My Job Search -Part 2

[Lager]

Well I'm now writing off the province of Taiwan. I was getting some interest and even had a phone interview yesterday. Reply said they want someone more exp and enthusiastic with kids. I agree. I wasn't sure about kids---or about going to Taiwan on a tight budget so I guess I didn't sound too enthusiastic on the phone.

I will keep a slight window open to anything trustworthy sounding out of Korea but we'll see. Will look for a week or so in January. Otherwise I guess the best I can find here which is OK with me.

On an alarming note----I have heard next to nothing back so far from anything I have looked into in PRC. I dont want to call this a trend or anything---way too early---but the market may have changed in the last year or 2. Shockingly I applied through an agency for a couple of College jobs and have heard nothing. I can understand these may be filled (they were good salary and locations) but why aren't they trying to offer me others? May be a simple explanation...

[Wolf]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't find anything. It should be fair to warn you: there are virtually no jobs in Taiwan (or South Korea) that do not primarily involve kids. Even in Japan the only adults-only jobs either truly suck (the worst of the Bushibans/Hongwans/Ekaiwas) or are at the tippety top (uni positions.)

At least, to the best of my knowledge. I had thought about both places last fall/winter, and did some online research then into both.

There are tons of "agencies" that offer EFL jobs that, well, suck. Maybe this is just another suck agency that cannot find its collective bottom without a detailed map. At very first, I tried a few said "agencies."

Keep at it; and I'm sure you'll find a good gig. There's no way China's job market could already be as tight as Japan's... .

[Lager]

Hey Wolf: Japan I really don't even try. Being 41 alone works against me...Also I know how competitive it is. I did scout out a couple of adult schools in Taiwan---thing is they seem to only offer hourly work-as I understand you would need to be there and perhaps juggle 2 jobs.

As for Korea adult gigs can be found---but no-one wants them. They are a nightmare split shift of 6-10 both am and pm. Some even make it worse by throwing in a noon class...Kids I can hack in Korea---mostly because class size is maximum 10 and usually less. (I was there.) You are also expected to follow the absurd textbooks..Makes it boring but easy in some ways--no real lesson planning...


Anyway I now seem to have 2 tentative offers for Korea---granted they are through agents. Catch is somewhat undesirable locations...But I will take one hopefully---honestly I need the infusion of cash...And it's a tiny country so Seoul is never too far away.

As for China...Perhaps December is a bad month to look (I never have before.) but I'll repeat---I have received shockingly few replies. I suppose AFTER I sign somewhere my e-mail will be flooded. Wouldn't surprise me.

[burlives]

I hesitate to suggest a small town, but Nanyang, as per the Wankers Wanted post, will probably be willing to give you a listen.

And I likewise hesitate to suggest an insular place like my current school but I know they will be interested in at least one more teacher. I'm outta here in two weeks.


These places are not fabulous but they're livable.

[Wolf]

Hey! I heard about those exact same jobs: 6am-10pm. Yeah, you don't work all the way though, but jeez. Do the math. You'll never get a decent night's sleep.

You also found out the exact same thing about Taiwan as I did. I never was much for trusting per-hour work. I did a bit of per-hour work on the side my first time around in Japan; and it was about as reliable as Nova Scotian weather.

Don't get me started about age and Japan. I'm 27 (birthday in two weeks though), but the fact that I have a few years' living experience in Japan means that lots of companies refuse to touch me with a 10 foot pole. I'm frickin tired of being turned down because I have experience. I've got a 15 month stint coming up, and that'll be enough to finish paying for my studies and repay my family. After that; if things in The Constitutional Monarchy of the Rising Sun continue to suck like this; I'm out.

I've bloody well had it. The Japanese language schools have created an artifical demand for cutsey gajin/laowai/weyg-o-o-k. That, coupled with the fact that no one cares if teachers are qualified or not (I might end up teaching at a uni one day a week come April. I can do it, but I'd be doing on the tenacious academic standing of a mere BA) means that they don't need real teachers.

In spite of all the work I put in to learning to live in Japan, I'm ready to leave for good.

Now I only need to figure out where to... .

China sounds good (believe it or not, of the Taiwan/Korea/Japan/PRC axis, it'd be my #1 next choice), but I'd die in poverty if I spent my working life there.

Sorry for the rant-jacking lager. It's good that you have a few possible means of paying the bills. Here's hoping you land a good one.

Edit: To the best of my knowledge the Korean word "w-e-y-g-o-o-k" is what they call Big Noses like us in the local lingo. If I'm wrong, well that'd be the 564th time this week. But the auto-censor obviously isn't set on "Korean."

[ilunga]

Lager, I know where you can get a job.
Wait for it.........don't slap me.........I'm not playing with you........they need somebody, starting around feb 20th.......

South Ocean, Luoyang - teaching middle school kids



On a serious note, there's a Uni gig here that pays very well according to my buddy. She's leaving for NZ and more than likely not coming back, so there's a fair chance they'll be needing someone for next term. If I wasn't in a contract I'd probably take it.

If you're considering Nanyang then have a think about Luoyang.

[MK]

This thread is interesting...I wonder if the market is changing? The job boards are all still flooded with jobs for Korea/Taiwan/China, but most of these do seem to be for kids. The Kindergarten scene seems to be expolding in China now.

