Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

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Kradmelder
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by Kradmelder »

xiongmao wrote:Excel... Meh. It makes money, which can be invested and bring longer term financial independence.

Yeah it sucks that I can't find a teaching job in China while various dorks (present company excepted!) are teaching out there. I mean in my old University there was an Egyptian teaching English, and I don't think any of the other teachers I met had a TEFL. The best teachers there were a retired couple brought over on a scheme to get actual USA professors to teach in Chinese schools.

I have had a bit of interest from Chinese Universities, but while agents are OK, the admin staff at these institutions don't seem to be sending me anything useful.

I'm sure I could do other stuff in China (or anywhere else) but it all comes down to visa issues. You just can't up sticks and live somewhere else (unless you're European moving to another European country etc.)
It is a huge problem for the chinese at a university level. I am a reviewer for an international geotechnical engineering journal. The quality of the submissions from china is so bad as to be almost incomprehensible. Almost like using computer translation. You mention it is not my job to edit language and grammar, and they should get an english speaker to clean it up as it is incomprehensible. Even still, it is barely understandable and the terms are wrong. There must be a market not just for basic english, but technical english instructors and editors. Even business english. The response from the chinese is almost comical stereotype overly polite direct translation but what they are probable thinking is 'fak yu, whyt devil, de sheet flom tawsen dogs mus be in yo rice bowl'

Teaching business and technical english surely must pay much better than Jane went up the hill for a pail of water english.


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xiongmao
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by xiongmao »

Hmm, yes Chinglish is everywhere and I don't see much effort to change it.

I am helping a friend who has a Chinese website... soon she will have an English website with proper photos, nice .com name, a top notch template and native English. I think this idea has legs, not least because if somebody who has an established business asks you to build a website then it's quite likely it will make money. The nice thing about this idea is that the potential orders are huge and the commission would be great. Also there will be no middlemen, just us and the factory.

As far as teaching goes, I am getting those weird emails from 163 email accounts so I just don't know if they're legit. Well to be honest I am losing interest with teaching as I am seeing money making ideas everywhere. You don't even need your own website - fortunes are being made by women on Etsy and teacherspayteachers.com and a whole load of other sites we dudes have no idea about.

BTW if anyone has an Chinese import idea, I can probably get you direct factory access, particularly in the clothing niche. Then you avoid all the Aliexpress/Alibaba middlemen. PM me with your crazy business plans.
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yick
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by yick »

El_Caudillo wrote:A guy with a few irons in the fire like you probably should not go the teaching route. It's funny that English teachers get a hard time for being in a job which allegedly someone with a pulse and English as a native tongue can do, while simultaneously it's quite hard to get into in the big cities. My last job teaching, which was in Taipei, asked for five years experience! Starting off in a third or fourth tier city in the mainland is for a special kind of person I'd say. Harbin would actually be far from the worst place you could end up. Sure it has cold winters, but it's a city with personality - in the North I'd rather be there than Jilin, Shenyang, Changchun etc. Further south, I used to travel to some fourth tier cities around Shanghai - Yixing and Chuzhou, God forbid you end up in one of those places...and there are worse still.
It takes a special person as in one who doesn't care about bars, Mexican food, cheese, expat friends - otherwise, I really enjoy it. People are nice and I am left alone to do what I want, I think the people who stick around here are mentally self-reliant and have things going on - passions if you like - writing, painting, sculpture, martial arts - you don't need other people to indulge and one can live happily here in my opinion.

Of course, a lot of teachers like to hang around like minded folk around the white plastic tables at the nearest 7-11 and they would hate a third tier city and they wouldn't last two minutes in one. From Xiongmao's posting history, he couldn't handle Guangzhou and ran off to Bangkok so anything in China would be a bit beyond him I think - he would struggle with Beijing or Shanghai - and he wouldn't get a job teaching in either of those cities with his current CV. :(
El_Caudillo
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by El_Caudillo »

I taught in several cities in China and then I had a gig as a kind of tour manager.

I liked as places to live or potential places to live:
Dalian
Shanghai
Kunming
Suzhou
Chengdu

Didn't like:
Wuhan
Tianjin
Ningbo

Was ambivalent about:
Beijing
Qingdao
Shenzhen

I wouldn't live in a third tier city unless it was in Guangxi, Yunnan or maybe western Sichuan - provinces with nice scenery and more minorities to add a bit of variation to the Han Chinese theme.

