Job Discussion Forums

piglet · Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 22

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 · Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167

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 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

piglet · Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 22

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 · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 819

hairuo · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 473 Location: Somewhere in China

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 · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 479

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 · Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 22

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

wulfrun · Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167

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 · Joined: 22 May 2004 Posts: 198 Location: Australia

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.