|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
leretif9
Joined: 24 Mar 2013
Posts: 152
|
 Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:10 am Post subject: |
 |
|
From what you are saying, I'm thinking I'll stick with Shanghai.
Thanks for your insights here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
papuadn
Joined: 19 Sep 2016
Posts: 131
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
| leretif9 wrote: |
| Is a university gig out of reach, if my quals are being a native speaker, with a BA in English from a US university, a not-terribly impressive cert. from Oxford Seminars, and no previous experience? |
Probably not (out of reach).
A certainty is not possible because China is so large and varied and it is more about your skills to negotiate the web and do your own legwork in respect to where you want to teach to directly solicit those schools as opposed to recruiters. Recruiters aren't necessarily a bad option, but most are married to their sectors and clients and will tell you anything to collect your resume (including you're not qualified to teach x, y, or z).
TEFL certificates became a requirement explicitly for applicants without prior ESL (or any teaching) experience (2 yrs experience or certificate is a frequent phrasing). It's not a legal requirement, but without one of any kind, you are not competitive. In many circumstances (high need), they are a ticked box.
I would never "massage" a resume, especially in terms of teacher training. It's hackneyed and counterproductive. NomadSoul's posts on this matter are exemplary. Please learn the search function of this site.
Universities are potentially in your reach because of their infamously overcrowded (50+) Oral English listening labs (Ed Tech's monument to possibility) and for a university's subject courses, Master's degrees are preferred. But universities are underfunded (by design) and there is every chance you will teach both-- challenging for many. The plus is, relative to training schools, your contact hours are few and your weekends are free (as well as accommodation)-- typically 15 and 20 at most, so there's ample time to prepare and learn the job. The minus is, relatively, salary-- 1000usd/month is the average for new hires.
On Preview: If Shanghai intrigues you, it, alone, is a large enough market to explore, but some member's conclusions about China's greater countryside are spurious and insulting. It's a matter of expectations and matching your preferences, wants, and needs. There's much fortune and tranquility in 'dem d'ar hills, but if you're not bilingual (or don't want to be) and thirsty for the comradely din of grub, grouse, and gin, Shanghai is, hands down, preferred over Beijing, but that much more competitive. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Modernist
Joined: 03 Jan 2016
Posts: 72
Location: Routing
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 7:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| some member's conclusions about China's greater countryside are spurious and insulting |
Truth hurts, huh?
The countryside of China is perfectly fine, for a weekend. If it's a nice area with mountains and vistas and such, a week is no problem, especially with local female (or male, if you prefer) companionship. Living there, you would need to be some shade of nuts. I should know, I've met my fair share, more perhaps, of exactly the sorts of foreigner who gave rise to the term 'laowai'.
| Quote: |
| It's a matter of expectations and matching your preferences, wants, and needs. |
Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed, right? If your preference is to live like Peter Hessler in River Town and learn fluent Mandarin, and you know you will never in a million years get to teach students as capable as his were 20 years ago, then great. Gold star for you. If you want to be Michael Meyer and sleep on a kang for a whole Dongbei winter, then congratulations on your cultural openness. But 99.999% of foreigners looking to move to China would bug out after two weeks or less of that sort of life. So enough with the lecturing. People coming here want some tiny semblance of a comfortable life.
| Quote: |
| There's much fortune and tranquility in 'dem d'ar hills |
If by fortune you mean poverty, I completely agree with you.
| Quote: |
| Universities are potentially in your reach because of their infamously overcrowded (50+) Oral English listening labs |
They're in reach because there is a huge shortage of foreigners willing to live in such places as most of them are located, even many provincial capitals, or are you clueless about this phenomenon? My old school is now 2 teachers short, at least, and it's nearly November. I wouldn't even speculate on how many they're short in Henan for example. These places are horrible, even most Chinese don't want to live there, why would foreigners want to?
And by the way, my Oral classes were capped at 23 kids. Never had 50+ students in a class and wouldn't teach one that did. No one learns in that kind of environment.
| Quote: |
| for a university's subject courses, Master's degrees are preferred |
No, having enough documents to qualify for a Z visa is 'preferred.' They literally have no basis to demand anything else but that. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kalkstein
Joined: 25 Aug 2016
Posts: 80
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Modernist wrote: |
| Quote: |
| some member's conclusions about China's greater countryside are spurious and insulting |
Truth hurts, huh?
