Work for the unqualified and inexperienced

[SpecialLensWearer]

Ideally I would work in something directly involving the study of History. I haven't looked into it much so far because I had the idea that my 3 year degree and average grades would not qualify me. Was I wrong??? I would be happy if I was.

[liuzhou]

Was I wrong?

Perhaps. What kind of job do you imagine China might have which involves history and is suitable for someone with no experience and who is unqualified in English, "semi-fluent" in Spanish and with negligible Chinese?

Serious question.

[skylee]

Why China?

[Lu]

What kind of job do you imagine China might have which involves history and is suitable for someone with no experience and who is unqualified in English, "semi-fluent" in Spanish and with negligible Chinese?

Or even 'What kind of job do you imagine your own country might have which involves history and is suitable for someone with no experience and who is unqualified in English, "semi-fluent" in Spanish and with negligible Chinese?' Perhaps where you come from, every history graduate gets a cool job in a museum of his/her choice, but in Holland many history majors end up as either history teacher or as something completely unrelated. The plus side of this is that there are plenty of completely unrelated jobs in China for which you may come to qualify.

Why do you want to move to China though? If it's a relationship, would it be a good idea to just bring him/her to your country instead?

[liuzhou]

Why do you want to move to China though?

The OP doesn't answer questions. Either here or on the other thread (s)he started asking the same question.

Just a troll, methinks.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Or someone who heard the modern urban legend "In Asia, as long as you are just a Westerner, they will throw jobs and opportunities after you, no matter what your qualifications (they won't be able to tell the difference anyway)".

[imron]

Just a troll, methinks.

This thread does seem to contain trolls, I'm not sure if it's the OP though. I really don't get the negativity of some of the replies in this and the OP's other posts. I can also understand why the OP might not want to answer questions if every reply gets jumped on and picked apart with such rigour.

Just to clear something up, it's perfectly fine for someone to be interested in China and to want to go there. History major, computer programmer, nuclear engineer, whatever. Whether for a relationship or out of interest in the culture or some other reason, the OPs motivation for going to China doesn't really have much relevance to the topic of this thread.

For better or worse, the fact is, even an "unqualified" westerner can easily find work teaching in China, with or without experience. Teaching only requires a bachelor's degree and 2 years work experience (not necessarily teaching related). Different areas have slightly different regulations that will either be more strict or less strict and there's always plenty of wiggle room especially in second/third-tiered cities. To the OP, you might think that you might not be suited to being a teacher, but due to high demand and low supply, the bar is set pretty low, with many schools just wanting a foreign looking face - more for advertising potential rather than English teaching skills.

If you have other skills, more doors are opened. Semi-fluent Spanish probably isn't going to be good for much, but in the past I've had "unqualified" friends work as proof-readers in various English language publications printed in the mainland - usually it was luck or random connections that got them the job. You could always try your luck and get in touch with the China Daily.

International schools are perhaps another option, there may well be one looking for a history teacher.

[liuzhou]

I can also understand why the OP might not want to answer questions if every reply gets jumped on and picked apart with such rigour.

What replies have been jumped on with rigour or otherwise? There have been no replies.

Every time someone suggests the OP's expectations are unclear or impractical (s)he just changes them.

the OPs motivation for going to China doesn't really have much relevance to the topic of this thread.

Agreed.

[SpecialLensWearer]

I should have answered the question of whether I'm in China. Not at the moment. I could be in a few months. The reason I'm researching jobs there is that I liked it there when I went in 2010. It's true that I could get a TEFL job but, however cheesy this might sound, I won't take a job that I could not do well enough to be a benefit to the students. I know what it's like to have the type of teacher who would. This is why I'm looking for a niche that one to one writing tuition to adults could be. The China Daily looks like a good lead. Thanks for the tip.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Doesn't sound cheesy but responsible. Sorry for being negative! I've met quite some Westerners with bad English who teach in Thailand, so I was jumping to conclusions, wrongly. Apologies!

[SpecialLensWearer]

No need to apologize.

