Job Discussion Forums

[YAMARI]

I talked to a uni in Beijing that offered me 4000 rmb a month. With all the new visa regs leading to less teachers I hope people start to demand better wages.

[Ger]

I advertised for a Putonghua tutor. My requirements were a northern person with a Chinese language degree, 150/per hour, one to three hours each time.

Not one of them wrote back accepting my offer. They all had their own demands.

180 / per hour + 10 minutes break for every two hours, and a minimum of 4 hours each time!

200/ per hour + you teach me English for an hour!

00 / per hour + we have language exchange and you buy me lunch!

None of the respondents had a Chinese language degree, nor experience of teaching anyone. They just want another skill to add to their CVs! But I need a tutor! So have to negotiate!

Ask for what you expect. The Chinese do.

Negotiation is part of their culture.

Even if they give you what you want, they will try to take it way with the other hand.

[killian]

4000 rmb per month
1000 rmb per week
30 hrs per week
99 RMB per hour.

yes, you are correct that many foreigners have retarded (that's slow) negotiating skills.

FWIW: in my town there are more and more koreans every day. young chinese uni grads charge them 50 RMB per hour for chinese lessons.

be the change you desire to see.

[patsy]

The wages are a joke, this year at my high school the waiban called me into the office and said I was playing too many "games" with the kids. lol, even though of course they had absolutely no teaching materials for me.

then he said that was probably because I am really a "nurse". which i am, my bachelors degree is in nursing and I work in the states as a RN. I have a tefl certificate. He meant this in an insulting way.

What's such a joke is that I can make 4,000 kuai a month in about 3 days doing my "low level nursing job" in the states. they have such disrespect for other professions, like the common bus driver and garbage pickup people, or the people who work as cashiers at hua lian and actually have to earn their money instead of kissing butt and attending banquets and going abroad on the dan wei''s money to do shit.

[william wallace]

Thank You !
I've been saying this for years and years. ESL in China was crap from day one.
I've seen some of the best and most talented earn pauper's wages,and degreeless poor speakers of English earn more.
It was NEVER ever good here,but now the whole shift is towards Mandarin learning,and the Chinese damn well know it-They can export their nationalism.
And I STILL suspect global ESL is on the verge of collapsing into nothing more than a McDonald's job.
1994 1,800 (in FECs)
1995 2,200 (I think FECs were gone by then)
1996 2,200-3,000 (Some private schools start up)
1997 2,500-8,000
1998 4,000-12,000
1999 4,000-15,000
2000 4,000- 12,000
2001 4,000-12,000
2002 perks like FULL medical start disappearing
2003 start to see limited remuneration for airfare
2004.....? I was doing uni ESP
2007-08 seeing 3,500-12,000; many perks are diminished
Used to be perks:
Full airfare
Full medical
Taxi fare in full
Zero taxes
All expenses for visa covered
Housing and utilities covered in full

[therock]

Welcome to China

[menso35]

The problem with working in East Asia, mainly China and Korea, is that they have this peculiar brand of machismo. It's a constant game of trying to put the idiot westerner in his place, below the Chinese. As a teacher, you will never be respected there and always looked upon as a lower life form, even if you have advanced degrees and qualifications and go there with the best of intentions. Concerning pay, you will always have to be diligent because the likelihood of getting screwed over is very high. It's a game to them. As long as westerners keep accepting crap salaries they will keep offering them. Give them an inch and they will take 10 miles.

EFL has been bastardized beyond redemption, particularly in Asia. My background is in sales. During my 15 years in that occupation I have seen many things, but nothing compares to the back stabbing, cheating, and bad management I have seen in TEFL. It makes me wonder what the world will be like when the great big fat Satan of the west falls and China takes over the world. God help us all.

[SpedEd]

I agree with a lot of what's been said here about the C-salaries. However, I did mention on another thread that the salary in a place like Beijing with them hosting the Olympics this year are certainly going to be kept low with so many foreign people around. I strongly suspect there will some positive changes with regards to salaries when the Games are over.

As for the person's comment about the machismo encountered working in this region, I can say that it exists more so in China compared to Korea, at least for me. I've found that many Chinese people *love* to make matters difficult for people from westernized countries, just for the heck of it. Maybe there's an innate envy Chinese people have. I mean I can certainly see why. There's just no comparison between a decent (even a relatively poor) existence in a western country and China. The quality of living here isn't that good, which is why it's called a 'developing country'. Imo, even when China becomes fully developed it will still have so many issues to contend with, notably it's extreme overpopulation and pollution.

It's my hope that the salaries will in fact rise while I chose to work here, and I will be able to take advantage of the biggest employee's market I've seen in my life (and most likely the biggest I'll see in my lifetime). BUT, I don't want to be one of those teachers that stayed here longer than they should have....

[william wallace]

A lot more than wages are a joke here....

[jeffinflorida]

I talked to a recruiter who told me her husband who was from the states made 3500 rmb a month at his job so therefore the jobs she offered me for 6000 rmb a month were very good salaries.

Face it the chinese have slave wage mentality and are happy to hire thoses willing to work for shiiiit - ergo so many phillipinos and the like "teaching" english for 2000 rmb a month ....

It's time to face the music and either hold out for more money or walk.

I am prepared to walk.

[Moon Over Parma]

[Loop]

I think that many of the FAO directors resent FT's because our lives are relatively comfortable here. Our salaries are higher than the average Zhou, work hours are lower and we have little or no housing expenses. Of course they don't think about how most shopowners, vendors and taxi drivers are trying to rob us blind. So some FAO directors try to screw us over whenever they can, and some probably even pocket the money that they save their school.

[arioch36]

I don't know who you are thinking as the average "Zhou" Now if you want to compare our salaries to the average 24 y/o Chnese college graduate, we may get more. However in a city like Beijing, I helped a student with good english get 4,000 to start.

We are definitely not paid more then our Chinese "co"-teachers. Again, if you want to compare us to a 24 y/o Chinese teacher, yeah we make more. Our salaries don't chage much based on our experience. A phd Chinese teacher will probably make three times as much as a alowai PHd teacher. Chinese teachers get paid at least 13 months a year, while we usually get paid only 10 or 11 months. Chinese teacher, 40 y/o should be making about 4,0000, get a house half paid for, 12 hours a week standard, often less, with no cut in pay

We are not paid less then the Chinese teacher, but about the same

[Songbird]

Don't forget, in addition, Chinese teachers also get LARGE bonuses at the end of each term...

And they are completely free to find additional work outside their classes, whereas we're not

FAO's and Chinese in general forget that we are living 2 LIVES- we still have things at home (basics)- we get no pension here, so we (theoretically) need to deal with that, some pay taxes back home, what about our belongings? We don't bring everything here, I for example have to pay huge storage costs every year...and they really think that piddly 8000Y really covers today's airfares to our respective Western countries??

I always invite my FAO to find one for me for less...

[Mei Sheng]

"It makes me wonder what the world will be like when the great big fat Satan of the west falls and China takes over the world. God help us all."

Beautiful.

Thank the good Lord JC - I'll be dead by then!