(job) Needed Soon: one Oral English teacher @ Hunan Institute of Sci and Tech

[William James-2]

Needed: one Oral English teacher, preferably starting work from
December, to replace an exiting foreign teacher.  Qualified and
experienced applicants already resident in China are preferred.

The School: Hunan Institute of Science and Technology.
Located in Yueyang city, Hunan province.

Contact: Chen Yu (Foreign Affairs Officer).
Email: cy2004dyx@...
Telephone: [phone]

Both email and the telephone will be answered by either Shelley or Fu
Ting, secretaries to the Foreign Affairs Officer, both competent English
speakers capable of answers questions about the job.

The Work:

Teaching four freshman classes of Oral English.  Each class contains 29-
30 students.  Classes meet twice a week, 2x45 minutes (plus a ten minute
break between periods) per meeting.  Classes have an assigned textbook.
All students gained their places in this college by passing the National
College Entrance Exam

Teaching takes place on the third of three campuses, a 20-minute walk
from teacher living quarters (or a 5-minute mini-bus ride--the school
provides a shuttle for students that runs every 10-15 minutes and costs
1 yuan).  The classrooms are in a relatively new building, a few years
old.  All classrooms feature chalkboards.  Some classrooms have fixed
seating in rows, facing the front podium; some classrooms seat the
students in moveable two-seater desks, though these are usually arranged
in rows facing the front podium.

The Conditions:

Salaries are negotiable within a range.  The lowest available salary
offer is 3700 per month.  Holders of postgraduate degrees can expect
automatically higher salary offers.  With an unrelated PhD I asked
for and received 5000 per month as a starting salary.  Life and
teaching experience can be a basis for negotiating still higher
salaries.  For each year of extra service there is an automatic 200
yuan per month raise.

A single teacher will live in a 5 room apartment (bedroom, living room,
spare/study room, kitchen, bathroom) with a lake view and air
conditioners.  (My particular apartment is on the seventh floor.)
Families are well-regarded here. There are currently three teaching
families with small children.  They live in larger apartments in a
different building.

Housing includes: bed and linen, wardrobe, occasional tables, sofa,
coffee table, dining table and chairs, study desk, book cupboard,
computer desk with a desktop computer.  Televisions are supplied, as is
cable television.  Which cable channels are available varies over time.
The kitchen is outfitted with a gas cooker, a refrigerator, a microwave,
a rice cooker, a kettle, some implements.

Water, electricity and gas allowances are capped more or less fairly,
and whatever you use over the cap, you pay for.

You pay for your own internet--700 yuan for one year of broadband.  The
connection is fast enough.  I routinely get 2-400 kB/s speeds on torrent
downloads.

You will pay for your own residence permit--800 yuan.

The Environment:

The school officially has three campuses, all connected, on the edge of
the city proper.  It is a pleasant, tree-lined environment.  The school
straddles the local village which these days exists mostly to service
student extra- curricular needs.  You will find supermarkets, internet
bars, hairdressers, cheap restaurants, small shops of various
descriptions, a live meat market and lots of street food stalls.  Also a
lot buildings with far more rooms available than are needed to
accommodate the local people.

Buses run every 5-10 minutes into the city reaching the city center in
about 20 minutes.

In the city there is a Holiday Inn, one Walmart, a Macdonalds, several
KFC outlets, a great many Karaoke places, one or two discos, but no
bars.  It's a small town.

There are however, two brand name bike shops, Giant and Merida.

Back at the school for eating, one plate of something cooked with meat
will cost 6 yuan in any one of the many hole in the wall places (all the
rice you can eat included).  More expensive at the ritzier dives.

In General:

of the various establishments at which I have worked, this is the most
agreeable.  The school by and large abides by the rules and keeps its
promises.  Communication is sometimes an issue, but nothing life-
threatening.  With some persistence agreements can usually be reached.

There are Russian, Korean, African and American nationals teaching here.
The foreign staff tend to be older, and to stay.  At 41 years of age
with three years service I am almost the youngest here, and I am the
newcomer, all the other teachers having been here longer.

It's a nice place.  It would suit a family, a mature teacher looking
for a pleasant work environment, or someone younger looking to learn
some teaching chops. Bucolic but stable, is a good way to describe
this place.


My relationship to the school?  I am the exiting foreign teacher.  I am
leaving for home to begin further postgraduate study.


William James

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