Quote:
Originally Posted by giallo
Congrats on the move. You won't regret it.
I've been a teacher out here for a while now and I want to give you some advice. Take all of this with a slight grain of salt. I don't mean to scare you, I just want to help you avoid some of the pitfalls that seem to happen time and time again to recently arrived foreign teachers.
First, this school you are working at, have you come to an agreement on salary? What are they paying you? Sorry if it sounds a little personal, but don't think for a second they won't try and pay you less than you deserve. Second thing, I really would advise against living in their supplied apartment. I've heard so many horror stories about people having problems with their school and then getting kicked out of their apartment with nowhere to go. Often times the apartments themselves are terribly kept.
If you do choose to live on your own, I would recommend living in Puxi. It doesn't seem like a big deal now, but having to commute to Puxi when you want to do anything fun takes its toll on you. Time and money wasted. Pudong isn't terrible, it's just so......dull. We Puxiers like to call it Pu Jersey.
Hopefully, this information will help you enjoy a more comfortable transition in to what is one of the most exciting cities on the planet.
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Thanks, giallo. I'm actually coming via a teaching program that's run by a US university (Marshall), so they look after a lot of the grunt work and make sure the teachers get treated fairly. I'm being paid RMB7200 per month to teach chemistry and english, plus free lunch on work days. I have to teach 23 40 minute classes a week, and the contract stipulates RMB100 for each additional class that I choose to teach above this level. So I think it's a pretty fair contract. I'm going to see what the school-provided apartment is like, and if I don't like it maybe I'll go and try and find another. I'm not too worried about living in Pudong - at least the school is relatively close to the Metro, unlike some of the other teachers who are at Shanghai High School, which isn't particularly close to the metro at all.
I'm really looking forward to going - I'm going to be there in just over 2 months (arriving 26 August) and I am SO excited. It's going to be a great year (or more)
