Job Discussion Forums

[hippocampus]

Okay. I have loads of experience, am used to 'third-world' conditions, like t live modestly, don't drink, smoke some and love to read. Can you recommend a university job where I could work about 16-hours a week, get paid 5 or 6,000 RMB and have access to decent food and English books? I am not particular about climate.

[xiguagua]

Pretty much any university if you exclude the "decent English books" part. No university if you include it. This is assuming you're not talking about the English textbooks for class.....actually, even if you are talking about that it probably doesn't change anything.


Seriously with what you're looking for you'll be able to find a place easily. But even in Beijing it can be hard to find a good book store. Start ordering them online or get an e-reader is my advice.

[hippocampus]

Yes, I mean novels and such for me to read. Wouldn't a university library have a few in stock? O r maybe a bookshop in town, or a city nearby? I know I can get them online,but I keep hearing electricity is intermittent in may places.

BTW, I also have a CELTA, and a BA in n appropriate area.

[twilothunder]

With a CELTA and plenty of experience, you can aim a bit higher than you are salary-wise IMO.

ChinaJob has served me well as a site in the past.

Just looking at the most recent university job posted there...
http://www.chinajob.com/jobposter/teacher/jobdetail.php?job_id=3089
Your experience and qualifications should get you into a job like that.

[roadwalker]

Book stores that have English language classic literature (public domain, so no royalties to the author) are in almost any third-tier city and maybe in some smaller cities, especially near universities. But to find modern fiction and any non-fiction, you really have to go to major cities. If you are a voracious reader, I second the suggestion about an e-reader and/or mail order. If you just need a book now and again, with your spartan lifestyle, you could afford an occasional trip to the big cities and browse their book shops.

[dean_a_jones]

Certainly the big public university will have a decent selection. Wuhan University, where I work, does. Getting a library card can be a pain sometimes, I would get them to add it into the contract as a perk if you want this so you have something to point to on arrival. Unsurprising, it is better for non-fiction rather than fiction.

I am constantly ordering on amazon.cn. Their selection has improved a lot since I first got here. Books I have bought in the last month or so include:

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
Country Driving by Peter Hessler
The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace

There really is a ton available, it is cash on delivery and books range from 60 - 120 RMB (classics and sometimes random finds are cheaper, I think Cosmos was 30, for example.). I thought about investing in an ereader, but I really like reading books and have ordered hundreds from amazon since arriving, I read around four or five a month.

The ereader route (especially with illegal downloads if you are willing to do that) means tons are available. I download a lot of audiobooks via torrent sites, mostly non-fiction.

You do have some decent bookshops in the big cities, but a lot of the foreign language selection in second tier cities and below consists of classics, pulp/pop fiction and usually a small assortment of random stuff (sometimes good, mostly bad).

[danasoverseasemail]

But to be fair, I need ONLY the following:

School name
School address
School location in the city
Map and directions
Contact person details
3 free meals per day, plus one extra on Sat/Sunday since I have more free time and nothing else to do
Taxi's to take me where I need to go at school expense
Free airplane ticket each term and winter/summer holiday
Translator
Interpreter
Pre-approved contract
Exact number of foreigners and foreign restaurants
F.E.C.
A.R.P.
SAFEA contract
American quality, standard, designed apartment
Western toilets - two, not one

Otherwise, I can do it on my own

[choudoufu]

no bidet?

[dean_a_jones]

[Guerciotti]

[PattyFlipper]

[vikeologist]

It may seem lazy to expect people to recommend schools to you, but there's no harm in announcing yourself on forums and seeing what it produces. It's all part of networking.

[Non Sequitur]

Should I start a thread 'How to spot a troll?'

[BenMason]

There is a good university in Hefei looking for teachers. PM me if you are interested. Electricity will be reliable! Book supply I can look into, but I have a very simple solution for that.

[hippocampus]

Thanks Ben, and you others who were helpful. As for most of the rest of you, I don't know why nearly every thread on this forum has to be visited upon by posters who just like to see themselves in print and have nothing pertinent to contribute to the discussion. It seems nearly every thread on Dave's has a section where one poster says something that may or may not be inane, but then someone with a grudge calls him a name, then the earlier poster replies, and soon the original thread is hopelessly snarled.