New to Teaching? Don’t Work at a Training Center.

Fields of Expertise: ESL/EFL ,  ESL to Children ,   
Salary: ¥18,000 CNY

Details: Why You Shouldn’t Work at a Training Center or Unknown City for Your First Year Teaching English in China…Work Instead in a Public School in Shenzhen.
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For everyone new to ESL or new to China, I recommend the same thing, based on my years working in China.
Work in a big city, and work in a public school.
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Work in A Big City
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When you’re first starting, many of the ads you’ll see are for very small places in China that have very few foreigners and very few amenities for Western-minded people. I do recommend this.
Instead, I recommend Shenzhen. Shenzhen has clean air, has a gigantic foreigner community, and is right next to Hong Kong (tons of Western culture right next door). It’s one of the biggest and richest places in China, and it’s a great place for beginners.
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Don’t Work TOO Hard
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Yes, we can all talk about how we admire the hustle.
But you’re new in China and / or ESL, and you will want some time to get your feet wet in your new environment. You will want some time to relax, take a breath, travel, and even pick up some Chinese. You might even want to use this time to explore new skills through online training and network within China for opportunities you could never find in your home country.
None of these things are possible in a training center, where you will be worked aggressively, with expected overtime and comparatively little vacation.
Public schools are different. Technically, you still have to work 40 hours. However, the way it works is that you teach a maximum of 20 hours, and often less than that (16 tends to be the average). The excess hours are considered “office hours” in which you do prep work, grading, etc. But “office hours” are often flexible things, some schools don’t care if you complete them, especially if you tell them you prefer to work from home using your home computer.
Even if you have to complete them because you have a strict boss, public school office hours are not the same as training center office hours. You do not have excess responsibilities. This is a great time to learn Chinese, for example.
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Get Long, Half Paid Holidays
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Public schools also offer the public-school half paid semester breaks. That means, for every semester you work, you get about 1.5 months of vacation, sometimes more (depending on how the school handles scheduling).
You also get all the other public holidays in China. These amount to about three weeks between a day off here, a day off there, a week off here, etc.
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Get a Reasonable Salary
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Even with all that, public schools still offer pretty reasonable salaries.
You can expect between 13,000 – 18,000 RMB, depending on your experience and interview performance. This figure includes the housing allowance.
It’s not the highest thing ever. BUT, it’s already higher than what many training centers with much higher workloads!
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Extras
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One more thing about why THIS PARTICULAR public opportunity is great for new teachers.
Public schools in Shenzhen are run by a handful of big HR networks, which connect their hundreds of teachers in a big community. They’ll offer free ESL training and onboarding, free Chinese lessons, and free events. That way, you’ll never feel alone or isolated (an unfortunately common feeling for new teachers in China) because you’ll know hundreds of other teachers doing the same thing as you.
And because they have tons of teachers they work with, they’re the most experienced hands in handling visa issues. (You’d be surprised how many employers in China do not know visa laws, regulations, and even basic procedures!)
They’ll even offer a reimbursed TEFL certificate if you don’t have one.
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Bottom Line
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Public school in Shenzhen is, in my opinion, the single best way to get started in ESL in China, and I’m very enthusiastic to offer this opportunity to China ESL newcomers.
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Requirements
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-You need to be a native English speaker with a neutral accent from the USA, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa.
-You must hold a Bachelor’s degree or above.
-You must be able to produce a clean criminal background check
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Apply
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Interested applicants:
Please include your passport and resume.