Job Discussion Forums

[ihanks]

Hey everyone. I've got this plan that I'd love to carry out, but I'm not to sure how feasible it is. Please give me some advise if you can.

I graduate with a BA in the spring. I want to spend a year in Hong Kong doing NGO volunteer work, Chinese language study, and English tutoring.

My assets will be about 5 grand and I'll be going with my girlfriend who lives in Hong Kong. With very little teaching experience under my belt, but with her Cantonese, do you think it's possible to wrangle together some evening tutoring sessions that would be enough to pay for my part of the rent/food? I figure the language study could score me the visa.

All I want to do is scrape by. I don't intend to hit the bar scene. Should I plan to burn through my bucks? Also, if anyone knows about the NGO scene I'd love to hear more about it. I'm an East Asian Studies major and I'm trying to get experience doing community development work. Oh, I'm also considering applying to HKU for grad school. If anyone knows foreigners doing going to school at one of the Universities in Hong Kong please put me in contact with them.

thanks a bunch,

- Ian

[Peaches En Regalia]

[ihanks]

Please clarify the "No" a bit more. I understand there is a difference between
study and work visas. Obviously I'd be teaching illegally.

Maybe I should phrase my question differently. How does English tutoring work in Hong Kong? Can English teachers find off the book tutoring work easily? What is the going rate? I found this kinda of work pretty easily in Hong Zhou, China and just wanted to know what it's like in Hong Kong.

[Peaches En Regalia]

Well, although I am sure many will say I am too overly pessimistic, this is simply as they are not in HK (and most likely never have been (and, furthermore, most likely never will be)). Standards and expectations here are high and if you do not meet such requirements then you will sink � and quickly at that.

[ihanks]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm just a bit confused because my Hong Kong friend, with barely any training, was tutoring at $40/hr back when she was in
highschool in '99. Have things really changed that much since then?

Also, did you say $4,000-$5,000 American dollars per month for living costs?
That's a ridiculous number. I'm not interested in some hot shot apartment overlooking the harbor. It's not seriously that expensive there is it?

[Peaches En Regalia]

I do not know if you are being deliberately silly or not. Anyway, you say your "HK friend" so I presume you mean a HK permanent resident. Do not compare yourself to such people as they need no visas whatsoever and I also presume that s/he can speak fluent Cantonese. I presume you do not. Furthermore, even (indeed, especially) in 1999, $40 was absolutely nothing � but two trips to MacDonalds. As regards rent, why on Earth would I use US$ in a HK forum in answer to a question relating to HK? The HK$ is the currency in HK and so all prices I quoted were, obviously enough (I thought), also stated in HK$s. You are obviously not aware but rent in HK is high (primarily by dint of the fact that there is clear tension between on the one hand a (quite serious) shortage of suitable land for housing and, on the other hand, 7-odd million people). This is why posts such as those of the EMB NET offer $10,500 HK per month housing allowance in addition to the salary of (anywhere between) $30,000 and $70,000 HK per month. (And there you are rambling on about a poxy $40 per hour - for Christ's sake man, I've lost more in HK running for the bus!)

You strike me as another of these na�ve people who seem to think that HK (or anywhere they choose to pass through) owes them a living.

[ihanks]

Ok, so you were talking in $HK and I was talking in $American. My point was that my friend (HK resident and highschool student), as well as other foreign students that were her classmates, were all teaching at $40 American per hour with very little teaching experience. So I find it hard to believe that you think I could only be making $2 American pretty much doing the same thing, even without a working visa.

Second, why all the hate? I'm just looking for a way to develop a international career in community development. I'm not trying to scam anyone here. I want to live in Hong Kong because of the NGOs, not for the bar scene. There's no need to patronize me. Of course I'm naive! That's why I'm coming here. It would be really cool if instead of talking down to me about mixing up numbers when it comes to currency, or calling me a silly naive newbie, you spent the time clarifying things a bit for me.

Patience goes along way man. Your not going make the world any better talking down to folks.

[Peaches En Regalia]

I can tell you straight off that HK is not for you.

How many other people have even so much as attempted to answer any of your points, ihanks? Perhaps you should reflect on why that may be.

