Working in Siping

[travelgirl]

Hi everyone,

i ve been offered a job in Siping in the Jilin province,as an English teacher in a kinder-garden.They offer 4000 rmb, the job is 20 hours per week and a private tutor for Chinese.I was thinking of working in china and study at the same time but i don't how does that work.Any advice?what should i consider before choosing a job and how to search if this is not good?etc

[WestTexas]

This is an absolutely awful salary. I have also been to Siping. While Siping would not be a bad place to learn Chinese (practically no one speaks English there), it is also extremely cold and relatively undeveloped.

Working at a kinder-garden, you can get double that. Last year I was offered a job in Siping at a university for 5.5k/month, which is more money and an easier job with more vacation time.

[roddy]

Do you actually want to teach that age group? There's a very real chance you'll end up being a glorified baby-sitter to 40 3-year-olds, and frankly that's more than enough of them to overpower you and beat you to death if they feel so inclined.

Ignore the Chinese tutor as well. That's going to be the most junior and least useful member of staff who they'll assign to you in an attempt to keep you both busy.

[amandagmu]

I have only seen Siping passing through the station on the train... it seems rather desolate. I agree with the two previous posts as well - bad salary for glorified babysitter. If you want to compare salaries to what teachers make elsewhere check out the classifieds section on thebeijinger.com (under "Employment"). There are posts for positions in places besides Beijing...

[anonymoose]

When I was teaching English, they assigned one of the most senior members of staff as a Chinese tutor, and she was actually reasonably good.

I agree that 4000 RMB is pretty rubbish though.