Job Discussion Forums

[Greenfingers]

Dear all.

I read this thread with interest since I will shortly be moving to China. Firstly, Bearcanada is right about excellent salaries being available. I will be starting in Beijing on an excellent salary very soon. Please don't ask the amount nor the details of where I work as it is not appropriate. I am sure you understand that this is not information that one should post on a public forum - in fact, my mother doesn't even know my salary!

Secondly, my wife will be accompanying me to Beijing. She is Brazilian, but has a high level of English (IELTS 7ish). She has a Brazilian diploma that qualifies her to teach KG children in Brazil. She has 5 years experience of teaching 3 - 6 year olds English in the Middle East; I might add that her students spoke no English prior to coming to her classes. I am biased, but I think her results are amazing. She is simply the best teacher at this level I have ever met. The B.Ed lecturers at the College I previously worked at would take their students to observe her as a model of an excellent teacher. My question is, can she get a job in Beijing? She will be on my visa, I guess - not 100% sure how that works.

Furthermore, can anyone help with getting her a start somewhere (August, or sooner)?

Bearcanada, I did read that you may be a recruiter; can you help?

General comments are appreciated or PM me with specifics about a possible post.

Cheers.

Greenfingers

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.


Middy

[prof]

[Super Mario]

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive language.


Middy

[prof]

Middy, I've already guessed your level of education. Can you confirm the non-Shanghainese wife and the fact that you are Canadian or should I take your silence as a confirmation. You fit the mold so well!

When you learn to speak good Mandarin you'll begin to realize how happy and surprised many Chinese employers are when they find someone like you who's willing to put out their services for cash with no strings attached. Professors in Shanghai tend to view people from the West as coming from a wealthy place and having codified standards. They are often amazed at what some people will accept.

However, when you learn more communication skills you'll also hear what they really think of you. Shanghainese professors/education officials/leaders are quite proud of their position in society and value academic credentials. I'd like to see the look in your eyes when you finally understand them. Ask your wife tonight about this aspect of Shanghai, and tell her to be honest and not to worry about losing her "own face" when telling you. You still don't understand that in Shanghai, respect means more than grinning ear to ear when you get paid your money for the service you just supplied.

Again, the reality:

The structure of the system in Shanghai keeps most highly qualified teachers away.

You aren't highly qualified so you don't understand this. Most want little things like good medical care, other benefits, contractual guarantees...some even want little things like being to purchase a car rather than your glee of living near a subway entrance.

At least people like InTime are here to explore their own passions rather than escaping their home country to find a job and a wife. You are just cheap labor willing to work illegally while fooling yourself and misleading others (oh, do you have permission from your Z visa sponsor to work at your p/t jobs? Do these p/t jobs report the income and pay tax? Or are you agreeing to break the law and that's darn right okay because you "work hard.")

The structural problems also lead to opportunities for recruiters. They don't need educated applicants, only people with the 'right attitude.' So you've got your own cheerleader here. A person who posts misleading things here and earn money for placing teachers.

Demanding standards doesn't make someone a "rich" kid. Caring enough about the profession one is in and thus taking the time and spending the money and energy to get properly qualified doesn't make one "elitist."

So you've got your wife from the provinces and came to the big city with your BA in hand and your cell phone on. Again, good for you!! Continue to work illegally, don't get caught, don't get sick, and I hope they renew your contract 5 years down the road. But keep on smiling in those school commercials!

The low standards and your unethical behaviour seem to fit you to a 't.' You are a shining example of what the Shanghainese dislike in foreign teachers, but are willing to accept because of your price. One day you might figure this out. You will take this as an insult, but I swear that it's true.






By the way:

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive language.

Middy

[kev7161]

So, here's what I'm gathering from these heated debates:

1. Yes, you CAN find jobs and earn upwards to 20,000rmb a month (or more!), but I'm guessing there aren't too many teaching jobs where you make that in one tidy sum. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing those that say they are earning 20,000 a month are working their main job then 2 or 3 or 4 PT jobs a month (or doing one-time-only jobs for a lump sum). There's nothing wrong with this at all, IMO, but the reality is that most of us will not find a single job paying us a HUGE sum of money. Wherever they exist, they are few and far between.

