What about HK? Teaching and living in HK?

A new expat to be joined us in OE board the other day, and even though this is a China blog, I’ve decided to put my replies here. I usually don’t consider HK to be part of China, since 100 years of British rule has change the port city into a Singapore like city state. But make no mistake about it, HK is politically controlled by CCP. Anyway, that’s not important, let’s get on to the discussion:

Her question:

Hello,

I am a 26 year old American and I just took a job as a kindergarten teacher in Whampoa Garden, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The pay is $17,000HK a month but my housing is provided and utilities are split with a roommate. Is this reasonable to live in that area? (I will be walking to work.)

Also what is the cost of living like? I don’t drink and don’t really party so I won’t have to worry about those expenses.
I am also open to any advice that any of you have. This is a new experience for me and I could use all the help I can get.

My first reply:

I would hate to tote my own horn here, but if you have never worked in an Asian/Chinese environment before, I recommend these 2 threads from my blog:

http://chinasurvivalguide.wordpress.com/20…ina-in-general/

http://chinasurvivalguide.wordpress.com/20…english-part-1/

HK is quite a bit more westernized than the Mainland, but there are still quite a few thing apply here. HK is a shopping haven though, so it’s easy to over spend when going out. It’s also similar to Vancouver that it’s a touristy town, so you might have to dig a little deeper for local stuff at local prices.

And my second reply:

I didn’t catch 2 things earlier, 1. you are female, 2. you are new at this,

http://chinasurvivalguide.wordpress.com/20…ngers-of-china/

HK is relatively safe compare to other places. I never actually lived/worked there long term, so Mandy is probably the one to ask for that. You can never be too careful sometimes. If you aren’t from a big city(are you?), HK can still be a daunting experience.

In terms of cost, HK is one of those places like Taipei where everything is so convenient that I usually don’t know where my money goes until the end of the month. A few coffees here, a few 7-11 trips there, and it all adds up. There is a huge temptation to eat out all the time, which can cost a fortune unless you find out about decent spots with local prices.

In terms of packing, don’t bring your whole wardrobe + closet. It’s a tempting option for new expats sometimes. HK is fairly humid, while a lot of regions in US are fairly dry, so you might want to find out if your favourite skirt/jacket will survive the trip. Sweating can be problematic for some people. You might want to pack things that will wick away moisture. Layering is probably key. Anyway, just bring essentials, and you can probably buy (the rest) some very nice clothes in HK on sale for very good prices compared to home.

Things are more crowded in a lot of Asian Cities, especially places like HK. I don’t know how big your room is, but some of my friends had trouble adjusting to their much smaller lodging. And make sure whoever roommate they set you up with is tolerable. Looking for a place on your own in a foreign land is not a fun experience.

If you have never taught Chinese students, it can be a bit of a daunting experience. Kindergarten teachers usually face a lot of pressure from Chinese parents. That is one of the reason I stopped teaching young children.

Anyway, good luck and have fun. Keep us in touch.

These are just some basic advice based on my own personal experiences. I am sure they can help you as well if you ever decide to drop it all and go work in Hong Kong.

This is the original thread from OE: Linky!

Working in China (&Teaching English) Part 3:

This is part 3 of a long series on this topic, be prepared for acidity and jadedness:

Take all job offers (especially online) with enough salt to dry the dead sea.

Most westerners are hired for a few reasons in China, and here they are:

1. Mascot. You are the resident parade monkey they use to show off some aspects of his/her company. Be it metropolitan, cool, international, recognition, technology, or trustworthiness; there is something they need to put a foreign face on, and you are IT. Some people hated it, some people love it, and it’s up to you.

2. Technology Transfer. You may have worked in a company that has the technology/or just technical know how that they need. The requirements aren’t that technical in reality, you could have just worked in the industry and they just wanted to know how things were done over “there”.

