Job Discussion Forums

[MESL]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-schrader/why-im-glad-i-lived-in-ch_b_1477124.html

[LeopoldBloom]

Ok, if you do read this article, please use your 2nd grade reading skills and read between the lines.

This guy continually stresses that you can save a lot of money if you live like a local and... make $1,800 a month. His expenses were $700-800 a month.

In a room of 30 TEFL in China teachers raise your hands who makes that much every month. Ok, Ok, relax I know that there are a few of you in the crowd, settle down. But the overwhelming majority of TEFL in China teachers don't make that much every month or even half that. 5 -6,000 Rmb a month plus free crappy housing is the norm.

He's also assuming you are willing to "slum it" and eat at crappy eateries etc. and accept the almost always crappy housing. You can slum it in your home country and save money. Why up half a world away where the risk of exploitation is by employer is quite high, you are vulnerable because you are in foreign country where you probably don't know the language etc. And it is very costly and difficult to get out of tenuous and awful employment situations... situations that happen very often in the middle kingdom.

Finally, note that the author scampered out of ESL as fast as he could. Yes, if you go to teach in China for 6 months or maybe 1 year maximum it might be a fine experience but that's it.

Dave's ESL cafe is an excellent site to gain info. Middle Kingdom Life is another good website that is sourced very well and gathers many foreign teachers experience in China. Use your head and respect your life. Bloom.

[xiguagua]

I agree. He was never interested in TEFL and just used it as a springboard to pursue his career in journalism. Which is fine, it's smart, because obviously people didn't give him the chance in America, so he came to Asia where media and news sites need more insight and feet on the ground. (Lets ignore the fact that the vast majority of everything on CNNgo.com is complete garbage)

Yeah he lived like a "common local" which is fine, at least he embraced the culture so I don't have a problem with that. The problem I have is that it's just another guy that does not care about teaching at all, and just comes here for money or whatever other reason. This all ties into the problem discussed in the "Holy Teacher Talktime Batman" thread.

I do like how he talks about "food poisoning" which I don't think is so much food poisoning as it is your body taking time to adjust to the new food. I'm sure every one of us spent a lot of time on the toilet when we first arrived.

[DirtGuy]

Excellent article and a lot of truth to it. It is not hard to earn the money he made and living expenses can be considerably lower without compromising your health or comfort. Can't speak for others, but I am certainly not "slumming it" in any way. My apartment is quite large, well furnished, and extremely quiet. The campus where I work is like a botanical garden and much nicer than the city parks. Personally, I am heavier now than when I came despite riding my bike or walking everywhere.

So let's add this up: Great apartment, easy job, saving plenty of money, comfortable lifestyle, horrible pollution, insane drivers, gaining weight, treated like royalty by my bosses, having so much fun I'm re-upping for another year. This is my experience and yours may vary.

As for opportunities inside and outside of teaching, they fall out of the sky in this country. If you are not taking advantage of them, look in the mirror to find out why.

This country is exactly what you make of it and attitude plays a huge part in one's experience. This guy had a good attitude and it paid off.

DirtGuy

[mcloo7]

Dirtguy-- What kind of job do you have if you dont mind me asking? Do you do privates?

[DirtGuy]

M7,

I have your basic Y5K job at a uni plus I teach grammar and IELTS prep outside of my regular job. I'm also helping to produce a series of training videos, in English, for hospitality workers Beijing and just went through the training to be an IELTS examiner. My next job will likely be in Tianjin so that I can easily attend American COC functions and start looking for some other opportunities.

Teaching here is a J-O-B although it can turn into a long-term career. To look at it otherwise is, IMHO, a mistake. This doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't strive to do quality work and try to get your students to learn as much as possible. It does mean that to me. However, I realize that the field of education is limited but other possibilities in this country, if you want to hustle, are not.

DG

[Non Sequitur]

If you already have school-provided accom and eat at the dining halls on campus, where exactly do you make the economies?
At say RMB150 per hour for privates and an exchange rate of say 7RMB to 1US, you'd have to do mega hours to top up a basic uni salary to the figure mentioned in the HuffPost article.

[Banner41]

[GreatApe]

Good article. I think it's also "spot on" (at least as it concerns my own experiences living and working in the PRC).

It's nice to see someone write it from a straight-forward, realistic angle and not get caught up in all the negativity.

Thanks for posting the link!

--GA

[DirtGuy]

NS,

I am at the same net as the guy in the article although I arrived at it a different way. My gross is a bit lower but my living costs are way under his. I expect my gross to increase by several thousand per month next year but my living costs will stay the same.

DG

[Non Sequitur]

Well done!
That's 000's of RMB I expect.
A gradual, but helpful nonetheless, improvement in the exchange rate won't hurt either.

[LeopoldBloom]

Let's remember to honest and careful how we might lead others.

As far as opportunities for work outside of teaching for foreigners... you're far, far better off looking in your home country and getting a job with a company that does business in China.

To find a job other than TEFL in China, the vast majority of them, you'd better speak near native mandarin and make some solid connections and be able to compete with a whole mess of Chinese hungry for work. If a Chinese person can do it as well or better, they'll hire the Chinese over a foreigner in a heartbeat. That's common sense.

Also: I just want to stress that yes, it is possible to make $1,800 a month or more teaching in China. But that is far above what the average TEFL teacher makes. (Search for yourself and see.) You'd almost certainly need to patch together a bunch of side gigs, and nearly 100% you'll find at least one or two of those completely awful places to work.

There are exceptions to rule. Someone always wins the lottery but most people don't. Hard work and intelligent choices pay off wherever you are but do yourself a favor and put that to use back in your home country. You'll most likely be miserable, exploited and at a dark dead end, trapped, if you go to China to teach for more than 6 months or a year max.

LPD. Bloom.

[Banner41]

I don't speak Chinese except to order food and tell taxis where to go....I am a business analyst (certainly lots of Chinese competition), and I found the job on the internet (knew no one at the company)........wooohooo! I won the lottery!......next........

[DirtGuy]

LPDBloom,

Wow. So many places to start in on your post. Where to begin?

I am going to assume you are serious and just point out the fallacy of your major premise, and that is that you can earn a lot more money in the US vs. doing TEFL in China. Do I have it right so far? What you and so many others completely fail to grasp is that it is not what you gross but what you net. So many people, at least the ones that still have jobs (no, no, I'm not going there), make good money but at the end of the month have nothing but bills and could even be in the hole. So what, pray tell, is the value of grossing more money in the States if you have nothing to show for it?

Here in China, you may not gross so much but you certainly can save a bundle. How in the world do you think the Chinese on their limited incomes manage to save up and pay cash for their homes? You did think about this before posting, didn't you?

Please, newbies, take everything here with a major grain of salt. Try to weigh the personal bias of every poster and ask why do people with axes to grind such as LBloom write what they do? I gave way too much weight to people like this at first and then did some hard thinking. Eventually, I learned to overlook such negative posts and went for it. So glad I did.

Hey, LBloom, here is my premise and you are free to tear it apart as much as you like: If you are not putting away a large percentage of your income every month, YOU are the problem and not China.

DG

[Banner41]