Moving to China to teach

pinksoir

Howdy!

I'm moving to China with my fiancée (she's chinese) in December and I want to teach over there. I have my CELT. I've a few weeks' experience teaching over here during the summer. Unfortunately I've no degree because I stupidly dropped out in the final semester of my philosophy degree 8 years ago. I plan to go back and finish next year depending on how things go in China.

We haven't decided on where we'll go yet so I'm open to any suggestions and I'd really appreciate any tips or advice anyone has. I'm looking at teaching short term at the beginning to get settled (maybe 3 to 4 months), then do a bit of travelling. Looking at probably Shanghai to begin with. Maybe Chengdu (I had a friend lived in both places for the last few years and he preferred Chengdu but obviously money is better in Shanghai).

Thanks a million in advance.

R.D. aka MR.D

I'll try my best to give you some info but China is a big place and things differ sometimes.

So, you don't have a degree so I assume that you will be coming/staying on a tourist visa or is there a special visa you get because of your OH? If so, does that visa allow you to work legally?

Basically, I'm assuming you won't be coming on a legal work visa and therefore looking for jobs that will hire without the proper documents. The main problem with those kind of jobs is that they tend be not great. They don't pay very well and can use and abuse you as they wish. That includes threatening to report you to immigration.

Another thing to be aware of is that most schools want you to work there for 6-12 months. So if you are only planning on doing 3-4months you would be up and leaving which could put you at risk of them not paying you your final paycheck as it's not like you get paid on the friday for the week that you've done that week. It's becoming more common to pay in the middle of the next month for the previous month's work.

One option is to have your OH help you advertise as a private tutor. You can earn good money but it takes a while to build up contacts so I don't know how much you could achieve in 3-4 months. Again, depending on your visa type, it's illegal.


Where to go? Shanghai is absolutely amazing. It's a really cool city. You have a Chinese OH so your experience will be much different because you have a local by your side to help you adjust. I would highly recommend Shanghai.

Have you visited China? I'm asking because I know I certainly wasn't aware just how bad the pollution is. I had no idea the impact that it has on your life. So, you should consider moving to one of the less polluted cities in the South. Don't believe any figures you read online, they are usually manipulated. For example, regularly it will list the pollution at 50 (which is healthy) but I can see from looking out the window that it's dreadful. And lo and behold when you step outside the oppressive pollution is there.

I live in Hangzhou and it's really bad. I have heard the south is much much much better. So maybe look in to that.

pinksoir

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I've heard about the pollution but I've never been so haven't experienced it first hand. I'm not looking forward to that! Both my OH and I are pretty laid back people so the idea of living in a smaller city is more appealing. We're planning on travelling around a bit when we get there to check out other cities etc. Her folks are in Dalian and there's already a waiting list of parents who want me to tutor their kids since they heard I'm coming over! I'd really be doing the teaching to gain further experience before I go back to complete my degree next year. It'd be nice to have a little extra cash too but we wouldn't be relying on my income to live there unless we were in somewhere expensive like Shanghai or Beijing.

With regards to my visa once we're married, I'd only be entitled to an L visa which doesn't permit me to work. There doesn't seem to be a spouse visa or anything, just the L which is a family visitation permit.

R.D. aka MR.D

Well i think the best option would be to do some tutoring of kids you know.

You should try to just enjoy your time here and not have to worry about dealing with dodgy schools and stuff. Especially, if you don't desperately need the money. Experience is relative. If you want to teach EFL in Asia then the experience may be useful but I would say that if you want to teach in Europe then it's pretty pointless.

So just enjoy yourself!

Oranage2

Easy enough to get a job without a degree, actually you've more options and you're not tied down to a school if you're on a tourist visa, if you leave early you'll likely not get paid though.

You can easily live on the salary here, you'll be making around 3 times the wage of the locals.


Not sure where you can move, I live in the shanxi region, not the nicest but I've made a lot of good friends here.