The countryside of China is perfectly fine, for a weekend. If it's a nice area with mountains and vistas and such, a week is no problem, especially with local female (or male, if you prefer) companionship. Living there, you would need to be some shade of nuts. I should know, I've met my fair share, more perhaps, of exactly the sorts of foreigner who gave rise to the term 'laowai'.
Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed, right? If your preference is to live like Peter Hessler in River Town and learn fluent Mandarin, and you know you will never in a million years get to teach students as capable as his were 20 years ago, then great. Gold star for you. If you want to be Michael Meyer and sleep on a kang for a whole Dongbei winter, then congratulations on your cultural openness. But 99.999% of foreigners looking to move to China would bug out after two weeks or less of that sort of life. So enough with the lecturing. |
You make too many unfounded assumptions, you don't know '99.999%' of laowai, not even close. If you can't think of any reasons laowai would live in these places (and lots of them do). Then you are ignorant. Old people looking for a small city, people who have spouses in these cities, people who were expatriated to these cities working in non teaching jobs, people looking for a change of pace. I could go on. Your comment says more about you than anyone else.
| Modernist wrote: |
| If by fortune you mean poverty, I completely agree with you. |
There's probably more poverty on average in these cities yeah, but I've lived in Beijing, it's full of people living in squalor too. Also a lot of them are now sharing accommodation and living in tiny apartments. Just as I know people making 3,000 a month in Beijing I know people making 50,000 pm+ in Henan. There is poverty and rich people everywhere you go in China. The only thing i'll give you is that these cities are boring and polluted but Beijing is polluted to hell anyway. Shanghai, yeah. Much better.
| Modernist wrote: |
| They're in reach because there is a huge shortage of foreigners willing to live in such places as most of them are located, even many provincial capitals, or are you clueless about this phenomenon? My old school is now 2 teachers short, at least, and it's nearly November. I wouldn't even speculate on how many they're short in Henan for example. These places are horrible, even most Chinese don't want to live there, why would foreigners want to? |
I'm in Henan, our school has two foreigners and no need for anymore. You are right we do find it harder than the big cities to recruit but to say it's a huge struggle is a bit of an exaggeration. We up our salaries accordingly. I know people who have been teaching here for 6+ years due to aforementioned reasons. Just because you couldn't hack it don't assume '99.999%' of foreigners can't. I would much prefer to live in Hangzhou, yunnan etc but can't due to other commitments but honestly having moved here from Beijing I can't say I miss Beijing all that much other than my friends there.
Also you're talking about salaries being low here in another post, then why is the university next door here offering between 12-16k for an oral English teacher to work 18 hours/week (depending on qualifications). These place are having to up their salaries because of the competition. I was offered 10k to teach my subject at a university in SZ, I'm getting paid more than that in Henan for less hours. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
papuadn
Joined: 19 Sep 2016
Posts: 131
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Modernist wrote: |
| Quote: |
| some member's conclusions about China's greater countryside are spurious and insulting |
Truth hurts, huh?
The countryside of China is perfectly fine, for a weekend. If it's a nice area with mountains and vistas and such, a week is no problem, especially with local female (or male, if you prefer) companionship. Living there, you would need to be some shade of nuts. I should know, I've met my fair share, more perhaps, of exactly the sorts of foreigner who gave rise to the term 'laowai'.
| Quote: |
| It's a matter of expectations and matching your preferences, wants, and needs. |
Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed, right? If your preference is to live like Peter Hessler in River Town and learn fluent Mandarin, and you know you will never in a million years get to teach students as capable as his were 20 years ago, then great. Gold star for you. If you want to be Michael Meyer and sleep on a kang for a whole Dongbei winter, then congratulations on your cultural openness. But 99.999% of foreigners looking to move to China would bug out after two weeks or less of that sort of life. So enough with the lecturing. People coming here want some tiny semblance of a comfortable life.
| Quote: |
| There's much fortune and tranquility in 'dem d'ar hills |
If by fortune you mean poverty, I completely agree with you.
| Quote: |
| Universities are potentially in your reach because of their infamously overcrowded (50+) Oral English listening labs |
They're in reach because there is a huge shortage of foreigners willing to live in such places as most of them are located, even many provincial capitals, or are you clueless about this phenomenon? My old school is now 2 teachers short, at least, and it's nearly November. I wouldn't even speculate on how many they're short in Henan for example. These places are horrible, even most Chinese don't want to live there, why would foreigners want to?
