Job Discussion Forums

[Underpantgnome]

I�m extremely interested in teaching English in China. I was originally going to go to Europe, but given how much the dollar is sucking over there, I have turned my sights firmly towards China. I�ve been doing a lot of research, but I have a couple of questions for the more experienced teachers/travelers.

1) I�m a bit selective about where I�d like to be. I�ll settle and I�m sure I�ll love where I end up, but I have preferences like anyone else. I want to stay in a Mandarin speaking area. That�s pretty important because I�m going to try to learn the language. At least how to speak it. I�d also like to stay away from the frigid north, as I hear it can be incredibly cold. If I had it perfectly, I�d like to teach on the coast. Mind you, that�s if I had it perfectly. So, given those preferences, any one have suggestions?
2) One thing I�m curious about is salary. I�m going to stay away from large cities, so I know that lowers the price. I really don�t need to live luxuriously. I�ve heard in smaller cities, 4000 RMB will get me by just fine. I�m guessing 4000 is fairly standard for someone with my qualifications (Bachelors degree, will have TESOL, virtually no teaching experience save a summer of tutoring). I�m not trying to save any money, also. I�m coming with a sizable (for me) bank account ($7-10k) and I plan on spending it all. I�ve been saving up specifically for this since November. The only thing is that I would like to save most of it for traveling. Is that going to be possible on a 4000/month salary?
3) Chinese women, �yay or nay�? Just kidding. They�re asian. Of course they�re �yay�.
4) For a state run school, what time does the new school year start?

Thanks in advance for any help ya'll can offer!

[Anda]

State run schools start the new employment year on the 1st of September. Jiangsu provience and Shanghai are the main places where goverment schools employ us.


On 4,000 RMB you just get by if you have to get a few things for where you live plus a few articals of clothing. Costs are going up quickly here in China of recent.


These are the areas to stay away from:

Cantonese (linguistics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about all of the Cantonese (Yue) dialects. For the dialect of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, see Standard Cantonese. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_(linguistics) - 91k -


This is the place for mainly schools around Nanjing.

Jiangsu Education Servives For International Exchange

Susan Yao
Reception 8625 8333 5999

Direct 8625 8333 5972

[GeminiTiger]

Welcome to the forum UPG. I think soon you will realize that you will get a lot of conflicting information here, but try to make sense of it all and You will be fine. Individual experiences in China will differ greatly by personal perception-expectations and the fact that each and every school has a unique environment.

location - This is a bit misleading, especially this year. those of us who live in the south got snow dumped on us this year. The difference is that in the north the schools and homes are setup for cold weather in the south they don't use stuff like insulation, or believe in heating a classroom. Coastal cities have more competition and higher costs, you can expect to work more to get the same amount of comfort.

salary - 4000 rmb is OK. Outside of Shanghai, Beijing or another city that has more then 3+ million people. Big cities cost more to live. Your first year here, don't be afraid to accept 4000. IF they reimburse your airfare ANDgive you a free apartment to live in that includes internet and electric. Some people on Dave's have been here a long time and think you can't live in a small town for less then 10,000 that simply is not true.

girls Don't worry they will find you.

state-run-schools These schools generally offer the package I discussed above, if you get those things you will be ok. Schools start in August and end in July (at least the Universities do generally) but everywhere is a little different.

Judging by your name, you must be a Southpark fan, if you haven't been here http://mrtwig.net/ you can DL all seasons of SP online.

Goodluck

[jm21]

$4000 is normal pay? I thought that was about as low as it got? Don't most places pay 4,500-8,000 RMB per month+housing? That's what I was seeing in the ads....4k rmb or less, you might as well just take a long vacation...

Don't they speak primarily Shanghainese in Shanghai? I have a friend from Shanghai and she barely speaks any standard Mandarin.

From Wiki:
"In December 2004, the first survey of language use in the People's Republic of China revealed that only 53% of its population, about 700 million people, could communicate in Standard Mandarin. (China Daily) A survey by South China Morning Post released in September 2006 gave the same result.[citation needed] This 53% is defined as a passing grade above 3-B (ie. error rate lower than 40%) of the Evaluation Exam. Another survey in 2003 by the China National Language And Character Working Committee (国家语言文字工作委员会) shows, if mastery of Standard Mandarin is defined as Grade 1-A (an error rate lower than 3%), the percentages as follows are: Beijing 90%, Shanghai 3%, Tianjin 25%, Guangzhou 0.5%, Dalian 10%, Xi'an 12%, Chengdu 1%, Nanjing 2%.[citation needed] Consequently, foreign learners of Mandarin usually opt to learn at Beijing, although learning grammar and writing is not confined to that area."

