Best way to live in China? Be a student? Teach English? Get an Apartment?

[AlexanderH]

Hi all -- I'm having a tough problem here.

I graduated undergraduate already, and I'm moving to China for at least a year, but probably several years, to continue training Martial arts. I want to go to the birthplace of my style, and also learn Chinese fluently.

I have several main options:

A) Teach English

B) Be a student at a chinese university (entails me spending most of the money I would've saved...)

C) Just rent an apartment, and hire a tutor or something?

I would prefer to be a student, but I don't want to use all the money I will have saved by the end of the year.

I originally planned to teach english, but everyone is telling me it's harder than I think, and I won't have as much free time as I think.

I'm leaning towards just renting an apartment.. and kinda winging it from there. However, I don't want to just have all day open and be bored. I'm planning on training ~6 hours a day, so want to have plenty of free time overall -- but leaned towards being a student.

Any help would be tremendous.. thank you.

[yonglin]

Will your studies at the martial arts school entitle you to a student visa? Otherwise, what kind of visa are you thinking about getting if you don't plan to enroll at a university or teach English?

[kdavid]

I originally planned to teach english, but everyone is telling me it's harder than I think, and I won't have as much free time as I think.

Initially, if you're serious about becoming a good teacher, you won't have a lot of free time because you'll be learning how to become a good teacher. It's not easy (at first), and it does take time and effort.

Realistically, you can expect to spend about 2 - 4 hours lesson planning per hour of teaching within the first 4 - 8 weeks. After that, about 30 minutes to 1 hour per hour of teaching. By about your third or fourth month, you'll probably be able to do a full week's worth of planning in 3 - 4 hours.

Teaching English is a great way to fund your studies and get some practical experience for your next step in life. As a university graduate, you'll be able to choose from a wide variety of schools, granted you have the right training and qualification. Learning how to teach properly and write good lesson plans from the start will help tremendously down the stretch, and ensure you have time to devote to your studies.

You'll have a lot more time to study than you think if you manage your time wisely. Most people who come over here to study and end up teaching English do not meet their study goals because they fall in with the foreign crowd and end up spending most of their time speaking English and not Mandarin. If you are disciplined and set good goals, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to reach a solid conversational level of fluency within just one year.

[chrix]

Yeah, I'm curious about option C myself. Is there still a way of staying in China as a self-studying kind of person without being enrolled in a university or school?

[roddy]

You can do it via agency F visas - these are basically a bit cheeky, you hand your passport and a chunk of cash to a man in an office, and a week later your passport comes back with a visa in it. Last time I looked a six month visa would cost you 2000Y+, so still cheaper than tuition fees. It's not an ideal solution.

In the OP's case - I'd go for enrolling for a semester (or if the timing's right a winter / summer course) at a university so you can hit the ground with a visa and somewhere to stay, so on, and get a feel for how best to proceed.

Why not start off with one of the sports universities - Capital Institute of Physical Education, and Beijing Sports Universities will both, I think, combine Chinese and martial arts. It might not be ideal, but it's got to be better than just blindly choosing a university, and if you just sign up for one semester initially that's four or five months in which you can research other options.

[jobin]

this ain't the west where you get in the door and then the police, etc. forget about you. many social control factors, of locals and foreigners, are in place and the PSB folks (public security bureau) are not usually your first friends in town. former post good idea, get situated at some acceptable U., learn a little language, suffer some crappy air, learn the chopsticks, do some training, etc. then your eyes will be more accustomed to the chinese tint and you may make a better long term decision. it's not so easy here.

[whereishunter]

Realistically, you can expect to spend about 2 - 4 hours lesson planning per hour of teaching within the first 4 - 8 weeks. After that, about 30 minutes to 1 hour per hour of teaching. By about your third or fourth month, you'll probably be able to do a full week's worth of planning in 3 - 4 hours.

I have never heard of anyone (in China) doing this kind of planing for any classes? I am more like 20mins of planning for the classes each week. But I do teach the same thing 9 times each week.

But my advice would be to either choose:

Only teaching at a university. As you dont have many classes, lots of free time but the pay is not that good.

Or be a student studying some where.

After a semester will have a better understanding of how China works and then you might be able to do something else. ie rent a place and just study/train.

[AlexanderH]

Whereishunter:

Can you please give me some recommendations on how to teach at a university?

That was my original plan, even if the pay isn't good. I will have about $18,000 just sitting in my bank, so if I can teach English (and not have to dip into that) it'd be perfect.

If I can't find an English teaching job, or it's evident that I'm using all my free time doing that, I may revert to plan B.

Plan B: Become a student at BNU or BLCU for 1 semester (this upcoming fall), and then while I'm there figure out how I can stay in the country , either as a student, or as an English teacher.

