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Don't forget grade adjustment tax.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 04:29 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 02:14 |
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Chindit posted:Another point is that argument about 'local Chinese salary' being much lower, which is often trotted out by schools, doesn't really cut it. I mean, it often is lower if you are a barely-above-subsistence farmer or an unskilled migrant worker, but it often isn't. This is so true. One of my friend's father is actually a Chengguan (the city planner guys who are known for beating street vendors, etc.). His "official" salary is only 1100 RMB per month. Guess where the rest of it comes from. Bonuses, other benefits, and under the table money.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 04:48 |
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I live in Yizhuang, Beijing and make 5,000RMB. I work maximum 20 hours a week with weekends off and most of the time I'm just playing games or singing a song. I've taught before, but I'd be hard pressed to demand more money when my Chinese co-teachers who make all the materials and have the kids the majority of time make 2,000RMB. I also have an apartment with two floors and a greenhouse so I find it hard to complain. I'll probably look for something different and more in central Beijing come January, but right now my life is pretty easy.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 05:08 |
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goldboilermark posted:No it is not, get over yourself. For someone with zero qualifications that has never taught a thing before, it is not špoo pooš. It isnŽt absolute bank, and you probably would need more in Shanghai or Beijing, but calling it poo poo is pretty ridiculous. Get over myself? My first job was 9,000, then 12,000, and now 5,000 for hanging out with a trophy wife for like five or six hours a week who buys me all the food I can eat. I'm equally unqualified besides the experience I have from teaching the last eight months or whatever.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 07:24 |
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Also any warm white body with a degree can come to Hong Kong and make at least 15,000 HKD (and I would consider that lovely pay). I have postings in my e-mail right now for 25K teaching jobs. And that's before you start tutoring on the side. Granted living expenses are higher in Hong Kong, but I still think you'd be able to save more on 15,000 HKD than 5000 RMB. Seems a lot of people forget about Hong Kong, but there's great opportunities here. I think they are just bad at recruiting or something, so nobody in the US knows they could come here instead. The other side is that Hong Kong is a lot more legit. You have to actually have a bachelor's degree and qualifications and stuff.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 07:35 |
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Cuatal posted:Get over myself? My first job was 9,000, then 12,000, and now 5,000 for hanging out with a trophy wife for like five or six hours a week who buys me all the food I can eat. Well then just give those contacts to The Worst Muslim. I am sure he would appreciate companies that will spend so much on someone who has no idea what they are doing.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 07:40 |
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Bloodnose posted:Also any warm white body with a degree can come to Hong Kong and make at least 15,000 HKD (and I would consider that lovely pay). Could you send me some details on it? I've been looking into moving to HK and there's not much info available. I found the public school program, which involves ridiculous piles of cash but I have to actually be in the US to apply, I can't go from Korea to HK. I can't find poo poo about private schools. I'm especially wondering about the competition, given the really good money and the fact that it's Hong Kong I assumed finding a job would be almost impossible. 25K plus I have a good source for private tutoring clients sounds good to me. HK's no more expensive than Korea and that'd be a lot more than I make here. grandfromage at gmail.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 07:49 |
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Cuatal posted:5,000 for hanging out with a trophy wife for like five or six hours a week who buys me all the food I can eat. I want to hear more about this job Bloodnose posted:Seems a lot of people forget about Hong Kong, but there's great opportunities here. I think they are just bad at recruiting or something, so nobody in the US knows they could come here instead. How much of an opportunity do you have to learn/practice Mandarin in Hong Kong without formal classes? I never even looked at HK because I just assumed it would be harder to learn Mandarin on my own there. Arakan fucked around with this message at Oct 8, 2011 around 08:17 |
| # ? Oct 8, 2011 08:14 |
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goldboilermark posted:Well then just give those contacts to The Worst Muslim. I am sure he would appreciate companies that will spend so much on someone who has no idea what they are doing. I've read over this a million times but I still have no idea if this is meant to be insulting to me or a compliment.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 10:30 |
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Arakan posted:How much of an opportunity do you have to learn/practice Mandarin in Hong Kong without formal classes? I never even looked at HK because I just assumed it would be harder to learn Mandarin on my own there. Zero opportunity. Unless you make some friends from the mainland, nobody's going to want to speak Mandarin with you here. Among young people, most of them prefer to speak and are more experienced at speaking English over Mandarin. Of course the day-to-day language on the street is Cantonese. And I'll forward you some private company stuff later, Grand Fromage.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 11:18 |
