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[Raoul F. Duke]

5500 is not bad for a college. You should not be given more than 16 hours a week at that salary, though.

It sounds like you've found a good thing, and good on ya!

[Borkya]

The bad news is I haven't found anyone who works/worked there to give me the scoop on the place. I may be able to get a contact from the person I'm dealing with. Or maybe someone who hangs out at this here saloon.

A good place to start is ask the school. Ask for one current teacher and one former teacher (to get a less biased opinion). If the school is hesitant to give this info then a warning bell should sound. Also, in this day and age of blogging, ask the teachers if they know of any current or former teachers that blogged about the experience.

[Ruth]

Tutoring would be nice. I have a particular knack with very young learners, and some ideas I'd like to try out. Since I'll be working with university students, I'll be (quietly) looking for 4-8 year old private students.

Let your Chinese coworkers know that you are interested in tutoring primary aged kids in your free time. If you are good at it, you soon won't have any free time. Word spreads THAT FAST. I wasn't even thinking about tutoring kids when I started in my current job. I made an off-hand comment to a coworker with an 8-year-old son (not even that I'd like to teach him, but that she should be speaking English to him because he was at a great age to learn easily). She hooked me up with a group of 4 girls I've now had for 4 years. Their parents talked to other parents and I tutor private kids for more hours a week than I teach at my uni job. I NEVER advertised.

[El Macho]

Be sure to keep autonomy over your research; don't let anyone else touch it until you've already published. I have friends here who have had their research stolen in draft form and published in China in Chinese. It doesn't affect you when publishing abroad, but it sure is irritating. I've been keeping my own papers under lock and key.

Ruth is also absolutely correct that you'll easily find more extra work than you can possibly handle once you get here. Let the others see that you're a competent teacher, make casual mention of what age group you'd like to work with, and your phone will never stop ringing.

[larksong]

Be sure to keep autonomy over your research; don't let anyone else touch it until you've already published. I have friends here who have had their research stolen in draft form and published in China in Chinese. It doesn't affect you when publishing abroad, but it sure is irritating. I've been keeping my own papers under lock and key.

I haven't decided on the research model yet, but one that I'm considering would involve training multiple raters to assess the speaking skills of the control and experimental subjects. Are you suggesting that I use only FT's for that? Or keep what I'm doing hidden? Or just keep my written work and results locked away from prying eyes?