Job Discussion Forums

[chinamike]

Hey Guys,

Another question, I currently have the 400RMB residency/visa combination in my passport and it expires in August, my current school has refused to arrange an extension on it as I will not be remaining with them, 1500RMB a month is difficult to live on in Dongying, nevermind leaving the apartment and damnit I want more money!

I have a few job offers in the local area, but unfortunately I seem to be coming up against a wall of incompetency when it comes to Visa's, I'm wondering if it would be possible for my new employers to swap my visa/expert over to them, rather than going through the hassle of getting a new one on my short trip back to the UK at the end of August.

Anyone know?

[Roger]

I advise you to read up on threads that have discussed this problem complex in the past few years - an archive search will quicklylead you to them. You need to know what a "release letter' is.
Were you hinting that you have been paid 1500 a month for the past year? I don't believe you, I repeat: I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!

I do not know what your status is, but there are many mysteries in your post.

[chinamike]

Sorry only just read this post, posted a rather harsh reply to your reply to my other topic for which I appologise. Thanks for the info and I'll give you a full outline of my situation.

Fair warning, it's late, this is all over the place has bad grammar and comma overload oh and difficult to make sense of but all the info is here.

I'm 19, I teach Written, Listening and Business Oral English at a college in a small city in Shandong Province, my salary is 1500RMB/Month, I paid nearly 3800 GBP to come here. Idiotic, I know that now, I didn't a year ago unfortunately and I don't need anymore reminders

I've also managed to spend every penny I had in my bankaccount, about 1000GBP, in the first six months I was here, just to have a pretty decent social life which didn't revolve around my apartment, the internet and lots and lots of DVDs. Did spend a good 1/2 of that travelling during Spring Festival though, fun times in HIT Bar and Bu Lu Su in Harbin with Gregg, Josh, Andy and Co.

The city is called Dongying which is smack bang on top of the second largest oilfield in China, Shengli, the local government is also run by the oilfield in the main and the cost of living compared to other cities of the same size is high.

I'll also include a background of how I ended up in China, the training I received and the cost, see below, it's pretty long and boring so skip it if you want, I would, oh and if you want more detailed info about my organisation click on the link two paragraphs below.

All you need to know really is in my opinion they use a lot of false advertising to attract college leavers with little knowledge of what they're really getting into, certainly good for people with no independence who want to live abroad for a year because it will look good on their CV, don't mind having no control over where they are or what they're doing but of absolutely no use to anyone who does a little personal research or has a spark of independent thought. I am jaded though, and I don't think they like me either.

While I was attending college (To clarify in the UK college is attended generally from 16-18 and is a precursor to University) we had an organisation come and give a presentation about teaching English as a foreign language in another country and what an amazing, stimulating and life changing event it could be.

The organisation Project Trust is a UK based charity which sends "volunteers" to 43 different foreign countries around the world, advocating the ethos of living as a local. It's based on a remote Hebridean island off the coast of Scotland, run by an old Scottish noble family and provides employment for about 30% of the islands inhabitants, as you can imagine not many people there.

To get a "Project" as they refer to a teaching position, you first need to attend a selection course, which involves making your way to the island by yourself, spending a week with between 10-30 other 17-19 year olds and completing a set of tasks which show dedication, work ethos, willingness to adapt to cultural differences (i.e. Are you prepared at 17-19 to take part in traditional scottish dancing, which you're probably exceptionally bad at, because it's part of the local customs on this island etc.)

Now I was led to believe that it's a very difficult thing to get into, I later found out that acceptance is somewhere in the region of 70-80% of all applicats. After you get accepted you have a small degree of choice as to where you want to go, but in the end the final decision is made by them, for example I picked China as my country of choice and got it, but a lot of people picked Chile for example and ended up in South Africa.

After that you have to pay fees of 3800 GBP a rough translation is 1GBP = 2USD, which they teach you to fund raise from other charities or local family and friends (I ended up paying most of it out of my own pocket after working 50 hours a week for two months).

The final stage of the process is a training course for five days back on the island again with the other people going to the same country as you (28 of us are scattered over China 6 in Xinjiang, 12 in Gansu, 4 in Guangdong and 6 in Shandong, split into 14 pairs), this is designed as a way to educate you in the countries local customs, a brief introduction to teaching etc.

In my opinion half the information provided was useless, a third was wrong and the remaining 1/6 (If my maths is wrong, it's 3am and I have insomnia, living in China I'm sure you can appreciate why ) was common sense.

I teach at a college, my training (two lessons which I had to deliver to my peers) was completely focused on teaching 8-15 year olds conversational english, as was the teaching pack we were given. I teach Written, Business Oral and Listening English, to 18-23 year olds, every single one of my students is older than me as I teach the top two year groups and the poor sods had to pay to have me teach here, I'd say it took a good 8-9 months for me to begin to develop some semi-effective techniques, and the lack of structure or discipline at the beginning of the year heavily effected their attitude towards work, did get on great with them though, have my final examination with my last class in five hours, kinda depressed about that.