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goldboilermark posted:Well then just give those contacts to The Worst Muslim. I am sure he would appreciate companies that will spend so much on someone who has no idea what they are doing. Jobs are over already, one of them was a one month gig and the 9000 one was awful, which I wrote about somewhere in this thread a little bit I think. Arakan posted:I want to hear more about this job One of my good friends here started working at a visa agency, and I guess her boss asked the employees if they knew any Americans （I have a feeling there were some other questions too, but no way to verify as my friend won't tell me) and my friend recommended me. So I met with the husband who is around 60 and the wife who is 30 and they like me and we agree to start class the next week. Originally she wanted to have class M-F for like three hours, but I kind of figured she wasn't the most studious of people, and I turned out to be right. So now I meet her maybe once or twice a week and she always insists on buying me candy and Subway and expensive drinks and things like that, and whenever I go to her huge rear end mansion she never stops bringing me expensive imported food. Then at the end of each class she'll just give me like a thousand kuai or something and apologize for cancelling all the time. It's a pretty sweet gig. Cuatal fucked around with this message at Oct 8, 2011 around 12:24 |
| # ? Oct 8, 2011 12:18 |
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The Worst Muslim posted:I've read over this a million times but I still have no idea if this is meant to be insulting to me or a compliment. You both have said you have no experience when you are starting, so it was meant as neither, I was just speaking matter-o-factly.
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| # ? Oct 8, 2011 13:27 |
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Cuatal posted:Jobs are over already, one of them was a one month gig and the 9000 one was awful, which I wrote about somewhere in this thread a little bit I think. I had a similar-ish thing happen, at least with the outrageously rich people throwing stuff at me part. I worked at a school and did a lot of SAT/GRE/etc prep classes. Occasionally I'd get an "American Culture" class which was basically teaching them about America and how to not be a dumbass or something once they get there. They never told me what the hell to do in this class, so I kind of winged it. I had one student who was actually really awesome, super studious, nice, willing to learn, actually really smart had good English and hadn't bought his way into his ivy league university... and he was loaded beyond compare. He had 4 little brothers, all born in the US or Canada cause they flew his mom out as late in her pregnancy as they could. I'd given him advanced English classes, 1 on 1 SAT and ACT prep classes, and eventually these "American Culture" classes over the span of a year and a half or so, and I guess the kid liked me. One day he was talking about wanting a part time job in the US, so we were discussing wages. I sort of, unprofessionally I guess, let slip how much I make a month. I wasn't complaining about it or anything, and compared to some recent posts in here it seems I was making some serious bank. Anyway, he apparently told his dad how much I made or something and the dad decided he'd rather give me all the ridiculous 1 on 1 exam prep class money instead of the school. The kid cancelled classes and took me on as a private teacher where I went to his The student really liked me or something, cause on top of the ridiculous hourly wage they were paying me and the great food and drink I was treated to every time I went over, they gave me some rather expensive gifts (a rather nice phone, a few Armani silk ties, etc) right before the student shipped off to the US. I only went to his house for the last month or so I had the student before he went to the US. I think I might've been able to pay off my student loans had I gabbed about my wage a year earlier, though... So yeah, private teaching can have some really nice benefits if you luck the gently caress out. Magna Kaser fucked around with this message at Oct 8, 2011 around 16:32 |
| # ? Oct 8, 2011 16:30 |
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That's really cool. I haven't gotten any gifts yet but last time I was with her she was like "That's my husband's bodyguard's car, my husband bought it for him as a present. Next time we'll buy you one!" and I was just surprised since I'm pretty sure buying a car to them is like me buying dinner, so not really implausible at all.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 00:37 |
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Quick question. What do you do for supper? I have breakfast figured out(two pieces of toast with peanut butter, ham, banana, and oj) and lunch I get for free at my school, but I'm struggling with supper. One of my roomies told me it was cheaper to make my own, but she doesn't really eat meat. My usual supper probably costs the same as eating out and is shittier as I don't have everything I need to make a good meal. Any tips on what to make or local products that can help me hit all the food groups.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 08:25 |
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Private Snowball posted:I don't have everything I need to make a good meal. What cooking appliances do you have? I don't know how W&W you are but I try to eat healthy so I generally just make some meat (alot of loving meat) and vegetables I buy at the supermarket. I have a stove top though so this could be a problem for you. I probably spend less than 10 kuai a night on dinner, and that's with eating about 1/2 pound of meat a night.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 08:53 |
