Teach English Overseas | ESL Teaching Jobs Abroad

Basic Specifications on

Teaching Opportunities in China:

Salary:

4,000-20,000 RMB/month (depends on hours/housing/vacations).

Airfare:

Round-trip airfare is always included with 1 year contracts. Typically the employer will reimburse you for a one-way ticket to China and then they will pay for a one-way return ticket at the end of your contract.

Housing:

Free furnished shared or single apartment provided. Read more about Housing in China for teachers.

Hours/Week:

16 to 24 teaching hours/week.

Overtime:

this ranges from 60-250RMB/hour.

Medical:

typically some form of reimbursement package ranging from 400-200,000 RMB - contingent on the school. Footprints HIGHLY recommends getting expat medical coverage while teaching in China.

Holidays:

generally the Chinese national holidays which amount to about 3 weeks. Often higher paying jobs will not include vacation times and will increase teaching/contact hours dramatically during busy student vacation periods.

Teaching Salaries in China
- I want the HIGHEST

Salaries to teach English in China range from 4,000 – 20,000 RMB/month. We know, you want 20,000 RMB/month. Don't worry - we will get you the best salary we can BUT that may not be possible.

Reasons for High Salaries:

a huge number of contracted teaching hours

housing is not included

requires an incredible amount of experience and credentials

you are going to be shared among many different schools or clients

the school may not intend to keep their contractual obligations

Standard salaries in public schools in China range around 4,000 to 6,000 RMB/month. To many, that will sound like a pretty low salary BUT please note that with these opportunities the teaching hours will be FAR lower than if you were working in a private language school were your contract will be anywhere from 24 teaching hours a week to 40+ teaching hours per week.

In some cases there are teaching opportunities in China that pay 10-20,000 RMB but these a special circumstance where you will be required to have loads of experience and qualifications and often these will be in one of the larger cities and housing is often not provided. This may also mean 40+ teaching hours per week.

Your starting salary will depend on a number of factors, mainly your experience as a teacher and the location of the school.

With a degree and no experience expect 4500-5500 RMB.

With a degree and experience expect 5000-7000 RMB.

With an Education degree you can expect 6000-8000 RMB.

teaching jobs in China

Beijing

Shanghai

housing

Overtime

Overtime ranges from 60 RMB/hour to 250 RMB/hour… not too shabby!

Overtime is distributed at the discretion of the General Manager or the Head Teacher. Often there is no fair way to allocate these hours. They are offered to those teachers that are most flexible, most adaptable, most approachable and most of all, most popular. Remember that the private language schools are businesses and success of teachers will be measured in how many students you retain each month and how many students you attract to the school.

In order to be successful make sure you plan your classes and make sure you have fun with your students and that you impart as much knowledge as possible; the teachers that find the best rhythm with this are those that will get more hours.

Public schools, private schools and international schools often will not offer opportunities to augment your income with overtime.

Medical Coverage in Teaching Contracts in China

IMPORTANT - we HIGHLY recommend that you get expat medical insurance when teaching in China - note that general travel insurance WILL NOT work.

Read your contract, many schools in China will only allow for the provision of a maximum allocation or maximum reimbursement for medical treatment. Larger schools have their own on-campus medical center and in some cases your medical coverage will be specific and exclusive to services in this center ONLY. We do have some public schoos in China that offer expat medical insurance coverage automatically as a benefit. We greatly appreciate this responsible attitude by these schools to protect their teachers.

There are national hospitals in almost every city around China. Big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and all the provincial capitals have well-equipped hospitals that employ many experienced doctors and specialists within specialized departments including traditional Chinese medicine. Many cities have specialized hospitals. Most of them have special departments for foreign experts where patients receive first-class attention. China adopts a partly free medical care service.

Yes, medical treatment is cheap in China. Yes, expat medical coverage is expensive. Consider this...

We had a teacher who had an ear infection. Minor deal. So he thought. He kept on getting them and they got worse and worse and worse. Fortunately, he had Norfolk ExPat Worldwide medical coverage. Finally he was taken to the local hospital where they immediately said they could not do anything, they didn't have anyone available who was a specialist in this area. He could not fly (altitude - pressure - eardrum rupture), he could not travel so Norfolk brought a team of doctors to him from Shanghai. This was very serious.

Another situation, middle of China, middle of nowhere, a teacher experiences pain in her rib area. Shortness of breath. Blood in her urine. This all appears in a 24 hour period. She goes to a doctor who goes white immediately. They are not equipped! A jet is scrambled and flies to where the teacher is. Her kidneys failed. The jet arrives with 6 doctors. She is hooked up to a dialysis machina and rushed to Shanghai where she is attended to and recovers completely. She has been in China for 6 years now. With the 80% coinsurance coverage she paid $8,000... imagine if she didn't have any coverage?