Job Discussion Forums

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

I posted that China was going to go this way first,and other ESL markets would follow suite, and Korea has been contemplating allowing Filipino FTs to displace the heavily saturated Canadian presence. China is easily the largest market in ESL, and by allowing non-native speakers foray into the teaching market, supply will not be a problem, and salaries can approximate their native countries.
Examples:

"Requirement: From Africa English teacher

Location: Harbin, 8 hours from Beijing. The school will provide you free accommodation. If you wanna live for long term, the school can also arrange you some part time jobs on Saturday and Sunday. Will pay by hour. 100 Yuan/hour for extra hours."

Wouldn't you think a person from a politically unstable country,rife with violence and poverty would think accommodation and 5000 RMB is a
great job....until they lower to 4000...3500 RMB ?

"Requirement: From Philippines English teacher,have some teaching English experiences,can look after children during this time."

For the scant few long-termers here, this is partially why the pay and conditions have been falling.

brsmith15 · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 1142 Location: New Hampshire USA

William,

It's called outsourcing, but these schools are making a big mistake. Nike has been cited time and again for using cheap foreign labor, BUT they kept the quality the same as they had with domestic manufacturers. These schools are cheapening both the price and the quality. Now, the best ESL teacher I ever had the honor of supervising came form the Ukraine, but he was a very special case.

I'm sure that in the groups from Africa and the Phillipines, there are some very fine teachers, but from what I've experienced in the past, they either are ungrounded in English or their teaching methods are poor or both.

You get what you pay for: EF, Delter/Telfort, and the like who'll hire anyone who can hear thunder and see lightning.

eddy-cool · Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 1008

"It's the market, stupid!' I hear background noises. In the past said 'market' was responsible for indecently high FT salary packages; now the same 'market forces' bring new wind into the stale classroom atmosphere.

Welcome these fellow FTs!

Shan-Shan · Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1074 Location: electric pastures

Flatter them (at around two minutes) instead of raising their salary:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/W0wuaE9oAV4/

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

Eyrick3 · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 161 Location: Beijing, China

I'm not quite sure why any reputable school would hire anything less than a young white westerner. Most Chinese are very skeptical to pay for a "foreign teacher" unless they fit that requirement and have a passport from an English-speaking western country.

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

So not cool.

JohnC · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London

eddy-cool · Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 1008

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

Must be before 1993, as that is when I arrived.Though most work then was volunteer related.
In my best estimate 1998-2001 would have been the peak,though it was still far below ANY other major ESL market.

JohnC · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 47 Location: London