Job Discussion Forums

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

If you're living in a place so much cheaper than the UK then you should be socking 50% of your salary away at least. After 10-15 years that's plenty enough to buy a house in the UK and get $1500-2000 a month in rental.

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

But as I said, TEFL should only be for older unemployed or semi retired blokes from the West, and international schools should be for those highly qualified lot.

Also maturer, curvier asian women with no husbands should also only be for older teflers, older, curvier, richer milfs....thats the ticket, no skinny young demanding girls!

joe30 · Joined: 07 Jul 2016 Posts: 112

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Sure, you might get lucky. But that's not usually something responsible adults want to bet on.

Your post above contains another notable fallacy: that second-tier schools are more laid back, while first-tier schools require more time/energy. It's very often the opposite.

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

sistercream · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 497 Location: Pearl River Delta

Retired teacher here who just checked in on a slow day ...

Once upon a time last century, I did work at what was then one of the Big 3 international schools in Hong Kong (lots of new kids in the top tier league since then!), and I still have friends who are working at assorted international and ESF schools here.

There's just one thing I'd like to mention this time, following some rather idealistic comments further upthread.

Yes, a top tier international school teacher in HK does earn good money.

BUT

that is because the school wants to own you, body and soul, for the duration of the contract. The students get long holidays. Teachers don't.

During holidays teachers will be running summer camps, remedial sessions, doing professional development (and writing reports on it), conducting interviews/ assessing applications from potential students, wrestling with the Finance Office about the purchases you want to make in the coming term/ school year (having researched those purchases on your own time too). After official school hours you will be preparing for the Speech and Music Festival, science/ maths competitions, spelling bees and whatever else floats your school board's boat, running excursions for exchange students, attending social schmoozes for PR purposes, and anything else you can think of.

If your boss is humane, and not too hassled by the board (do not under-estimate the board's influence) you should be able to get 4 - 6 weeks off in summer, and 10 days or so at Christmas and Easter (or Chinese New Year). Oh - I do know one school where staff are guaranteed a full 6 weeks off over summer - but they have compulsory PD days at least one full Saturday every month.

And that hard-earned money? Not all international schools, but certainly some, will expect you to part with more than you might normally plan on in order to project the right image ...certain standards of grooming, dress, and even where you live/ eat out can come under board scrutiny for weal or woe.

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

One point I'd like to make from what I had experienced is:

The average international school teacher SHOULD, in theory, be having far more local purchasing power and, if you're not an idiot, global spending power, than someone working in the UK as a NQT.

Lets say a NQT is making 22,000 in my area of the UK.

Using a tax calculator and assuming NO pension contribution, you end up with:

£1,476.85

A month. In your bank. Maybe a bit less, let's say 1400.

Now, renting a room in a shared house, will set you back 500 pounds. Other bills to pay:

Electricity, council tax, cell phone bill, gas, internet for home, Let's bundle together and say they come to about 250.

Ah, but you live far from your school, no problem take the bus, a monthly bus ticket is 98 pounds.

So that's 850 in basic bills [rent/living costs/getting to work], take that away and you have 550.

You need to eat, let's say you spend 70 a week on groceries and eating out, you're a social person so you spend 50 a week on entertainment, cinema, theatre, watching a football game, going to the pub etc.

You've got 70 pounds left over at the end of the month, for everything else,clothes, etc.

Whereas when I Was in China, we got an overly generous housing allowance of $650 a month, and most of us spent $300. So we had about $350 spare, we may have had $100 in bills for electricity, gas, internet and communal charges. So we actually came out about $200 up on housing.

Tax, we didn't deal with, what was put in our salary slip was what was paid into our banks, maybe it wasn't paid, but no one knows.

Most teachers received 25000 RMB, which today converts as 2840 a month.

Add in our $200 left over from housing and we're basically at 3000 pounds.

Now, the place we were living sold beers for 50 pence, a taxi was about 2 pounds into the center of town, and after work me and a colleague would eat at a Muslim noodle place for about 5 pounds between us.

A cola or beer from the supermarket was 30 pence, and a bus in the city would be 5 pence. Subway 5 pence too.

Sure, you want to get away from a grimy and third tier city, but most people were pocketing a solid 2000 pounds a month.

There was almost no way, unless you loved clubbing and soapy massages, to spend more than 1000 pounds a month, even if you ate out every single day.

After a year we were paid 1500 pounds airfare [most spent 1000 tops] and a months extra salary as a bonus, so most people came out at about 40000 pounds a year, plus we had complete insurance from BUPA that enabled us to received treatment anywhere in the world.

Sounds good, except the boss was an idiot who wanted to open an international school to gain connections with government officials, the students were entirely Chinese and had no hope in hell of passing any GCSEs or A levels, and the school was in the middle of nowhere.

Still, socking away 30,000 pounds in a year means you only need to do it for 3 or 4 years and you can buy a house [buy one NEAR A UNIVERSITY] and then you've got a passive income of around 1000 a month.

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

Other people manage to live on a teachers salary in the UK and get married and have a family and a mortgage. These are not arcane/unattainable things.A schoolmate of mine who I thought would NEVER be a teacher and was living at home well into his twenties and worked as a CHEF at a pub, became a teacher because his background was in sports science. He pulled his finger out and became a PE teacher. OK, PE is not ESL, but someone qualified to teach PE in the UK won't move abroad with a family unless the offer is very, very good.....so in most cases they stay, where healthcare and everything is convenient. As has been said, being single is different altogether, but as I have mentioned...I don't support the kind of extended expatriation joe is talking about. Each to their own, and good luck.

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

Good points and nice to see some information from a poster with direct experience. Goes to show that there really is no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to earn good money, most likely there are going to be some sacrifices along the way.

Very interesting thread BTW - one of the better one's that I've read recently.

joe30 · Joined: 07 Jul 2016 Posts: 112

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

Haha.

I wasn't even 'properly' qualified[Although I guess I was]

I am a qualified lawyer and taught A level Law and Economics [the students could not understand the Pakistani hired to teach it].

The school basically said that it would be really hard to find a law specific qualified graduate so having a lawyer on board was ok.

I had a CELTA, LLB, had passed the Bar, fluent in Chinese and had been drinking many times with the Principal.

Also I was white and from the UK, headmaster was Irish and most staff were UK/Ireland.

joe30 · Joined: 07 Jul 2016 Posts: 112

Cheers. Sounds like there might be a high paying position out there for me too if I look hard for it. Smile

Was thinking to try hit the big cities where you can probably get more private students (I've got 2 years ESL experience), but I guess the low cost of living of a smaller place would have its advantages too.

China looks like the place to be. I'll still apply to the HK places just in case, but looks like it'd be a good idea to extend the search to all of China.