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SH_Panda
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 455
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 Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 9:06 am Post subject: Bring Family and Teach in HK? |
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I currently live on mainland China, and I'm DoS and teacher at a school here. I am also married to a Chinese lady and have a son too.
For various reasons I see our future away from mainland China and I am exploring options abroad.
HK would be fantastic as my wife and I love the place. I'm aware that salaries starting out can be low, but reading around it seems that once you are on the ground in HK it's easier to find good opportunities. I'm a solid teacher with a BA from a good UK university, I have a real TEFL cert and I have 7 years' teaching experience. I am also studying for an MA in education online.
Would I realistically be able get a job to support my family in HK for a year or two?
Appreciate any replies  |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 11:09 am Post subject: |
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Depends on your lifestyle requirements. I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. Don't expect much savings / luxuries at that level though.
There are currently lots of opportunities here for increasing your income though if you have the right attitude and make the right connections. |
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SH_Panda
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 455
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| Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:21 am Post subject: |
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| Jmbf wrote: |
Depends on your lifestyle requirements. I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. Don't expect much savings / luxuries at that level though.
There are currently lots of opportunities here for increasing your income though if you have the right attitude and make the right connections. |
Thanks for the reply.
Do you know how much those families pay to send kids to local schools? |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| SH_Panda wrote: |
Do you know how much those families pay to send kids to local schools? |
It varies from free (fully sponsored govt local school) to $3-4K (DSS local school) per month.
Of course even with no school fees there are some associated costs for uniforms, school buses etc etc. |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| Jmbf wrote: |
| I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. |
where are they living? in a cardboard box?
what are they eating? ice cubes?
no misc. expenses for transport, utilities, clothing?
20K is doable for a single person with free housing.
don't mislead the original poster, or anyone else reading this thread. |
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SH_Panda
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 455
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:20 am Post subject: |
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| Serious_Fun wrote: |
| Jmbf wrote: |
| I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. |
where are they living? in a cardboard box?
what are they eating? ice cubes?
no misc. expenses for transport, utilities, clothing?
20K is doable for a single person with free housing.
don't mislead the original poster, or anyone else reading this thread. |
How much do you think I'd need, bare minimum, not including the cost of housing? |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Serious_Fun wrote: |
| Jmbf wrote: |
| I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. |
where are they living? in a cardboard box?
what are they eating? ice cubes?
no misc. expenses for transport, utilities, clothing?
20K is doable for a single person with free housing.
don't mislead the original poster, or anyone else reading this thread. |
Regardless of whether you believe it or not it is true. Over the many years I have lived here I have met western families who live on a similar amount. It's certainly not an enviable lifestyle and not one that I would necessarily recommend long term but people are free to make their own choices and indeed do so for different reasons (improving career prospects, gaining necessary experience etc etc).
To provide some examples, a whole floor of a village house (thats 2 bedrooms, approx 700 sq ft) can be had for 8-9K out in the NT, shopping in the local markets keeps grocery costs to a minimum, around 2-3K / month, public transport is cheap, many local schools are free, there are cheap mobile phone plans for less than $100 / month etc etc.
Living in HK doesn't HAVE to be expensive and for the frugally minded it is possible to live here for less. Now if you are expecting to live a comfortable 'western' lifestyle here with a modern centrally located apartment, want to frequently enjoy drinks in western bars, eat out often, have money left over for trips overseas etc etc then yes even 20K plus free housing will probably leave you disappointed.
I recommend that the OP do some more in-depth research into the living costs here and decide what's appropriate for him. There are plenty of discussion threads about the living costs here with people from all walks of life detailing their real-life expenses. I've seen everything from those who survive on less than 10K / month to those who earn over 200K. |
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SH_Panda
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 455
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| Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| Jmbf wrote: |
| Serious_Fun wrote: |
| Jmbf wrote: |
| I know western families can survive here on around 20K / month if they live frugally and send their kids to local schools. |
where are they living? in a cardboard box?
what are they eating? ice cubes?
no misc. expenses for transport, utilities, clothing?
20K is doable for a single person with free housing.
don't mislead the original poster, or anyone else reading this thread. |
Regardless of whether you believe it or not it is true. Over the many years I have lived here I have met western families who live on a similar amount. It's certainly not an enviable lifestyle and not one that I would necessarily recommend long term but people are free to make their own choices and indeed do so for different reasons (improving career prospects, gaining necessary experience etc etc).
To provide some examples, a whole floor of a village house (thats 2 bedrooms, approx 700 sq ft) can be had for 8-9K out in the NT, shopping in the local markets keeps grocery costs to a minimum, around 2-3K / month, public transport is cheap, many local schools are free, there are cheap mobile phone plans for less than $100 / month etc etc.
