Job Discussion Forums

[parnett]

I will be finishing up my present contract and will be looking for a job in Guangzhou starting in July (or at least a job that will pay for the summer months and commence in September). I have an MA in languages, TEFL certificate and 25 years experience, so I should be able to choose where I work. I have already had contact with a training school through a recruiting agency. My questions are as follows:
- What exactly is a training school? How financially solvent are they usually?
- My salary will be 10,000 rmb/ month plus 4000 rmb/ month for an apartment. Is that the going rate?
- The school is in Yuexiu. Does anyone have info on this area?
The school guarantees the usual- visa help, salary always paid on time etc. I'm not worried about the apartment as my Chinese girlfriend will help me find one and probably live with me. As far as recruiters, I've had two experiences with them here in lovely China- one good and one not so good.

[Mr. English]

If you have a "Chinese girlfriend" why are you asking foreigners about Yuexiu? It is one of the districts in Guangzhou, roughly the northwest of the inner city area. It's an inner city area � surprise!?! 25 years MA and TEFL?!? Why do you bother with agents? Go to sources. You have 25 years' experience and you don't know � anything? A training school is an after-school school. You will teach kidlets outside of their school or adults. 14,000 per month: decent. I suggest you insist with the recruiter that you have direct contact via email or telephone with the principal before you travel to Guangzhou. If you are here, then insist on meeting face-to-face with the principal before you accept the job. 25 years, a Chinese girlfriend, and !

[muffintop]

[parnett]

I didn't post on here to be insulted, Mr. English. I taught university in the US for 25 years. I have been in China for 7 months. My Chinese girlfriend has never been to Guangzhou, so why would she be familiar with the city? I am American from New York. Does that mean I should be familiar with inner Detroit? Inner Cleveland? Inner Austin? I have no idea what a training school is as they don't exist in my country. Next time, direct your snide comments elsewhere please.

[muffintop]

You need to be looking for an entirely different kind of job with that experience imo. Find a joint venture program or an actual International School. For most training centers your previous life means little, you'll be just another foreigner. With your experience the salary they offered should have you laughing your butt off unless it's for very few hours. For perspective...10k is obtained fairly easily from training centers for a 25 hour contract and 14k I am pretty sure you can get from Wall Street English which is all over the place I think. These numbers are for a random dude with a BA/BS is anything and little or no actual teaching experience in their home respective home countries.

I am from New York also...have never visited Detroit, Cleveland, or Austin. Yet somehow I know enough to say that two out of three I will go out of my way to avoid and another I am ambivalent about.

[parnett]

Thank you for the reply, and for providing me with a rare chuckle.
I guess I should take more time, and scope out all of my options.

[doogsville]

Ten K plus 4 for the apartment is not a bad deal for a training centre in Guangzhou. Like some of the others said, it depends on the hours. If it's 21 hours teaching or less, which is fairly common, then it's not a bad deal. You're unlikely to have many office hours in a training centre, AKA a language mill. You'll likely be teaching kids and teenagers on the weekends, and adults in the weekday evenings, since that's when those two groups have free time. You may, if the school offers the service, teach business English on companies premises on weekdays.

Check all of these things with the school in advance. Also make sure they are guaranteeing two days off a week, preferably together, though that's not always possible depending on schedule. Your experience does give you other options. The question is whether those options are available to you right now, in time for when you want to switch jobs. It may be that the training centre is a reasonable place to work while you set up shop in GZ. You'll certainly have opportunities for teaching privates there, and there are quite a few universities that may be worth moving on to.

Check out this site for info on living in GZ http://www.deltabridges.com/guangzhou
There are also lots of other expat websites for GZ, it has a lot of foreigners working and living there. Good luck with it all, and remember we're not all angry antisocial know it alls on Dave's, so keep coming back and let us know how it pans out.

[Denim-Maniac]

[fred13331]

[parnett]

Thanks to everyone for your help.
To clarify a few points- I got my TEFL certificate at the University of San Francisco. It was a regular 3 credit hour course. I obtained this over 20 years ago. If language training centers existed then, I never saw them.
My problem is I want to find employment immediately after my job is over here. If a language school is the only available option, then so be it.
- By saying I wanted to find a job or be paid for the summer I was simply trying to state that perhaps I could secure a university job that would pay me for July and August before I started work. I have already had that offered to me by a university in Yichang, Hubei Province, but I have no interest in going there.
As far as Mr. English's comments, readers can interpret them anyway they want.
My other problem is the apartment. I don't want to live in a university apartment as all of the ones I have seen are dumps (including the one I am living in presently). I want a job with a nice housing allowance, so I can rent a decent flat with my girlfriend.
Hopefully, I will have an interview with the school this week.

[zactherat]

well just to give you some perspective.. a 'decent flat' (not a particularly expensive one) with your girlfriend will cost between 4 and 5k per month all told, which is GZ also entails a 2 month deposit plus about a month's rent for an agent fee - although the latter is negotiable/avoidable.

I don't know of any TEFL employers that pay housing allowances that high, so.. maybe time to readjust expectations, or dip into savings.

[choudoufu]

language training centres in the usa? berlitz.

[parnett]

Unfortunately, I tend to accept the first job offered (usually by a recruiter) as I don't have the patience to go through the hassle of looking, doing interviews etc. Money is important, as I don't want to feel undervalued, but it's not a top priority.
Your much appreciated feedback brought back memories of Turkey (where I was gainfully employed for many years) and the language schools which operate there. I am very familiar with one of them, and they offer each prospective teacher a choice- he/she can be salaried or paid by the hour. Most select the latter; however, this creates a hostile environment in which non-salaried instructors are always anxious to get any available new classes, and are then bitter with the management if one of the new classes isn't given to them (regardless of his/her popularity), but to a salaried teacher.
I have always felt that language school teachers are on the low rung of the ladder as far as actual teaching abilities are concerned (there are obviously exceptions to this).
As far as apartments, I was on the Internet checking them out in the area the school is located. There are many beautiful furnished flats for 4000/rmb a month with two months deposit. Hopefully, my Chinese girlfriend will come in handy when looking for a place to live. As previously stated, I have no desire to live on a university campus in one of their "apartments."

[doogsville]