San Migs
- 2015-09-18
Oh geez yes cleaners in oil factories may very well be making salaries way way higher than you'd make in China as a FT. Most of our cleaners took home a solid 3000 a month (after taxes) with decent benefits, perks, dental schemes and whatnot and could do very very well if there was overtime.
Yeap, just going off what a bloke in Canada told me. He was saying they hire filipinos and the like to fill the positions that Canadians cannot or will not do. So the next time ESL teachers get all high and mighty in China, it might humble them to know that someone buffing the floors on a night shift in some supermarket in the UK, may well be better off than they are. ESL salaries in China are an absolute joke right now, especially with all the visa nonsense involved.
but i do think its the initial return that is brutal yes.
And there can be reverse culture shock to boot. That also makes it worse.
I agree what you say about you will get re-established. I knew of an aussie traveller who was born in Scotland. He was broke and living in a hostel in Manchester, but from there he started working in bars at night, and then moved into a shared house. Then he got a job on nights at a hotel and moved into a better shared house. Then from there he moved to London and started working as a bus driver (paying much better than any ESL teacher in China could ever earn!) and rented his own place/or a much better shared place with others, he then travelled round canada and returned to Aus with money. Things can always change, and one won't necessarily stay in China forever or maybe even change jobs.
ExpatMcGee
- 2015-09-17
Oh geez yes cleaners in oil factories may very well be making salaries way way higher than you'd make in China as a FT. Most of our cleaners took home a solid 3000 a month (after taxes) with decent benefits, perks, dental schemes and whatnot and could do very very well if there was overtime.
I don't keep in that much close contact with all the FT I meet but I also know a few who either attained a teaching degree while in China and/or eventually got that back in Canada/USA/AUS or whatever the equivalents are and then working in western training centers. Which should not in any way be confused with Chinese ones I should say. But like 'Montessori schools' or these things. I heard one did get into the public school system.
but i do think its the initial return that is brutal yes. Dr. Turnoi has a peculiar idea about life that whatever anyone's station in life 'at the time he looks' is therefore their station. Actually whatever is their lowest station. Yes.. many FT will be unemployed back home......wait for it........until they aren't. Then get better jobs. Then a year, two years etc.. they will re-establish and so on.
San Migs
- 2015-09-15
Some may end up on welfare, but like you, I have never heard of any ending up falling into a life of crime. Of those I know who have returned to the UK, including one Chinese student who went back with her british FT husband, most are working as teachers in the UK public school system, and one a lecturer at a UK university. They all went into further study to get qualified and so teach there, or some work in other fields.
Christ, even a able bodied man can work as a home care worker and get good pay and free accomodation while he lives with the client. OK, you need to rent for the times you don't have a client, but the pay is good enough while living in the clients digs to be able to save to do so.
I heard that even someone working as a cleaner at an oil refinery in Canada can earn more than an FT in China. It's all about how hard you are prepared to break your back.....I knew/know of many more FT's who dread their sunday nights in China as they get older, as they have another week of teaching ahead. Meanwhile those cleaners/care workers in the west are getting paid and a pension.......cuts both ways.....
ExpatMcGee
- 2015-09-14
I keep contact with a number of former ESL teachers and quite seriously I don't think I've heard any of them ending up on welfare or falling into a life of crime and yes I've heard almost all of them complain they actually returned home 'back at square one' as if they were just leaving home (their parents home) and had to restart everything from CVs to social networks and quite seriously many were sleeping on their parents sofa for a month trying to restablish themselves.
There is a kind of joking (is it only halfjoking?) but some said recently they mistakenly went back home as proper citizens when they should have torn up their UK/USA/Canada etc passport and claimed to be refugees instead. Then they could arrive home with security, well fed, rights and lawyers, job training etc hehe.
But why aren't the former ESL teachers ever stuck homeless for long? IMO its self explaining. It answers itself and its because anyone who's such a dreamer, so self motivated and actually so durable as to withstand a year or two in China AND maybe especially overcoming the cheaters, incompetent schools and stupidity AND learn how to teach ESL is also...
..is also the exact same kind of person who will be a worldbeater when they get back home. Almost comically this is partly due to an epic 'lesson in life' and wow we do NOT take things for 'granted' and indeed often appreciate our home country opportunities far far more. But if you've done China then job retraining, starting small again, getting clever to work your way back up, hustle hustle (which now seems easy in comparison) and the exact same people daring and crazy enough to do ESL in China are the future survivors back home.
I don't think there is any kind of study on this but I'd be curious:
Show me 1000 people from (i dunno) England who were in roughly the same financial positions.
Show me X number that went to teach in China for 2 years (so not collecting benefits) and then return.
Give that 1 year. So I suppose we're asking "show me 3 years later" and my guess is the ESL group is on average doing as good or I believe actually better financially. Actually maybe even personally.
What would you guess?