没事 (Mei Shi) No Problem

Stories

Currently, I am working on about 3 stories and a book. So, my posts are getting fewer. My life in this situation is winding down quickly, less pictures to take, more preparing for my school next year and my life after this summer. I will probably be moving to a new part of town straight away and starting a new difficult job. Not to mention that I will be out of China for more than a month, traveling around. No tickets booked yet, so I cannot tell you the plan. But maybe today it will get done, maybe not. HAHA

The reason I mention about the stories and the book is that I do not think I am going to put them up completely for free. I am not interested in the money but, I do not want folks bagging my story because it is not rated G or even PG -13, if they are interested and go buy it for a small price then I feel that people will be less likely to say stuff about the content, cause it is not being put in the face of some 17 year old that pop's onto the site. If they re prone to being upset about adult themes, then they can choose not to read, but not be alienated from viewing the site as well. The book will actually be stories of Shawn and I, it turns out we had quiet a good history and I have saved pages of our old messenger conversations, from when we first met.

Anyway, I am going to put some outtakes from one of my stories now; it is the story of my arrival in China. There are some good tidbits of information in here for those aspiring to come to China.

As for China, I was looking at three cities in particular; Beijing, Xian and Shanyang. My friend from
Korea was living and teaching in Beijing and she felt that coming to Beijing would be great, the job market was fabulous. This was not what the internet showed, but what can be seen in forums on the net is not often the real nature of the situation. In both Xian and Shenyang, I had job offers that I was considering taking in Universities in both places. Doing the member search for girls in Shenyang brought nothing at all, not even offline profiles. Xian was virtually the same as Shenyang in this case. I could of course research the cities using the internet; Xian told me about the “Terracotta Warriors” and Shenyang told me about the fact that they manufacture industrial equipment and these points do not tell me what life will be like there.

To find out about the situation in Xian and ShenyangI had to go to China 1 chat and find some people to talk to, preferably girls. Straight away I met a girl who was in an unknown city and wanted to practice her English. So, I began the interrogation about Xian and Shenyang.

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Me: Ok, let me try something more specific. What is the weather in Xian like?

 

            Kelly_cool_girl: Oh, Xian weather is better than Shenyang. Shenyang winter is very cold, but             summer is not too hot. Xian winter is little cold, but summer is not hot too.

 

            Me: Ok cool, so is 3,000 rmb a month a lot of money in Xian? What about Shenyang?

 

            Kelly_cool_girl: Oh, for Chinese is good but for foreigner I think is not much. I heard salary             for foreigner in China should be more.

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It was really hard to make the inquiry into the safety or lack of safety in these cities, because I did not have any real knowledge of the situation in which to ask. Thus, she could not properly answer my questions because I was asking bad questions. As it turns out, Shenyang does have its fair share of “gangsters” or “roughnecks” but it is an industrial area and this is just what I have heard. Xian, I know from experience, is filled with pickpockets and scammers. So after I got her opinion on those issues I moved on to the more important issues in mind.

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I began to be curious about the situation in Beijing for teaching. Was there really as much money as my Korean friend had been telling me? On the net people are advertising jobs that pay $300 a month, but she was claiming I could make $1,500 a month. This is a big difference, so I needed to investigate a lot. I talked with her more about the subject.

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Kgirl_Bj: Oh, you should be able to make at least 10,000 rmb for a month. This is a lot of      money in Beijing. You can go anywhere in a taxi, taxis are cheap.

Me: Are you sure I can make that much money? Do you know people that do make that much money?

 

            Kgirl_Bj: I make more than that, but I am paid my same salary as in Korea. But, you can go             and teach at a small school or teach private lessons and make good money, no problem.

 

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            Me: How much money can a person make teaching in Beijing?

 

Teach_China: Well, that is a pretty big spectrum. You can get 2 or even 3 jobs and make around 10,000 to 15,000 in a month. The trick is that you have to get a good steady job that pays you about 8,000 and then pick up the rest at night.

 

Teach_China: Of course, what most people want to do is stick around for a while and work there way into an international school, cause that is where the real money is made. They pay much higher than an English school.

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China_Teach: When I com into the airport I use a black taxi and negotiate the price, also I live close to the airport in Wang Jing , so it is very cheap for me to go to the airport. I am not sure what the meter would cost to go anywhere, but for a black taxi you need to be able to speak Chinese because…you have to remember this about China, EVERYTHING IS A NEGOTIATION. No price is set, it is all a bargaining contest.

 

How I Came To China

AND YOU CAN TOO!

Hi Jake,
I didn't find your contact information on your blog, so I hope you don't mind me posting my question here. My friend who is an American wants to find a teaching job in Beijing. Since you are experienced in this, would you please tell me what the good way is to look for one? If you go through recruiters or job searching websites, would you please recommend some? Your help would be highly appreciated.

Best,
Fang

This letter made me think of the way that I came to China, it seems like an appropriate time for the story.