If you ask a stupid question you will get stupid answers. If you go around assuming everyone uses US$s because you are a Yank and that is what is used in the US then you will be asking for and inviting misunderstandings. Personally I do not give a flying fig about you or your "friend" (though I see it is now "friends"). I see the likes of you fleeing HK with their tails between their legs on a daily basis.

You don't actually want answers though, do you? What you really want is simply to be told what you want to hear. Your earlier allusion to Mainland China is typical of this attitude. 'It's like this there so why should it be different anywhere else?' is an underlying assumption that is so cretinous that it had many here laughing out loud. The fact that China is a Third World developing state with some 400,000,000 peasant farmers and HK is a world class economy with close on 200,000 foreign domestic maids seems to have somehow escaped you.

Your insistence on mentioning NGOs is also misplaced. The following should be flashing in neon lights above your door: You need a work visa for voluntary work in HK � no NGO can or will take you on without such a visa. With study, too, your points could not be any more incorrect. You need a study visa to study in HK, and HKU can not and will not accept you as a student without such documentation. Is that clear enough for you?

You keep harking on about the bar scene, yet, unless I am mistaken, I have never mentioned the bar scene. You cite luxurious pads overlooking the harbour yet the rent I quoted would only get you a place in a strictly working class area of HK or a flat out in the countryside (where there are even less chances for private lessons). The pads to which you refer cost billions of dollars (HK). Basically, you just want it all handed to you on a plate, don't you? You want it all to be lovely jubbly. Interestingly, the ridiculous attitude evinced on your part seems to stem exclusively from some misinformation from high school buddies. As such, what we have here is, I think, nothing other than an instance of wishful thinking.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Or, in your case, do not even enter it in the first place.

[Ricci]

Firstly, I know many people here who work, legally and illegally, with no teaching experience or qualifications and get by very well, so yes, it is possible. As you say, you don't want to live the highlife, just to get by and have a nice time with your girlfriend. Sounds lovely. Also between two of you rent needn't be anything like as much as the lovely Peaches quotes. My flat is brand new, a good size, furnished, with a gym, a pool, sauna, steamroom, mini-golf(!) and I pay HK$3000 per month. As for;
"I see the likes of you fleeing HK with their tails between their legs on a daily basis." These people, I'm sure, are not fleeing HK, but just tell Peaches they are leaving so that they can get some peace and quiet, away from his self-celebration.

[Peaches En Regalia]

Who rattled your cage, troll?

If you want to advocate illegal activities then that is up to you, of course. If you want to give someone false hope that is also up to you.

I doubt very much if anyone is in the least bit interested as to your rent and you achieve nothing by citing it (expect for embarrassing yourself quite profoundly).

[ihanks]

Ricci, thanks for the reply. Glad to hear a sane voice out there thats sans hate. It would be great if you could give me some more details about illegal tutoring. How much can people make per hour? Is it something hard to put together? should I really only count on a few hours per week tutoring? That's how it was on the mainland at least. Good tutoring money, just not a whole lot of people that could afford it.

As for you Peaches, know that your point about the differences between HK and the Mainland isn't logically sound. A- obviously the two are different. No need for clarification there. B- An abundance of expats and english speaking maids in a city with less people doesn't add up to less labor demand. I'm well aware that 85% of HK jobs require skilled labor, which often times means fluency in English. Heck, HKU is entirely taught in English, among others. My point is that there might be less people, but the demand for fluency is greater than in the mainland which spells high demand for labor. Sure, that demand might have dropped from when the economy was balling out of control. Hence the reason i asked the question.

[once again]

Peaches wrote:

[Joachim]

Ian,

Lots of people work here illegally. Perhaps they shouldn't, but immigration tend to be more bothered by illegal immigrants from poorer nations, and so long as you don't keep re-entering every time your tourist visa is due to expire, you should be OK.

You should be able to make about $300 (HK!) per hour doing private lessons, but it may take you a while to get started. Certainly don't accept anything less than $250.

Peaches is correct when he states that competition is fierce, as there is no real shortage of native English speakers here legally, both qualified and unqualified, legal and illegal.

Peaches, to say that HK is definitley not right for Ian because he took mild offence to your patronising, smug tone is more than a little rude, don't you think?. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - you have clearly been here too long!

Manners cost nothing.

And don't call people trolls, that's so last century.
[/i]

[Peaches En Regalia]

[once again]

Does that mean that you cannot give me an example of a home costing billions of dollars in HK?