Get a teaching job in China
 

By Amber Rollins

Through the magic of the Internet, it's now possible to secure yourself a job in an exotic land and never leave your desk chair.  While it is, of course, safer to talk to people and check out the environment in person, most people do not have the resources or the time to fly to a foreign country, travel by plane or train to unfamiliar cities, spend unlimited nights in hotels, and go through an indeterminate amount of interviews.  By using a little common sense, it is possible to intelligently handle the process of choosing a school and getting hired before exiting your home country.

If you are a native speaker of English and you possess a four-year university degree, it is quite easy to find a teaching job in China, especially if you are from America, Canada, Britain, or Australia.  If you are a native speaker from another country you will have to do a bit more digging, but it is by no means impossible.  TEFL certificates are always helpful, but are not mandatory for finding a good job, especially if you already have teaching experience.

Before you start to apply for teaching jobs, think about where you would like to teach, how much money you want to make, and how many hours - and when - you want to work in a week.  University teachers work the fewest hours, usually between 16 and 20 a week, and these hours are spread out over Monday - Friday.  But they also make the lowest salaries, around 3500 to 4000 yuan a month.  This is a great deal more than the average Chinese worker makes, and it is easy to live on this amount, but you can make more if you want to work for it.  University teachers also have the greatest flexibility in what they teach, but they must spend non-teaching time writing lesson plans. The classes size is large - between 50 and 60 students per class. The atmosphere is academic, and many universities are like little communities, with restaurants, a post office, and small shops all located on-campus. Your apartment will also probably be on-campus. 

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