Job Discussion Forums

[william wallace]

A friend of mine wanted to return to Beijing to teach(12 years),but the salaries were so poor in Beijing that he had no choice but to take a job in Shanghai.He is presently finishing up a year in Singapore(too expensive),and the best he could do in Beijing(7 months looking) was 12,000,but he landed a job in Shanghai for 23,500 RMB per month.

What is wrong with Beijing ? I'd like to hear some theories/ideas.

[ShanghaiSurprise]

What age level is he looking for?


Can we ask you to tell us the specifics behind the job for 23,500 RMB?

What ages, how many hours per week of teaching and being at school, and what type of vacation time?

I'm curious to hear what he located.


To be honest, I've seen a lot of good jobs in Beijing, and many exceeded the rate he was finding by quite a bit.

[Itsme]

On the topic of ages, I wonder why kindergarten positions pay more than other ages (from what I've seen.)

As for the 20,000+ salaries... I suspect this is a myth. I have never seen anything close. Although it would be nice.

[mike w]

[quote]
As for the 20,000+ salaries... I suspect this is a myth. I have never seen anything close. Although it would be nice.[quote]

Not a myth, and it is nice!!

But don't go looking for that type of salary in schools/colleges/universities.

Those salaries exist in the corporate world, but for many companies you need a background/qualification/experience in another discipline such as engineering, accounting etc. Most companies will not pay anything like that type salary for English teaching only.

[william wallace]

Mike, My buddy did some lectures here while he was over for a conference (M.Eng),and he was getting 500 CDN an hour.It was only 2 sessions of 2 hours,but with no tax AND a gift ...pretty darn nice!

[namdak]

the 20,000 + salaries do exist in Shanghai at international schools, especially for teachers with credentials

[SnoopBot]

Almost none of these positions exist in Beijing for the TESOL teacher. I've seen short-term contract positions at 500-RMB that required business experience and Chinese fluency to give investment presentations.

NO typical Oral English position will pay more than 200 pr hour, unless you organize it yourself without a Chinese pocketing the profits.

Pay in Beijing is the lowest in China for the costs and size of the city. The reasoning (What a FAO told me) "We can hire almost any foreigner for this position and they will accept a much lower wage than you you require to do this job."

Many FT's go to Beijing, they enjoy the western influence and lower costs compared to Shanghai with the cultural and university party scene. They need a degree to teach English, they print one up from their computer or off the Internet and they are now a "teacher."

They will then accept 5000 RMB a month to keep up their party life, under-cutting a real teacher's salary.

The other types are missionaries and the hundreds of FREE volunteers that come to China for the "experience."

Add all of these people together and you have a stagnant TESOL wage that has not really gone up since 2003 when I arrived.

They don't have to pay high, and they WILL not pay higher than they can pay to find a cheaper replacement.

If I wasn't retired with a decent USA monthly income, I would have left China after the first year and never came back. It is VERY difficult to save much from a >5000-Rmb monthly income if you wish to have any resemblance of a western style entertainment life.

>5000 is the typical job offer MOST will be offered, so this is the baseline I use. Some are higher and a few lower.

I've only seen +20K ranges at a few of the real top-tier IS circuits.
Most of these are filled by teachers from abroad and almost no local-hires are used.

If you are a local-hire you will see your benefits and salary placed at a much lower rate than your co-workers. This seems to be the latest cost-cutting trend.

Example: Salary 25K + housing+ travel allowance

Local hire: 12K +possible housing +NO travel allowance.

I will add that some of the top Chinese universities on the Chengfu Lu Haidian district area are some of the lowest paying job positions in China. You can find 3500 RMB a month openings at some of these 1st tier schools.

I should know, that is where I'm located.

[william wallace]

Thanks Snoop,
I think for the record it needs to be stated that jobs in Beijing are the pits, even if being a bona fide teacher is second or third in priority.

[SnoopBot]

[SpedEd]

[Menino80]

How feasible is a 12,000/mo. job in Beijing? I've got an applied linguistics minor, a TEFL and one year in the Korean public school system, and I'm planning on studying in Wudaokou next spring. Are there schools in WDK that cater to the Korean students who want learn English?

[Anda]

I can't see wages going up due to the economy slowing up.


I have watched the scene in Shanghai where there were plenty of offers by private students offering from 220 to 350 RMB an hour to have someone teach them. Company jobs were plenty and I've seen up to 30,000 RMB being paid a month. This seems to have gone, become a thing of the past.


A few places pay up to around 18,000 RMB a month still but these offers are few in number. These days 12,000 with free accommodation etc is above average. Most of our crowd are just scraping by in Shanghai.


Smaller cities and a bit of side work gives a better lifestyle in my opinion. 5,000 RMB a month plus accommodation lets you live okay but doesn�t let one save for a spot of bad luck. I�d hate to be on 5 in a place like Shanghai.

[vikuk]

[Menino80]

So is the consensus that 12k/mo in Beijing is a little hard to come by?

[Anda]

Well, I've started my third year here. How do I live as a person. Well I teach 16 class hours a week at my main job Monday to Friday. I have a good setup in my apartment in regard to TV setup which I own. I have a nice little photocopier / printer along with a desk top computer again I own. My kitchen is well equipped and I buy whatever I feel I want. I live outside the school gates of where I work so no travel costs or travel time. I have about a ten minute walk to the center of the main shopping center in the city where I live.

I have a middle school student that calls by twice a week with her Mon. This student's father is a friend of my friend from the last city I worked in so its free lessons. I'm about to start teaching a small group in another town of a Saturday for four hours. This will fill in Saturdays and leave Sundays free. My last weekend job finished when my boss found someone who would work for 70 RMB an hour instead of a hundred.


I prepare all my lesson material from scratch so this takes time. I have a young Chinese friend at work that translates key words and phrases into Chinese so my students can follow the lesson material better.

I go to the markets a couple of times a week to buy fresh food mainly vegetables as I cook most of what I eat.

I generally have a good massage a couple of times a week. Soon I will start to do a bit of fishing of a Sunday as a Chinese man who owns a photocopier retail shop wants to go fishing with me. He has a car and knows the spots.

Monday night the Chinese teachers from where I work have a meal out together and I can join them.

Saturday nights most of the local foreign teachers get together for a dinner. There are about 30 all up in the city where I'm living but only about half are Westerners the others are a mixed bag and interesting. I'll be in another city so I can't attend. Sunday morning local Chinese professional have lets call it an English corner at a local hotel where we are free to join them. They are a nice lot and you just talk with who you like and move about a bit.

For the last two years I was the only Westerner in the city where I worked. The current city most foreigners only last a year as they find little to do. If you mix with the Chinese then one can have a more interesting life.