Another area that seems to be growing in China is joint-ventures between British and Australian Uni's/Colleges and Chinese schools. If you are lucky enough to be employed by the Western end of the bargain, u can expect western wages. However, if you are employed by the Chinese school, it's local wages for you.

Wolf's remarks are interesting too. I have got a fair bit of experience now, and my next move is going to be a DELTA or MA TESOL...I wonder if I will find myself in the same situation? It's a big leap from your run-of the-mill EFL positions to the high paying prof-level jobs.

[Wolf]

Nah, the uni jobs can suck as well, I'm afraid. This dude is the Da Shan of the Japanese uni EFL world, and he sums it up but good:

www.debito.org/blacklist.html

The moral of that link is that, while the uni jobs actually pay salaries comparable to what your average Imperialist Japanese makes, job security is somewhere between "laughable" and "ridiculous."

I'll have my PG Diploma or MA in a matter of months, and from what I see, my options here won't be all that great.

I don't have any exact documentation on hand, but a lot of the crap jobs that get advertised in Japan online ask for far-flung qualifications (at times with the gaul to say "PhD preferred" for a below-the-recent-minimum-wage job. Would you expect a PhD to work for less than 2200 kuai in China? That's what some employers in Japan expect.) Take my word for it; I've spent a month getting burned by these dorks (and three months back in 2002.)

Oh, well. Short of re-instituting slavery; it's hard to see how things could get too much worse. In Japan there ar companies that refuse to sponsor visas, who make teachers teach 14 lessons per day. Heck, I interviewed with Berliz a while back, and they didn't seem to have it figured out that, after 120 years of being in the biz, they ought to be offering their employees things like "written contracts."

[burlives]

Wolf,

any thoughts on why Japanese institutions do that?

Thinking back to some experience in universities in Australia, the tenured staff were dead white males from English-speaking nations, predominantly Australia, UK and USA, in that order, but... um, but.... But anyway I'd probably like to say that ethnic minorities were getting shafted contractually right alongside the young up-and-comer whiteys. I know that tenurable positions still exist and are occasonally open, but I assume the equal opportunity stuff announced in every advertisement is taken seriously. Australian academics are such wankers that way.

But anyway, is the Japanese approach one that will be repeated in the Mainland market as it ::cough:: matures?

I know I went through a phase some six months back in which I had the strong sense that if a Chinese school makes it through the fly-by-night stage of development and moves into the "prestige establishment" mode of business, two concomitants are the chipping away at the in-school status of its foreign teacher gig and the playing out of resentments.

[Wolf]

Why do they do that?

Not offer work permits (private institutes): Because the government here is lax in checking. Also some nationalities can get working holiday visas. Plus there are boatloads of 21 year old yip-yaps who have visas and are willing to work at any school no matter how crap.

Not offer job security(universities): There is no logic to this. Sure, a uni would face having to pay their profs more as time goes on; but jeez - everyone in this country gets nastily high wages (to offset high living costs.) The only thing I can come up with is that younger=more marketable + more controllable.

Ask for far flung qualifications and pay crap (private institues): Maximize the profit margin while keeping the workforce in control. Kind of like coal miners from 100 years ago; make them live in company housing and don't pay them enough to afford to relocate. Then you get a captive work force.

As for institutionalized discrimination in giving tenure; yeah we have it in the land of my birth as well. The thing is that Japan has tons of laws on the books against this, and their own Ministry of Education has asked the unis to stop doing that (not that it amounts to much; but it means that the unis are doomed to loose every court case that us gaijin can muster. There have been a couple so far.)

I predict China will follow Japan; pending that China passes the same laws Japan did regarding giving foreign nationals labour rights, union rights, and tenure rights. The EFL market in Japan feels pretty saturated, and only the backpackers could think of living on salaries we're expected to think of as generous (this was one bone of contention I had at my ex-workplace. Our boss - an American - refused to let us work part time anywhere. But she suppplamented her own income with part time uni classes in spite of the fact she owned no fewer than 10 English schools.)

I had initially hoped that things would get better from here; that the overall Engrish fad would die down; leaving only people who actually needed to learn English - and would desire to do so from teachers who knew their bottoms from holes in the ground. I still think this will happen; it's just that I might die of old age first.

I think the EFL market in China - in the developed regions at least - will saturate (esp as it becomes more livable; and if salaries can increase.) Even with a Party induced frenzy, it probably will take a good long while, though.

[Lager]

Was going to mention a few tentative offers...(Must say I'm getting worried about 1 or more ex-ployers perhaps saying nasty things about me. A lot of initial contacts just seem to disappear...But I might be being paranoid.)

This morning something came from Suzhou which is one of my top choices location wise,,,Don't know what it is though except they need someone in less than 2 weeks which is OK...I hope it's not one I saw that offers a somewhat low salary (55-6500) with no housing. That would not make sense even compared to a College...

One offer from Beijing is interesting except it's elementary age which pretty much means I wont even reply. 6000 - the good points are it is on a subway line and you teach only mornings. So a lot of free time and in Beijing.

Another (through a co-worker) is middle-school in Tianjin. No salary mentioned but am told they cant afford airfare...Nice start,,,

Not much else--seem to be a couple of Colleges in the direction of Wuxi which at least is close to where I am...If things drag on much longer I'll be applying to everything on wankers wanted---maybe should anyway. I must be out of here by the end of month,,,