Complaint Review: Confucius Institute at the University of Minnesota

 My sister and I had called the Confucius Institute to set up a meeting in which an instructor there or someone familiar with China would advise us on where to go, and different foods to try when my sister and I arrived in China. We were going to Guangzhou and we thought this would be a great way to learn by contacting the Confucius Institute here.

The girl on the phone, obviously an American (though I don't know her name) told us they would certainly help and they were happy that my sister, being a graduate of The University of Minnesota, would be asking them for their advice.

They set up a meeting for that following week, actually the girl just said to come in and they would kind of "wing it" I think thats how she had put it... We came in, and a Chinese girl who addressed us at the front didn't even know what we were talking about.... and she said they were in a meeting if we could come back the next day......

So instead of dropping by again the next day, we just called them, and nobody even knew what we were talking about and we couldn't find the girl who had talked with us before.

The ended up telling us in a nice way to screw off, and to find some other people to bother with our request.

I beleive it was the director, or the directors assistant that we were talking with when they told us "We don't really offer advice on this type of thing.... " They also talked to us in a weird tone, like we were strange people or something.

Then they said "are you willing to pay for advice?" That was ridiculous. That should be offered free to my sister and I. She paid enough when she went to the University, right?

Now that I think about it I am pretty sure the person said their name was 'Jacquelyn' but at the end of the conversation we had we asked the name again, and she just ignored it and said "thank you" and promptly hung up on us. So, we can't be sure if it was a Jacquelyn we were really speaking to or another American girl working there. I think her name might have been Emily.

Either way,

I believe any negative feedback that has been given about this place. I also read somewhere, I forget where now, That this Confucius Institute had denied another graduate, like my sister, a simple translation of 3 sentences! It is a different kind of thing, a translation and advice, but wow. Does this place help with ANYTHING?

They really made us upset. And my sister said she felt like she should do something.... So we are going to warn others. Heres our warning to you, readers. The same things could happen to you! They might just brush you off too! Or worse... Who knows.