Job Discussion Forums

[bukowski1234]

I have a masters degree in writing and rhetoric and i have 4 years experience working with college age and Asian high school student immigrants in the US.

I have several years experience as a professional writer having worked in the advertising and marketing industry, and i am also a published author.

I want to work for a public university with good accommodations and decent pay that is located in a fairly modern, clean metroplitan area. Contact with English speaking expats would be nice, but more importantly, I would enjoy working with a motivated student body and a receptive faculty.

Bottom line: I am looking for a decent school with decent accommodations in a city that has something to offer in the way if SOME nightlife as well as company which can communicate in English at least a little bit.

Any suggestions?

[millie]

What is the saying in American baseball? 3 strikes and you are out�

1) clean metroplitan area
By any reasonable standards, these do not exist in China.

2) a receptive faculty
By any reasonable standards (outside of JV programmes) these do not exist in China.


3) Can you accept about RMB5,000 as a reasonable monthly salary?

If so, you are still in the game and good luck.

BTW: Have you thought about Taiwan or Japan?

[Roger]

Biggest hurdle is the local idea that reading and writing don't need to be perfected, literature is superflusous and FTs need only apply if they want to accept oral English classes.
I am completely in support of your dream and hope you will succeed; I taught English literature and came away feeling rather exploited by my former employer.

Jobs that require you to teach writing number maybe one in 20 job offers.

[HunanForeignGuy]

[millie]

[HunanForeignGuy]

Dear Millie,

Thank you for your kind posting.

My word "premium" was misleading I think. What I meant, albeit rather ineptly, was that the tuition for the program is "premium" meaning that the students for this truly bilingual business program need to fork over about 30x the usual amount of university fees...but then they end up in some really good companies in GuangZhou, ChangSha, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Harbin, etc.

And yes, I have a post-graduate degree in ESL, but most of the teachers here do not and yet we work well together...well...most of the time...ha..ha..anyway...and we really, really have to teach, my God, do we...

Last month, for example, the National Ministry of Education and the provincial Ministry of Education and the local Education Committee came to audit the program and I had to temporary surrender to them all of my lesson plans, corrected weekly assignments, teacher's notes, corrected monthly examinations, etc., etc. It was also considered by the Education Section of the P***y and thank G*d I was given high marks.

But anyone, back to the poster above, please contact me by private PM, I will assist you.

[rexgardn]

Dear All:

Please accept my apologies for having earned my M.A. in Speech Pathology, a certificate in TESOL from an Ivy college in the US, and having also managed to work as a paid teacher of English and composition for employers that required government licensure AND university training. To compound it all, I have actually published, edited scientific papers for peer review journals, and attended overseas schools and a college where I was forced to learn to share time and space with people not from the USA or Europe! All I can say is that I was young and didn't know any better.

Considering these liabilities can anyone out there offer strategies and contact information for me to use to find a teaching job in China in a university or similar setting in some place like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing or similar? Or alternatively name a commercial school that has a history of honoring contracts?

Sincerely Yours,

Rex

[bukowski1234]

[quote="rexgardn"]Dear All:

Please accept my apologies for having earned my M.A. in Speech Pathology, a certificate in TESOL from an Ivy college in the US, and having also managed to work as a paid teacher of English and composition for employers that required government licensure AND university training. To compound it all, I have actually published, edited scientific papers for peer review journals, and attended overseas schools and a college where I was forced to learn to share time and space with people not from the USA or Europe! All I can say is that I was young and didn't know any better.

Rex[/quote]

I don't know what to think of the hijack (or your attitude) but here's some help anyway:

http://www.teachjob.cn/home.html

http://www.teach-in-china.net/classifieds/CPViewItem.asp?ID=1094

http://www.abroadchina.org/default.asp

[rexgardn]

Thank you for the links.
BTW; you are more than welcome to think what you like.
Rex

[Babala]

To the OP,
Have a look at the universities in Nanjing. They are highly regarded and Nanjing is a quite lively city for night-life.

[rexgardn]

Hello,
Thanks for the reply and information. Nanjing is well known in academic circles here and I'm grateful to here of your positive view on your side of the Pacific.

I'm casting a wide net for the moment. So far my replies to posts on Dave's job boards have flushed out recruiters or contractors. I'm hoping to start off on the right foot with a reputable employer ie an organization that's in the teaching field for the long run and has some history and stability.

I was approached by a commercial outfit that was a little vague about visas and that left me uneasy. I'm not too keen on showing up at an airport like a mail order bride with only a photo of my mate to be and a letter of promises.

After Googling a while, I found many Chinese universities already have relationships with US colleges and my strategy is to work contacts on this side of the Pacific to locate potential employers on the China side. Further, my hope is with a list of colleges and contacts in hand I could initiate contacts and send along my CV.

