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