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Arakan posted:What cooking appliances do you have? I don't know how W&W you are but I try to eat healthy so I generally just make some meat (alot of loving meat) and vegetables I buy at the supermarket. I have a stove top though so this could be a problem for you. I probably spend less than 10 kuai a night on dinner, and that's with eating about 1/2 pound of meat a night. I'm a big fan of cooking Jiozi. I pick up a bag of dumplings wrappers (round flat pieces of dough), a bundle of Chinese leeks, and if I need them, eggs. It used to be a pain to fold all the dumplings, but I've gotten quicker and normally watch a video when I cook them. Then I just boil up a pot of them. 6 kuai feeds 2 people. I do have a stove at home. But I've seen convection burners and portable gas stoves for 50 RMB at the Carrefour.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 10:20 |
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Arakan posted:What cooking appliances do you have? I don't know how W&W you are but I try to eat healthy so I generally just make some meat (alot of loving meat) and vegetables I buy at the supermarket. I have a stove top though so this could be a problem for you. I probably spend less than 10 kuai a night on dinner, and that's with eating about 1/2 pound of meat a night. I have a stove top. I meant more in the usual food items I'm used to back home and in the Middle East. I usually spend 10 kuai on one chicken breast(which seems to be the best meat going at my supermarket) and maybe 5 kuai on a poo poo ton of vegetables. Its not enough meat for me though. That sounds good, Aero737.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 10:26 |
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Private Snowball posted:I have a stove top. I meant more in the usual food items I'm used to back home and in the Middle East. I usually spend 10 kuai on one chicken breast(which seems to be the best meat going at my supermarket) and maybe 5 kuai on a poo poo ton of vegetables. Its not enough meat for me though. Get a dutch oven, dear god get a dutch oven... preferably one that fits neatly inside of the convection oven as well. So much wonderful stuff you can start making, including some nice quality breads for cheap.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 15:39 |
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I cooked more a ton in China. I splurged and went to Metro where I could buy poo poo like tortillas, cheese and other exotic ingredients at reasonable prices. I also got a good deal one Oct 1st holiday on one of those big toaster ovens that was almost an oven but not quite. I couldn't say, roast a whole chicken, but it made stuff like macaroni and cheese, lasagne and enchiladas pretty well. Most of the time though I just cooked Chinese food. Di san xian, suan la bai cai, potato and pepper stir fry, lazi ji ding, ganbian yundou, lots of random fried rice/noodle dishes with whatever I had as leftovers. I leaned towards Chinese style stuff since it's all so drat quick. If you make the dish yourself you can make it significantly less greasy and more meaty or however you want it, than your local restaurants make it. Chao nian gao was a personal favorite of mine. Here's a little image with a Korean girl showing you how to make the Korean style, which is pretty good. Feel free to use actual meat instead of those dumb little hot dog things they use in that, and add/remove any veggies you want. Chinese style versions tend to have a lot less of the soupy quality but tend to be a little greasier. edit: any store around tends to have a lot of little and cheap cookbooks. Chinese cookbooks tend to be like 90% pictures from my experience, so even someone without a great command of Chinese can use them. My roommate in China knew absolutely no Chinese and used mine all the time and all his stuff came out fine. edit 2: If there's a Metro or similar store in your area, get a membership for it and go there. The stuff is all of a higher quality and more reasonable price from my experience. They also have the best selection of imported things I've ever seen in the mainland. I don't know what you're doing in China, but a lot of professions (teachers do, for sure) get a free membership so you can bring your foreign expert certificate, if you have one, and try it out. Magna Kaser fucked around with this message at Oct 9, 2011 around 16:56 |
| # ? Oct 9, 2011 16:50 |
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Five minute artisan bread is a good thing. It looks like this. If your supermarket doesn't have everything there's bound to be a little store around your wet market that sells yeast and wheat flour, and probably corn meal too. Remember the steam. I like throwing a little salt over it to give it a delicious crust, but that absorbs water and goes soggy if you don't eat it right away (but you will because the beauty of this thing is you just pull off a mini-loaf-sized chunk and bake it fresh whenever you want). Although the recipes always tell you to cook up a giant batch I discovered the other day when my girlfriend made me cook for her friends that you can do a single loaf just fine, so that's even more useful. In which case you can skip the resting time after it rises because it doesn't go in the fridge. It goes great with chunky potato soup, and potatoes are easy. Peel and dice four potatoes or so, simmer them in chicken stock enough chicken stock to cover them until they easily fall apart when you give it a stir, add two or three cups of cream of chicken soup (campbells is good but that poo poo is either everywhere or impossible to find month to month, otherwise just make your own (simmer chicken stock, cream if you got it otherwise milk + a little corn flour to thicken, and shredded chicken)), and toss in a bunch of black pepper and some crispy bacon/ham/grilled chicken chunks/that useless little bit of leftover cheese you've been saving/all of the above. Everyday chicken tip: get some paprika. Just order it, don't waste time looking. Every time you need chicken breast for anything rub some paprika + salt + black pepper + Szechuan pepper salt + minced garlic on it first. Or grill it up and melt over some cheese and put it in that bread you made. By way of suggestions here's what I've made in the last week or so with local ingredients (plus cheese): satay chicken salad, satay beef & capsicum stir-fry, garlic shrimp, penne alfredo, tuna mornay, and aforementioned bread + soup followed by chicken and eggplant parmigiana. My white chocolate arrived today so tomorrow I can finally do rainbow cake 
