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Re: "Looking for highly professional teacher" ad

Tonyaod (824 posts) • 0

I don't normally address want ads in the forum but 'tis the night before "the motherland's birthday" so what the heck.

I was somewhat amused by the inconsistencies in the ad. On the one hand, they stress the need "for extraordinary and highly professional teachers" and yet, they are looking for 23 yo and above? I highly doubt you can achieve the "highly professional" status fresh out of college or without at least many years of related job experience.

The emphasis of "the pay is very good" is almost laughable after looking at what they are offering for what they are looking for. 8000/mo is almost standard now in KM for private school, even at that rate you will not be guaranteed of quality. To pay a professional teacher that rate would almost be insulting.

Also, professionals would not be looking for "spare time to enjoy live [sic] in Kunming". They want career development and advancement, they will enjoy their life AFTER retirement.

The job goes on and on about what the school wants but hardly gives any reason why a "high profession" would want to work at that school given that it is a high demanding job with low pay.

The ad might as well say "Looking for idealistic hardworking sucker to help us make money while we take advantage of your innocence"

Anyway, I'm in an unusual state of mind at the moment. Have a laugh and enjoy the holidays! =)

yankee00 (1632 posts) • 0

By "highly professional" they mean strictly untanned fair-skinned applicants.

Liumingke1234 (3297 posts) • 0

Their idea of 'very good pay' is 100-150 yuan an hour. There have been many ads like this recently where they require too much for so little pay.

Magnifico (1981 posts) • 0

the ad by layla, where layla turns out to be Mr. layla, is the ad that really grabbed my attention. kinky~!

fixitwithahammer (165 posts) • 0

@Tonyaod
First I am happy that I could make you happy. That is very important.

It's sad that you don't even know the school or me but already have a strong opinion about how exactly everything looks like, over there.

I would recommend to read the ad again, to all posters. Would be nice, I mean it.

-First it's a preschool, and it seems like so far the posters have not much experience with preschool environment and teaching, or may just be bashing.

-23 years of age is a requirement to apply for a work visa.

-professional behavior and work ethics have absolutely nothing to do with work experience or education level. One is gifted with professionalism or not [or trained at]. But we also give inexperienced but professional, skilled and gifted teachers a chance.

-"The Pay" you should maybe read the ad again. compare working hours/contact hours and pay. I think you misunderstood.

-Please if you know any preschool that pays more than 8000RMB/month for those working conditions, let me know I am interested. lol
8000RMB is more than a preschool educator gets in Europe.

-Usually professional development means consistent training 'AND' career chances.
Also I am not quite sure why more or less working hours equals no career chances or limited retirement happiness.

-The retirement plan, I have not met one person that used China for a retirement strategy. Unless you work for a foreign entity. Plus it's regulated by the government...work hard...climb up...more retirement funds. Same everywhere.

-I will not go into details about why the school chose those schedule but professional teachers and especially 'highly professional' ones will understand and appreciate it, a lot.
Plus we had a teacher who wanted more work, so he worked more hours and got more pay.
It's not that there isn't enough work.

-All preschool jobs are high stress environments and mentioning it in the ad, is better than teachers being surprised how exhausting it can be, working with preschool kids.

If I was looking for 'hardworking suckers to take advantage' of I would have written an ad looking for a professional sucker.

But no! I am in charge of the foreign staff, including Professional Development etc. and I am trying my best to be professional and demand professionalism, coz everything else can be achieved through PD.

So I am still looking for exactly the person I posted before "Highly Professional Teachers [Educators in some countries]".

Please before you are bashing my ad or the school please [sincerely], do some research on how preschools are internationally paid and structured.
You can P.M. me if you have questions.

@Yankee

You couldn't be more wrong.
As [so far] all the other posters....sadly!

@Liumingke
I think you have a little calculation error there. A month has an average of 20-22working days, the pay is 8000RMB/month.
Please check again.

Look guys I am just trying to get good and professional staff and I am also known for trying hard to put my a** on the line to get what teachers deserve and protect them from all the chaos that schools in China can produce.

I chose to be honest rather than hand out fake promises.

So please if you have questions I am happy to answer them via P.M.

What you wrote is pretty much all wrong besides your personal perception and it's unfair.

Please, rather than just bashing, why don't you help me find a great teacher.

Tonyaod (824 posts) • 0

@fixitwithahammer

First, my most sincerely apologies as it was not my intention to insult. As I've said, it was a tongue-in-cheek post to begin with and perhaps I got a little bit carried away.

However, my point still largely stands. If you are sincere in looking for professionals, 8000/mo is not going to be enough to entice anyone close to the caliber of talent you profess to be seeking. While you may argue 8000/mo is good compared to the work performed (which is very debatable) you are not figuring the opportunity cost and other incidentals a foreign teacher in China must incur and so, a professional educator will not even being considering relocating to China for that amount given the extra costs involved. What you've offered will only attract foreigners already here either on a student visa or tourist visa who see the job as an opportunity to make some cash, hardly the professional you are looking for. For the rest of us whom have been working in China for many years, 8000/mo is what we are already making if not more, and so, what is the incentive for us to quite our stable jobs to work in your school.