And by the way, my Oral classes were capped at 23 kids. Never had 50+ students in a class and wouldn't teach one that did. No one learns in that kind of environment.
| Quote: |
| for a university's subject courses, Master's degrees are preferred |
No, having enough documents to qualify for a Z visa is 'preferred.' They literally have no basis to demand anything else but that. |
Thanks for saving me some time, Kalkstein 
I don't have much to add other than capping a listening lab at 23 is not a norm. And that my experience has been (places repeatedly referred to by some as for "crazy" people) working alongside teachers with postgraduate degrees-- some older, but some younger than myself-- raising a family and providing an excellent program for lesser advantaged students.
Because that matters, not to some, but to professionals unburdened with turning threads into debates about how economies should work and prescribing "the best" Chinese experience for all. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Modernist
Joined: 03 Jan 2016
Posts: 72
Location: Routing
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Old people looking for a small city |
Yup, if it wasn't for them I guess 75% of Uni FT positions in China would evaporate like smoke. But to a significant extent that's my point about the 'laowai' concept. That's exactly who it refers to. I had a couple guys like that in my old job. Don't know what motivated them, but it certainly wasn't money (guess one of them was so far off the deep end he actually imagined he could someday get PRC citizenship! Ha!). That's fine, but there's a long way from 'life is more than money' to 'I'll voluntarily inhabit a disheveled backwater for poverty wages for years at a time.'
| Quote: |
people who have spouses in these cities
people who were expatriated to these cities working in non teaching jobs |
I believe another way of saying it would be, people who have little choice in the matter.
| Quote: |
| people looking for a change of pace. |
Not sure what this even means. Is it any different from #1? These are the versions of #1 under the age of 50? Then I guess you must be referring to the drunk contingent. Can't disagree with you on that. Had one of these at the old school too. Used to have more than that. Every year so I'm told about 3 or so of the FTs is less or more of a functioning alcoholic.
| Quote: |
| Your comment says more about you than anyone else. |
Thank you.
| Quote: |
| Just because you couldn't hack it don't assume '99.999%' of foreigners can't |
I plead completely guilty to not being able to 'hack it' working on 1000 USD a month in a poor, polluted, ugly backwater that no Chinese with any choice in the matter would ever live in. You got me.
| Quote: |
| I would much prefer to live in Hangzhou, yunnan etc but can't due to other commitments |
Gosh, this sounds an awful lot like you just went and undermined your entire argument in a single clause. Not sure why you admitted this obvious truth, but thanks!
| Quote: |
| why is the university next door here offering between 12-16k for an oral English teacher to work 18 hours/week (depending on qualifications). These place are having to up their salaries because of the competition. |
No, they are upping their salaries because no one would work in Henan if the salaries were the same as desirable places like Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, etc. It's an employee market there because Henan is a poor, polluted backwater with lots of people and universities and few FTs to even consider working there.
| Quote: |
| I was offered 10k to teach my subject at a university in SZ, I'm getting paid more than that in Henan for less hours. |
Of course you are. You'd be a fool to work in Henan if you could work in Shenzhen instead, unless the pay was higher or the work less, or ideally both. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
getbehindthemule
Joined: 15 Oct 2015
Posts: 712
Location: Shanghai
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 2:05 am Post subject: Re: Shanghai questions from a novice ESL teacher |
|
|
| leretif9 wrote: |
Hi,
I'm a native speaker of English (US) with a BA in English and a TEFL cert from Oxford Seminars. In other words, I have no illusions about how stellar my qualifications are.
Nothing next to nothing about China, my plan at this starting point is to line up an ESL gig in Shanghai for Fall 2018, teach for at least a year, with a goal of saving -- hopefully -- 1000 USD or as close to that as humanly possible per month, and then head back to South America and try to make a living doing private classes.
This is what I read from elsewhere on this board:
"...public school gigs (primary/middle/high) seem to have the best packages considering the relatively light workload. You also have evenings and weekends to yourself and long holidays. 4 weeks for spring festival and 8 weeks for Summer. It also has the advantage of being offered private work from parents, work colleagues, etc. once you establish yourself and gain their trust.
