Introductions

G'day LordImmp and welcome to the Saloon!   Hope things work out well for you.

Hello all!

Started teaching ESL in 2008, worked for two years in South Korea. Jobs were cut, and I had a job offer back home, so I took it. 3 years later I realize I ain't cut out for the corporate rat race and had a much quality of life in Korea.

Thinking about China, found this site. Read a bunch of articles and realized that this is nothing like Dave's, so I signed up.

Thanks to everybody who helped make some of those awesome stickies. 40s all around 

Welcome Tree. I spent 6 years teaching public middle school in K-land before moving to a uni China - the best thing I ever did. 

Hello, Tree! Welcome to the Saloon

CruiseMonkey, I recognize the avatar from Dave's, good to see you around old chum! I posted as Mint for about 3 years there. That place is full of, well, it's full alright.



Modify: Trying to upload my avatar, 4kb jpeg, says the file is too big. 

Welcome to the Saloon Tree. Given what I'm hearing about N and S Korea, I suspect that you might be better off not being there at the moment. I'd also be a bit concerned about being in a few other places as well. May I ask which is your home Country and are you male or female? It's nice to meet the new folk and to hear about their experiences. As you may have seen, I am an Australian who has never lived or worked in China, so I see things through the experiences of others. All the best.

Hey Granny,

I'm male, American, 27, married to a Korean-American woman.

When it comes to the ROK, there are a couple ways of looking at it. For one, it's likely the north has about 22 kg of fissionable material. Based on what I've seen that means about 8 bombs, each of which could have roughly 1-150k killing power.

On the other hand their entire military budget is roughly equivalent to most large American police departments, and they currently have no allies, save perhaps Russia, although they'd be stupid to make overt efforts.

I suspect it's posturing, and if the Western units make a military concession things may die down a bit. The trick is getting America to "negotiate with them thar terrristz".

In either case I'd rather land a uni gig in China. If I cant make that happen, I can get a resident visa and teach privates in the countryside and live with my in-laws. Or just soldier on in a job I hate here in the US.

Regarding North Korea, they're a perfect "external enemy" to use as a justification for military expenditures and other non-productive priorities. They're just like the old USSR. Can't even feed themselves and depend completely on "humanitarian aid" from other countries, including their "enemies." And they're evil. Bush said so and he's always right.

Bush Sr. also once said something along the lines of "People who don't believe in God aren't citizens." 

There's enough of us that can see the "Fnords", just not a critical mass yet.

Welcome LordImmp, Tree.   

Lord, what I wouldn't give for a couple of hours of Phoenix-style humidity, so I could dry my clothes.  Tree, you shouldn't have trouble getting a uni job with experience and a degree (and some insist on a pulse.)

Welcome Lordlmmp,Tree and Gzwriter.GZ you and I are already acquainted.
Excellent handles all of yous.
 

Hello everyone!

I don't think that my case is that special, but why not post here and start making some new Internet friends? 

I'm 22 and I'll be graduating from college (finally!) in a couple of weeks. I'm from the United States, but I don't really plan to return here once I've left. I'm looking to get into ESL teaching abroad for a few years, and hopefully teaching mathematics at international schools after that. For a couple of years I had my sights set on South Korea, but recently I've realized that China is a lot more appropriate for my tastes. I'm still not quite sure where in China I want to go, but I'm really looking forward to the experience.

I'm also looking forward to getting to know you all! Just like most others here, I've used Dave's for a while, but once I found Raoul's, there was no question about moving my focus over here.

Welcome Edean! You will definitely return here once you need specific info on China there is only ONE place to go!
Good luck 

Welcome edean! You have come to the right place!

If you're qualified/able to teach math you might find a job teaching that right off the bat, even without a proper teaching certificate. There are Chinese kids preparing to study abroad who need English medium math classes -- usually stuff like Statistics and Calculus. Usually they pay better than run of the mill ESL.

Thanks piglet and The Local Dialect. 

TLD, that's really helpful - I didn't know that I could do that without Mandarin ability.  I've posted a more general query about this in The Bar; I'd appreciate your input there, if you don't mind.

(P.S.: I promise that I won't become an abusive smiley user... I just had to get the "Pas ma faute! J'suis blonde!" one out of my system, even though j'n'suis pas blond(e) - it's easily the cutest/funniest one here.)