[imron]

This is why I'm looking for a niche that one to one writing tuition to adults could be

There are plenty of Chinese students planning to live/study overseas that need to pass either the IELTS or TOEFL exams, both of which have a writing component. There is definitely scope to find work doing one-on-one tutoring to adults, but it may just be private work that you'll need to seek out individually rather than through a company. Doing private tuition will make it difficult to get any sort of long-term visa however, and even if you do find a company/agency specialising in this sort of tuition, it still might be problematic for them to arrange a long-term working visa.

This may or may not be an issue as China is not currently so strict with certain visa types and many people end up doing visa runs to a third country every few months to get them renewed. As of this month, China has just updated the visas that it offers - though it's not yet clear if this will make it easier or harder for people looking for a way to stay in the country indefinitely without an official working visa. Probably harder, as they seem to be getting more strict as time goes by.

Anyway, which cities are you considering? One place to start would be to look online to see if you can find any IELTS/TOEFL training centers in those cities. Other than that you could try and find Chinese specific IELTS/TOEFL online forums and post a message advertising your services - this is work that is easy enough to do online so you don't even need to be located in the same city (or even in China) to get started. There are also sites such as iTalki which are useful for finding this sort of work. Working out payment might be a tricky for purely online work though as Paypal isn't particularly user friendly for Chinese citizens (high fees, large minimum withdrawal amounts etc) and you won't be able to set up local Chinese online payment methods until you're in China.

In any case it would be a good idea to familiarise yourself with the requirements for both of these tests, as this is what students will be wanting to learn depending on what country they plan to move to (IELTS for UK, Australia and other British English speaking countries, TOEFL for the USA).

[roddy]

Merged your two topics - you need to be giving a lot more information up front if you're going to get any useful help. Basically we need your CV, what you want to be doing, and where you want to be doing it. Anything less and you're wasting all of our time.

[SpecialLensWearer]

Some of the help so far has been very useful. In case anyone thinks I'm timewasting I should be up front about the fact that I am at the investigating stage and cannot commit to anything yet. This is why I'm asking for more information. Even if I don't use all of the info on this thread other people can.

I am flexible about where I work. I only really know Yangshou. It's really touristy but also full of students of English so there is a lot of interaction between Chinese and foreigners and a good vibe (in my experience). The visa run in itself would not be a major problem especially if I was near Hong Kong but would this type of visa allow me to work legally?

If I had to choose one type of work in one place on what I know now I would say 'writing tutor to adults in Yangshou' but this is only based on what I know now which is very little. There are more places I'd be interested in than I could list here. My priority at the moment is to establish if I am able to work in China.

I will definately investigate this on the other forums mentioned. Thanks for the advice.

[Cat Jones]

The only visa that allows you to work legally in China is the Z work visa which would be very difficult for you to get unless you are employed by a company who can provide you with one. Which probably means taking a job as a full-time English teacher rather than a proof reader, or doing one to one proviate tuition.

You just missed a job at Tsinghua University as an English language editor. So opportunities do arise, but are rare.

I think it's going to be difficult for you to work here legally. Illegally is another matter. I'm sure you could easily find private tutition work, and proof reading work etc. once you are here. Whether you could earn enough to cover your living costs is another matter.

[Lu]

It's Yangshuo not Yangshou. I wasn't going to correct you but then I remembered that you want to be a proofreader.

Why do you want to come to China, or did I overlook your answer? If it's just for the after uni, explore the world a bit experience, well you shouldn't work illegally but you wouldn't exactly be the first person to do so. You risk fines and being thrown out of the country. You're also not the first foreigner to like Yangshuo, so perhaps look into what other regions you might be willing to work in.

Also, perhaps consider Taiwan. Depending on your nationality you might get as many as three months in the country visa-free, which is plenty of time to look into finding some kind of job (writing, teaching, teaching writing) there.

[SpecialLensWearer]

Oh yeh thanx. I'd if I could find work come to China because I liked it there. I've also heard good things about Taiwan. Might end up there. Thanx for the tip. I've got another idea that I'll put on new thread.

[SpecialLensWearer]

moved to new thread.

[roddy]

Merging...

[SpecialLensWearer]

Yes. I meant to post that on a different thread with a new title.