Uni or Language School

Hi Guys
Thanks for allowing me to join:)

Currently we are working in Turkey, but will move to China in August.
Lots of contracts on the table, but we are undecided, and could do with some pointers.

Uni Offer..7000 plus 1500 Accommodation allowance.
Adult School ...9000 plus 2000 Accommodation

I would prefer a Uni for the Holidays etc, but my Son is worried about the size of the classes.
Roughly how many students in a Uni class would we be facing?
His concern is that whilst teaching in Thailand, he had classes of over 60 ..albeit kids, and he hated it.

Great to find a place we can finally start interacting with..thanks 

Hello, jools.  Welcome

We can't really answer your query without a couple more bits of info : where are this Uni and/or School located? 

Salaries and allowances - and how far they will stretch - will vary with city/Province. 

Oh I think we can answer the class size question. Generally in Chinese universities (and any level of education starting with Primary school) class sizes are 50-60+, so likely similar to what you experienced in Thailand.

As for uni class sizes, it varies from one place to the next, there's no rhyme or reason. I've had anything from a dozen to 75. 25-30 seems to be the norm. One school to save mony put three classes into one. Since it was more of a subject than just oral English, I was lecturing more. The kids weren't do as much speaking as smaller classes are want to do.

Personally I like adult schools about 1,000,000 times more. They tend to be more inclined to do homework, try harder and since they're older they are (generally) smarter. The level of English is irrelevent

I forgot, as BrandX said, gov't schools (primary, middle, etc) are usually a little more sardined than what you'd want. 50-60 is AVERAGE!

At my university class size less than 45.. English Major classes 20... Oral classes between 30-35.  Less than 45 is in our contact.

I would go the university route but with some provisos which I always observe:  

1: Lessons for English Majors should make up most or all of your classes.
2: You don't only teach speaking classes but also deliver content (history/literature) or a class like extensive reading or writing.
3: You have an office, or a desk in a shared office, in the department.
4: Class sizes should be detemrined by purposes - half ban classes for speaking lessons for example.

Points 1-3 are about what your place within the organization is.  Does the university want a white face to come in and clown about once a week or are you going to be part of the department?  Does the university undertsand what is appropriate for an NET to deliver (i.e. not CET4) and timetable accordingly?  

Coming to China you need to remember that universities here can vary wildly in terms of what they want their NETs to do and how they treat them.  Put simply, in some places you will not be considered to be a teacher - at best you will be a curiosity.  Now this may be justified for some random backpacker dude, but if you are actually a qualified chap or chapess then it's going to piss you off mightily.  

I work in a university (tier 3, in Henan) and my day-to-day duties are not a million miles away from what I have done in the UK when I worked in admin and admissions there.  Despite being fairly close to the bottom of the pile, this place is great to work at because I am involved in most of what's going on and have been able to contribute in all sorts of ways.  Over the summer I will be writing the curriculum for the spoken elements of the first two years of the degree program here and next semester we will be moving skills instruction for English majors to an intensive 15-student tutorial system.  

Don't expect to walk into this kind of thing though - even at the most invovled places you have be comfortable creating a role for yourself.  At the right place though, a little hard work and competence can pay dividends.  

It's all in the choosing.

I have taught in both, and both have their advantages. My uni classes were 50-55 students in each, but I knew every student's name by the end of the semester. I only taught the 14 hours per week once in a semester, and even had only 2 HOURS PER WEEK F2F teaching in another semester! Pay was Y6000 pm and I got full pay in the holidays, residence permit, modern f/f 1br apartment 5 mins walk to uni, medical ins + 9000 end of year bonus.
The language school was similar but class sizes ranged fro 1:1 up to 18. The apartment was a 2br and the medical insurance was from Europe and was much better. I had to teach 20 hours per week+ office hours, marketing demo lessons etc. Y4,500 airfare every 6 months.
My next job will be in a uni again (yay!)-Y7000 pm 3br apartment, 11 weeks holidays on full pay and 12 hours F2F teaching. I don't care how big the class sizes will be as I am a subject teacher.

Thanks for all your replies:) Very useful information from you all. I'm just concerned about the Language Schools with the 15 hours "office" hours. Makes a 40 hour week, while a Uni with 16 hours with 50 students, is a better bet I guess.
Sorry the City is Changshu or Uni in Xuzhou.

Thanks for all your replies:) Very useful information from you all. I'm just concerned about the Language Schools with the 15 hours "office" hours. Makes a 40 hour week, while a Uni with 16 hours with 50 students, is a better bet I guess.
Sorry the City is Changshu or Uni in Xuzhou.

Xuzhou is alright - it's basically the Jersey Shore of China.  There are a few damn good restaurants (genuine central Asian food amongst others) and it has excellent transport links.

As I have said, if you aren't part of the life and business of the department in which you work then don;'t expect to be treated like a proper teacher.  You are going to spend at least ten hours preparing lessons and marking work so why not do it in an office and at least talk to some other people.

I have worked office hours in an office, and have worked in a uni without an office and prepared all my lessons and corrected exams at home. My wife was happier having me at home more, but for me they both have their advantages. Some language schools like to have a western face there for when prospective students come in and for doing level assessment tests.

I've worked in one uni where I was part of a 9-teacher office and the token FT.  It worked out great for all involved.  My next uni had no offices even for the Chinese English teachers and they only saw each other at the meetings.  There was near-zero comraderie.  Another uni had a big office for English teachers and decided to make things more comfortable for the FTs by jamming us into a separate office with a filing cabinet wall separating us from a cigarette smoking Administration guy.  Perhaps got the wrong message, but got it nonetheless loud and clear.  Now back to no offices.

It makes a big difference when you have a place to hang out with your colleagues a bit. I think it's a great thing and it doesn't take much of a room to do it. The worst part of my uni job was no gathering point for local or foreign teachers and I hated that.