Moving family to China

[KyleButler]

Hi everyone.

 

I am considering moving my family over to China to teach ESL. We have two young kids 3 and 5 and I would like to find a school where the kids could get free tuition or reduced tuition fees. I have been offered many jobs ranging from around 15 to 17K a month. I have a BA and a TEFL so I know it wont be hard to find work, but I'm just a little concerned about my children.

 

Is anybody else teaching over there with a family? Whats it like?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

[eion_padraig]

I'd say your concern is well founded. All the ESL teachers I know are single or they have a spouse that has an expat type job that pays for their kids to go to international schools.

I work at an international school where I have colleagues with kids, but their kids get free education at our English language school. The lowest paid colleagues of mine still make 28K a month and get enough of a housing stipend to pay for an apartment, not to mention health insurance that covers Western trained doctors and hospitals with international caliber care. Not to mention round-trip flights for their family members back to their country.

One of the reasons that friends of mine have left China when they marry locals and have kids is that the cost of Western education. Once their kids get old enough, the cost of international schools is very high. I've known a couple people who have enrolled their young kids in Chinese language schools. I can probably find out how much it costs. I'm sure it's relatively inexpensive and your kids are young enough to soak up Chinese. After a while, the concern may be transferring them back to an English language school and the cost concern is still there. The folks I know who do this generally have at least one parent who is fluent in Chinese so they can communicate easily with the school and teachers. If you or your spouse don't speak Chinese fluently, this would create another barrier.

The bigger issue is that even 17k RMB a month is low. If you're able to do side teaching jobs on evenings and weekends you could earn a lot more, but it depends on the time commitment of your primary job. Do you have a spouse who will be working as well? That could make it more manageable.

My colleagues who are in China with kids like it a lot, but most of them are making upwards of USD$100,000 per year with free housing because the couple both works at our school. With this kind of money they have great vacations in Southeast Asia during our breaks. They have nannys/maids who cook and clean and care for their kids when the kids are not at school. 

 

Eion

[LinZhenPu]

28K a month

housing stipend to pay for an apartment

health insurance international caliber care

17k RMB a month is low

making upwards of USD$100,000 per year

:shock:

 

Do you mind if I ask... what kind of backgrounds you and your colleagues have??

[KyleButler]

Thanks for your reply Eion. 

 

I don't have a teaching qualification so I guess that puts me in the lower income bracket. I would assume real international schools (as opposed to those that are internatioal by name only) are probably out of my reach due to not having a pgce or teaching qualification.  I thought 17K was quite good considering the job adverts I have seen put up on Echinacities Daves esl etc for someone with a BA and a tefl. I will probably need to look into getting a post grad cert to get a higher salary. Anyway thanks again.

 

Kyle 

[ChTTay]

It depends what you want out of this. If you're looking at this as a kind of "adventure holiday" with the kids home schooled while you all experience what China has to offer then it could be okay. I knew a couple with kids who worked as ESL teachers as part of a 2-3 year trip with their kids.

However, if you're looking to relocate for a long time then I wouldn't bother unless you've got a professional job. Either in your industry or as an Intl school teacher (as above). Otherwise it will be hard to afford international schools. You could try and go for Chinese kindergartens but not sure how that would work out.

[Flickserve]

Not much experience in China but 17k sounds a bit low to me considering the need to support a family. OP didn't mention anything added in the package such as accomodation or school allowance for the kids.

I think OP would need to consider whether this is short term as in a couple of years or long term. A not infrequent theme is to stick young children into Chinese primary school so they definitely pick up Chinese as a second language, then high school in a western style environment.

[KyleButler]

The job I was offered was in Guanzhou at Phoenix international school. They offered 17k, free accommodation, 1000$ flight reimbursement and 20% school fees per term for each child. They wanted me to start ASAP but I'm not ready to move just yet.

 

I just wanted to see what anyone else thought about it. 

 

Thanks for your valuable input. I'm new to these forums and didnt expect so many replies straight away.

 

Cheers.

[LinZhenPu]

Surely that salary with the included accommodation and other perks should be manageable for a family of 3?

Edit: Family of four... not as manageable.

[eion_padraig]

@KyleButler, that additional context helps.

 

You're correct that without a PGCE or other teaching qualification you'll probably be stuck in lower paid schools. I think you could make ends meet depending on how expensive the school runs with the 20% discount. I can manage to get a return flight during the summer for around US$1,000, but I tend to fly to the West Coast of the US. If you're flying further in the US or to the UK, I'm guessing you won't get something that cheap.

 

So Zengcheng is technically in Guangzhou municipality, but it's a long way (I'm guessing 1 1/2 by bus depending on where in the district) from central Guangzhou. Currently there are not any subway lines out that way. It could be that some are being built. Actually, now that I think about it Phoenix City is a really posh development out there. A few of our students have villas out there. I'm not sure what it's like for shopping for stuff out there because the people who live out there are going to be the type with cars. 

 

Also, schools like this tend to be poorly run and managed. If you're tolerance is okay for that kind of stuff, it might be a place to work while working on a PGCE. There are some distance programs where you can earn a credential while you're overseas. It depends in part what you want to teach. You may want to check out https://www.internationalschoolsreview.com/. You can find both sound advice and complete jabber on the forum. 

 

However, if you can get experience working as a IB subject teacher or IB Primary Years Program classroom teacher (elementary teacher) it may be helpful at working at better schools. If you also get a teaching credential in addition to the IB experience, you'd be much more marketable.

 

Be aware that international schools are cautious about hiring people with too many dependents. If it's just you and two children, particularly if they are not both school aged the better schools will consider you. But assuming you have a partner (wife) who is also coming along, then you become expensive for them to hire. If both you and a spouse are qualified teachers, then two kids usually isn't a big deal, but if you have more than 2 kids it becomes a problem.

 

Good luck.

 

Eion

[KyleButler]

I thought 17K was reasonable to live on considering I only earned a third of that in Thailand (It seems China and Thailand have the same low cost of living)

 

My wife wouldn't be working as she doesn't have a degree and she's Thai, so I don't see how it would be too much of a problem for schools as they would only be hiring one person (me) 

 

Anyway you're right,  I should look towards getting a post grad certificate while I'm here in Australia to increase my chances of earning a higher salary.

 

Thanks.