English Teaching in China is Permanently Finished

[Taco]

If your thinking about working or living in China don't do it.The Chinese Government is shutting down thousands of companies...

[yick]

It's not 'permanently finished' it is just going to go into the public sector.

If you are a designated 'native speaker' of English and have a degree and a clean CBC, you will still find a good job at universities, public schools and vocational establishments.

Bad news for all these Russians, Bulgarians and whoever else white enough to pass as a 'native speaker' working at kindy hagwon type establishments. Saying that, the government can kick our arses out at anytime. There is no doubt about that.

[MrMan]

If your thinking about working or living in China don't do it.The Chinese Government is shutting down thousands of companies...

There are other countries where, if you have a degree, you can get a specialized expert/consultant/etc. visa for being a foreign language expert. In Indonesia at least, EF seemed to be the bottom of the barrel for salaries when I was doing it. I am glad I am finished with grad school and into something else. But I did get a job interview in China a few years ago in my field. They paid for a five day trip, after the employer thought he might be able to meet my salary requirements. But the offer was still going to be a low ball offer because the centralized department published potential salaries. The salary was less than half what I got in Indonesia, which was in the range for market rates.

[MrMan]

Btw, if anyone is interested in Asian teaching jobs, I've gotten a job through eslcafe.com before. There are still Korean jobs posted there. I think the minimum requirements are still a native speaker with a university degree. What I was making back in the 1990's was the equivalent of between $2700 and 2800 a month in today's dollars, but with an apartment, insurance, travel there and back. I don't remember vacation days other than Korean holidays. Split shifts were lousy. I came back and paid the student loans in my name off. (I was going to pay off my parent's PLUS loans later.) I also bought a little used car. When I went to Indonesia, I traded my parents the car for the balance on the PLUS loan. So basically a year in South Korea paid off my college debt. Nowadays, it appears salaries are lower in real terms, around $2000 a month, but it is probably okay, and probably a good deal for a humanities student from a third or fourth tier college who is working retail or fast food with a degree.

South Korea paid more than Indonesia, but I found Indonesia more exciting and a warmer and friendlier place. I'm not knocking Koreans, but their culture is kind of rigid.

Split shifts-- having to work mornings then go in in the afternoon and work until night, were lousy. I got weekends off. Teachers who taught little kids usually worked afternoons but also had Saturday morning shifts.

Indonesia

[Taco]

This is an excellent video...

[MrMan]

I've also wondered if China had a long term plan to allow all this economic development, development of factories and international trade to some day shift focus, blow up the economy of the US and the current economic system, and, when it had the infrastructure, turn itself into a huge military power while changing the rules of the global economy and global monetary system.

I'm looking online and the US this year is supposed to get about 3 trillion in revenue, but spend 6.8 trillion. The US borrows the rest. The government issues treasuring bills. China has a trillion in our T-bills. What if it decided to sell T-bills for a penny on the dollar? That could cause a bandwagon effect and tank the value of the dollar. They can't have autarky if they continue to consume three times the oil they produce. But if they had more pipelines with Russia, they might be able to have a few countries as their suppliers.

If they aren't trying to make money and have economic growth as a goal in itself, and if their goal is to realign the world economy, they might be able to do that.

It could be the government officials have bought in to lattes and nice cars, and they really want a developed economy. This isn't the Mao generation anymore. Younger Communist party officials may like the country getting richer and richer.