Job Discussion Forums

[5h09un]

also, i think the disagreement about realistic part-time wages here is due to a lack of clarity about where one is working.

if you're at some language mill, no, you probably won't get 300 RMB an hour even if you've been there for a long time.

but sometimes people will have you come to their homes, meet them in coffee shops and organize group classes in other unconventional settings which means zero overhead and a lot more money ending up in your pocket. get enough people together and that can happen without much trouble at all.

[rogerwilco]

[GuestBob]

[Javelin of Radiance]

I'm pretty sure he meant 300/hour in private work and not 300 an hour while working at Tsinghua.

[rogerwilco]

[GuestBob]

[5h09un]

[GuestBob]

[Non Sequitur]

[NoBillyNO]

[5h09un]

[keeperofpythons]

[amemorylost]

A few things from someone who is leaving Beijing after four years here:

The expat scene around Tsinghua (Wudaokou) is largely composed of foreign students studying Chinese in BLCU, Beida (Peking University) or Tsinghua, and therefore the majority of places in the area cater to the young, drunken expat crowd.

The more adult expat scene is based around Sanlitun, which is about a 20-30 minute taxi ride away. Luckily the taxis in China are still comparatively cheap by Western standards.


The way you are treated at Tsinghua, the salary you receive and the students you get will depend completely on the relevance of your qualifications. If you're a PhD holder teaching a subject relevant to your expertise, then you'll be treated pretty well. The lower end is if you are employed as an English-language teacher for non-English majors and do not hold a degree relevant to English or Linguistics. In this position you'll be treated as another replaceable foreign face and your experience in the classroom will border on the soul-crushing. For a point of comparison, I recently worked with a girl who had studied Law in the UK, had taken and the passed the BPTC to qualify as a barrister and took the English teaching job that Tsinghua offered her so as to improve her Chinese language skills before returning to a legal career in the UK. Her experience tended towards the lower end that I described.

However, if you only want a stable and secure job teaching English at a Beijing university, you are less likely to encounter the sheer stupidity and incompetence that plagues a lot of the lesser universities in Beijing. You will still encounter issues here with organisation and scheduling, but it gets worse the lower down you go.

If you do work part-time, you can command a higher part-time rate by being a 'Tsinghua professor'. 300/rmb hour is not that difficult to get, though you do have to network for it rather than rely on the language mills to find you students. But Wudaokou is full of students preparing for IELTS/TOEFL/GRE/PTE/SAT so there is a large pool of prospective students if you're prepared to go find them.

Pollution-wise, it's as bad as you read about. Today it was difficult to see for more than about 150 metres before fading to grey, and these days are more common and uncommon. I've found that I've reduced the running I do outside, and because this area is a student area, you will not find many places with air-filters inside.

In conclusion, Tsinghua is only a good long-term option if you are teaching something related to your field of expertise. It is however a good short-term option for introducing yourself to teaching in China if you are simply doing English-language teaching. Finally, in terms of cities, I'd be more inclined to try finding something in Shanghai over Beijing if I was new to China and wanted to stay in a big city with a varied expat scene.

[Leafy Greens]

Much appreciated for all the information. I don't go out very much, however I am a halfway decent musician and I hope to find a decent gig not too far from home one or two nights a week. Even though I am a grown up, the younger scene could work if I can find work as a muso close by.

I don't have to worry about having my soul crushed. I am good at controlling classrooms and I will squash them like roaches if they mess with me. The pollution is scary. I guess I will just have to see (or not see, I guess). I may make China a career, so I am hoping Tsinghua will either become home or lead me there.

[GuestBob]