3. Language/Communication Skills. Quite a few Chinese companies take over jobs from western service companies that works with multi-nationals or mid cap companies who aren’t interested or can’t deal with the complex bureaucracy needed in China to process certain things. They are often run by Chinese American(insert western country)s and staffed by high educated Chinese employees. But most of the time, they still have no clue how the “outside world” works, and they have trouble communicating what they can do, what is done and how the deadline works. Teleconferencing is actually a hell of embarrassment for a lot of highly educated/paid Chinese workers. Go figure.

4. Project Management. A lot of Chinese companies/people have trouble with this. This concept isn’t really very well understood in China. Even though China created the 4 great inventions of the world, when one speaks in terms of actual work, Chinese people are task(single goal), and routine orientated. Some companies or managers will run a project without knowing what the term means or how to take advantage of the available sources this sector has. You probably should speak a bit of Chinese.

5. Teachers. Most foreign ESL/English teachers are hired for a few things, mostly bragging rights and face time. It’s a very old cliche’ now for ESL schools to advertise that they have (in big and bright letters) FOREIGN teachers that teaches how many hours in their course. A few companies hire English teachers to upgrade their staff’s English levels, but most of the time, only the upper tier of service industry/or international company’s Chinese division that will do this. If you are coming here to teach, expect the competition to be fierce.

6. Deal with other Foreigners. A lot of Chinese companies don’t understand what western consumers want, which makes sense. These pampered companies haven’t really had to compete for every customer. Every market they ever entered had been a vacuum to start with. Customer service isn’t their strong suit. So what better way to deal with foreign customers than hiring foreigners? Expect to speak Chinese.

Don’t expect your contract to be sacred or to get paid (on time or at all).

Pay is a complicated issue in China. If you are coming here to teach English, and you are teaching in a private school in gods know where, there is a high chance that you might get cheated on your pay. NEVER tell any of your Chinese friends how much you make. The cultural landmines are surrounded by barb wires, lasers and sharks in moats. Leave it alone.

Is public school better? Well…, at least the promised room and board is real.

If you are coming to work in China, go through your contract VERY carefully. Make sure you have at least 1 copy of both English and Chinese version sign by both parties and possibly authenticated by a translator/lawyer you can trust. If it’s an important job, make sure important people know about it. You might want to give your home country’s business committee in China a heads up. Ask them about a good lawyer that you can trust, so you can double check that thing is kosher.

If you are going to work in a smaller city/town, be prepared to be a rock star.

Meaning, you will get stared at no matter WHERE you go. Most people find the attention flattering at first, until they learned that their friendliness actually have very heavy costs. NO PRIVACY. ZERO. NATA. ZIP. ZILCH. Hangzhou is NOT a small, backwards city. A black friend of mine who is from London can not go anywhere without gossip, pointed fingers, strange invitations to work for free, and other people TAKING his pictures. If you weren’t a private person before, you’ll probably be one after living here for a while. And if you have kids? Gods help you. This is, of course, assuming that you don’t look Asian/Chinese.

By the way, if you actually get to do the real job that you are hired to do, you have just won the lottery.

Exactly what it says. Don’t expect to do what you are hired to do, most of the time, the giddiness of having a (if you are the first or second) foreigner in their midst can be too tempting for all parties involved for any work to be done. And you will be surround with people, pounded with English questions, imitated, watched, and feared. Be on your toes, Chinese politics(people politics, not CCP) can be very nasty.

Of course, I am in no way saying all Chinese schools or companies are like this. But as Genghis Khan once said, “If you are cautious, 10 times aren’t enough to be trouble; if you are careless, 1 time is enough to kill you.”

And let me repeat this one more time for some out there:

China isn’t a place to escape a boring or mediocre life. I just don’t want to see another one going home 3-6 months, heartbroken, dream broken, life broken, bank broken, and drags his/her broken body home filled with menace and venom filled with misunderstood ignorance and hatred without realizing what this place can truly do for them.

I worked in Immigration for 4 years. I know how big cultural shock can be. No matter who you are. If you go on to live in a foreign land with a frivolous reason, you’ll probably regret it(hate yourself) sooner or later. Get your two feet on the ground first before boarding that plane in the air.

I wish you luck in your travels.

