This wouldn't really be an issue if I had known in advance of the condition of the rooms, but when the school advertises it like a 3-4 star hotel and so I expect the room to be in a certain condition, you could understand my major disappointment (for lack of a better word). This was only compounded by the fact that when I showed up at the guesthouse at 8PM - tired and jetlagged after 18 hours of flying - I was greeted without ANY introductary or welcome information...so you can imagine I felt completely lost! And the information the school provides about the guesthouse on their website is completely inaccurate. For instance, the site says the school has 2 internet bars on campus for students to use. One doesn't exist, and the other is closed for the summer... They say you can buy phone cards at the front desk, but when I asked them, they only told me to go to the shops near the school and look there...let me say it's not too fun trying to buy something from a small sketchy shop (where they don't speak any English) when you're feeling lost and unsure, wondering if you're going to get ripped off... And I'll never forget my first meal in Shanghai the night I arrived...the front desk simply suggested I go to a small shop right beside the guesthouse that was basically a fake McDonalds...let's just say I didn't really finish my small meal because I felt disgusting trying to eat it...I've never been back to that shop hahaha. The next morning, I decided to eat breakfast that the guesthouse advertised as serving daily to inhabitants...so I went to the guesthouse "restaurant"...they told me I needed a meal ticket from the front desk...which then told me I could not purchase a ticket but had to pay at the restaurant...I'm sure you can guess where this is going...I ended up going back and forth between the 2 floors 3 times before any resolve...and the food definitely was not worth the trouble.
If you're thinking I'm painting a bad picture...I'm not intentionally trying to do so, I'm just telling it like it is. But it turns out I didn't even have it as bad as some others. My new friend from Turkey told me the night he arrived (at 2AM), he had used all his RMB to pay for the taxi ride and had $5K USD with him. But the guesthouse staff refused to change the money for him so he could pay for his stay, and he ended up having to sleep outside Luxun Park (a big park beside our school) on the streets for the night. Obviously, he barely slept, as the streets are very dirty, and he was caryying $5K USD cash on him. He even tried asking the staff to hold all his cash as collateral so he could sleep in the gesthouse for the one night and pay in RMB in the morning, but they refused.
So I'm pretty sure by now you can understand my frustration with this "institution" and my willingness to spend time to report about it. A few weeks ago, my new local Shanghai friend was talking with the convenience store operator in the guesthouse, and the lady complained to him how unprofessional (her words) the owner of the guesthouse was (and she had previously worked at other international language schools in Shanghai). And for a place that's supposed to cater to foreigners, all the instructions for the washing machines and dryers are only in Chinese, and the front desk staff speak poorer English than the school office staff.
But now the most recent kicker. The guesthouse decided it was now time to do "renovations"...basically from what I've seen, all they're doing is repainting the white walls...and they use cheap paint here in China, so you can imagine the fumes. Just my luck... I had already changed rooms once a few days after I arrived to a slightly cleaner room...and now I had to changes room today again because they are doing the "renovations" to my former floor...only in China could they get away with this... Think about it, in almost any other place in the world, if you were staying at a hotel, and they were planning to do renovations, would you not expect them to schedule their bookings ahead of time so that when the plan to the work, there would be no tenants on the floor? And even if a hotel had to do "mandatory work" on a floor which had tenants, would you not expect them to at least provide some sort of compensation for the troubles of having to move?...only in China hahaha (I found out I didn't even have it that relatively bad: 2 of my Italian friends had to change rooms 3 times now, and 1 had to change 4 times).
I apologize for this long rant, but I had to unload it somewhere hahaha. Bottom line to those looking for international school reviews in China: Don't go to Shanghai International Studies University (SISU)!!! (If this just helps one person, I'll be very satisfied hahaha)
UPDATE:
The third room I had to switch to. I managed to get some better angles of the room this time. You can better see the amount of rust, water mold, stains and dirt. It's like they never clean the rooms! And can you see those black spots above the sink in the last photo? Those are water mold colonies...AFTER I sprayed it with brand name tile cleaner, let it sit for 30 minutes, and scrubbed at it hard. Yeah, I went to the supermarket to buy my own bathroom cleaning supplies. By the end of the trip, I had cleaned 3 bathrooms I would never use again...it's a good thing that even bathroom cleaning supplies are cheap in China.
On the way to the supermarket closest to my school (about a 15 minute walk). I found the glass shards to be interesting - typical Chinese way of doing things: cheap and efficient. I couldn't have chosen a worst angle for the 2nd photo, but I didn't have time to retake one, as I will now explain. The first and 3rd shop from the left actually have those twirling barber posts outside the shop, except they're both blocked by the trees in the picture (you can sort of make out the post of the 3rd shop). Anyway, when I first came across the 2 shops, I thought they were barber shops because of the posts. Turns out after a few passes by the the shops during my trips to the supermarket, I figured out they were actually brothels, because every time I passed by, I noticed young women with wearing a lot of make-up and only lingerie for clothes lounging around on couches (the front of the shops are completely glass). And that's the type of area my school was located...what a place to put a "university".
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