Job Discussion Forums

[Anda]

The Korea thing is not that great really. Shanghai wages here in China are much the same. I looked at the exchange rates the other day and they have dropped from last year.

There is big money to be made in China provided you have the appearance and ability to fill the big paying positions. However the big money is in the bigger cities. Here in China wages drop off in the smaller and poorer cities quite sharply.

I currently have a bit of weekend work and it makes a big difference.

Like a lot of countries you will find that by the time you buy a few things for your apartment plus some clothes and odds and ends on the lower wages here you will not save for the first year. After about 18 months I find that I have little that I badly need to buy.

I just got back from shouting two young Chinese teachers that I work with on the weekend dinner. I ordered a whole fish, two green dishes, soy noddles, bean curd and greens. The lot cost me 55 RMB. I put up in a nice hotel for 60 RMB as I'm two hours by bus from where I work for the rest of the week.

The lady teachers I work with earn 1,000 RMB a month. I earn a lot better. The office lady earns 600 RMB a month.

[ShanghaiSurprise]

Anda,

I would have to disagree with you about the wages being similar between China and South Korea.

I was getting job offers daily for positions that included housing, severance pay, medical, and after taxes I was earning over $2000 USD per month. And those jobs would be available to anyone, not just me. Public school teachers in SK would earn that.

If I wanted to work at a Hagwon for block-shifts in the evenings I could find jobs (30 - 35 hours a week mind you) that I was being offered with accomodations and severance that would have paid me closer to $3000 USD per month.

And none of those figures were for anything illegal. For those that want to make some money on the side tutoring, you can guarantee $40 or $50 USD per hour in South Korea if you are fluent and presentable.

China is cheaper than South Korea probably, but not by much when you want to live in the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

I humbly have to say I see a 100% significant decrease in salary and saving power in China.

[kev7161]

[ShanghaiSurprise]

Kev,

Actually my last response was simply a friendly discussion I was having with Anda about a point she made regarding different salaries. If you're wondering why it strayed from your original question, it's because I was commenting on something during the thread.

You seem to be having a lot of problem getting answers to your questions, since this thread has been posted for a while and you've had excessive viewing with very little poll voters.

No matter what country someone lives in, they do at least HALF of your poll choices I think.

Don't most people pay some bills, save for a rainy day, enjoy their life and buy some extravagent things once in a while as they live normally a lot of the rest of the time?

I can tell you I'm coming to China and you don't have a poll answer that I can accurately respond to.

Then again, I've also posted in this thread a handful of times and even with me constantly bumping the topic, the poll it is still having trouble getting responses.

Kevin, you made note of the salary of 10,000 rmb. And with that you could save and do all sorts of things.

Possibly if you refine the choices of your poll it might be easier to get some feedback that is more accurate and answers your question a bit better. You could also ask each poster to include their salary and location because that might make a difference.

Anyways, I've tried to offer suggestions and you keep responding with the same comment about how very few people are actually answering your questions. I'm not really sure how to offer more comments that can assist your thread.

Think of this like a computer.... it only works based on how effective the person controlling the computer is.

At least I bumped it one last time.

Cheers and good luck.

[kev7161]

Actually, that's what the "other" category is for. If the poll options don't match the answer you would like to provide, you simply choose "other". If one cares to elaborate, they are welcome to because here at Dave's we like to read all different sorts of stories and viewpoints. However, if someone cares NOT to elaborate, that's fine too because here at Dave's we respect people's right to privacy. In addition, forum members new and old are free to start threads and include polls as long as they meet Dave's thread criteria. Sure, it's okay to respond and discuss and debate on any and all threads but if they have something specific they want to say and want to get some sort of specific responses (if that's at all possible), then I say start that new thread and let's see where it leads.

However, I'll repeat one last time: This particular poll isn't necessarily asking HOW MUCH people are earning but rather how they spend/save the money they are earning. The response to that shouldn't matter if they are earning 4000 or 40,000 and shouldn't matter if they are living in Nose-Pick, China or Shanghai, China. Some people feel a few thousand yuan is just plenty while others have stated that FTs should be making much more than that, so I just got curious on how and why people are earning and spending the money they are earning . . . but not HOW MUCH necessarily. By the way, 31 poll responders is MUCH better than 12 or 13. It gives me, the OP, a better idea on what I was curious about.

[bendan]

I try to live a comfortable life while saving. I don't get the feeling many teachers can save a significant amount (i.e. more than you need to move on to the next place), but once you've been here a while you can make a decent amount, though not all do. As Anda suggets, the longer you stay, the less you need to buy the one-off stuff that makes life comfortable.

[wailing_imam]

I get 17,000 a month, and after tax manage to save 10,000 a month easily.

In fact, I have saved enough and am getting the funk out!

[lf_aristotle69]

[Surfdude18]

I make about 11,500 for my normal salary and then make about another 5000 on top out of a few private lessons. That 5000 is enough to live off reasonably well (I have a wife and kid to support) so we save all my salary.

I also get 4 months' paid holidays, which is not true for most people in Korea.

That said, I think this is an above average job, so...