Journalists, Activist, Noobs working/protesting in China or about China(don’t forget Cold War).

Well, the Cold War thing is a bit of a joke, but you’ll get the point if you read it.

This is for people who report, talk about or need to publically demonstrate their pov about what they see or hear in China.

I do not have any previous personal experiences about being a journalist in China. I have followed up on a few who do. I don’t know if a journalist visa would be a bane or boon to you. There were a lot of talk of “greater” press “freedom” last year when everything was bright and peachy, but given the current situation and embarrassment they have faced, I wouldn’t count on any “freedom of the press”. If any of you can read/understand Chinese, read or watch some China Daily/CCTV4. Given the fact that they have blocked ALL shots about the protesters in SF and etc, I doubt most people in China really knows how the temper is outside.

Anyway, this isn’t about how bad or crappy or politically unjust China is. This is about how to deal with the reality of living in or with a CCP country.

All Chinese internet use are monitored to a certain extent. They even introduced 2 online police agent programs this year that are suppose to run when you are on a politically sensitive/or yellow (nude or adult) websites. Technically these programs/or real online police agents (not sure how exactly it’s suppose to work, I am leaning against the later) will block the site in question and track your ip address to report you. I have not personally heard anyone gotten arrested by these online cops. Most of the time, any young guns assigned to these flashy jobs are important sons and daughters of the party cadres. It’s considered to be a career stepping stone and not a real job to put effort into. Most of the time, the traffic is too big to block anything useful, and they just use the firewall to filter out the usual suspects, like major news networks. CBC seems to be the least blocked of major news websites, so you can try that. (maybe we aren’t a threat? )

Proxy servers and encrypted e-mails are probably standard if you have anything that will get somebody in major trouble. As for who or what to use, take your pick, they are everywhere online.

All landlines and (possibly) cellphone communications are monitored to a certain extent as well. You should be happy that too many people own cellphones for anybody to actually monitor anything with any accuracy, but if they go ahead with the Chinese 3G standard, have fun. Most of the time, only the communication to and from politically sensitive locations and in and out of the country (especially TW or US) are probably heavily monitored. I don’t know about SMS, but given the amount of junk mail I receive everyday, I wouldn’t want to be the one reading all that.

If you are calling just to BS with friends and family, I wouldn’t worry. If you are talking about anything important, mix your languages a bit, and throw in a bit of accent. That usually throws most Chinese translators up.

Fax. Apparently, fax is the way to go(as long as you own the fax machine). According to a personal friend who is a high level political adviser, fax can’t be intercepted by the Chinese. I don’t know how much stock I can put in this theory, but she is still alive and doing well.

Last but not least, the human factor. Look, if you are just an average Joe/Jane trying to do your thing somewhere in China without causing a ruckus, you’ll probably be fine. If you are someone important, like say a CEO of a medium or large cap company, a journalist for an important newspaper/news channel, be very careful. One Chinese president once boasted that he knows how many time Rupert Murdoch had sex with his new wife when she was just his extra marital girlfriend in Chinese hotels.

Extreme? Yes. True? Very likely.

Moral of the story? China is a Communist country, get that through your skull first. As soon as you forget that after seeing all the lights and colors, you will probably be on a list somewhere. It ain’t monolithic like the Cold War, but it ain’t Sweden either.

Teaching English, Part 2(and working in China in General):

This seems to be an extremely popular section, so I’ll give it more press.

I have taught English/ESL part time for nearly 10 years, and my experience is more than enlightening. If you want to teach English or otherwise in China, here are the general advices:

1. What do you want?

I can not stress this one enough.

Look, a lot of people came here with the reasons I have posted in section 1, and I really can’t say I approve it. The reason is very simple, working in another country is a VERY BIG commitment. China doubles that equation by 5 or more. Most westerners are JUST NOT prepare for the experience. This is in no way patronizing on my part because it is true. The amount of people, time, man hour, money and life wasted away here by westerners is probably enough to take the current USA out of recession. China didn’t build their current economy. Foreign investments, technology transfers and eager beavers who tried to cash in did. They lost trillions. I want to prevent you from doing the same.

