Job Discussion Forums

[piglet]

Hi all,
I am a 50 year old Brit been teaching EFL in the Middle East for the last 20 years.Have an MA and teaching cert.After a 3 week holiday in China I am contemplating going over there for 6 months to a year, maybe to teach in University or High school.
Several questions:
1.which of the following locations are nice:
Qingdao, Fujian,Nanjing?
2.Would my (non Native speaker ) husband be able to get a job? He can
teach English, but has a slight accent.
3, If he could not teach could we live on my salary? (we don't want to do a lot of night life, eat western food etc but more to get to know people , culture, maybe travel a bit...
all comments welcome
Cheers

[wulfrun]

hi

dont know about the places

2. a swede and a belarussian are teaching at my university (in shijiazhuang, capital of hebei province, two hours from beijing). there are plenty of africans and filipinos teaching english here too.

3. in case one of you didnt want to work, the salary should be enough to live on - i know plenty of couples who live absolutely fine on the standard 4000-5000 salary (free apartment and utiliities).

have fun!

[7969]

[piglet]

I doubt it. we would not be coming to get rich but to experience another culture and geography....
that is if you mean disillusioned financially.

[Moon Over Parma]

[hairuo]

I am in the over 50 bracket...alot of schools around Guangzhou do not hire over 60... they say PSB will not give Resident Permits... I know of 3 teachers that moved to other places because of this.

[kungfucowboy83]

the thing about qingdao is the universities all pay next to nothing. You will need to teach at a private language school or one of the international schools (which cater mostly to koreans) to make any kind of decent money. Qingdao is not one of the cities where you want to be on 4000rmb imo.

[piglet]

thanks everyone for the input. I think we will go for it then..

[wulfrun]

i know a 64-year-old who left hebei because the college said they couldnt get another permit for him, so he's now working in guangdong; and i know two other over-60s working at a big uni in beijing.

[Laoshi1950]

Age does not seem to be a significant factor here at my public university in Beijing. Appropriate academic qualifications, teaching experience, and reasonable health appear to be more important hiring factors than age.

We have six foreign teachers working in the School of Foreign Studies - the eldest just turned 70 (from the USA), the next is 64 (from UK), another 59 from USA, a 58 year old Australian, a 40 year old Canadian, and the youngest is a 34 year old American.

[lapd08]

Hello:

I taught in China for one semester. There were many teachers at the College who were not native speakers, some with very strong accents, so I don't think it would be a problem for your husband.

I think with your qualifications, you could do quite well. Look around, as the salaries seem to be going up. If I were you, I would not accept an offer of less than 7,000-8,000 with airfare and housing. I've seen schools(universities) that offer 4,000-4500 RMB/Mo. Maybe for someone with no experience or education, but not you.

I have not been to two of the cities you mention, but have heard they are very nice.

I have been to and will probably accept a job in Nanjing. I was only there briefly, and don't know if you could call it 'nice", but it certainly was very large and would have a lot Western stores, foreign restaurants etc. It is also the provincial capital. It has some very good universities, including a joint venture with Johns Hopkins University, an excellent school.
However, the air pollution was very bad and my eyes burned the whole time. So that's something to weigh, convenienc vs. health!

I thought things there were very expensive. Generally, I did not think China was as inexpensive as touted, but you can certainly manage on the salaries I mention, even at the lower end.

Good luck in your job search.

[Anda]

Here are some nice pictures for jobs locations mainly at the lower end but it will give you an idea of your average job here'


http://jobboard.chinatefl.com/