Cities I would like to check out:
Urumqi
Harbin
Xining

However, if I went back to China to travel I think I'd spend as little time as possible in the cities! The best places for women were Dalian and Shanghai - although I don't think Shanghai is good anymore!
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xiongmao
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by xiongmao »

Thanks for the list. I am getting a steady stream of emails about teaching vacancies but they keep popping up in cold provinces (e.g. Heilongjiang and Jiling). A couple popped up in Yunnan but I'm not sure if I could handle the altitude or remoteness.

I love Guangzhou (except for the mosquitos) but I didn't feel like I really fitted in in Shenzhen or Shanghai. My Cantonese gf at the time didn't like Shanghai much either, we both felt like outsiders there. Shanghai people are weird if you're more used to the South - they have strange habits like preferring coins to paper money.

Shenzhen just felt like it was a place to pass through and not settle down. Dating was better there than in Guangzhou though.

Wuhan was the first Chinese city I visited and it was certainly eye opening. There didn't seem to be that much to do there unlike in Guangzhou.

I did like Thailand a lot and would maybe consider teaching there, but I don't know, Thai students are kind of crazy. The ones in my Chinese Uni were pretty much all crazy, especially the girls. Most of them got thrown out of the campus dorms lol. I'd be better off getting a non-teaching job in Thailand (there are quite a few IT jobs etc. there).

And to the doubters... my CV is great and now I can add on the gig of AliExpress API wrangler :) Let's get an HA emporium up and running!!!
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yick
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by yick »

And to the doubters... my CV is great
Not for ESL in China it's not.

However, overall - yes, it is shit hot, but it won't get you anything other than a 6000 RMB a month job in the badlands of Gansu for your first job, something I would recommend because it will put hairs on your chest. :twisted:
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xiongmao
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by xiongmao »

Yeah I know, I have to take The First Teaching Job From Hell... Somewhere. Actually I tried finding some teaching experience in the UK, but it's actually harder to find an unpaid volunteer job here than it is to find a decent well paid job. Go figure!!??

I'd probably go mad again if I went back to China, then I could moan and have a hissy fit like this: Why I Left China... :(

Actually I've been looking at going to Taiwan, if only to see if it's as bad as Winston and others say. I suspect for me it wouldn't be too bad. It can't be worse than London anyway. Initially I'd go and study Mandarin (like I did in China), but maybe try to pick up some teaching experience or even an IT job out there.
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Hero
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by Hero »

xiongmao wrote: Actually I've been looking at going to Taiwan, if only to see if it's as bad as Winston and others say. I suspect for me it wouldn't be too bad. It can't be worse than London anyway. Initially I'd go and study Mandarin (like I did in China), but maybe try to pick up some teaching experience or even an IT job out there.
I heard that you have to work 6 days a week in Taiwan.
El_Caudillo
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by El_Caudillo »

I heard that you have to work 6 days a week in Taiwan.
I think that's only at HESS or other big chains - but sure I think teaching is an easier gig in mainland China. Xiongmao coming to Taiwan to see if it sucks like WInston says is a horrible reason. The reason should be to see how 'China' turned out when the communists didn't win - Taiwan is weird after coming from China - it's similar and it completely different at the same time.
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xiongmao
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Re: Xiongmao Needs a Teaching Job!

Post by xiongmao »

OK I have a kind of plan... I will do a bit more work in the UK while the economy is booming and when it all crashes and burns I will go to Taiwan and hang out with the hipsters. Initially I'll study Mandarin (so I get the visa) but then after that who knows? If Taiwanese Mandarin teachers are as good as the ones here in the UK then I would improve very rapidly indeed.

Taiwan would be a good place to do an MBA but it's all a bit confusing online and would be easier to investigate if I was there on the ground. I guess I could also get some teaching experience there.

Or maybe I'll just retire to nearly Okinawa - wonder if they do retirement visas?

I do still have an application in to teach in China but I'll wait and see where they want to send me. Their finalised list of provinces was somewhat different to their original list... welcome to China lol.
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