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 19:03 |
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Beef bourguignon might be a good option especially with winter coming up, the ingredients are easy to acquire and for those on a budget you can produce a lot of food for little cost. Plus it's quite an impressive dish and easy to scale up or down. No need to shill out for expensive beef on this one, get meat from the neck or shoulder and trim it well and you'll end up with something delicious. You want to cook for as long as you can, keep adding water or wine to reduce and the tough beef will become very soft and flavoursome. This dish makes for great left overs too. Any scraps can be turned into soup or used in stocks. The biggest expense will either be wine or olive oil. Olive oil is a cornerstone of Western / European cooking so this is a no brainer. It's said that you should never cook with a wine that you wouldn't drink, but the Chinese poo poo works in a pinch or if you don't wanna pay for imports and you can use it in a range of dishes or keep it for your next bourguignon. Pair this dish with a crusty bread to soak up the sauce, or if you want to fill up, use pasta, couscous... maybe even rice.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2011 21:09 |
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 07:18 |
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Thanks for the tips guys. Its a little hard for me as I can't have milk and very little cheese. I can't see any of those pictures in the posts btw.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 08:45 |
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Since some of you are veterans to this whole teaching thing, what are the qualifications for a cushy university job in Hong Kong or Taiwan? I'm guessing experience most of all but does a TEFL certification and masters really help?
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 12:23 |
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Anyone know how much electric scooter batteries are going for these days? Some douche stole mine. The damned thing was locked too. I keep hearing prices like 700 kuai for one, and I don't know if it's people trying to rip me off, or if they are legitimately that expensive now.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 13:28 |
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Spiderjelly posted:Do tell. Lien posted:Anyone know how much electric scooter batteries are going for these days? Some douche stole mine. The damned thing was locked too. I keep hearing prices like 700 kuai for one, and I don't know if it's people trying to rip me off, or if they are legitimately that expensive now. Oh they stole the battery out of it? I know there are battery locks, get one of those again. A thief is gonna steal something no matter what you do, you just gotta make yours more difficult than the one 10m away. Buddy of mine has the e-bike with pedals and the battery block in the floor of the bike, he had his battery stolen too, cost about 900 to replace. So if yours is similar, yeah, 700 is probably reasonable.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 13:51 |
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SB35 posted:Oh they stole the battery out of it? I know there are battery locks, get one of those again. A thief is gonna steal something no matter what you do, you just gotta make yours more difficult than the one 10m away. Buddy of mine has the e-bike with pedals and the battery block in the floor of the bike, he had his battery stolen too, cost about 900 to replace. So if yours is similar, yeah, 700 is probably reasonable. Welp. Given that I bought the damned thing for 1,000 and my company sucks at paying me on time, I think my response is going to be buying some piece of poo poo regular bike for 100 kuai. Maybe I'll get lucky and the fuckers will steal the scooter itself so I don't have to figure out how to get rid of it.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 15:42 |
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Since some of you are veterans to this whole teaching thing, what are the qualifications for a cushy university job in Hong Kong or Taiwan? I'm guessing experience most of all but does a TEFL certification and masters really help? Dunno about Taiwan, but in HK you need a Ph.D.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 16:16 |
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Not sure if this or the Teaching in Taiwan thread is the best place to ask but... I've convinced some friends to make a trip to Taiwan with my wife and I (we've been before) and we are looking into housing options. We'll stay probably ~2 weeks, and are looking for information on renting out a house/apartment in Taipei for the duration. I assume if something like this is available, it would be a lot cheaper than hotel rooms all around.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 16:35 |
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Does Taiwan not have their own thread? I am pretty sure they do.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 16:46 |
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goldboilermark posted:Does Taiwan not have their own thread? I am pretty sure they do. TEFL in Taiwan
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 19:45 |
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goldboilermark posted:Does Taiwan not have their own thread? I am pretty sure they do.