Each to their own, but I wouldn't even consider a language mill position. It's probably true that it's not a bad idea for new teachers that come to China to work at one of these places for their first year before moving on. But be wary that you'll be working unsociable hours and may have to deal with a lot of bs!...
1. Where specifically should I start looking for what's described as a public school gig here? With, hopefully, a generous or at least adequate housing allowance and compensation on the price of the air tickets?
2. What are people's feelings about teaching ESL and living in Dalian and Kunming? How tough is it for newbies to find work there? I assume they won't pay as much as Shanghai.
Beijing sounds in may ways more interesting than Shanghai, but many people who've been to China tell me the drawbacks are that you can't breathe the air, you can't drink the water, and that the food is often contaminated as well.
Any and all insights here are greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance,
Le Retif |
Hey there OP,
Since you have quoted me in your post I thought I'd reply. I've lived in SH for 4 years and I love the city. I've also spent time in Dalian (as my partner is from there) & Qingdao.
There is a bit of a myth going around that you cannot save in Shanghai and it's so expensive, etc. The fact is the city caters for all kinds of lifstyles.
If you want to live in Jing'an, The French Concession (like many FTs do) and other highly saught after areas you will pay 8k + for a decent apartment. But if you move slightly outside of those areas rents almost halve. I live about 5-8 stops on the metro from the popular expat areas and pay 3.2k/month for a reasonable sized 1 bedroom. I will be moving into a 2 bedroom apartment next year and will pay approx 4.5-5k/month.
Apart from eating out at Western restaurants, drinking at expat joints the cost of living is low. Utilities (Power, Gas, Water, Internet, Phone) & Transportation are very cheap. Food prices - supermarket, wet market, etc. are much the same as other parts of China.
I'm on an average enough salary as far as being a full time unlicensed FT goes in Shanghai (18k inc housing allowance). My starting salary here back in 2014 was less but I had a lot of free time and I took on a small bit of private work so it worked out the same.
The fully paid Summer holidays (upon resigning) and flight allowance do make the overall package. There are loads of public schools out where I live in South Xuhui district and in turn loads of FTs. I teach Science but the vast majority are ESL teachers and the salaries are much the same at the lower grade levels (Primary/Middle).
If you are still interested in six months send me a pm. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 5:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
(upon resigning)
Assume you mean 're-signing'. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
getbehindthemule
Joined: 15 Oct 2015
Posts: 712
Location: Shanghai
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Non Sequitur wrote: |
(upon resigning)
Assume you mean 're-signing'. |
Yes mate, shudda read it before posting really  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
donkeydonkey
Joined: 01 Aug 2015
Posts: 73
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:05 am Post subject: In defense of Henan |
|
|
I live in Henan and teach at a university. I'm neither a drunk nor crazy. I could very easily get a job in a tier one if I wanted to live there. The idea that people voluntarily live in places like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, or Guangzhou is absolutely beyond me. Shenzhen is a step above the rest, but hardly anything to write home about. To each their own, and if you like tier ones than go for it. I don't share Modernist's attitude that everyone must agree with me or be insulted, but I just don't personally get the love for these larger cities. Boring, soulless, uninteresting, and endlessly sprawling places full of overly rude and arrogant people. Over priced tourist traps that never fail to disappoint. Traffic, pollution, and ridiculous prices for shoebox apartments that are falling apart. Often people endure an hour or longer commute to work each way so that they can have the same or lower salary than a school inland and that salary is stretched even further because of the difference in cost of living. To me, the "desirable" ex-pat places are the worst of China combined with the worst of the West.
I love that I can live off-campus away from prying eyes and commute within 15 mins. to my university on my motorcycle. Yes, I can own a motorcycle here without paying some ridiculous, prohibitively high fee for a license plate. i don't pay for parking. The same motorcycle can get me to the mountains in about half an hour.
I love that I can basically choose how many privates I want because there is almost no competition. I love that the other universities in my city ask me to pick up classes every semester because it's basically me or nothing. I take pride in my job and try to do it well, but having a market cornered never hurts.
I love that spoiled rich kids are very rare where I am. Most of my students are nice, a bit naive, and genuinely try. I get some lazy kids or kids that are just disinterested, but rude, spoiled brats with a f8ck you attitude are few and far between.
