Talking Street Ningbo

Any comments about this company?  I'm not really keen on going to Ningbo (think it is too big for me) but if that's what I do  - I do.

I still have many applications in at other places but still not hearing anything despite some of these places currently advertising. I am about to begin a 'reminder' round of emails.

I really want to be in China from Sept so fingers crossed I will get a job soon!

I don't know this school, but Ningbo is an awesome city. Depending on the type of place you want, your timing could be either too soon or too late.

Private schools and language mills (often called sausage factories) are already priming up for their busy summer schedule.

Unis are nice, however, run by people who never learn. They know they need teachers come September, they start looking around August 34th.

Keep proding and ask around in the forum for advice, we have people all over China. Some even know what to do. And before you sign, (if you're not sure) ask for help. You don't want to get caught in what sounds too good to be true, good luck

I don't know anything about the school but before you dismiss Ningbo as "too big" remember to ignore the population numbers. Ningbo would be about the 25th largest city by population in China. How does that compare to Australia?

Darwin is 16th

Rockhampton, Queensland is 25th

How small do you want to go?

Ningbo is not really a big city, as Stil pointed out. Be aware that if you're at all into alternative culture such as music, art etc that even in cities of over 1m in China, these things can be depressignly rare to find. For me Ningbo felt smaller than say Leeds, because there is just less "to do" there (I'm thinking nightlife, galleries, music). I'm living in Shanghai at the moment and it fits me pretty well as I'm building up my DJing and music thing here. Before I was in a city of 8mil and one of 5mil and in this regard, in those places things were significantly less abundant, but I still had a cracking time anyway. It all comes down to what you want, really. There are plenty of good times to be had in a variety of different places, big and small. It's just the nature of those good times that might differ.

No idea about the school either, sorry.

I don't know anything about the school but before you dismiss Ningbo as "too big" remember to ignore the population numbers. Ningbo would be about the 25th largest city by population in China. How does that compare to Australia?

Darwin is 16th

Rockhampton, Queensland is 25th

How small do you want to go?

Good advice. In China a city of a million is practically a small town in our terms. I grew up in a city in the USA that didn't even break the 1 million mark, in fact the entire metro area barely broke 500k. In China that's like, some sort of 8th tier podunk, but my city was the 2nd largest in my state.

You don't really get small towns, population wise, until you get into the countryside. Anything at the city level is going to be fairly large, American/Australian/European terms. That doesn't mean they all have a big city feel though. A city of 3 million can feel very much like a small place, particularly compared to the true megacities like Beijing and Shanghai.

I've heard good things about Ningbo, although the school, based on name alone, sounds like it could be kind of sketchy. As a rule I tend to avoid schools with Chinglish names, well, for obvious reasons. But again, I don't have any actual information, it could be a great place for all I know.

Have not lived in Ningbo but visited last year to check out a job offer at NIT and had an awesome pissup at a pub there since it was St Paddy's day. Spent the evening with a bunch of FTs a group of whom were teaching at Talking Street and were well pleased with it. THey invited us up on the stage to sing "The Wild Rover" together with all their group and had invited all their students in to celebrate and a splendid time was had by all.Second what others have said- Ningbo has a small town feel but is pleasant and has places to go to have a bit of fun,but not Too many.
 

Talking Street has been around for a good few years in Ningbo.  The school is in The 'Ningbo Bund' area, a nice part of town. I think it's fairly typical as training centers go, but I really don't remember hearing much about it, good or bad, when I lived in there!

Thanks everyone you've made me a bit happier about Ningbo. I live in a rural area here in Oz nad have lived in Sydney and Melbourne - and I now think they are too big!

I have lived in Beijing and spent a bit of time in Hangzhou and Wenzhou but I have really liked the smaller places - WuHu, Huangshan, Ruian when I have been there. I suppose I have not really given the bigger places a fair go.

I'll keep going with my applications and keep fingers crossed. I have many Chinese friends in Anhui and Zejiang so they are my preferredprovinces at this stage.