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| # ? Oct 10, 2011 22:54 |
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SB35 posted:They do but the "teaching in Taiwan" thread title is a bit misleading for those who are just looking for general Taiwan info. Probably why he asked here. Fair point, I didn't finish the entire thread cover-t-cover yet, but there's a wealth of other handy little bits of "local info" tossed abck and forth in the discussion. It's got a handy bunch of various peoples concerns coming from a bunch of different angles about how to get busy setting yourself up, what the local scene is like etc etc. I think a lot of it can/will/should apply to most anyone looking to head out, so it's not just teaching specific - despite the thread title. I think what I'm saying is you did a great OP, and the Taiwan thread, despite it's specific focus, would do well to align itself more fully with the China thread. 
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 00:37 |
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I only really asked in this thread because a number of posters seemed to be pretty informed on the standards of education in the Chinese speaking world. I ask about Hong Kong and Taiwan because I'm possibly thinking of getting a job there in the future but wanted to know what the standards are. The standards at Mainland universities seem to be pretty much nonexistent. For instance there's a guy in my school's English department who can't even write a professional, grammatically correct e-mail.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 01:09 |
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url posted:Fair point, I didn't finish the entire thread cover-t-cover yet, but there's a wealth of other handy little bits of "local info" tossed abck and forth in the discussion. You're right, there is a good amount of info in that thread about things other than just TESL. Taiwan is really, a totally different place. It is less aligned with the PRC than HK or Macau are. Really, I think a simple thread title change and slight revamp of the OP for them would make it more apparent that that is "The Taiwan Thread". Also, I have Weatherman in the Japan megathread to thank for our OP. He does a fantastic job putting theirs together and I copied a lot of great ideas from him.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 02:30 |
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I was making a bad attempt at humour as regards both the actual situation between the two countries, and your reference the other day.SB35 posted:Yeah I watch the Taiwan thread too, gotta keep your "enemies" closer sorta thing But yeah, it is a great thread.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 03:49 |
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Anyone know what this thing is? Found it in my house. Had Chinese writing and Mao on it. Is it regular money or a commemorative coin? http://imgur.com/K6n1C.jpg http://imgur.com/cU620.jpg Edit: My phone freaks out about this, so I hope the direct links are okay.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 05:57 |
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SB35 posted:Do tell. I'm just endlessly frustrated with BOC. Every time I go in there, there is some kind of gently caress up. First it took them a month to open my account, which caused my payment to be delayed by two weeks, then last week I went in to open an online banking account so I could use taobao, and they were "sold out" of the cards. Then yesterday, I used the ATM and took too long to retrieve my card from the machine, so the ATM swallowed it and the told me I had to wait until today to get it back. So I went back today, and after waiting 20 minutes (on a priority ticket, because I am a teacher) was greeted with "what do you want?" So...gently caress you, Bank of China.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 06:02 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 02:14 |
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The Worst Muslim posted:Anyone know what this thing is? Found it in my house. Had Chinese writing and Mao on it. Is it regular money or a commemorative coin? Looks like a coin commemorating his 100th birthday. Blurry pictures though.
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| # ? Oct 11, 2011 06:18 |
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