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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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basic69isokay
Joined: 28 Sep 2014
Location: korea
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 Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 6:21 am Post subject: |
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| Cave Dweller wrote: |
Housing is 3-4 times it is in America? So you can get a one room in the states for 200 bucks a month?
| basic69isokay wrote: |
Even that dude at 3.3, still not amazing in Korea.
Korea, Seoul especially, is outrageously expensive.
Just basic stuff like housing, food, clothes is like 3-4x the US.
Probably near 10-15x China's prices. I mean 15,000-20,000 rmb, certainly a common salary, is truly lookin better than 3.0 in Korea.
Even on the low entry level standard, 10,000rmb is gonna be
Much better than 2.0 in korea. Korea's toast. Chinas esl boom starts now. |
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Well, its the deposit that you left out.
The 10,000,000-20,000,000 won deposit!! Almost impossible
For most 20 somethings coming here. When they cut the housing, we'll see how many can afford that haha
And yes, my studio in college five years ago was 300/month.So, not far off. |
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bmaw01
Joined: 13 May 2013
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 6:59 am Post subject: |
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What happens if America goes to war with China and the bombs start dropping? The war will happen.
China and America are on a collision to war. |
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bmaw01
Joined: 13 May 2013
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:03 am Post subject: |
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| young_clinton wrote: |
A mass exodus for the big bucks to be made in China.  Thank God the US economy is finally showing some serious improvement while the economy in China and the rest of Asia is starting to crack. |
Our economy isn't that great young Skywalker. Good paying jobs have been replaced with cheap labor. Many people are going homeless, and hungry. Cops are throwing people in jail for no reason.
Stay in Asia.  |
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alongway
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:48 am Post subject: Re: 2015: year of the mass exodus to China |
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| basic69isokay wrote: |
| I'm seeing more and more frustration on the part of teachers here. With Daegu the latest city to scrap the native teacher program, and any hagwons closing or demanding 22 year old females, 2015 is the year of China. Salaries have finally evened out. 12,000rmb is easily doable, and equals about ~2.1. Plus, sooooo much more interesting place than Korea. It's just a matter of when, not if. Like Japan in the 1990s-early 2000s. Nihau China! |
What's really great about China, beyond the air pollution and completely corrupt cops, is the corrupt owners who can basically refuse to pay you, refuse to allow you to leave the country and basically claim you owe them every penny to your name and not allow anything to move forward until you cough it up.
Only idiots would want to go to China. |
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fustiancorduroy
Joined: 12 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 9:14 am Post subject: |
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| The job situation in China seems to be improving, but I haven't see any jobs there that would make me want to leave Korea. Korea is still a much richer country, and that means that there are far more people who have the wherewithal to pay good money for talented and hard-working teachers. I've seen a few SAT/AP teaching jobs paying around 30,000 RMB a month for around 25 to 30 classes a week plus mandatory office hours. That's not bad in terms of pure salary -- around 5,000 USD a month -- but you can make around 6,000 to 8,000 USD a month in Korea for the same amount of hours. And there are also the intensive periods in Korea where teachers can really clean up. Not sure if they have similar intensive periods in China. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:37 am Post subject: |
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| Old Painless wrote: |
| How did teaching learners in China differ from Korea? Would love to hear your experiences...materials...what kinds of methods...and etc. comparing your teaching experiences in Korea? If you would take a few minutes to give us an overall picture? |
Well, I've now taught in two cities in China, one in Guangdong and the other city is Beijing. In Guangdong, I taught well away from Guangzhou/Shenzen and I was teaching in a language academy. In Beijing, I'm teaching at one of the international high schools.
Guangdong
- Language Academy (main assignment, 7 hours a day, weekends only), kindergarten (3 days a week, mornings only).
- School weekend for Chinese workers was Monday only; for me, Monday and Tuesday.
- No office time required, prep was done on my own, either at home or in the office (I went in on my own to avail myself of the Chinese workers' knowledge and experience).
- Chinese English teachers were knowledgeable, professional, and most had degrees relating to English or teaching English.
- Classes varied in size from one to thirty students and in age from 1st through 9th grades.
- Most, but not all, teaching development meetings (which I was not required to attend but did anyway) were conducted in English.
- I was treated well by the boss and the students' parents, and the students were not disrespectful.
- The school would obtain any teaching material requested. As the city where I taught is far from Guangzhou, the boss would dispatch a courier sometimes to get things from Guangzhou/Shenzhen/Hong Kong for any of the teachers.
- The salary was not all that high just looking at its US$ value; however, the cost of living was negligible: free apartment (big one, too, literally one block from the main downtown area), good cable TV service including one English channel from Hong Kong. I was within just a few minutes walking distance of three major department store chains for the province (2nd closest store was Wal-Mart).
- As one would expect with teaching children ranging from 5 years old to 16 years old, the teacher's repertoire must be varied.
Beijing
- International school.
- Students range in age from 15 to 19/20 (some of the students had to spend time in an intensive English learning center also run by the school to pass the entrance test for the high school).
