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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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 Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:23 am Post subject: |
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| My first 6m were hell. Then I met a girl who steered me to a better job and outlook on how the place operates. |
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Spatula City
Joined: 28 Jul 2015
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:03 am Post subject: |
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I am currently in a small town and there are a lot of frustrations (mostly traffic and rudeness-related, but it's all about individuals, not Chinese people as a whole) and inconveniences (which I just accept/deal with), but to be honest I find the small towns to be generally relaxed and charming. I have been here for 2 years.
I love that I can go running outside without worrying about the air quality... and I can get on my ebike and within 20 minutes I'm in the middle of some wide open fields with absolute peace and quiet. There are mountains to go hiking in nearby, and generally the people are decent. Not a lot of privacy, but I can still keep my distance when I want to. Taobao has definitely helped with a lot of things... and once you know where to go and what to do, it's really not so unbearable. I can't say that I miss the expat bubbles at all... actually, I've found them to be a major source of drama and stress more often than not.
My job is absolute cake-- 6 45 or 30 minute classes per week (except during holidays or exams, when it's less haha) for 10k, most of which I save... and the kids are great and the school doesn't care what I do in class. I really should also say that it was here that I had one of the best classes I have ever taught-- 14 years of ESL, and these kids were just so so charming and cool-- it makes things a lot more enjoyable. I also have a practical monopoly on private lessons.
I can't stay here very long because the hospitals terrify me and walking on the roads is stressful and has actually caused foot problems... but overall I won't look back on this experience or my time in China as a nightmare. I mean, usually the things I complain about are things that everyone else also complains about... in Korea, I couldn't complain about anything without someone jumping on me for not understanding the culture or some nationalistic BS about how I need to just accept it or it's not my country or something. Chinese people generally aren't afraid to be honest about things that aren't great or are annoying... it really makes it easier to do some all-important venting. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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| 6 classes pw - that's almost too few to keep me interested. |
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Osiry
Joined: 19 Mar 2015
Posts: 84
Location: Nanjing
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:41 am Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| 6 classes pw - that's almost too few to keep me interested. |
You need more hobbies  |
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theoriginalprankster
Joined: 19 Mar 2012
Posts: 895
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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I quite like Yangzhou, but the scooters trying to push me out the way, and the constant honking drive me to murder.
I hate noise, and Yangzhou is noisy.
No worries, I'm leaving soon. |
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Blistering Zanazilz
Joined: 06 Jan 2018
Posts: 180
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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| theoriginalprankster wrote: |
I quite like Yangzhou, but the scooters trying to push me out the way, and the constant honking drive me to murder.
I hate noise, and Yangzhou is noisy.
No worries, I'm leaving soon. |
I thought you just got there last month? Noise is pretty much a constant throughout this country, and you're unlikely to find a place without some kind of bother. |
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thechangling
Joined: 11 Apr 2013
Posts: 276
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| theoriginalprankster wrote: |
I quite like Yangzhou, but the scooters trying to push me out the way, and the constant honking drive me to murder.
I hate noise, and Yangzhou is noisy.
No worries, I'm leaving soon. |
I agree with you mate. The noise here just drives me bonkers. Another foreign teacher at my school was hit by a car here and the *beep* just drove off. This country truly is insane. |
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RiverMystic
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 1986
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 7:25 am Post subject: |
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| thechangling wrote: |
| theoriginalprankster wrote: |
I quite like Yangzhou, but the scooters trying to push me out the way, and the constant honking drive me to murder.
I hate noise, and Yangzhou is noisy.
No worries, I'm leaving soon. |
I agree with you mate. The noise here just drives me bonkers. Another foreign teacher at my school was hit by a car here and the *beep* just drove off. This country truly is insane. |
The other FT got lucky. The driver didn’t back up to run over him a second or third to make sure he was dead. Foreign privilege right there. |
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In the heat of the moment
Joined: 22 May 2015
Posts: 393
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 10:43 am Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| 6 classes pw - that's almost too few to keep me interested. |
Definitely too few for me, I'd forget to prepare or turn up for some of them. Plus the boredom. Teaching 10 classes a week is the lowest I want to go, even then I have some level of boredom.
Saying that, I don't have to take any work home from the uni I work at. If each lesson included receiving 30+ essays to mark, then I suppose that's easily sufficient. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Good point. If there are 6 writing classes, that's another matter.
Oral - a doddle. |
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jimpellow
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 913
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:32 am Post subject: |
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| theoriginalprankster wrote: |
I quite like Yangzhou, but the scooters trying to push me out the way, and the constant honking drive me to murder.
I hate noise, and Yangzhou is noisy.
No worries, I'm leaving soon. |
This seems to have been the best position you have found in the last couple years of ongoing job churning which you have generously been sharing with this forum.
Please tell us you are finally leaving China. Now I am in Sri Lanka leading a relaxed life on the beach and keeping busy online. You need to take that leap of faith that you can do the same in your goal of the Philippines. |
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Spatula City
Joined: 28 Jul 2015
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
Good point. If there are 6 writing classes, that's another matter.
Oral - a doddle. |
It's just oral English-- no marking, no writing, no essays... I don't even do exams. I used to do them, did up a rubric with a carefully thought-out points system that spoke to my students' needs... and I had the marks ready to hand in... but nobody asked for them and nobody cared when they didn't show up.
My school has new leadership as of last semester so this semester things were shifted around and classes split up... so there was less room for oral English in the timetable, and they couldn't reduce my salary-- so just 6 lessons per week with no office hours for full pay. Not counting privates, I only put in 5.5 hours of work every week.
The way I understand it, my job is to let everyone in town know that my school has foreign teachers so that they seem like a really good school. To be honest, I'm not sure that it even matters if I show up at all, except it would make the school look bad if I didn't.
Sometimes I think I am less active than my 70 year old parents. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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Incredible. I think the token white face is the biggie.
Back in the day I had a job over July and August, at a language school. I had no classes on weekends which was the busiest time, but I had to sit 'on show' in the reception area. |
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