I don't expect to get a job via the net so much as I hope to get some reliable information to go on.

Again thanks,
Rex

[ytange]

Hello Rex,

What I did was narrow down the places where I wanna be
like the climate and big cities with nightlife action stations

So for me its Shenzen and Gaungzou

may be not the same for you.

Then i decided what sort of palce like kindygarden or university

I like the uni gigs - plenty of free time

Then I did a goggle search for those cities with these universites them and found so many

So then I send off the e-mail and see wot happens

Good luck, it seems to be a waiting game

Where are you thinking of going?

EFL / TESOL certificate I dont have

I was thinking of doing one online but the cash you know

I still have to buy the ticket over there

[rexgardn]

Hello All,

I'm settling on an Eastern city like Nanjing within a half day train trip of Shanghai; I'm not ready for a corporate/franchise English mill so it's a university for me.

A google search turned plenty of colleges/universities. Like you I am sending off my stuff off to whomever will read them.

By the responses from the commercial schools in China, a TESOL cert seems less important than being a so called native English Speaker and a willingness to show up especially in mid term.

The online ads for the English mills mainly show light skinned light haired twenty somethings grinning manically into the mid distance. The industry of teaching English to the Chinese seems a combination of Welcome Back Kotter meets The Good Earth as remade by HBO.

One interpretation is that the mills are selling a wonderful new life like any other product, sodas or cosmetics, English. Learn English and you too can live like Brangelina and also smell good.

Another style of commercial school is the purveyor of Nazi English, their ads suggest that there is a true pure correct English and the school knows what it is and will teach it to you and if you don't learn you are a stupid person and the school's teachers better know this true pure correct English or the speaker is not a true native Aryan excuse me English speaker.

It's been said the commercial schools provide a soft landing for someone too timid to risk showing up at Pudong airport without a contract. While that may be true if the contract and the school are reliable, the reality is that negotiations on the net and elsewhere are only as good as the integrity of the parties to them.

From the anecdotes on this forum, there's always the risk with a commercial school or a university for that matter, that when the parties meet in the flesh, all bets are off. That's simply the risk when face to face meetings are absent and reliable information about the school's stability, finances, and standards is hard to find.

One piece of advice I got so far that rings true is to have enough money to survive for a month or so in case the original promised job falls through.

Rex

[bukowski1234]

Rex, my man. Thanks for the musings.

Babala, thanks for the info. I'm wondering if anyone else can respond to my question regarding employment in the eastern provinces. I'd like to hear from someone who has actually TAUGHT in an eastern province or at least worked in China.

Thanks.

[bukowski1234]

[quote="millie"][size=14][color=darkblue]What is the saying in American baseball? 3 strikes and you are out�

[u]1) clean metroplitan area[/u]
By any reasonable standards, these do not exist in China.
[u]
2) a receptive faculty[/u]
By any reasonable standards (outside of JV programmes) these do not exist in China.


3) Can you accept about RMB5,000 as a reasonable monthly salary?

If so, you are still in the game and good luck.

BTW: Have you thought about Taiwan or Japan?[/color][/size][/quote]

Millie, I can live with the trash and grime of the city. I've seen and lived in some pretty filthy ones outside the U.S..

Should I expect to be shunned by Chinese faculty upon arrival? I have experience with my local asian community and I have received the cold shoulder concerning certain social matters, but on the professional level, I have had good experiences. I never felt accepted-- even after several years of employment by the local Asian community--- but i never felt overtly rejected. That is to be expected, I suppose.

Should I expect an us vs THEM working relationship? This existed in some universities with which I have been employed/acquainted. Asians in the math and engineering departments outnumbered Anglos twenty-to-one, and some Anglo Americans just couldn't adjust to having so many of THEM in the department.

Money isn't a problem for me. That is not to say that I waste it. This is not a career-driven move for me. It's a change of direction for other reasons.

I'm a little too old for Japan. I've never seen job ads for public universities in Japan. My only experience with Japanese employment was with a couple of agencies, one of which told me point-blank that I was too old. They were looking for someone under age thirty, preferably female.

Taiwan? What I've seen of the employment situation reminds me of the Korean job market. It's mostly private haegwons and public schools kindergarten through seventh grade. I've had my fill of middle schools.

I am communicating with an eastern province public university right now. The IEO is telling me that they're trying to get the letter of invitation and the Foreign Expert's papers sent out before the Spring Fling. Fortunately, my degrees, letters, etc. have been authenticated by both governments. What remains to be authenticated is my health report. I'm not having the physical until I get the papers from the school because they'll have to be sent to the PRC consulate with the health exam.

I am wondering this, Millie: How does the quality of life as a teacher in Hong Kong compare to that of a teacher in one of the more prosperous eastern provinces on the continent? (This may be asking too much in a forum such as this, but a short and possibly incomplete answer will suffice).