Cost me a lot of money, I feel like I was exploited, but I took enough out of the past year that I think it was worth every penny, even if it was just for the lessons I learned.

Sorry about the messy layout, headache, should be asleep right now but not going to happen.

Thanks,

Mike

[WYSIWYG]

[tw]

Basically what he is saying that is he came here as a "volunteer" (and I would use that term VERY carefully). I have seen these kinds of ads. Does GEVU ring a bell to anyone? The likes of GEVU charges an "administrative fee" for foreigners to come to China to work as "volunteer teachers" with "pay" to "cover living costs". I have heard of some British bloke in his early 20's teaching in Dalian making 2000 a month because he hasn't finished his degree yet.

But yeah 1,500 is not a joke, it's a complete rip-off.

[chinamike]

Oh did I fail to mention I'm the second highest paid member of my organisation in China, there's a girl down in Guangdong making 1900, but the guys in Gansu/Xinjiang are on 1000 tops, average is 1000-1200 a month.

Better than GAP though the guys on GAP in Shanghai are getting 1200 a month, I can't live in the relative sticks on 1500 a month so how the hell they manage I don't know, but then they're only out for 3-6 months generally.

Again sorry for off topic, anyone know the answer to my original question?

[WYSIWYG]

Just out of curiousity, how many hours do you work for that 1500/month?

[kev7161]

My school is doing something similar next year. Instead of hiring a bunch of new, bothersome foreign teachers next year at four to five thousand each, they are bringing "volunteers" over from a sister college or something in Australia or maybe England. Not too sure of all the details. My guess is that they are teaching majors and will get some sort of credit for it back in their university. This school will provide them meals, a place to live, and maybe a small monthly stipend. This school gets a bunch of young, energetic, and wholly inexperienced teachers (who have no inkling of what they are getting themselves into, I'd imagine) at a much, much less cost than they would hiring a dozen full-fledged (knowledgeable?) FTs.

[tw]

Soon more and more (good) universities will do this to save money and being able to send THEIR students to USA or where have you to study and/or work.

[tw]

[chinamike]

Some interesting opinions expressed, I know what you mean about Universities and exchange programs, UPC the local University has an Exchange Program set up with Skidmore University where they swap teachers meaning UPC sends professors over to the USA for a year and Skidmore send out 4-5 graduates from their programs, the Chinese professors get paid an equivalent salary to a professor in the UK for a year, and the Skidmore graduates get 3000 RMB a month and some other things I'm not too sure about, some of em read the forums here I think, most of em heading home soon which is depressing.

Although I have to say most of them do have actual teaching qualifications rather than TESOL qualifications. My organisation is a little different, I'm jaded about it which doesn't help in my portrayal, but it's been doing this since the 1960's, however back then I feel it really was an educational exchange/gap year program, now I feel it's more a money making scheme but with a good established history hiding its new front.

Oh as for the school which employs me, compared to most Chinese schools they're actually really nice, decent, down to earth people. I can honestly say I haven't met Chinese people as nice as the ones I work with and for anywhere in China. They got sold the image of Project Trust, the head of foreign affairs at my college believes in it totally, and I don't mean as a way to make us comply with my organisations rules i.e. advocate a year of celibacy etc. (Yeah right!) He really does believe it's a good thing and follows its literature to a T, added to this they got two foreign teachers for a combined total of 3000RMB a month.

I work about 13 hours a week in the classroom (My classes are between 2 and 3 hours each, 3 hour oral lesson with a trade english group is hell) and depending on how much time I put into English Corner I can do from 14-16 hours a week work, not including lesson planning. I'm contracted for an hours English Corner every week but the students sometimes manage to hijack me for an extra hour or two.

The school also employs one fully qualified teacher from the UK, who has a CELTA certificate alongside her teaching and masters degree and they pay her 4500, which is about the average wage for a teacher not employed by a private school in the local area, such as EF or Shane, I applied to EF as a last resort, really don't want to work there in all honesty after the horror stories that I've heard but they can sort me out with a Visa.

The one thing my current employers have been hugely helpful with, is just this morning they said that they would help me get my current residency permit/expert certificate transferred over to the local middleschool which has offered me a contract on 4500 a month for about 14-16 hours a week. The middle schools head of foreign affairs appears to be a little incompetent in arranging visa's so my current boss is going to ring him today and explain exactly what is needed.

Still any advice you guys can give is muchly appreciated as I don't want to go through a franchise or an agency if I can help it, had enough of those already.

Thanks,

Mike

[tw]

I would take the middle school job. 4500 a month for 16 lessons a week is good money in the boonies. You can save a lot of money and gain valuable experience. At your age no college or university will consider you because quite frankly, you are just too young to be teaching even their first-year students who are not much younger than you are.

[Volodiya]

chinamike, the thread went in a direction that may not have resulted in your getting a response to the question you asked in your first post.