Job Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Just for fun. . . What's the highest salary you've heard of for a teaching job in China.
I know someone who was looking at a 20,000 to 25,000 RMB a month for 20-25 hours a week teaching Business English at an INternational Company.

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

Gee, I wonder if wandertroll will post on this thread? Rolling Eyes

william wallace · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 2869 Location: in between

nothing to say.

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

Assuming that your 30,000 - 60,000 RMB guys are pre-SARS, then it seems that salaries have gone down over the last months - I have heard of no English-teacher salary over the 20,000-25,000 RMB mark lately.

This seems counter-intuitive to me - and I am a fresh-faced newbie. Can anyone correct me on this side-issue?

Incidentally, it seems that few people like to post a number on these kinds of threads. Perhaps we don't like bragging - or spilling the beans on certain opportunities. Wink

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Certified IELTS teaches can make great money, so I don't doubt Braveheart's claim. If you have the experience, reputation, and hustle you can pull down 20-25K fairly easily in the larger cities...but you usually do this working independently in a string of part-time private and business jobs, NOT working full time at one school. These part-timers don't get the visas, apartments/allowances, and other bennies that full-timers at one school tend to get. You also have to always scramble to keep these lucrative part-time gigs in the pipeline in addition to the time you spend teaching. When I become eligible (after all, I only married my wife to get a visa Twisted Evil

) I'm going to get permanent residence status and consider going this route myself. Until then I'm dependent upon a full-time job for a Z visa, without which I absolutely will not work.

The highest advertised monthly base salary I've ever seen for general-market, conversational English teachers at a single school has been 15K. I've seen this in 2 settings...I've seen it a few times in the 2 largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai, often with no benefits. And I've seen it for a public school in the lovely, progressive, salubrious Far North of Inner Mongolia. I suspect the latter was a scam, since the ad came bobbing back up every couple of weeks.

MT

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Can't be said too many times: IF YOU DON'T HAVE A Z VISA AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS, YOUR BUTT IS ON THE LINE AND MIGHT GET BITTEN OFF. ANY SCHOOL THAT HIRES YOU AND DOESN'T GIVE YOU THESE DOCS, EVEN FOR A SHORT ASSIGNMENT, IS LYING AND CHEATING AND KNOWINGLY PUTTING YOU AT RISK. Welcome to China!

The net income calculation depends upon your definition of a good school. By "good", do you mean "offering a reasonably-high-quality education", or "obscenely profitable"? It's partly a question of morality- class sizes, teacher treatment & training, comfort of the facilities, etc.
Pick your market, learn what local competitors charge for classes and figure how you want to compare to them, get the local costs for rents, facility remodeling, equipment, etc. Decide what kind of FT package you want to offer. Don't forget the cost of bribing, WHOOPS! I mean being consulted by, the relevant local bureaus- Education, Tax, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Environment, etc. You'll have to put all this together and run the numbers.

If memory serves, a typical Anonymous English School site has a 2-year expectation for profitablity. Many Chinese owners have a 2-hour expectation for profitability.

Chinese partners: Should of course be rich, but well-connected is even better, particularly if there are Party ties. They should be able to help you acquire Z visas for your FTs and to lubricate things at the Bureaus for you. Should be willing to take a cut of the swag but have absolutely no involvement in the day-to-day running of the school. You should get straight how many of their relatives and/or buddies should be hired by you and/or receive free or deeply-discounted tuition. It's a good thing to get to know them and be sure you can work with them. One big decision- are they an investing partner with a corresponding cut of profit, or just a "consulting" partner who helps with official matters, and gets a smaller cut and a regular "consulting fee"?

Don't be misled: running a school is a MAJOR headache!

Good luck,
MT

Egas · Guest

In the last four months I've scoured every damn job, every damn day, board that posts Chinese jobs. The highest paying job I've seen advertised in that time is Y12 000. I was offered a couple of jobs at that salary, but turned 'em down. One because the contract said that besides the 40 hour of week total work, you could be asked to do overtime at any time the manager wanted you to and for no extra money - that's right - extra classes and extra marketing monkey gigs for absolutely no pay. And then only a week's holiday in the entire contract. So I told 'em to stick it.

About a year ago I was offered another job for Y15 000 tp teach primary school kids in Beijing, but couldn't bare the thought of teaching those brats again, so turned that down too. I got offered work at Wall Street for Y17 600, but turned that down because the work seemed soulless.

All in all, for the advertised jobs, the vast majority fall between Y4000 to Y7000. I'd say 90% fall into that category. In other words, if you want to get rich, forget ESL.

I was earning Y40 000 a month teaching at an international school earlier this year, but it was just a six month contract. Unfortunately a taste of the high(er) life tends to spoil one, and I have become something of a tantrum-throwing foreign brat since that time, and much choosier in what I accept in terms of salary and conditions.

Having said that I've just accepted a position in Leshan in Sichuan for Y10 000. I accepted it because it sounds like a nice place, there were some other little perks (such as three meals a day), the other teachers there seemed happy (I spoke to BOTH of them on the phone). And Beijing is already miserably cold and grey - time to get out before depression sets in.

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Egas · Guest

My Turn Now,

Wall Street may be OK for many teachers. I doubt you could say they commit "horrors". It is just that their sytem is very depersonalised - "the MacDonalds of ESL" as one of their managers described it. Teachers rotate students in small groups from sesssion to session, and there is little chance to get to know students, see their progress, or identify their strengths and weaknesses. There are 30 hours of teaching and ten hours of office work a week - more than most ESL jobs, but the money is much better too. They also have a very high turnover of staff, for whatever reason.