Job Discussion Forums

[piglet]

Hi all
I am a 52 year old Brit with an MA and 30 years EFL experience (High School)
Hubby (not a native speaker ) and I are looking for a change of scene and want to spend some time in China either a semester or two if I like it.Pondering taking a year off /retiring early and getting a university gig somewhere. Where would you recommend ,experienced sinophiles?
To help you out a bit, I hate the cold ,don't mind sweaty heat (not sure about hubby) and loved Yunnan and the Guilin area when we visited last year as tourists.
Can we live on one salary? or could hubby get bona fide employment somehow?
cheers, welcome PMs or posts....

[LanGuTou]

You will have no problem securing a teaching job at any location in China. With that level of teaching experience, MA and the stability of marriage, I am sure many universities will snap at the chance to recruit you.

I guess that you are already financially secure and just want the travel/working experience? In that case, you could get a salary c. 5000/6000 rmb per month and accommodation that will give you and hubby a comfortable lifestyle regardless of whether he works or not. Even though he is not a native speaker, there are still opportunities for him to teach providing his English is acceptable and has the almost obligatory "white face".

What is his native language? Not all foreign language teachers in China teach English. If his native language is something like French, German, Spanish, Japanese (or others), he may be able to secure a good position teaching that.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

[Hansen]

Of course Yunnan is a beautiful area. One of the finest climates in the world. That is not lost on a host of others passing through; consequently, wages are low, competition fierce, especially in places like Dali. An MBA with twenty years experience was happy to get ~3200 plus room to teach in a university there.

[alter ego]

There's a man from Germany who teaches German at our Polytechnic and he teaches English at a language mill off campus. Some schools in Shenzhen hire non-native speakers to teach kids classes, which are sometimes hard to fill at certain times like weekend mornings, etc.

An older British-Canadian couple taught oral English here for six years. They were in their early 60s when they finally left last summer, and they also had other income from pensions, real estate, etc. I'd recommend a smaller city somewhere in Guangdong, or maybe Hainan, as it stays pretty hot and humid down there year round.

Pick the cities where you'd like to live, Google university and polytechnic websites in those cities and apply directly to schools whenever you can.

[piglet]

thank you all .I guess I will try for Kunming as I have heard good things about it.How about Lijiang? can anyone recommend any universities in either of those? Also Chendu has a few, any leads on those greatly appreciated. Don't have the pension thing worked out yet but we are working on it.If we can make enough to live and travel we are not really looking to make big bucks. Hubby's mother tongue, Hebrew, is unfortunately not too popular around the world these days

[Hansen]

Piglet, If you think a low paying job in Yunnan is going to provide enough money to travel around China, you might want to think again. Yunnan is a travel destination for many people, so you might not want to travel much.

You might also find that train travel, over long distances, is quite unpleasant. Airplane tickets for two can run through a low salary quite easily.

Costs are excessive during the New Year season, when most teachers have vacation. It might take a couple of years to get your bearings well enough to do any real travelling.

FTs make significantly less money that well heeled Chinese, the kind of local people who can afford travel. Most Chinese families have two incomes and inconceivable [to an FT] black/grey income which they spend on "play." Some of my colleagues, for instance, have at least two houses, some three, that they admit to. How many houses they actually own, that's another story. One I know has about 50 rental flats, which he supposedly acquired on a ~3000RMB/month salary.

Again, however, if you can land a job in Yunnan, you won't have to go far to have a wonderful time.

[El Macho]

If money's no objective, sure, take a �5000/month gig at whatever university comes your way in the part of China you're interested in. However, do know that because of your quals and experience you can find work that pays quite well.

If you're a certified teacher and wish to continue to work with K-12 students, look for work at international (or IB) schools. The pay will be commensurate with your qualifications and experience.

If it's older students you're interested in, research joint-venture universities. The pay will be much more in line with your qualifications and experience.

Depending on what profession your husband has, he might be able to find work teaching a subject (business, science, etc.) in English. While your husband might have to take a �5000/month "English teaching" gig, there's no reason you should if you don't want to.

PM me for more, if you're interested.

[sui jin]

Check out Nanning's Guangxi University. Nanning is certainly sweaty hot. Also there are plenty of teachers in the city of a similar maturity! I do know of non native speakers who teach English; if your husband has a degree, and good English, he could probably find something. Pay is around 6000 RMB, enough to live comfortably and save something. Nanning is a nice place.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

piglet, can't help you more on the job search but if you require more accurate travel advice, i suggest you go to the lonelyplanet.com thorn tree forum. some of the glass half empty advice given here isn't terribly helpful.

[piglet]

cheers all of you , still terribly confused.

[Zero]

Hansen, what is this black/gray income you speak of? They may have bonuses from their employers and assorted other perks, possibly including help with housing. People who have company cars may do a little black taxi work. But I do not know what other sources of off-the-books money they have. Selling something?
Intergenerational transfer of wealth is big in China, so some may have inherited houses from parents, houses that they can now rent out, leverage to buy another house, etc. until they have a small real estate empire. But I don't think black/gray income just falls from the sky for most Chinese families.

[Hansen]

Zero, You can think whatever you like, about black/grey income. You can choose to not believe that it exists. Probably, for "most" it doesn't; however, for a wide range of people, it does exist. The ingenuity of the locals for discovering an income opportunity, where most of us see only a salary, is amazing. Joseph Stillwell's biography lists some innovative scams conducted more than 50 years ago, which were quite amazing.

In the context of this thread, I was simply pointing out to the OP that comfortable travel for two adults on a 3000RMB salary, might require soime imagination. I don't imagine that they relish dorm style accomodations and 72 hour train trips.

Nearly anyone who has a position which may be abused to increase their income, is abusing it, in ways you or I can't imagine. There maybe quite large sums involved. That is what finances some of the travel locals are doing.

[Fred Smith]

[Zero]

Hansen, I don't contend that it doesn't exist. I'm asking you, if you know that it does exist, what the nature of it is.

Certainly people in power are abusing it in money-laundering and embezzlement schemes. But what what you said is that most Chinese families have black or gray income. And most Chinese families are not in positions where abuse of power is a possibility, because they don't have such power.