Living in HK doesn't HAVE to be expensive and for the frugally minded it is possible to live here for less. Now if you are expecting to live a comfortable 'western' lifestyle here with a modern centrally located apartment, want to frequently enjoy drinks in western bars, eat out often, have money left over for trips overseas etc etc then yes even 20K plus free housing will probably leave you disappointed.
I recommend that the OP do some more in-depth research into the living costs here and decide what's appropriate for him. There are plenty of discussion threads about the living costs here with people from all walks of life detailing their real-life expenses. I've seen everything from those who survive on less than 10K / month to those who earn over 200K. |
Thanks for that.
Do jobs exist in more rural areas of HK? |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:48 am Post subject: |
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| SH_Panda wrote: |
Do jobs exist in more rural areas of HK? |
Absolutely. There are schools and positions for English teachers all over Hong Kong. Of course, there are more positions available in town but you will still be able to find teaching positions posted up even in the furthest reaches of the New Territories.
Also, bear in mind that Hong Kong is geographically small with an excellent public transport system. Even if you live in a geographically 'remote' area, chances are that even the longest possible commute won't be more than an hour and a half to get almost anywhere in the territory. |
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sistercream
Joined: 18 Dec 2010
Posts: 497
Location: Pearl River Delta
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:16 am Post subject: |
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I agree that it's possible for a family of 3 to live on 20K a month - provided they have a good "starting out" fund for initial purchases and deposits (rental and utilities).
SH_Panda: you mention that your wife is Chinese, but what is her background/ language skills?
Does she speak Mandarin and/ or Cantonese? Native or "3rd generation descent" fluency? Is she literate in standard and/ or simplified characters? Does she carry a mainland or other passport? Professional qualifications, training and experience?
Depending on the answers to these, once she has a dependent's visa, she could possibly end up earning as much or more than you do ... although rules are a bit different for mainland dependent spouses who do not have permanent residence in a third country.
Every family is different, but assuming she wants to, and can find a job, or works freelance in whatever field, you could even go the "normal" expat route of getting full-time domestic help - or just save a lot more than you had previously planned. |
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Kowloon
Joined: 11 Jan 2016
Posts: 133
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 5:01 am Post subject: |
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Wow, 20k a month for a family is pretty low. I mean living out in rural NT, earning that much....what would be the point? Isn't the whole appeal of Hong Kong the international aspect of it? Access to Western Amenities etc. My wife and I may have to endure 6 months or so on 24k when she is on unpaid maternity leave so we are saving like crazy to prepare for it. Hopefully I secure a better paying job in the mean time.
Anyway, would your wife consider working? I am not sure if mainlanders get the same type of spousal visa that my wife has but if she does then she is free to work on that which would be a big help. How old is your son and can he speak Canto? If he can (or is young enough to pick it up before getting to primary school) then you are in a decent position I think as you could send him to a good government or DSS school.
Good luck either way  |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:55 am Post subject: |
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Say you've got two kids and they go to local schools.
(not me - someone else)
They are bilingual.
How good an English education could they get?
Would private schools be too expensive? |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 11:52 am Post subject: |
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| mitsui wrote: |
Say you've got two kids and they go to local schools.
(not me - someone else)
They are bilingual.
How good an English education could they get?
Would private schools be too expensive? |
Highly depends on the local school. There are hundreds of local schools, varying in quality from very poor up to a very good (comparable to very good international schools). Naturally the competition to get into the good local schools is intense.
In general the international schools are very expensive although costs can vary between them. Budget around 10K / month and that may be in addition to a one off debenture payment. |
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Kowloon
Joined: 11 Jan 2016
Posts: 133
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| Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:10 am Post subject: |
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In my school we have three children who have one western parent (two of them are brother and sister).
In my opinion the brother (P1) and sister (P4) are doing well enough. They have fluent English and the sister's reading and writing is also top notch. We stream the kids from P4 and she only missed out on one of the upper classes by a percentage point or two. As you might imagine it's her Chinese reading and writing skills that pull her average grades down. All that aside I think her parents could be fairly confident of her gaining entry to a good EMI Secondary school. The other student is a P3 girl and her English is pretty poor, or at least no different to an average Chinese student in our school. |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:27 am Post subject: |
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| In many cases how well the children due at school is significantly influenced by their parents. Yes the choice of an appropriate school for your child is very important but also equally important is parental involvement. Too many parents just pick up and drop their kids off at school, help them do a bit of homework and think that's the end of their involvement in their kids education. IMHO supportive and involved parents make almost as much difference in their kids education as their choice of school. |
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