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Trinley
Joined: 29 Apr 2010
Posts: 144
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 Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 4:07 pm Post subject: Is this salary possible? |
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I'm trying to make a decision about my next teaching location, and it's down to South Korea (never been there, but the salary is decent) and China (worked there before and liked it). The only thing on my 'pro' list for Korea is salary, so I'm wondering if it's possible to match it in China. That would mean around 15,000 rmb a month. (I'm excluding the extra cash I'd get in Korea for arrival + severance and just considering monthly pay.) The highest offer I have received is 10,500 in Nanjing, which includes money for housing allowance -- no apartment provided. I haven't seen any better offers, but I hear they're out there.
Also, I'm not willing to teach kids, so that limits my job options.
Thanks. |
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Mr. Kalgukshi
Mod Team
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Posts: 6613
Location: Need to know basis only.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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This thread must remain focused on living and teaching in China. If it begins to focus on Korea, it will no longer be available. Korean related postings are not permitted here on the International Board per the locked Announcement at the top of this forum:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=85563 |
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daCabbie
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
Posts: 244
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 1:20 am Post subject: |
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How hard do you want to work? Willing to live in a big city?
Simple answer: Maybe. But, its more complicated than that. If you freelance and work a lot maybe you can match salaries. If you only want to work for one source, chances are unlikely. Unless you have special qualifications eg. to teach Air Traffic Controllers.
Your gonna make more elsewhere; China is often called: A Slacker's Paradise. I have never heard it called the: Pot O' Gold.
In about fifteen minutes someone will come along and tell me how wrong I really am. |
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JordanX
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:12 am Post subject: Re: Is this salary possible? |
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| Trinley wrote: |
I'm trying to make a decision about my next teaching location, and it's down to South Korea (never been there, but the salary is decent) and China (worked there before and liked it). The only thing on my 'pro' list for Korea is salary, so I'm wondering if it's possible to match it in China. That would mean around 15,000 rmb a month. (I'm excluding the extra cash I'd get in Korea for arrival + severance and just considering monthly pay.) The highest offer I have received is 10,500 in Nanjing, which includes money for housing allowance -- no apartment provided. I haven't seen any better offers, but I hear they're out there.
Also, I'm not willing to teach kids, so that limits my job options.
Thanks. |
If you do a LOT of freelance work you might be able to bump it up to that -- but by then, you'd be working as many hours as you would be working in Korea.
Moreover, 15000 RMB doesn't sound like it would really match a Korean salary. I was offered $75,000 USD to work there with only a BA, but I may have pulled that off because of my college, my GPA, and my class rank. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure how common that is. In China, we're interchangeable white cogs, which is why you won't be able to get much more than 10k. (The only reason why I'm not in Korea is because I'm a fat woman -- size 8 -- and life is a living hell if you're even two ounces overweight. China's a tiny bit more tolerable in that respect.) |
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Little Tiger
Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 58
Location: Zhongshan, Guangdong
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 5:08 am Post subject: |
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To be honest, its all about relativity for me. If your making 10-14K a month then that is probably the equivalent of making around $50-60,000US. When you factor in expenses rent etc, you wont make as much as you will in Korea pound-for-pound but you can certainly live on less and put more savings away. Though you will have to save for longer to buy that Ferrari you always dreamed of.
If your interested in making Western salaries then your going to have to do something other than teaching. |
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bradley
Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 235
Location: China
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:45 am Post subject: |
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| It's possible to make that much in Shenzhen if you have a decent full-time job and then pick up some privates on the weekends or evenings. |
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JayCee86
Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 82
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:18 am Post subject: |
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| Yes it is, I'm lucky enough to earn more than that plus extra from part-time work. However, such jobs are not overly easy to find and getting such a job is sometimes a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but they are out there. |
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El Macho
Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 200
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:47 am Post subject: |
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15,000 (or more) is certainly possible, but it depends quite a bit on you. What are your teaching strengths, what qualifications do you have, etc. I've been in Beijing a bit over 6 months and have found it relatively easy to get enough work to exceed the salary you're hoping for and have free time. (A poster called bearcanada had some good posts about this server years back, if you want to dig around for them.
