Job Discussion Forums

[PattyFlipper]

[judgedredd]

Well of course the skilled and educated Thais are going to earn more than average! I just gave you THE average, what I would say about 90% of the population takes home, certainly its less than 10,000/month.

Also I disagree with you about new Thai teachers. I work at a Demonstration school of a very large University in North East Bangkok, the new teachers there take home 7765 baht/month. After tax. Thats it! I have even seen my colleagues pay slip, so I know this is true, whether you believe it or not.. And I would think most, if not all new teachers start on the same salary, not 10-12 k as you suggested.

Some of the senior teachers at my school, who have been around for 20 or 30 years, make a bit more, but even then it's only around 20k a month.

You are right, they do get additional benefits, and they have support networks(their families) but this still isn't much. All of the younger teachers I know all still live at home and have a far less opulent lifestyle than me! That was my main point, about how I can afford to live so well here, compared to most other people.

Lastly, what you posted about salaries in Thailand was only a reccomendation, nothing more, and the reality is Thailand is so corrupt and unfair, and there is a lot of competition for these kind of jobs, so a lot of people will in fact settle for less.

Sure there are some rich people, you get that everywhere, but for the majority, they still have along way to go.. I would imagine my job teaching English here puts me in the top 20% of earners, and I can enjoy the lifestyle that goes with that.

The whole point of my post was too find out if i could do the same in China or not, in order to make a decision about whether to actually go there or not.

[judgedredd]

Bearcanada, thanks for sharing that with me us. Depending on what i decide to do next, i may well try it. If so, I'll let you know if I succeed or not!

[No Moss]

I don't think that the increasing skills of the Chinese in English pose any threats to FTs. Chinese teachers with good languge skills tend to leave for other jobs. As language skills of the students increase, they increasingly need the full fluency and cultural content that only FTs can provide.

Also, in Asia in general, people are aware that the Chinese classroom model has severe limitations. The Chinese focus on vocabulary means that they are concentrating on isolated words rather than fluency, resulting in students who have a decent reading vocablulary but virtually no conversational fluency.

[rach24]

I spent 6 months in Jinan, Shandong province (a pretty big city). My school paid my rent, but i lived comfortably on 5000 rmb/month mainly eating chinese but with some western things and some travel to other parts of china. I was never even close to running out of money, although didn't save any to bring home.

[peterberlin1980]

[Ahchoo]