Job Discussion Forums

[yearofthetiger]

Hey All!

My boyfriend and I are looking to come to China in February, and I'm trying to get a good sense of how much money we will reasonably earn, where we should go, and any other advice from you knowledgeable people actually in China.

We know that we want to be coastal, and probably more Southerly (but not Shanghai).

I have an honors BA (not in education), privately tutored composition writing all through college, and just spent a year teaching English for the French Government. My boyfriend has a Masters (engineering) but no real teaching experience. We would both prefer to teach at the university level. Actually, I would love to teach literature, film, composition, or culture classes, but I'm guessing such fun jobs are really hard to come by. We'd like to start with a short contract (five to six months), although if things are going well between us and the school, we would definitely consider renewing.

How much can we reasonably expect to earn?

What's the best way to get in touch with universities (and avoid recruiters!)? Dave's job boards seem to be mostly private organizations.

Should we start contact now or wait until closer to February?

And on the off chance that my fairy godmother exists and reads this board, anyone have a great uni post in a department that needs more teachers for next semester?

Thanks for your help! I know that some of this stuff has probably been covered before, but I've found the search function to be really unhelpful.

Namaste!

[kev7161]

In a university, probably about 4000 - 5000 a month plus living quarters and a couple other standard things, probably teaching no more than 20 periods/hours a week (quite possibly down to 13 or 14). No advice on cities though, sorry.

[Millerlong]

Why is Shanghai not on the poll? I think Shanghai wins easily as the best coastal city. Only problem is that you can not swim in the sea or rivers. Very international city with everything you need plus more. You can really enjoy yourself there and possibly even forget that you are in China. One of my favourite cities in the world!!!

[yearofthetiger]

Thanks for the reply, Kevin. If you're only teaching sixteen hours a week, is it usually spread across the full five days? Or can you manage to pack it into four (or, nirvana, three) days a week?

Millerlong, I didn't include Shanghai precisely because I've been told it's easy to forget you're in China! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a western style gym, but I've found so far that I prefer endemic experiences to international ones. (Also, I LIKE swimming!)

Thanks, guys.

[kev7161]

It really will depend on your school. The high school I previously taught at gave me a schedule where on some days I'd have 6 classes and the next only one or two. It was maddening. And then sometimes one class first thing in the morning, another late in the afternoon. This is fine for Chinese teachers (well, not really, but it's their lot in life) who MUST stay in their offices all day, but doesn't really fly for an FT. Luckily, I lived near campus so could go home, but forget about planning an afternoon in the city. Negotiate this carefully with your school, but sometimes it's out of your control.

[Steppenwolf]

Qingdao, Xiamen and Zhuhai - from east to west.
Best quality of life while adequate incomes; in fact all 3 cities are economic powerhouses in their own right (Xiamen and Zhuhai are Sepcial Economic Zones).

Some of the remaining cities aren't even "coastal" in nature - Guangzhou for example (though it's pretty close to the sea). ANyway, the quality of life in those is much lower. Pollution also is higher as they are more industrialised and the polluted air gets trapped over the city in summer for long periods of time.

[7969]

[Gregor]

I lived in Dalian for a year. I'm a little surprised that you didn't put that one on the poll.
I'd recommend it. There's not much of a social scene there. People are more interested in just making money, so social groups (with the possible exception of the Russian community) are hard to come by. But it's pretty clean, and there are nice diverting things to do. One really strange thing about Dalian that I'm noticing now that I'm back in Shenyang - it's very difficult to buy books in foreign languages here. In Dalian, there are a couple foreign book shops, and one of them is really quite good.
You can