Job Discussion Forums

[LiliM]

Ok, been trying to avoid putting this up here because I really should be able to make up my own mind but I'm just very confused at this stage.

Position in GZ teaching business English.

12,300 RMB per month

Airfare out is paid for

Chinese lessons provided free by the school

Five days a week, 8 hours per day so a 40 hour week in total (just like normal jobs really)

25 hours max of teaching time, the rest is 'office hours'


Going by what I've seen on various sites and from talking to people that seems to be a decent salary by Chinese standards. I've got my degree and CELTA cert. and two years basic experience so I imagine I would be going in at an entry level position wherever I go.

My question is this, do you think I can do better?

[vikeologist]

A few things to consider.

Will you be repeating some classes each week or will you have to plan 25 hours of brand spanking new lessons?

How many people in each class? 3 or 4 people in a class (though lovely for them) can be a lot of hard work.

If teaching off-site, are the travel times counted as part of the 40 hours?

That said, it's good money and if you enjoy teaching (because it is a fair amount of teaching per week) it sounds very reasonable to me.

[LiliM]

About ten people per class, which is my favourite number. No travelling off site. I am assuming 25 new classes per week but the school is EF so they would have their own materials that would just need to be supplemented. My folks have made me a little paranoid , they think that 40 hours for 1,200 Euro is mad, but if you factor in the lower cost of living I think it's not a bad salary.

[vikeologist]

EF don't have their own Business text books. (Although I'm sure as hell going to check tomorrow as we, or more accurately an employer, are about to spend a small fortune on Business text books.

They do have General English text books for adults. Have you ever had an opportunity to persuse one of them?

Of course they have probably purchased Business textbooks. I'm sure you're aware of this, but there are not a huge amount of free resources on the internet for business english, so I would suggest making sure.

Maybe you can do better but unless you really do have an expensive lifestyle, the money will be plenty. The issue is the number of hours. If that's 25 real hours, as in 37 and a half ACHs, it might be quite demanding. Meetings, training, placement tests, marketing and everything else might be crammed into those 15 office hours. Hopefully you aleady have an idea how much planning time per class you're comfortable with.

[Sinobear]

Is that 12.3K NET or GROSS? Accomodations included? Shared or private?

If it's 12.3K net with private accomodations provided, then it's an okay offer. If it's 12.3K gross and no accomodations provided (or worse, shared), then it's just gross.

Office hours are a total load of horse-pucks. 12.3K net for 25 hrs/wk is 123 RMB/hr. At 40 hrs/wk you're down to 77 RMB/hr.

What's your motivation for coming to China, if I may ask?

[LiliM]

To learn the language and to get more experience working with corporate clients. Here in Ireland most of my business students were Chinese so it seemed like a logical place to go. I'm not expecting to come home with a huge chunk of change, as long as I can live comfortably I'm happy.