Job Discussion Forums

[asiannationmc]

I am getting calls on a 10 yr old cv posted on-line somewhere. Seems like there is a shortage in Beijing.

[PittsburghSound]

I finally secured my first interview with a school later this week via Skype.

Looks like it's go time.

[jm21]

Positions are finally trickling down but not what I want. One comes close but the teaching hours seem really high: six 40 minute classes per day. 10-12k, housing, pay one month of the break.

Trying to get a position that pays at least 11 or 12k in one of cheap cities in Shandong like weifang or linyi. Want to buy a house and settle in a bit but can't afford to in someplace like Qingdao. Unless I see some job paying bonkers someplace else....

[Non Sequitur]

Work hours and pay do seem to be linked.

40 mins is a short teaching hour but that's 30 pw of contact plus prep of course.
Yantai could be a good compromise in Shandong.

[jm21]

[PittsburghSound]

I have been offered what I consider a pretty standard university contract in Ningbo. What do you guys/gals think? Keep in mind that I have no prior teaching experience, but I meet all the other qualifications (native speaker, bachelor's degree, TESOL certificate, clean criminal background check).

Salary: 6,000 RMB per month

Hours: No more than 18 hours (45 minutes per hour) per week + 1 English Corner per month.

Location: 10-15 minutes away from the heart of Ningbo by bus. I confirmed this by looking at the location of the school on a map of Ningbo.

Accommodation: Free apartment on campus + 300 RMB per month utility allowance.

Furnishings:

. Bedroom (bed, wardrobe, bedside table, quilt, storage cupboard)
. Lounge (television, DVD player, bookcase, desk, computer with email/internet access(free), telephone, air-conditioning and heating.)
. Bathroom with no leaking pipes or plumbing fittings, hot water available, wash machine.
. Kitchen (stove, microwave, refrigerator, lined storage cupboards, cooking utensils. )
. Security door and locks for all external doors and windows.

Airfare Reimbursement: 9,000 RMB upon completion of contract.

Travel and Sightseeing: 2,200 RMB upon completion of contract.

Visa and Residence Permit: I pay for Z Visa fees here. They pay for everything once I get to China (physical exam, residence permit, expert certificate, etc...).

I think I could do a lot worse than this as a China newbie with no teaching experience. Ningbo seems like a pleasant enough city. It's also close to Hangzhou and Shanghai, which is definitely a plus. I've searched through the threads here that mention it, but does anyone have any current info on Ningbo? What's the weather like? Friendly people? Fun things to do? Thoughts on what I am being offered?

Thanks,

Matt

[Non Sequitur]

Looks good to me.
I'd just clarify class size, if it is oral English you are teaching and also what A/V equipment there is in classroom. These are NOT deal breakers but if you expect a data projector and there isn't one - well....
Also get a book or short course on ESL teaching. I know you have the job based on your existing quals but believe me some basic approaches will give you confidence and an internal yardstick to measure what you are doing.
I have no knowledge of Ningbo.
Best

[roadwalker]

I only know one Chinese couple who lived briefly in Ningbo, but they liked it. There's at least one Dave's poster who has worked there. Look for old threads on it. Wikitravel has a pretty good write up on it, from a travelers perspective.

Yeah the contract seems decent enough, especially to get started. The items you mentioned seem pretty standard. Airfare won't likely cover all of it but could come close with luck. And that is one area where unis have been trying to economize at FTs' expense, so 9000 isn't bad.

Try to get in touch with current or former foreign teachers at that school.

[Listerine]

Get photos of the apartment.

Ask questions to the FTs about the apartment.

Some of these on campus dumps can more resemble Bunker 1 at Birkenau than the palatial Trump Towers the school tries to sell it as.

The teaching thing is a twaddle....1.5 hours a day. You'll spend at least 10~15 hours a day in your apartment and Ningers is on record as one of the hottest places in China. And then flip side, ice cold and damp in winter. The AC / heater unit they promise likely will just blow lukewarm air.

Ningbo doesn't have too bad a reputation these days. It's kind of in the "civilization belt" of China.

[PittsburghSound]

Thanks for the advice, all. I'll request photos of the apartment tonight and ask to speak to current teachers.

I am a newbie to teaching, but I do want to do a good job. I have several ideas for an oral English class that I think would be effective. I'd like some critiques on these ideas, and also please feel free to add some of your own ideas that work for you in your classrooms.

- Formal speech assignments: 2-3 minutes on a subject that interests them. Focus on the difference between informative language and persuasive language in various contexts. Of course I wouldn't do this right off the bat, but I would like to eventually get them talking in both informative and persuasive elements.

- Index Impromptu: This is an idea I am borrow from my college speech class. I write a word on an index card and the student will describe the word or tell a story about the word for 1 minute. Students would be chosen at random at the beginning of each class to do these.

- Skits: A restaurant scene where I organize the students into groups. One student will fulfill the role of the waiter/waitress, and the other students in the group will discuss the menu and order from it. Then they will talk with the waiter/waitress when he/she returns. Another skit idea involves a courtroom trial, where one student plays the judge, two are attorneys, and one is a witness being questioned. And of course we can do skits about dates, friends going out, etc... as these seem to be popular topics among Chinese students.

- Weekly debates: Which sport is the best and why? Who is the most influential Chinese person in history and why? Pros/Cons of social media, pros/cons of humans being so dependent on technology, etc... I can always come up with non-controversial debate topics.

- Games: of course I could always come up with games as a change of pace, but I don't plan to rely on them too much.

But these are more specific things, too. Does anyone have any advice for a general approach that I can use to make sure they are actually learning something and I'm helping?

[Non Sequitur]

[jm21]

I tried debates and it didn't work very well. For advanced students in small classes it might work. Speeches are difficult in large classes because Chinese students aren't very good at learning from each other and they will just play on their phone or whatever after about 10 or 20 minutes of speeches.

Edit:
I just accepted a job offer at an international middle school for next semester.

[Non Sequitur]

I've found debates better for advanced students too.
I restrict debates to electives where you don't know how many will attend. The thing naturally ends when all students have spoken.
Also Chinese students don't want to argue a position they don't agree with.
This is not then a 'affirmative/negative debate in my view, but a topic for discussion.
Also of course you have to assess students and the opportunities to do this are fleeting in a big class.
If you have book with dialogues of 2 or 3 characters use that and assess all students against the same yardstick.

[jm21]

If you have a big class, have the students sign up for groups. When you do dialogues or skits call on about 1/3 of the groups for each exercise. This makes the class less boring and the students will spend more time working on their English together.

For my public speaking class today I did an exercise to try to make them think about using their hands and body more while speaking: make a dialogue but you have to emphasize each sentence with a gesture or some aort of body language. They really got into it. Some good laughs too. Definitely filing that one away.

You can find students who support some views that would not typically be supported by students in the west. Had some ardent global warming advocates last semester.

[Non Sequitur]

A kid in one of my elective debates on compulsory wearing of seat belts said transgressors should be executed. His reasoning was that 'China has too many people anyway'.