Job Discussion Forums

[evaforsure]

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

This thread needs to get back on topic quickly. The next off topic comment will result in the posting member being contacted by a Moderator.

[arioch36]

[Not St Louis]

[YAMARI]

[arioch36]

Chinese teachers at unis get 13 months (or more) paid a year, plus other perks (mostly based on senority and being a good boy)

[bradley]

I get that And the holidays are nice. My uni also gives me three day weekends. I never teach on Fridays.

[Itsme]

[chuck.m]

As in any place- if you want to make more money, you might need to put in some overtime or find a part time job.

I have found that in the big cities, it is almost a cinch to get a part-time gig that pays between 150-200RMB an hour. This boosts both my monthly spend and savings a whole lot.

And the cool thing about China compared to Korea is that although it is not legal, you don't have plainclothed immigration agents or police stopping you on the street or in the subway asking for your identification and asking you why you are carrying books around with you.

What's the point of having all this free time if you're not using it to make more money?

The advantage of finding a job with less hours is that you can use your spare time to make more money....if that is what you truly want.

[Lorean]

[eddy-cool]

[arioch36]

You included me in there. Chinese teachers get 13 months a year.

CHinese teachers have teaching duties they must fulfill, but no set number of hours, though 12 is considered fu time. English teachers usually have to work many more hours, Japanese teachers the most! But I know plenty of CHinese teachers who in a given semester may only have 6 teaching hours, andd then some limited other duties.
No Chinese teacher I know would ever work overtime at their own school, unless for guanxi reasons. The accepted game is for other unis to pay at least double for part time teachers from other schools then what they would pay in overtime for their own teachers. I was in a situation where two unis were on opposite sides of the streets. The Chinese teachers would pass each other as they crossed the street to work part time in the other school, rather then work at their own school for the measly overtime pay

In CHina people either work way too much or work way too little. Little balance in between. ALso CHinese teachers are really affected by senority and gaunxi. A new teacher has to be at the school full time, and gets much lower pay. By the time the teacher is 40 or so, life becomes much much easier and better paying.

Unfortuanately most FT's are considered identical by the CHinese staff, interchangeable, equall payment .. the only differences are not based on experience or training, but on nationality

[brsmith15]

I wonder if the OP will be happy anywhere?

[TapRed]

China is a joke with respect to teaching and/or education as a whole. Low wages, poorly run so-called "ESL schools" owned by Chinese who don't speak a word of English themselves usually being run by some "DoS" that was fired from the Wal-Mart "Assistant Manager Trainee" program because he or she speaks some Chinese.

This is the deal in China:

MOD EDIT
No one with valid credentials should ever waste a second in the PRC as a teacher because later on, no one will take you seriously.

I lived in China and with my degrees, and my stupid University of Cambridge CELTA and DELTA, those and 8 RMB still get me a cup of coffee at McDonald's. My sealed, certified, and notarized transcripts, letters of ref, and years of experience mean nothing in China.

I applied for many jobs at major chains and was told that I was "over qualified". I applied at colleges and was offered low wages. By the way, I was married a few years back to my wife who is Chinese and I read, write and speak fluent Chinese as well as Korean. It did not matter in the least bit.

If you have valid credentials and can pass a background check, go to the Middle East or Arab Gulf States and do it ASAP. No taxes, high standards, high wages, and challenges await you.

In China, pollution, communism, taxes, and low wages await you along with students that don't give a damn about anything except saving face and their exam scores, never mind that they don't know anything other than Taiwan is "part of China" which of course, it is NOT.

[seklarwia]

I believe that everyone is different and I agree that it depends on your expectations and what you wish to achieve.

I personaly enjoyed my time in China. The wages werent great, but things were cheap, the people friendly, the students became my new siblings/friends outside the classroom whilst showing me an enthusiam quite unheard of in the classroom, I was very close to many of the CTs on campus and the higher ups went out of their way to fulfil my every whim. I had a great experience.

At the same time, some of the other FTs on campus had rather traumatic experiences. The students showed little respect (some of my own students even told me they were guilty of this with other FTs), the CTs abused them, they were constantly having things stolen when out and about, and because some had been supplied a recruitment agency they were being paid even less and often being left with no money when payments were made late.

And as for hours... that depends on the school. At my uni, I was considered full time yet only had to teach 16 45min periods a week, which meant 8 double classes. Most of the CTs in my department taught the same number of periods, but were expected to have open office hours when not in lessons, to supervise morning and evening self study and take homeroom twice daily. So where as my longest days ran from 800-1130, many of the CTs were in from 700-2030 and not being paid much more than me either!