If you want adventure, romance, sex, excitement, and a big pay check.., go to law school or take a MBA program. The best way for you to get that glamorous movie expat life is get hired by a large International Conglomerate and get stationed here. You make foreign currency, and all your living needs are already paid for by your company. Life on the ground is not like that. This is no place to escape a mediocre life. You need to know what you really want before setting foot here.

2. Take a tour.

Come here first. Take a look around. Spend 1- 3 month to travel the country a bit. Backpacking if you must. Talk to some expats around the town you are interested in staying. You need to get a general feel about the place before you decide to settle down here. If you can’t stay that long, 2-3 weeks is probably minimal.

3. Do your homework.

Talk to a career counselor and a financial adviser before coming. This is important. Working in a foreign country is like immigration, except that you are going to a (most likely 3rd world country). You need to have a realistic expectation on how much you are going to spend, and how long you can go without a job. If you loose/quit that first job(extremely common) you get hired for in China, you need to know if you can survive. China isn’t a cheap place to live anymore.

4. Have a realistic expectation.

This is the typical salary range for an foreign English teacher in China (exchange rate may vary) :

3000 – 6000 RMB/Month = 400 – 800 USD/Month.

But what about your living expenses? China is cheaper, right? Let’s use Beijing as an example:

Within 4 ring road:

1000 – 5000 RMB/ 1 bedroom, 1 bath/10+ square meters/Month = 150 – 700 USD/Month

2000 – 8000 RMB/ 2 bedrooms, 1 or 2 bath/20-25+ square meters/Month = 280 – 1100 USD/Month

3500 – 20000 RMB/ 3 bedrooms, 2 or 3 bath/35-40 + square meters/Month = 500- 2800 USD/Month

That’s not so bad, right? As long as you stay within the lower range, and you take on a few private tutor jobs, you should be fine, right?

Wrong. Most Chinese buildings are built to Chinese living standards according to the year they are built. Most of the buildings that are semi-suitable to what you used to as western standard of living are built after 2001 or later. I won’t go too deep into housing here, but expect what you deem acceptable to be in the high range.

What about living expenses?

2000 – 5000 RMB a month for food, public transport, a few nights out, 2 dinners a week is very common.

What about the visit home?

5000 – 6000 RMB for a round trip ticket from Beijing to Vancouver.

What about those jobs with contracts that includes room, food and an airplane ticket?

You get a room in a dorm. You will (most likely) share the bathroom with the entire floor. You WILL have a curfew. You will eat free in the school cafeteria that serves …, anyway. And expect things NOT to work. Your roof might leak, and most of the appliance are probably 5-10 years old. Expect to catch some kind of skin disease.

5. A Personal story.

A friend of mine makes almost 25,000 – 30,000 RMB/Month = 3500 – 4200 USD/Month in Beijing teaching. That’s REALLY GOOD, right? Guess how much he keeps at the end of the year? ZERO. He’s been here for 4 years, got a wife and kid, and takes 2 vacation outside China(mostly going home to Vancouver) every year. Very typical and normal for a western family right? Except that he doesn’t get to save any money. Why? He still hasn’t paid off his student loan, nor his credit card debt that he incurred when he first arrived and he has child support from the first marriage. That is also extremely common for typical western families. Making RMB to pay CAD debts is down right insane and not really workable.

But you will say, it is possible to make that much teaching, right? LOL.

The reason he even makes that much is because he has build up his reputation for teaching excellence after 4 grueling years here. And he doesn’t really teach in schools at all. He teaches for multinationals and big companies.

6. Consider the human cost factor.

I can’t stress this enough. Life is tough here. I am not just talking the pollution, the cost of living, and/or any of the other crap I have mentioned. Working in China can be very tiring psychologically and emotionally. The rudeness, the behind the back talk, the staring, the people asking for free lessons, the constant questioning, the sneaky picture taking and the complete absolute lack of privacy. There are a lot of wonderful things about the Chinese people, but you have to wade through a lot of things to get there sometimes. Think about it.