- Teaching English as an academic subject (as it is in our home countries), not as a foreign language.
- Follow English curriculum standards for one of the main English-speaking countries.
- All classes except Chinese are taught in English. Of course, the Chinese teachers do use Chinese to some extent depending on the ability of the students. All tests, though, are completely in English, except for the Chinese class.
- Most students are boarders so they have six class periods a day and then study hall after dinner. Many, but not all, students leave the campus on the weekends to stay with family. Study hall nights are Sunday through Thursday.
- It helps, but is not required, to have a teaching or TEFL certificate.
- Salary is almost double what I got in the "boonies" in Guangdong. Free housing on campus (or a housing allowance in lieu). On campus cafeterias (yes, plural) and small convenience stores.
- Working days are M-F except when the government declares certain weekend days to be working days, in which case a weekend day is treated as an off day.
- Students are generally respectful (I only had two who weren't and their parents sent them to another school for this new school year; my guess is that they only spend one year at a particular school because those two students weren't what you call tops on the intelligence hit parade scale sadly.)
- I trust there's no need to describe Beijing.
For both locales: all classrooms have monitoring cameras in them. There's simply no way around that. Every school in the country, AFAIK, uses monitoring cameras. There have been some rather egregious misdeeds by some teachers (both Chinese and foreign), not to mention also by some random trespassers, around the country and the public demands monitoring.
For the nightlife scene in either place, I can't speak to it. I don't drink alcohol and I get an extreme reaction to tobacco, so there's no point in my going to a night club in either country. Depending on the restaurant, I may have to leave if the restaurant does not enforce the no smoking law (apparently, most do not).
To avoid a derail of the thread, if you're interested in the religious side of life in China, especially for foreigner, you can send me a PM and I'll respond the same way.
Overall, I like teaching in Guangdong better than in Korea and teaching in Beijing better than in Guangdong, but I liked living in Korea better for a few personal reasons. I do have to say, though, that for the bad qualities that Beijing does have, it is a pretty cool city to live in. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 10:39 am Post subject: |
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| bmaw01 wrote: |
What happens if America goes to war with China and the bombs start dropping? The war will happen.
China and America are on a collision to war. |
To all ESL Cafe readers: Please be so kind as to take a moment and consider the poor delusional people of the world. |
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Old Painless
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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Great post CC, thank you & cheers.
Are good coursebooks and materials readily available like in Korea? Are the bookstores anything like Kyobo in Seoul? |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Old Painless wrote: |
| Great post CC, thank you & cheers. |
The last or next-to-last one above? 
| Quote: |
| Are good coursebooks and materials readily available like in Korea? Are the bookstores anything like Kyobo in Seoul? |
There are some rather large bookstores, the only one of which I've been to was near Tiananmen Square which is quite a distance from my school. That store had just about everything. What they didn't have, you can order, either with their help or online. My school, like others, orders textbooks from the country whose curriculum the school is using. |
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talentedcrayon
Joined: 27 Aug 2013
Location: Why do you even care?
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 5:44 pm Post subject: Re: 2015: year of the mass exodus to China |
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| alongway wrote: |
| basic69isokay wrote: |
| I'm seeing more and more frustration on the part of teachers here. With Daegu the latest city to scrap the native teacher program, and any hagwons closing or demanding 22 year old females, 2015 is the year of China. Salaries have finally evened out. 12,000rmb is easily doable, and equals about ~2.1. Plus, sooooo much more interesting place than Korea. It's just a matter of when, not if. Like Japan in the 1990s-early 2000s. Nihau China! |
What's really great about China, beyond the air pollution and completely corrupt cops, is the corrupt owners who can basically refuse to pay you, refuse to allow you to leave the country and basically claim you owe them every penny to your name and not allow anything to move forward until you cough it up.
Only idiots would want to go to China. |
It's true that some people have experienced this kind of problem. However, generally, this happens to people who are working in China illegally.
Similar things happen to people in Korea too. I know because my boss tried, and thankfully failed, to do it to me. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 5:47 pm Post subject: Re: 2015: year of the mass exodus to China |
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| talentedcrayon wrote: |
| It's true that some people have experienced this kind of problem. However, generally, this happens to people who are working in China illegally. |
Correct. And those who are working illegally generally--there are exceptions, of course--are not working in Beijing for the more reputable outfits.
| Quote: |
| Similar things happen to people in Korea too. I know because my boss tried, and thankfully failed, to do it to me. |
In Korea, the maltreatment, especially in certain hagweon chains, is more organized. |
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basic69isokay
Joined: 28 Sep 2014
Location: korea
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:51 am Post subject: |
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Korea is this decade's Japan.
Time to move on |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:54 am Post subject: |
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| Why is there not more talk of Vietnam? |
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basic69isokay
Joined: 28 Sep 2014
Location: korea
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| Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Why is there not more talk of Vietnam? |
I don't know much about it
Tell me pls.
I know of ILA, but the application process looked equally ridiculous as EPIK. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| Neither do I, other than pay and cost of living being similar to China while the pollution isn't as bad and the language perhaps a bit easier. |
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