If you have an MA + experience, you can earn much more than 15,000/month at joint venture universities; if you have a teaching credential from your home country, you can earn much more than 15,000/month at international schools; if you have a TEFL certificate + BA, you can earn 12-13k/month at Wall Street English, but you'll have to put in some serious hours.
You can look at different foreign teacher salaries around China to see what other people make, but it seems that it's often the case in China that people work a first job and a number of side jobs. (In some cases, your employer will help you to find the side work, making it legal.) In Korea you will find one job that pays well but requires most/all of your time.
I've worked in both Seoul and China; if you want my impressions of the two countries, shoot me a PM. |
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The Great Wall of Whiner
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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| daCabbie wrote: |
In about fifteen minutes someone will come along and tell me how wrong I really am. |
Not quite 15 minutes, but here it is:
There are jobs on this very website offering over 10,000 a month. Depends on what you call 'kids'. What about teens in an international school?
'Slackers' Paradise' fits the description here, I reckon. Most are happy doing their 16 hours a week for 5,000 or whatever.
The foreigners where I live make in excess of 10,000 a month doing all sorts of teaching work. But this is because we all pull together and keep our heals in the ground.
I know I go on and on about wages, but it ticks me off to no end when someone says "Oh, 6,000 is good!" when in actual fact it is a lousy salary.
I'd seriously consider the other place if no one offers you a decent wage here. |
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sistercream
Joined: 18 Dec 2010
Posts: 497
Location: Pearl River Delta
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Another factor to consider in China is that there is a huge difference in the cost of living between the 1st tier cities and The Rest, specially if you drop down to 3rd tier or lower. The salary in the smaller places is usually lower but - depending how your salary package is worked out - you can actually end up with just as much or even more spending/ saving money than on a larger package in a bigger city. |
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The Great Wall of Whiner
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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| sistercream wrote: |
| Another factor to consider in China is that there is a huge difference in the cost of living between the 1st tier cities and The Rest, specially if you drop down to 3rd tier or lower. The salary in the smaller places is usually lower but - depending how your salary package is worked out - you can actually end up with just as much or even more spending/ saving money than on a larger package in a bigger city. |
I live in a 3rd tier city and the price of chicken, cherries, lemons, apples, tomatoes, lamb, pork, pumpkins, corn, and beef is higher than it is in Canada.
Explain? |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| 3rd tier cities are not really cheaper but one may spend less money due to a lack of things to do. Less money spent on western clothes, books, and drinking. |
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The Ever-changing Cleric
Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 1523
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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| The Great Wall of Whiner wrote: |
| sistercream wrote: |
| Another factor to consider in China is that there is a huge difference in the cost of living between the 1st tier cities and The Rest, specially if you drop down to 3rd tier or lower. The salary in the smaller places is usually lower but - depending how your salary package is worked out - you can actually end up with just as much or even more spending/ saving money than on a larger package in a bigger city. |
I live in a 3rd tier city and the price of chicken, cherries, lemons, apples, tomatoes, lamb, pork, pumpkins, corn, and beef is higher than it is in Canada.
Explain? |
Great wall of whiner, I think you're the one that has some explaining to do.
Pork. I've got 1kg of ground pork in my freezer right now bought at the local chinese supermarket in a so-called "third tier city." Cost: RMB22. An online price check with Your Independent Grocer in Ontario has the price of lean ground pork at $8.80/kg or RMB59. The price of pork here is less than half of that in Canada.
Other prices:
Ground beef - China: RMB35-40/kg. Canada: 88RMB/kg
Lamb. I don't know the price of lamb here in China (someone can post the price if they know) because I never buy it, but at YIG back home it's the equivalent of RMB133/kg. If it costs more than that here as claimed I don't think it's on the shopping list of any esl teachers.
Lemons. I buy them all the time here in China: 8 lemons RMB/15-20 depending on size. I buy them at home too and there 8 lemons will cost you between RMB35-40.
Lettuce. At the small market near my flat in China one head of lettuce: RMB1. Canada: RMB7-8.
Mangoes. ridiculously cheap here. I can pick up six mangoes for RMB12-15 down the road. In Canada one mango will cost you the equivalent of RMB15-20, and they may not taste as good.
