Charles's Teaching In China

09/11/2003

Hello Daryl

The semester has just commenced, so you have missed the window for working at universities at least. However, there are plenty of other alternatives, either at private language schools or at middle (ie secondary) schools or at elementary schools even. Need to be able to cope with kids though. I get 3600 RMB per month, which sounds like a pittance in USD at about $400. You can get double that with some experience, but not at universities. I am at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and our sole PhD gets 3600.

One thing I would suggest is that you go to an ESL teaching course. I did a Cambridge University CELTA qualification at a Perth language school, but I daresay the USA has others. The US is probably not the most economical though - a friend of mine did a CELTA in Cairo for about $600, whereas it costs about $1500 in Perth and more again in the USA I am sure.

There is no shortage of work, which usually comes with accommodation and maybe meals. With your qualifications, esp. if you have a Masters degree, you could teach electronics or computer science in English.

Generally I find Chinese cities rather crowded and grubby. However, there are some nice ones - Shenzhen is much cleaner than most, Guilin seems much more people-friendly, Kunming is fine in the centre but I cannot say I am impressed with the automotive slum that dominates the outskirts. Mostly I think of the cities here as places to get out of at every opportunity. Unfortunately, they don't have many universities in the mountains, but there may be some normal schools (teachers' colleges).

Some weeks ago I got connected to the Net and have a desktop computer fitted with Win98 (Chinese) and also Win2000 professional (English). I thought about what you said about setting up a web server, as it comes with an IP address and it is left on all the time because I have my laptop networked with it using Winroute Pro. Can I set it up as a Web server without a lot of palaver? Or must I install and use Red Hat or similar, plus Apache plus a lot of pissing around? Or has someone made a sort of Winwebserver Lite that is easy enough for a dummy to set up, doesn't allow people to piss around inside my computers and runs under Win2000 or similar?

I ended up forking out 20,000RMB for that boy in Tibet and have been waiting for ages for the insurance company to come to the party. He is paralysed in both legs and his left arm, cannot speak but can see and understand speech. Totally bedridden. Just goes to show what can happen if you cycle without a helmet and suddenly swerve onto a highway without looking. He would have been better off dead I am sure. I face such idiot cyclists a dozen times a day in Chengdu, but am thoroughly forewarned. Not a situation you expect as you drive along a deserted highway in rural Tibet in the early evening, not having seen a cyclist for about a week... I wouldn't like to have a similar situation arise in the USA, where I am sure the compensation would substantially exceed $2500! But I guess in the US cyclists are a bit more responsible and a driver wouldn't get lumbered with the financial burden if he were insured, and especially if it was in no way his fault.

Bye for now

Charles _ _ ______________________________________________________ _ _

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