[bdawg]

[GeminiTiger]

[Lobster]

I find that Shanghai people only use the dialect when they are having private conversations with each other but generally use fairly "standard" southern-style Mandarin in public. I have noted that many Chinese people here can't understand each other because of accents. I think you can do better than 4k (about 7.5k) with your qualifications UPG. Nanjing is a nice city.

RED

Your sig is still a virus. It's been deleted again.

[Underpantgnome]

Wow, you guys are quick. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Gemini- Yeah, 4000 was with the assumption of apartment and airfare, but I didn't realize I should get electric and internet as well. Are you saying that the money will go a lot farther inland though? And thanks for the link .

You guys have answered a lot of the questions I had, even the ones I didn't ask. I'm just trying to be as prepared as possible, so I've got a few more if you've got the time .
1) I'm really interested in the different experiences people have had in relation to small and large cities. I have a good idea about them, but I'm curious to what people have to say around here. As far as I can tell, a smaller city would probably suit me best, something with less than 2.5 million. but I'm still pretty green here, so I'm probably speaking out of my arse. I've heard good things about Qingdao, but I'm a bit worried its too geared towards ex-pats, and I'd like to avoid that. GeminiTiger also got me thinking about the difference between coastal and inland cities. Is there much of one?
2) Is it better to take the TESOL/TEFL course over there or here?
3) To Lobster (or anyone for that matter )- Am I selling myself short by shooting for 4000? Should I be bargaining? 7500 just seems a bit high from what I've been reading. My only real selling point is I have 2 Bachelors, one in Psychology, the other in Spanish.

Thanks again everyone, I'm already getting a much more realistic picture of what I'm about to plunge into.

[jm21]

Seems like the TEFL type courses are significantly cheaper over there, unless you do an online one. Maybe I'm wrong there, I haven't looked around too too much. I'd think it would probably be more interesting to do one somewhere else if you don't have commitments in your country.

From the posts here it seems like bargaining is pretty common in China. I had a friend who went to teach in Korea and bargained quite a bit, to get fewer hours and more pay.

People's definition of small city always surprises me...I guess as a small-town guy I always think of small city as around 100-200k people, haha. Is there a good website to find out the population of Chiense cities quickly? I was trying to find the population of some cities earlier with mixed results...the big ones seemed easy to find, but some of the smaller ones were a problem.

[Lobster]

Yes, I do believe that you're selling yourself cheap at 4k. Of course it depends on location, hours worked, type of school and other factors, but if you browse through enough postings I think you'll find that 7.5K/mo. for 18-20 hours/wk. is easy to get in a middle-sized city.

There is certainly a distinction between those of us who have chosen to stay long term and would shy away from anything under 15k and those who are looking for a cultural experience or who are just getting their feet wet. In Shanghai, I can pull 7k/mo. at a day and a half (just under 7 hours) per week. After you've established yourself, made a few connections and built a reputation, better-paying positions will come your way.

Edit: My idea of a mid-sized city in China is 3-6 million.

RED

Your sig remains contaminated. It has been deletd again.

[tingdedong]

You can find a dialect map of China at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/china_ling_90.jpg . Not sure how accurate it is, though.

There's also an extremely detailed discussion of the characteristics of different Chinese dialects at http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/faq.php

[mgafunnell]

chinese girls are beautiful, but remember, "all that glitters is not gold".

i.e. they'll love you until someone who makes more comes along. plus, they only bathe about once a week. plus, if you get married, expect to be the bread-winner for the entire family.

i'm speaking from experience.

[Surfdude18]

IMHO if you don't need to save or send money home, 4000 is quite a lot to spend a month. You'll be able to afford quite a few western luxuries etc on that. You certainly won't need to dig into your savings.

[cj750s]

[Surfdude18]

Yes - I Meant outside of the major places like Beijing/Shanghai. Obviously it's possible to spend as much as you would in the west, living in those cities.