2. There are a-plenty FTs here who are perfectly content to live a quiet, peaceful life here in China in a smaller community and earn four or five thousand RMB, and still manage to sock a little away ever month. Again, nothing wrong with that. If those FTs are happy, then so much the better for them.

3. However, my guess is that a lot of newer FTs (or old-timer FTs that have become disillusioned) come to China expecting, say, 5000rmb to go a LOT farther here than $600.00 does back home. Then reality sets in. They start to want "things" like a state-of-the-art mobile phone, a fancy MP4 player, a nice laptop. They want to travel within and outside of China. They miss their western foods and start shopping at Metro or Carrefour. Before you know it, that 5000rmb doesn't stretch so far and they realize (especially in the larger cities) that China is not so cheap any longer. The faster their economy grows, the more expensive the "nice" things in life get.

4. But then you get stuck. Does an FT want to stay here and look for that gold at the end of the rainbow or do they decide to pack it all in and head back home (or perhaps try to make a go of it in S. Korea or Japan)? To make a move, however, you have to have a bit of pocket money and living in Shanghai, for example, may make it hard to do that. So you're stuck here for another year trying to save, trying to enjoy your life, getting frustrated at the low income jobs offered everywhere, but still not wanting to work 60 hours a week to make more money (that's one of the reasons you left your home country, isn't it, to not have to work a ton of hours?).

I was lucky enough to stumble across a 10,000 a month job last year (and where I am now). My "contact" hours with the kids were 25 per week (in my contract, it says "work" hours. However, by the time I finsih lesson prep, I'm working about 35 to 40 hours a week. Still, not bad for the salary, but not exactly what my contract states either. So, I've lived and learned this year. Next year will NOT be spent doing so much busy work. I will track my "work" time carefully and anything beyond 30 hours will be a request for OT pay. If the school refuses, then I bring a good book to read, hide away in the office away from the kids when I'm not teaching (lunch time being my most productive yet unpaid time), and work when I must (teaching lessons and doing prep during the 15 minute breaks and a little before and a little after my teaching day.) I don't resent the work I've been doing this year and I feel my kids have learned a lot, but I won't make the same mistakes two years running.

[Leon Purvis]

I'm happy with my job and my work hours.

I work sixteen hours per week at a public college and I make 7,500 RMB a month. (My contract calls for more hours, so I really can't complain). I have a nice, big, FREE apartment in town. I am not too far from Shanghai if i want to take a train and arrive on the same day.

The downside?

Having to listen to one of my fellow western colleagues moan and groan over the fact that he and his Chinese wife (who is also a teacher and who shares his FREE apartment) just CAN'T MAKE IT on their salaries.

I am friendly with the FAO and she can't understand why this guy comes to her office with lists of "requests" (I'd call them demands if i were in my own country), and why he gets bent out of shape when he can't get what he wants. He twists the b*lls of the FT liaison in the English department for fewer hours in addition to getting a three-day weekend for him and his wife.

The other FTs avoid the guy because he moans about his plight on one hand (not knowing what I know about him), and he tries to extort money from the FAO by saying that he can make four times what he's making in his present job if he goes elsewhere. All this because he is finishing his second year here. I don't think the guy has any college education though he professes to have an MA in TESOL (wtf?).

On the other hand, he says how much in demand his credentials are elsewhere.

I'm fine with what I make. I am happy with what I have and I am happy for those who say that they make 200,000 RMB a year teaching oral English on a BA.

Or on an MA in TESOL for that matter. (Can you say "Pill Time"?).

I think that the poll tells a lot about the perceptions which others hold of themselves, even if it may not really reflect the reality of the Chinese job market.

[2 over lee]

Midlothian Mapleheart is bang on!

Then again prof is bang on too!

Best thread I've read in some time.

[prof]

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive language.

Middy

[prof]

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.

Middy

[prof]

Sure Mr. Di,

I'll make sure to drive out to PuDong. I'll take the tunnel.

Please answer my question, because I'll take some extra bills.