To be continued. I’ll also answer my board mate TK’s question in the next post. I’ll update this post later.

Teaching English/Working in China Part 1:

Another series that will probably run for a long time, and no matter how many times I repeat myself or scream myself hoarse, clueless people continue to show up all the time.

There was a discussion about this at OE, and this was my response to a young Canadian guy who just got off animation school and getting bored with his office life. He wants adventure, fun, romance, and a dream life! This was his original question, (I’ll not print the discussion in full, because it requires too many permissions, but I’ll give the link below):

I could really use some career advice here. I just finished 4 years of animation school and while it is only my 1st year working as a proefessional animator I’m only pulling in about 43K a year. . and this is in Canada were at least 20% of it goes to income and sales taxes. Also I am working long hours and don’t get much in way of human interactions. (And everone I talk to thinks I have the coolest job haha!)

Mekhong. . your situation in Macau sounds like a dream job to me! I’d love to live in parts of China or Taiwan and teach at a university level. . and your tax free salary and benefits are great, considering the lower cost of living in China (as long as you can avoid those casinos in Macau!)

This was my response(mekhong is another semi regular at OE):

ROFL. Me and Jack here can probably write a novel on why not to come to China with that idea. I have been home for a month and the fresh air, drinkable water, hot baths, clean public places, and healthy/clean food make it seem like paradise.

You just got out of school, so you are probably much BETTER off working in the local area or go to the west coast like Cali or Vancouver for the animation scene.

Don’t expect to be the fab 5 life style here. It requires a lot of currency just to stay at the current life styles that some of the average North American families live. China is still dirt poor. Some farmers make $200 US a Year. The leather jacket I bought last year on 50% discount is still worth much more than that.

It’s ALL about WHO you know in China. You’ll be surprised the amount of doors opened when I was working in Hangzhou for a while and told people who my boss were. Party secretary. If you know anything about China, you will realize the amount of power that holds, and I didn’t. It was the most enlightening experience.

As for your salary, expect the monthly salary range around 3-6000RMB, which is 400-800 US a month. My life style in Beijing is as spartan as I can get, and I was spending 5000RMB a month. Then again, I do live in Beijing, and I haven’t started counting rent. I do teaching for fun since it’s nice to have someone look up to you, but it’s VERY hard to make it a good living unless you live outside of the 4 major cities and the living costs are MUCH cheaper. I have my business and teaching is good for me to practice my presentation skills.

As for animation, don’t expect to get hired in China, unless it’s for publicity reasons. If that’s the case, expect to be paraded around town like a side show.

I tell this to all the people who are seriously considering here, Don’t expect China to be the golden land that will solve all your problems. Tibet is suppose to be the Shangri-La, and look what Chinese did to it.

And if you want some real advice? Go see a good Career consulor. Sit down, talk with him or her on what you really want to do. I am Canadian too. I see a lot of people like you in China. Most of them come back after 3-6 months. Life is VERY different around here.

As for the teachers that really makes money? Those Montessori guys/gals. They make US dollars and British pounds. That’s the real money there. Make foreign dollars and spend RMB. RMB is useless anywhere else anyway.

As an animator, I am sure you are aware of the amount of work that is farmed out to China. Guess why? Cheaper. Can you, without any social or financial support live with their wages while learning the language?

Sorry for the cold shower, but having high expectations of China is like the AT&T. They spent millions courting the Chinese and in the end the Chinese never bought a single switch. And never be the old Macdonald-Douglas. In the end, all they got was bankruptcy.

Jacks’ Response:

Most of the young foreigners here in Lanzhou stay for quite some time just for the lifestyle. The pay is good considering one generally works less than twenty hours a week and the nightlife can be rather entertaining.

As for starting a business here. My experience is that you need to know someone. I’d go with that recommendation of getting a teaching job first, woo the locals with your charm, make some good contacts and then you can get stuff done. I have a friend from Canada who’s in the oil business. It’s fair to say that he’s loaded and while everyone wants a piece of that it’s also not been easy for him to get his business off the ground because it’s all who you know here.