    In 2003, I was sitting at home with nothing much to do and I was searching websites, hoping to go back overseas to teach. I searched the basic websites; www.eslcafe.com, and some other places. I filled out applications with some recruiters, so thy could try to place me with positions and saw what they were offering. Actually, I was talking with the person, Eric Sommer, that originally took me to Korea and he was apparently in Beijing and could get me a job for 4,000 rmb a month teaching only 16 classes. It was still only 4,000 rmb and he was the only person who had a job in Beijing for me. What he and the other recruiters do, by nature,  is make you think that only they can help you to find a job, and so you hould believe they will find you the best job, which is nonsense. I noticed that all of the jobs listed on the internet were for outlying areas and smaller towns of China.

    Here is a message from a person in Wall Street English Long ago.

hi Jake,

Currently recruitment is winding down, however this doesn't mean that there won't be more vacancies in the near future - things change very quickly. We haven't had any teachers leave in a while but this can change.

 

Obviously I can't offer any guarantees, but let's keep the lines of communication open and hope for a positive outcome at some point in the future.

 

I am afraid I don't have as much experience as others in China with regard to Z visas or Tourist visas. My advice would be to look on websites such as

www.thatsbeijing.com or asiaxpat.com where foreigners frequently pose such questions (they are great resources anyway for finding accomodation etc).

I also found this old email, from a recruiter after I accused him of blowing smoke up my ass. You can notice the language of ipossibility that they like to speak with.

Hello Jacob,

 

Many thanks for your email as well as your honesty. However, please don't accuse me of speaking rhetoric when you have no idea of the situation in China. I am speaking the absolute truth, but evidently you can not appreciate it. Furhter, I do not and have never  coerce a teacher into accepting a teaching position that they are not secure or confident with.

 

The fact of the matter is you will not be able to convert your visa into a work visa after you arrive. You will be emailing me in two to three weeks apologizing. This I can guarantee with the upmost sincerity.

 

Addtionally, you want to come to Beijing at a time when all or most of the teaching positions have been filled.  I just wish you young aspiring teachers would listen to someone with both experience and knowledge.

 

Lastly, forewarned is forearmed.

 

    I was hoping for Taiwan or Japan, same as when I went to Korea, but nothing was popping up other than the usual internet scam jobs. My Korean friend was in Beijing and she kept telling me how much money there was running around in this city. So where were the jobs, I wondered. I met C. in yahoo chat as I attempted to find out information about getting good jobs and places to stay in Beijing. She helped me a great deal, showing me the best websites for looking for jobs in teaching English. The only one I can remember now is thatsbj.com. What I learned from those websites was simple, proximity, timing and luck are the most important things when getting a job. There were jobs available in Beijing, but you have to be in Beijing to get them. If you want to sign a contract for dirt in the middle of no where, fly yourself to China on the promise of a reimbursed plane ticket, there is nothing wrong with that and it is readily available. But I like the bigger cities in Asia because they give me some sort of security, if only in feeling.
    Thus, I sent my passport to a visa agent in San Fransisco, got my tourist visa and a one way ticket to Beijing, and then brought my butt and 500 dollars to the city in search of a job. The day before I left, C. gave me a link to a good job, I emailed and interviewed the day after I got off the plane, and they hired me. I worked at that job for 3 semesters, before moving to my current school. This is essentially the way that people function in China, get in and then get up and you cannot get up with eslcafe.com in China because the proper schools are not hiring from there.
    So, the way to get the job in China done is to grow some stones and fly here to find one. The smartest businesses are not hiring from the internet so much. Once you get a job, you can change the visa in a million ways- simply buying one works well. There is lots of accommodation around, I started in the Zhao Long Qing Nian Lu Guan (Youth Hostel, 60 rmb a night), next to the Zhao Long Fan Dian. From the airport to this place in a taxi should not be 350 rmb, haha. But, the new underwear needed after the first Chinese taxi ride should be kept next to the passport and money for easy access.

    Some things I learned: You do not want to change much, if any money before you get to China because the rates here are good and everywhere else they are really bad. In my hometown, the bank offered me 6 for 1, in the airport in LA they offered me 7 for 1 and in Beijing it was 8.2 for 1.

    You can find lots of cheap accommodation on www.hostelworld.com. You can meet a girl or guy on the internet in the city you want to go to and they can help you and maybe become a lasting friend.

    Don't go to the KTV drunk with one of the workers from the hostel.

    You do not need a job to come and get a job; Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou are bustling and growing at a crazy rate, you can get work in those, and other cities, without much effort, but you can choose your working situation if you wait until you are in the country. People in Beijing can easily make 120-200 rmb per hour for teaching, that is essentially between 15-20 USD per hour, some legal and some not, but these jobs aren't easily found on the net.

    I will post more stories about my first few days in Beijing soon. And yes, a part three will be coming for Love and Loss!