Cheese. Good quality cheddar used to be more expensive in China than Canada but even now the prices in Canadian grocery stores for cheese are the same as here. A 1kg block of cheddar costs about RMB75 in both places.
Most food items in China are much cheaper than they are in Canada.
| sistercream wrote: |
| Another factor to consider in China is that there is a huge difference in the cost of living between the 1st tier cities and The Rest, specially if you drop down to 3rd tier or lower. The salary in the smaller places is usually lower but - depending how your salary package is worked out - you can actually end up with just as much or even more spending/ saving money than on a larger package in a bigger city. |
for some necessities of life (rent, transportation) this is true, but not for all. You'll spend as much on many food items in smaller cities as you will in a place like Guangzhou or Shenzhen. |
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The Great Wall of Whiner
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| The Ever-changing Cleric wrote: |
Great wall of whiner, I think you're the one that has some explaining to do. |
Absolutely, I'll even provide sources for my information.
I'm looking at an on-line Canadian grocery flyer right now. Shoulder roast of pork, 99 cents a pound. That's what? 14 yuan a Kg?
| Quote: |
| Ground beef - China: RMB35-40/kg. Canada: 88RMB/kg |
Another flyer with ground beef at 99 cents a lb. in both Canada and America.
| Quote: |
| Lemons. I buy them all the time here in China: 8 lemons RMB/15-20 depending on size. I buy them at home too and there 8 lemons will cost you between RMB35-40. |
I just found them in a flyer for 3 for 99 cents.
| Quote: |
| Most food items in China are much cheaper than they are in Canada. |
Untrue statement, unless we are talking staple foods like rice and cabbages.
I was just in Canada and did a cost comparison.
Xin Long Da Shang, Panjin, Liaoning, China
1L 100% apple juice------------- 12.5 RMB
450g Spaghetti------------------- 9.9 RMB
Can of Tuna---------------------- 11 RMB
Corn------------------------------2 for 10 RMB
Ground Beef, chuck---------------18.9 RMB / pound (jin)
Ground Beef, extra lean-----------28 RMB / pound (jin)
Gala Apples-------------------------7 RMB / pound (jin)
Safeway, Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada
1L 100% apple juice-------------- 99 cents
450g Spaghetti------------------- 2 / 99 cents
Can of Tuna---------------------- 89 cents
Corn------------------------------- 3 for 99 cents
Ground Beef, extra lean----------$2.99 / pound (jin)
Gala Apples-------------------------99 cents / pound (jin)
You can talk about all you want, sure is it cheap. So are noodles. But the vast majority of produce where I live is far more expensive than it is in my hometown in Canada.
But don't take my word for it; just Google 'Smartcanucks' or 'flyerland' and see for yourself.
I can clearly see lemons, mangoes, beef, pork, bread.... all the same price or cheaper than in China.
Bottom line is:
1. Canada is comparable if not cheaper than China now for most foods.
2. Salaries in China have not kept up with inflation
3. I trust Canadian produce a lot more than Chinese produce.
Yes, if you eat rice and noodles every day, food will be cheaper. But I am not Chinese and do not eat like an average Chinese person any more than a Chinese person eats like your average Canuck when they go to Canada.
Next time anyone boss hiring foreigners tries to tell you 'how cheap' China is when you are discussing your salary or a raise, remember this post.
Last edited by The Great Wall of Whiner on Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:01 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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jibbs
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 452
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| The Great Wall of Whiner wrote: |
I live in a 3rd tier city and the price of chicken, cherries, lemons, apples, tomatoes, lamb, pork, pumpkins, corn, and beef is higher than it is in Canada.
Explain? |
Your city must be expensive there GWoW. I got back to China from Canada (around Halifax) a month ago. I'm in Suzhou, surely not the cheapest city.
Chicken at least, 10 to maybe 15 yuan for two or maybe three good sized bresses.
In Canada that cost like 7 bucks.
Not sure about the other meats. You may be right on those.
The veggies are much cheaper in China. No question. Fruit maybe about the same though some are pretty cheap. Except those good green apples. I think they cost more here. |
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