If you want to teach, stay away from the universities. They’ll suck up your time and the pay isn’t great. Find a small school, Dave’s Esl Cafe is an excellent choice to look, and make sure they provide you with housing and what-not. Then, take it upon yourself to make contacts. Spend time hanging out where the local business guys hang out. If you’re not just another amusing monkey for them then they’ll take you seriously and provide you with more work.

I know we sounded cynical and jaded, but we have been here for a long time, and we have seen too many people fail, scammed, ruined and being made fool of.

Working in China is a big commitment, ESPECIALLY Teaching. There are a lot of cultural strings attached to this job that isn’t well understood in the west. Confucius was considered to be the grand role model for teachers. There are a lot of cultural expectations for this job that is just not there for western societies. Real teachers will love it here. The students here are smart, hard working, respectful, and don’t really talk back. But given the same mindset, you as a teacher are expected to be their legal guardian of sorts. You are the consular, boss, manager, priest and parent all rolled into one. It’s a very tough job, and the parents/adult students can be very demanding.

And never, I repeat, never misunderstand the respect as adoration or love. Going out with your students is a very bad idea. Only 2 types go out with their “English” students. Arseholes and idiots. If you are an idiot, may Deity/Deities have mercy on your soul. If you are of the first type, expect to be lynch mobbed and tarred and feathered. Public opinions can move very fast in China, and should the government get involved, don’t expect anybody to save you. Remember, you WILL be caught. There is 1.3 billion people here, and someone will see you. Doing stuff like this also makes life very uncomfortable for the hard working expats trying to live a respectful life here.

Should you help to turn negative opinion/spot light on our expat community, don’t expect help from us. We will help them find you!

Original Discussion from OE.

P.S: The exchange rate has changed, so the salary is less now.

10 Commandments for westerners working in China:

An forum friend of mine posted this on the Orient Expat board, and Jack couldn’t remember where he got it from. To be honest, I can’t quite recall either. So if any of you know where this is from, I’d love to know and give credit where it’s due. Anyway:

Commandment #1

Know what you don’t know – (for many westerners, this is by far the most difficult challenge.). Any similarities between China and “back home” are purely accidental. This is a completely different culture. Do not be fooled by surface similarities or by local people who “seem to get it”. Sources of reliable information are your #1 asset.

Commandment #2

China is still a communist country – and there is absolutely zero chance of that changing any time soon.

Commandment #3

You have to show up to win. You must be physically present and put in the “face time”. There is no “autopilot” in Chinese business. If you feel that you are too busy to learn about China, then you are certainly too busy to be successful here.

Commandment #4

If things worked well here in China, then there would be significantly fewer opportunities for competent westerners. Try not to get too frustrated by the challenges you face.

Commandment #5

Time does not mean money here. Chinese business people do not believe in “opportunity cost”. Even simple negotiations can drag on for a long time. Avoid getting sucked into an endless cycle of meetings that don’t accomplish anything.

Commandment #6

Truth, honesty, good-will and long-term benefit are all culturally-specific concepts. Don’t expect your western standards to carry over here. Win-Win is not standard operating procedure here. Do not fool yourself that your long-term relationship with a local partner means anything.

Commandment #7

Don’t check your brains in at the border. You wouldn’t hand over your company’s money, intellectual property or trademarks to a virtual stranger in Sydney, London or San Francisco and expect to make a windfall. Don’t do it in China. The people that are offering to open doors for you are the same ones that can lock you out. Beware of people who peddle their “powerful friends and great connections”. They can use them to hurt you as well as help you.

Commandment #8

Due Diligence becomes more important when the language and systems are unclear, not less important. Don’t settle for the “least worst” deal or partner. Partners don’t get more honest and relationships don’t improve as the amount of money involved increases.

Commandment #9

China will still be here next year, and in 5 years. Don’t be pressured into signing a contract or making a deal because you are afraid of “missing the boat”. The boat has been here for 4,000+ years.

Commandment #10

Having a sense of humor helps. Having a Plan B helps even more.