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[Shan-Shan]

I visited the Foreign Student Department of my factory today to inquire about private Chinese language tutors.

The cost: 80RMB per 45 minutes, minimum 90 minutes (why they don't just say 160RMB for 90 minutes, no less, is only comprehensible to the rigid Chinese school official's mind).

China has plenty of Chinese teachers, and not an overwhelming number of foreign students looking for private lessons. 160RMB for 90 minutes seems steep to me. With this in mind, the now seemingly absent "Prof" and his urging (tongue-in-cheek or otherwise) that we demand 250RMB an hour hardly seems outrageous: the demand for English in China from FTs (of all shades) is high, and the supply -- though not a trickle -- does not satisfy the need.

When Chinese teachers are asking over 100RMB an hour (unless my factory is a strange anomaly), why shy away from asking for more, much more, for our services? With an overseas education, experience and perhaps even some training (the latter unlikely to be possessed by a Chinese teacher; and if so, the quality is at best questionable), justifying low FT wages as just being "on par" with Chinese teachers' is just dim and defeatist.

There's more you are not being told than told. Most of us here now this; some who subsist on 1.5 kuai "thingies" like "all Chinese teachers" need to get better educated, however.

[william wallace]

yada yada

[GeminiTiger]

why would you pay anything for a chinese tutor/teacher? most chinese people (that i know) would do this for free. find a cute girl to teach you chinese. most schools will also arrange someone to do this for free..

[Lister]

When I had a Chinese tutor I was paying 35 RMB per hour as I remember, and she was an actual Chinese teacher in a high school not just some average person off the street.
I have no idea what the going rate is but I suspect your school is going to give someone maybe 40-50 per hour to do the job and pocket the rest.
Shop around.

[InTime]

Krashen/NaturalApproach Factors
Promoting Whole-brained Mandarin Learning Environment include:

*lowering Affective Filter"
*enlarging "intrinsic motivation"
*developing "I+1" Input (and retained by MP3 Recording)

as well as:
*Natural Communication Gap activities
*Mellow Brain Waves suitable for memor-ableness
*Comprehensible Output feedback (and retained by MP3 Recording)

WHERE? Massage Center-as-Language Learning Centre
Later the Tutor can help w/MP3 of Massage Session...

[Shan-Shan]

I'm not looking for a "language" tutor per se. I went by the factory's Chinese language center to see if they were offering any Modern Chinese Literature classes, and whether any Literature professors had any out of class study sessions avaiable; reading 鲁迅 on my own is fine, but it would only help if I could attend a lecture once in a while which provided some relevant background to help me attain a better sense of the milieu the author was working within.

The tutor option was mentioned to me, but I won't be taking it. No doubt the "鲁迅专家" would just be some office assistant reciting memorized spew from the equivalent of China's "Cole's Notes".

[Anda]

Wages at a government college for a Chinese English teacher with four years teaching experience are 12 RMB an hour but then they get paid for the summer and winter holidays.

Teachers at institutes get about 20 RMB an hour but that's it comes with no paid holidays.

Top money at medical colleges for teachers is about 30 RMB an hour.


Some Chinese however will pay big money for private lessons off teachers that work for the above wages at their places of permanent employment.

This country is crazy.

[AussieGuyInChina]

I have a close friend; a Chinese teacher of English at a government university.

She told me (and she has proven her honesty in many different ways, so I believe her) that her base salary is 4,000 RMB for a teaching load of 12 lessons per week. She is required to attend a 2 hour meeting every Thursday afternoon, but otherwise her non-teaching time is her own.

She is paid a housing allowance of 500 RMB per month. She is paid 13 months salary per year and receives an annual 'gift', which cannot be converted to cash. Her gift this year (in July) was a trip to Thailand with 30+ colleagues from the Foreign Languages Department.

She teaches 20 lessons per week and is paid "overtime" of 50 RMB for each lesson in excess of 12 per week. I pointed out to her that her overtime rate is less per hour than her base salary, but she dismissed my concern saying that 50 RMB per hour for extra classes is normal.

[william wallace]

nil

[11:59]

[SnoopBot]

[arioch36]

Also, teachers, all chinese for that matter, get paid for other job titles they hold, regardless of whether the second job title actually requires any work.

My former school sent a bunch of Chinese teachers to England this month for no special purpose

[SnoopBot]

[arioch36]

There is one place only I would say that the foreign teacher gets a much better deal then the Chinese teacher... at s middle/high school of mediocre quality ( of course, few of these have many laowai). These teachers are often treated ... not so well. But then even these schools have "teachers" who aren't required to do much or any teaching.

The first couple of years at a college the new teacher gets a fairly low wage, and may have to share a room (for free) with another teacher ... until they can show they are on the college team .... which helps explain why the Chinese teacher is hesitant to rock the boat. Quality teaching pales in importance to quality "hear no evil see no evil" loyalty. I have a good Chinese friend who is such a teacher who would ignore any corruption around him. He is not a dean or a vice dean. About to get his 3rd "school subsidized" apartment

[SnoopBot]