Hi,

I am looking for some advice on teaching in Beijing. I am a 25 year old English graduate. I have some experience teaching one to one English to a lady from Pakistan in my home town I have also completed some literacy projects with disadvantaged children in my community. My partner john is a fully qualified maths teacher and has been teaching in public and private schools in the UK for the last two years.

We are finding the whole job market baffling and would appreciate some help.

We have been offered a job at a kindergarten, with a 2 bed flat and 9000 RMB per month each pay, by meg bilingual international kindergarten. On deeper conversation with the lady who interviewed us, due to my expression of worry we would be the only two English teachers in the centre, she proceeded to offer us jobs in three other of the same branded centres. This leads me to worry that this is an “English language mill” and we may be unhappy here. Plus it is the district of Feng Tai, which looks quite far out.

We have also been offered a job at Beijing Jianhua experimental school. This is only for 5500 RMB a month each. It included free and flat with utilities
and apparently three meals a day. We have been told tis is a public school although on further investigation I am not sure this is true. However the lady who interviewed us said they are very flexible with how long we want to work there and we can basically sign for one term, which would be to Christmas I believe?? Then decide what we want to do.

I am wondering if the second option may be best . I want to get to Beijing as soon as possible but think we can do a lot better in terms of pay and location seeing as we are both quite experienced and also have TEFL certificates.

Does anyone have any opinions on the schools, pay we have been offered, or how easy it is to find another better school once you’re out here? Also is 5500rmb enough to live on each?? We will only eat Chinese food as I am not too bothered about western food anyway. Our only vice is we do like to go clubbing and drinking on the weekend. Which I imagine we would do on a Friday and Saturday night. I would also like to travel round Beijing looking at all the sights possible.

Sorry it is such a long post, but this is such a big step and I don’t want to get to Beijing and be miserable.

Thanks☺

Clare