Job Discussion Forums

[MrWright]

Finally in China. Been here since late september. Hated it at first, and still not crazy in love, but it's growing on me. Here's my sitch. I don't know how good or bad I have it with nothing to compare, so I would appreciate anyone's insights. I teach 2-4 grade oral English at a private school in Shenzhen. I make 11,000, free apt, which is pretty spacious and well equipped, they feed me 5 days a week and the food is very good. Medical insurance is practically nonexistent, which is my biggest complaint. I teach 15 forty min classes a week, plus about 4 hours of English corner. Job is pretty easy, the school and kids like me and I like the school and kids back. Almost 3 months of vacation a year. I'm supposed to have office hours, but my contact teacher is a friend and way laid back, and he said I don't really need to go. So I work less than 20 hours a week total. I'm thinking this is pretty sweet, but maybe this is typical. Idk. I have a teaching license, so perhaps my options after this year will improve, but I'm digging the low stress and don't want to change that. I don't really like Shenzhen though. Where I'm at I can and do walk for days or weeks and never see a non Chinese face, and NOBODY speaks English here. It gets pretty lonely. So location is my other complaint. Other than that, I'm almost happy as a clam. Thoughts?

[ESL104]

When you say you have a teaching licence, do you mean you're qualified to teach in state schools in the West?

If so this is an absolutely awful deal you have and you should be shooting for 25k+ a month.

If by teaching licence you just mean some TEFL certificate, then it looks pretty good to me. 11,000 plus let's say 2500 for the apartment is 13500 a month. You say you get 3 months of (paid?) vacation a year and work about 20 hours, so that's 13500*12 = 162,000 RMB a year for 38*20 hours of work (760 hours). Which is over 200RMB per hour - not bad at all. It's essentially uni type hours but on 11,000 a month rather than 6,000.

[MrWright]

Yes, I'm a certified teacher in the States. I taught high school History and Bio. 25+ huh? The thing is I don't want some high pressure, high stress job at an international school. I left America cuz I was sick of that. Are there any other situations where I could make better money but that isn't an intl school? I think I remember a convo on here about bridge schools or something. I don't know anything about them. Wondering what my options are here.

[ben.detw]

I am in the same situation as you as far as being a certified teacher in America looking for a better job in China.

Where are these 25+ jobs? High school? Test Prep? International school?

[Alien abductee]

[jm21]

[3701 W.119th]

Yeah, sounds like a pretty good job actually. Great pay, given the hours. Apartment sounds nice. Rent in Shenzhen can be very expensive. I'm surprised you feel lonely there, in a proper Tier 1 city. Lots of English speakers. Have you started to learn Chinese?

25k+? You can take what people say about salary here with a pinch of salt.

[ESL104]

[ESL104]

[Non Sequitur]

OP mentions the lack of stress and how do you put a $$ figure on that?
I think you have a pretty good deal and more importantly have an upside if you decide later to go the international school route.
Maybe you will rediscover a love for teaching and an international school will look attractive in time.
I've always paid for my own medical and as someone has said get down to the PICC (big red signs) and get that basic RMB1500 cover.

[Bud Powell]

"...If so this is an absolutely awful deal you have and you should be shooting for 25k+ a month..."

Why?

I have a BA, an MA, and an MFA in the same subject areas. Should I ask for equivalent U.S. pay for a teacher with my education and experience in dollars converted to rmb?

That would be 420,000 rmb per year.

Stop giving bad advice and find something else to do. Maybe you could join TB in the corner and share his bowl of Cheerios. You might even like it.

[MrWright]

I should clarify the vacation time. 6 weeks unpaid in the summer. Feb off for the Chinese new year at half pay. One week off for national day in Oct, and 2 days off for Christmas and another for new year's day. So about 3 months off, but not necessarily paid. Still, it's vacation time do what I want. Gonna have lots of saved money to spend on traveling. Haha. I'm putting between $1000 and $1200 per month away. Super low expenses. At home I could save, well, nothing.

[MrWright]

It doesn't feel like people speak English here. Especially in my part of town, I promise you 1 in 1000 have functional English. And NO foreigners! Not where I'm at. (Bao'an) The occasional, sure. But normally its just me and my brit teacher buddy here. So it gets lonely. I'm learning to deal though. Chinese? Nah. Very hard to learn and I'll be here 2 or 3 years max. Doesn't seem worth it. I'm 42 and languages don't come as easily to me as they once did, and Chinese is not easy anyway. My school is private, so the classes are only 25 kids. Their English isn't always that good, behavior is acceptable, but for the most part I enjoy the job. I would love to teach History though. Aren't there "international" schools that are really just Chinese private schools for rich kids, and I can teach subjects in English?

[bestteacher2012]

[ESL104]