Some will say that, with the exception of eating in western places, drinking in western bars, and living a western lifestyle, many tier ones have a similiar cost of living to places like Henan. But if you're not eating at western places, living a western lifestyle, and drinking in ex-pat pubs then what's the benefit of tier ones again?
The most expensive place in my city to rent that I have found is 2200 rmb. It's a new 140 sm. 3 bd 2 bath with hardwood floors, marble counter-tops. The building has a free to residents gym and also a movie theater that you have to buy tickets to. There are 2 buildings where the apartments are more expensive to buy, but they don't have any apartments to rent. i don't rent because my school provided apartment is fine, but if you wanted a more luxurious apt. then you could do it very cheaply here.
Some obnoxious neon lights on the side of a line of soulless big buildings don't impress me. Blowing money on an over priced, semi-simulated western lifestyle doesn't interest me. Don't get me wrong, there are cons to living in lower tier cities also, but I'll happily stay in my little city in Henan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
papuadn
Joined: 19 Sep 2016
Posts: 131
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 9:24 am Post subject: Re: In defense of Henan |
|
|
| donkeydonkey wrote: |
| I love that I can live off-campus away from prying eyes and commute within 15 mins. to my university on my motorcycle. Yes, I can own a motorcycle here without paying some ridiculous, prohibitively high fee for a license plate. i don't pay for parking. The same motorcycle can get me to the mountains in about half an hour. |
CAN I GET AN AMEN!
| Quote: |
| I love that I can basically choose how many privates I want because there is almost no competition. I love that the other universities in my city ask me to pick up classes every semester because it's basically me or nothing. I take pride in my job and try to do it well, but having a market cornered never hurts. |
You LUCKY dog! My city had but one university, and you probably have the local bureau's tacit permission.
Kudos! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LarssonCrew
Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 1308
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
Depends what you want, you have to understand different strokes for different folks.
I recently moved to BJ because my wife just finished her Masters and basically working in anything but tier 1 in her profession is non existent. Do I want my wife to work as an office worker in a tier 4 Henan town? Probably not. One other point if you have a Chinese wife, is that, in the former city I worked in, similar to what you described [about 9 foreigners total in the city], was that, because my wife did not speak Jiangsu hua, it was almost impossible for her to find any sort of decent work. In Beijing she was in a job in 3 days.
Secondly, the thing about less competition is fine, IF they are willing to pay. I have no problems doing extra work and like making extra, however, in the old city, even though they were desperate as hell to have someone cover classes who wasn't a South African [complaints from parents] they stuck rigidly to a 100 yuan an hour pay scale that they'd adhered to since the school opened 9 years before. No thanks.
Now I do Saturday work here in BJ and make around 3000 for that single day.
I also am not a drinker and rarely go into the city center, I live on the outskirtsish, although right on top of a subway station. No problem with rent because school directly pays landlord the rent. Also, I understand people blasting their salaries on western food and I disagree with it, but this lunchtime I was able to order fish and chips to my door, which was a nice change. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
papuadn
Joined: 19 Sep 2016
Posts: 131
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 1:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| LarssonCrew wrote: |
Secondly, the thing about less competition is fine, IF they are willing to pay. ... they stuck rigidly to a 100 yuan an hour pay scale that they'd adhered to since the school opened 9 years before. No thanks.
Now I do Saturday work here in BJ and make around 3000 for that single day. |
100rmb/hr compared to 3000rmb / X hrs is somewhat skewed to illustrate an urban/rural differential which is most certainly significant and a vital variable to finding the balance that's a good fit.
I started in a small city (in my third year, down to 4 foreigners from 8, between one university and one prestigious high school with an international program for around one million residents between two urban centers) without any foreign-staffed training centers. Four KFC's, but no McDonald's, and 100rmb wasn't acceptable to any of us. 150rmb/hr for tutoring with a university teacher, but the high school pair had more contact hours and were compensated beyond any incentive to tutor. A deferred offer from a center for a small class was 250rmb/hr.
I don't work weekends. Personally, I think it undermines my value. But neither would I expect anyone else to have my approach to things. Were I here for myriad different reasons, making hay while the sun shines trumps the particular set of priorities I currently have. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kalkstein
Joined: 25 Aug 2016
Posts: 80
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| LarssonCrew wrote: |
Depends what you want, you have to understand different strokes for different folks.
