oldhat
- 2009-10-17
Very well said monitor. I have found essentially the same job as you, including backwater location, and am happy with it for essentially the same reasons. It's a good job!
Monitor
- 2009-10-17
I agree with you that some schools in China entice more foreign teachers than they actually need to come here to teach, usually initially with L visas, and then weed them out! They tend to be training centres and private schools. One way to avoid this dishonest practice being perpetrated on yourself is to use an agent to find you a job. Not any agent,though, but an agent who charges a one-off introduction fee and is quite happy to give you and the employer each others' contact details before you are asked to sign up. The agent will ask your employer for his introduction fee as soon as you're ensconced.
What you said about good jobs paying less has been going on here for a few years now. Employers have been taking advantage of the excess supply situation in some of the more desirable cities in the eyes of foreign jobseekers. However, in the less desirable backwaters of China, the foreigner still has the upper hand when it comes to salary negotiations.
To avoid being caught up in a dog-eat-dog situation with your fellow foreign teachers, as described initially above, my suggestion is to avoid all training centers and private schools, and use a reputable agent to find you a job at a public educational institution instead. As for salary, I'm happy with 4500 Yuan upwards for 16 lessons a week at a university/college located in a backwater, or 5000 Yuan upwards for around 20 lessons a week at a senior middle school in a backwater. I don't need pressure or stress, and I have asked myself why I can't be content with my salary when my Chinese colleagues are on 2000 Yuan a month! They can live off their salaries. I'm earning at least double, so I should be able to live well. I can do so, not a problem at all. Not a bad deal for what is basically a parttime job!
oldhat
- 2009-10-17
You could say it's as good of a time or it's as bad of a time. However, though China in general wouldn't have changed in the way it treats foreigners, the schools now have the upper hand because of the influx of recruits and many may think they can get away with more because of this. Some posters have talked of schools bringing in batches of recruits with the deliberate intention of weeding out a potion of them and leaving them stranded. I don't know the truth of that, but that would be a change definitely for the worse.
It's probably also undeniable that there is much more competition for the better jobs, and thus one is more likely to end up in one of the less desirable jobs.
The framework of how business owners treat foreigners doesn't need to change for there to be a substantial negative impact as a consequence of many more new teachers; bosses can now just take advantage of opportunities they didn't have in the past, or couldn't get away with. Their attitudes don't need to change. All that needs to change is a tipping in the power ration so that they have more power, in which case they will take advantage of it. Thus, the would be teacher is at a greater disadvantage.
Monitor
- 2009-10-17
I reckon it's as good a time as any to come to China to teach English. In the last decade there have been no significant changes to the way China treats its foreigners except for during 2008 due to the authorities here having overreacted to the threat of terrorism. The Olympic year saw the introduction of restrictive visa regulations, which have since been relaxed.
The main drawback of teaching in China for more than a year or two is that you will generally be distrusted by prospective employers back home whenever you apply for jobs there. It seems that foreign countries distrust China just as much as she distrusts them.
I believe it's much better to be teaching in China than to be in a lowly paid deadend job or on welfare back home!