Why China?

[con's fly is open]

By my last count, there are almost 200 sovereign countries in the world. A ton of these need ESL teachers.

so why, out of all the Bricabrackistans in the world, did you pick the Middle Kingdom?

[gengrant]

man, I really wanted to vote for 'best whores in the world' but my wife was over my shoulder...no really...after pasting my resume all over the net and getting offers from all over the world (including Britain - i figured they just wanted help with their silly little accents), I laid out all the offers and one by one narrowed it down to China...yep, it really was the best offer!

[con's fly is open]

My father's department had a work exchange program: Harbin and Calgary are Sister Cities. So a Chinese doctor came over for a year to learn how to do angioplasties (they jam a tube into yer groin, shove it all the way to your heart, and inflate a balloon inside the vessels that are dangerously narrow). So my dad went to China to show them all how, and I tagged along.

Beijing, at the time, had all of ONE skyscraper, a hotel the japanese built (they got to own it for 20 years, no taxes, then China gets it- I suppose they already have by now). Across the street wer 4-story apartment buildings with laundry hanging on lines.
Beijing's a little different now.

Anyway, we stayed in Harbin for a month, and I learned about Chinese hospitality: when you're in, you're seriously IN.

When i decided to flee Canada and go teach somewhere, the obvious choice was Japan. But I didn't care for the notion of living alone in a big, cold city where no one gave two poos about me.

Let's face it: China is one big, warm hug when you're connected. And your job is quite a connection. I knew what I was getting into, and it paid off.

[Raoul Duke]

You blew it, Con: No entry for "All of the above".

[Seth]

I studied Chinese in college so I wanted to gain some fluency. My dad was also an antique dealer who frequently had Chinese artwork which got me interesting in China. I also have a minor degree in history, so I like historical things.

[Dr. Gonzo]

The job I was doing at home was driving me nuts. A marriage split had left me penniless but otherwise commitment free, so I signed on for a stint with Australian Volunteers International.
They were talking about a Thai university. This, the weather aside, sounded attractive. But then a bolt out of the blue: Hows about Guilin, China? Some quick research [women? Yep, booze? Yep beautuful scenery? Who gives a m'kay], and off I went, never looking back.
No regrets at all.

[Mr Nobody]

Too many reasons to pick just one.

My martial art comes from China.

I love the culture, the history, the people and the food.

Then I met the girlie.

So, sick of Oz, sick of running a business (struggle struggle struggle all the time to make enough to live comfortably), the girlie beckoned, and I am here.

[LJ]

I visited Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau in 1991 (mainland China was wierd then) with my parents on a kind of business trip and holiday, I found it interesting and always wanted to come back.

After Uni I travelled extensively around East Asia and Australasia. Then when I was 27 I found myself in a job working 48 hours a week earning good money but unhappy and single, exausted and sick of rainy England I got myself a job in China working 18 hours a week. ;D

Now after three years, I'm tied to China as like many others here I have a Chinese wife.

[Arlis]

Job Market.

Disillusioned at previous career. Wanted to try my hand at full-time teaching. 2 options. Study for 3 years, work, then find out if it's the right career for me. Or come to China and teach after TESOL certification and figure out from here if teaching is the career for me. China was the only place where I could get a job without a teaching degree and just a diploma.

[Da Dan]

I just moved to Oahu from Kauai after a friendly divorce & selling my tour business & giving everything to my wife to make meself feel better about leaving her to get my freedom back...

I was between jobs & my things were in storage waiting for me to get my life going again.

One day in a dog park a Chinese lady asked me if I could listen to a phone recording for her & get a number being said....
I did &....

Then she called a lady & they talked together, with me listening, about the lady on the other end coming to China to teach....

After their call, I asked her if she sent people to China, She said...
¡°Yes, do you want to go to China?¡±

Three weeks later I was here. I am still happy I did it even though many friends said I shouldn¡¯t.

Before that day, I never put any thought into coming to China.

[con's fly is open]

Um, plus what Arlis said.

[Crippler]

The food, the hospitality, the hellos and the beautiful ladies. Ruth says I can look all I want!

[MK]

At a loose end after Uni. Un or underemployed for about a year. One TESOL certificate and a year in Korea later and I was hooked on the EFL life. Looking for my next adventure, my local University in the UK had a 'students/teachers' exchange programme with a Chinese Uni, so off I went and here I still am three years later.

[CarryAnn]

so I could drink at the saloon of course!

[Mr Nobody]

Carry, your in with the good crowd. Raoul! Fill up my glass, please, and give this wonderful lady a drink. George's tab, as usual, thanks.

[gengrant]

Yeah, Raoul, fill up my glass too...on George's tab...

Wow! That Georgie is one righteous Hogan!

[con's fly is open]

Yeah! on George's tab, and pour another for yourself.

[Decurso]

For me coming to China can't be summed up easily.One of the biggest reasons was that is in an easy place to gain teaching experience.It is my first teaching job and I knew jobs were plentiful here even for inexperienced teachers.

But it also had a lot to do with the fact that China has been such a mysterious country for so many years.I really needed a break from western culture and I couldn't think of a better place to get away from it all.

And I really wanted to go to a poorer country.I felt I had become to dependent on the comforts I enjoyed in Canada and needed to free myself somewhat from the chains of western materialism.Mission accomplished.

[George61]

After divorce left me depressed and broke, I had 5 years of unsuccessful job applications....never got one interview! China never entered my head, until one day, I fired off around 10 job applications, including one for China. Never got a reply from the others, but within 3 weeks I was in China. That was 3 1/2 years ago.
I'm still broke, thanks to you bastards freeloading on my bartab, but I'm certainly not depressed.

[Mr Nobody]

And, to be able to pay your tab off, you have to learn the calculus of dynamic n-dimensional phase-space polyfractal economics. There is a nobel prize in both maths and economics waiting. If you make it rhyme, you could probably get one in literature too.

[George61]

OK, I'll work on that.....when I get round to finding out what the m'kay it all means. I understood "rhyme"....I think!

[Mr Nobody]

Ah made it up. It is what them thar trekkies call "technobabble".

RHYME in this case means "relativistic holographic yawing mobility elements", sort of the 3-D equivalent of what sprites are in polygonal CGI, or indeed any computer animation.

[con's fly is open]

China's certainly a fresh start. Don't miss Calgary one bit.

[Decurso]

amen...my worst nightmare is I wake up in Victoria!Then I hear the recycling guys screaming their lungs out at 8:00 AM...and I wake up and smile.Because I KNOW I'm in China!

[George61]

Nothing wrong with Victoria, you heathen....better than all the other States put together!