I recently moved to BJ because my wife just finished her Masters and basically working in anything but tier 1 in her profession is non existent. Do I want my wife to work as an office worker in a tier 4 Henan town? Probably not. One other point if you have a Chinese wife, is that, in the former city I worked in, similar to what you described [about 9 foreigners total in the city], was that, because my wife did not speak Jiangsu hua, it was almost impossible for her to find any sort of decent work. In Beijing she was in a job in 3 days.
Secondly, the thing about less competition is fine, IF they are willing to pay. I have no problems doing extra work and like making extra, however, in the old city, even though they were desperate as hell to have someone cover classes who wasn't a South African [complaints from parents] they stuck rigidly to a 100 yuan an hour pay scale that they'd adhered to since the school opened 9 years before. No thanks.
Now I do Saturday work here in BJ and make around 3000 for that single day.
I also am not a drinker and rarely go into the city center, I live on the outskirtsish, although right on top of a subway station. No problem with rent because school directly pays landlord the rent. Also, I understand people blasting their salaries on western food and I disagree with it, but this lunchtime I was able to order fish and chips to my door, which was a nice change. |
It really is different strokes for different folks, we moved from Beijing to T3 Henan for the opposite reason your wife moved to Beijing. My wife got a substantially better salary offer for way less hours in Henan because the area is so desperate for her expertise. Being able to afford to buy a 300 sqm penthouse apartment is actually pretty nice and and although it's still a busy city I don't miss the traffic in Beijing, not one bit.
As for my job I do earn less (although her salary more than makes up for it), what I try to do to offset this is teach large groups of children for low prices. If I get 10 children I make about 600/hour this way. So far I've managed to amass 8 hours of this a week. The thing I do miss about beijing is that there's more to do but if I had a choice between ANY city it would be Kunming. That's what Modernist failed to understand, rarely does any expat have the chance to live in their perfect city. Salaries, opportunities, family...
Most Chinese people past the age of 30 I know only want to live in Beijing and Shanghai for their childs education and their job, most of them would prefer to be off living in Hainan... but reality bites. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kalkstein
Joined: 25 Aug 2016
Posts: 80
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 4:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| LarssonCrew wrote: |
Depends what you want, you have to understand different strokes for different folks.
I recently moved to BJ because my wife just finished her Masters and basically working in anything but tier 1 in her profession is non existent. Do I want my wife to work as an office worker in a tier 4 Henan town? Probably not. One other point if you have a Chinese wife, is that, in the former city I worked in, similar to what you described [about 9 foreigners total in the city], was that, because my wife did not speak Jiangsu hua, it was almost impossible for her to find any sort of decent work. In Beijing she was in a job in 3 days.
Secondly, the thing about less competition is fine, IF they are willing to pay. I have no problems doing extra work and like making extra, however, in the old city, even though they were desperate as hell to have someone cover classes who wasn't a South African [complaints from parents] they stuck rigidly to a 100 yuan an hour pay scale that they'd adhered to since the school opened 9 years before. No thanks.
Now I do Saturday work here in BJ and make around 3000 for that single day.
I also am not a drinker and rarely go into the city center, I live on the outskirtsish, although right on top of a subway station. No problem with rent because school directly pays landlord the rent. Also, I understand people blasting their salaries on western food and I disagree with it, but this lunchtime I was able to order fish and chips to my door, which was a nice change. |
It really is different strokes for different folks, we moved from Beijing to T3 Henan for the opposite reason your wife moved to Beijing. My wife got a substantially better salary offer for way less hours in Henan because the area is so desperate for her expertise. Being able to afford to buy a 300 sqm penthouse apartment is awesome and and although it's still a busy city I don't miss the traffic in Beijing, not one bit.
As for my job I do earn less (although her salary more than makes up for it), what I try to do to offset this is teach large groups of children for low prices. If I get 10 children I make about 600/hour this way. So far I've managed to amass 8 hours of this a week. The thing I do miss about beijing is that there's more to do but if I had a choice between ANY city it would be Kunming. That's what Modernist failed to understand, rarely does any expat have the chance to live in their perfect city. Salaries, opportunities, family...
Most Chinese people past the age of 30 I know only want to live in Beijing and Shanghai for their child's education and their job, most of them would prefer to be off living in Hainan... but reality bites. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