Yonglin:

No -- I'm doing a very informal training . I'm going by word of mouth for teachers that teach "informally" in parks rather than in tourism-based areas. I'll have to figure out what to do about the visa.

Any ideas?

Edited November 30, 2009 at 10:05 PM by AlexanderH

[taylor04]

I would recommend being a student, you'll learn the language a lot faster. While its technically illegal, you can find some English tutoring jobs, I had quite a few students for 100 kuai an hour in Hangzhou. But this is also risky, I've heard of people getting kicked out of China for doing this(I needed the money)

[guest1234]

If the language is what is important then look for a good school or Uni.If the martial arts is the more important bit then you need to be near the teacher ( so then look for a school near the teacher to work in or study).

The art you train has an impact on the best place to be. If you do not mind me asking what do you study and what are you looking to do.

cheers

[AlexanderH]

Hi Bagua,

I'm going to continue my Bagua training. My teacher originally is from Beijing, was a gold medalist several times for the olympic wushu performances. However, I'm looking for more traditional teachers that can really rough me up. Anyway, my teacher said she can give me some contacts before I leave, but I'm hoping they aren't wushu (sport/performance) focused people..

Worst comes to worst I can hang out in TEmple of Heaven to train, and there are many bagua practitioners that train there. If I see someone who has "got the goods" perhaps I can politely ask to be roughed up

The language is not what is important. However -- Learning Chinese provides an immense bonus to finding a legitimate teacher, and not one who is good at swindling laowai. There is a big business cheating foreigners with bad gongfu in Beijing.

What am I studying and what am I looking to do? Study bagua, train with as many people as possible, and ideally become fluent in Chinese in the process. Learning about Daoism would be an added bonus.

[guest1234]

Hi

This is only my personal opinion and in fact what happened to me. I first went to beijing to study Chinese and as I had studied martial arts for most of my life to see some teachers. I met my bagua teacher after a personal introduction and started a little training. I soon stopped going to class as most training in parks is in the mornings and clashed with my classes. As my teacher only speaks Chinese I picked up what I needed from him and in fact lots of others in the park as I was the only none chinese there. A lot of the older people would queue up to speak to me and pass comment on my training. I found several people that were learning English there as well, so after training had plenty language exchange.

I then started to train twice a day as my teacher found time for me in the afternoons too.

There are lots of good Bagua teachers in Beijing. All the major styles are represented, each have a different Shenfa. If you know what style you like ( cheng, yin, sun, Gao, Fu, Fan etc ) I can get you a contact with the head of that style. It is quite easy to train with persons within the same group but gets harder between groups. Traditionally once you have picked a teacher and start to learn the deeper aspects it becomes more of a father , son/daughter relationship and then difficult to move between families.

Wushu ( None trad ) teachers are different as this is a sport and does not have the same traditional ideas. If you want traditional then after a while trying different teachers if you want them to open up, you need to choose one.

cheers

[AlexanderH]

Bagua,

Your experience is very similar to what I'm looking for. However, I want to make sure I find someone who really has "the goods" -- who can toss me around, issue fajin well, has great body mechanics, and above all someone who roughs me up. The less english the person speaks -- the better. Not only will it be full-immersion for me, but it will ensure that I don't miss the nuances that can be lost in translation. At first, I'm sure it'll be hard though

I guess problems would arise if I get in deep with someone who doesn't have a deep grasp.. and then if I go to train with others he would disown me, haha.

Any other information would be great

[taylor04]

I know a few girls who can rough you up....

[AlexanderH]

Taylor04,

How much do they charge?

[guest1234]

Hi

For Cheng style you want

Sun zhijun

or

liu jingru ( for cheng, xingyi and six harmony preying mantis )

or

Zhu baozhen ( for cheng and yin)

There are others but most are students of the above.

As cheng style comes from Cheng tinghua who first studied Shuai jiao there are a lot of throws. You will be able to supplement the training with Shuai jiao ,this will give you plenty of combat practice. This also fits very well with the Bagua training. The above all know how to fight and are all very open. They are getting on a bit so now is the time to catch them. These are probably some of the last of the classical trained Cheng stylists.

In Beijing there are a lot of very good Shuai jiao teachers to, this will enhance your bagua and explain some of the movements in actual fights.

It is possible to contact all the above teachers before you go and arrange to meet them. You need to get on with your teacher so a bit of time with each before you decide what fits is best. Then its easy to get an into to some Shuai jiao near that teacher.

hope this is of some help. Will dig out the contact details for the above.

cheers

phil

Edited December 5, 2009 at 10:40 PM by bagua