Incidentally, the post stated 8000/mo for 20 lecture hours/week. By my math, that's about 80hours of work per month which equates 100RMB/lecture hour. So unless I am missing something, Liumingke1234's calculations are correct.

Look, I understand you are working hard to do your job and I can appreciate that and in no why did I mean to belittle you or the school. My point was, 8000/mo is not enough to attract what you seek, period.

And if I may, I wish to turn the table around on you. If you are a professional with the type of experience we are looking for, I can offer something in the range of double what your school is offering, more or less depending on your experience. This offer also stands for anyone out there.

I can tell you as someone whom have worked in KM for about 10 years, even with the salary my school is offering, it is still very difficult to fill the positions we have available.

BTW, I have never understood why preschools would need foreign teachers? Actually, I do understand. Perhaps there is a need for one foreigner teacher or two in order to expose the students to an English environment. However, it would seem that anybody with enough patience and good pronunciation can do the job, the "highly professional" part is not really required.

Heller (62 posts) • 0

16 hours per week, four weeks in a month, 64 hours per month. 8000/64 = 125 p/h.

If you do 18 hours per week it comes to roughly 110 Yuan p/h.

If you do 20 'working hours' as outlined in the ad, that comes to 100 Yuan per hour.

It's a poor salary however you dress it up, and so the OP was right. You'll be lucky to find anyone who'll take it as seriously as you'd like for that money. Sorry, but that there is the truth. Don't make adverts telling prospective teachers how 'very good' the salary is, when it clearly isn't.

If you want 'extraordinary' and 'highly professional' teachers, (or at least teachers who act professionally) pay them accordingly.

Magnifico (1981 posts) • 0

how many teaching job ads have appeared on this forum offering 8,000 or more? not many that i can recall.

fixitwithahammer (165 posts) • 0

@Tonyaod
As I said before if you want more working hours at our school that is no problem.

Preschools focus more on educating rather than Teaching English per se.

And thus you need very professional teachers/educators.
Would you like to send your child to some bloke who has no professional work ethics, patience, problem solving skills etc.?

The good thing you have more access to teachers that usually would not be chosen by other schools because they could be non native speakers. I saw many teachers that have been rejected by other schools and totally blossomed with pre-kids.

And that's why I am looking for a professional teacher.

The demands for preschool teachers are as I stated, it's not just our school, it's any preschool.

As much as I know the best paying preschool is somewhere in the range of 10-12.000 RMB/month.
It's 8 hours a day and at least 6 contact hours a day.And since schools want to get their money's worth they make them draw flashcards in the afternoons and all other kinds of 'we pay for you- so do what we say' missions

About the calculation: the pay is roughly around 130-140 per hour if you go by contact hours.
But I don't think it's standard to calculate/compare a full time salary with a part time or freelance pay.
the whole idea of full time work is that you have a generally higher pay but lower hourly pay. But more security and benefits.

Sure you may get 250-500RMB part time gigs but then they will hire you for a few hours a week, no perks and security.

In the past, I also I earned double of what I earn now. But it was elementary school.Those jobs are out there I'm not saying it's the best pay in Kunming but it is the best monthly pay with benefits working basically part time hours in a preschool.

And to finalize the pay issue. We don't just want to get a teacher looking for money, only. In preschool you need at least a basic amount of enthusiasm for educating young learners. If you can't or don't want to do it even 40,000RMB wouldn't keep the teacher longer than a few month.

I know that at least a bunch of German and Dutch teachers would be interested in the job. Since their pay range for full time hours and even higher demand, is around 1300Euro= ca.10000RMB.

Our school used a system that is promoted by many international firms trying to decrease stress level and burnout syndrome. It gives people a good pay plus time for family, time to rest, recover, study, enjoy travelling, or if you need get more hours or find another PT job outside, while other schools let you sit in the office, where most teachers [professional or not] just mess about anyway, until the clock hits 5.30p.m.

fixitwithahammer (165 posts) • 0

@Heller
Really I would be very interested in how much PRESCHOOL teachers make for teaching 40 hours a week.
And then compare it with 20 work hours 8000RMB.

I seriously doubt there is any other school offering.

There are 4 planned contact hours per day but most of the time it's more like 3 less.

Plus I really want to know who here makes 250-500RMB per hour working full time.

I am in the business for a long time and I know most well paying schools in Kunming and I know that they put a lit on at around 18-25000 RMB and thats top dog teachers with experience and far after preschool level. (IELTS excluded)

And as I said, if the new teacher is really only looking for big money, maybe preschool isn;t the right choice.

8000RMB/ for 80 hours a month is fantastic for preschool, it just is!
And that's why I advertise it.

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