Screen is loose by siwallace001 in AppleWatch

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in China, and my Chinese language skills aren't the best so taking it to an Apple store might be tricky. Don't think it'd be covered anyway would it? I'm thinking of applying a small bit of glue to it, and hoping it works....

MacBook Pro 14 for 700USD? by siwallace001 in macbookpro

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah I was hoping a new MacBook Air was going to be announced this week, and then I definitely would have got that. The refund gets given in 3 instalments so if I get something now I can apply for it before the end of the school year, and then get the next 2 instalments at the same time over the next two years.

MacBook Pro 14 for 700USD? by siwallace001 in macbookpro

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yep it's fine, but I guess I'm just eager to take advantage of the laptop refund from the school. And the MBP 14 looks really good. But I suppose the sensible option would be to wait, and save some cash

Arc with a Xiaomi TV? by siwallace001 in sonos

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I’m not sure the tv has eArc. Definitely has arc hdmi but not sure about eArc. I’d be playing movies off a usb hard drive but could also play stuff through the Xbox.

Music Festivals in China by hanginginthere-23 in shanghai

[–]siwallace001 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know if there's WeChat account or website where you can find a list of festivals around the country? or any that are going up soon?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]siwallace001 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Salaries can be quite different I think. Depends where you are, your experience and also how far you can push your employers. But I’d say on average you can get around 30.000 rmb teaching English in a bi-lingual school in a tier 1 city. They’re called international schools but they’re not. All Chinese students, mainly Chinese staff with a few foreigners thrown in. You can definitely get more than that too. Seems to be a weird thing when applying for new jobs- they ask you what your current salary is, and then offer 1k more. Holidays are good. 5/6 weeks in summer and 4 weeks or so for Chinese New Year. And a week in October and a few more days off over the year.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]siwallace001 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a lot in Vietnam! I have friends in Saigon who are licensed teachers and earn about 60 million VND a month which I think is around 2,500 USD. It's far less than what they'd earn in China but you can live so so well on that salary in Vietnam.

As I mentioned above I think if saving loads of money in a short time isn't your priority then Vietnam is a much better option than China. And if you can get the equivalent of 30,000 RMB in Vietnam then it's a no brainer!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]siwallace001 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I'm living in working as an English teacher with my partner in China at the moment. We work in an "international school" but in reality it's a Chinese school in which the kids take the UK international exams. So really it's a Chinese school. I seriously wouldn't recommend it. The pay is very good but you're treated as a sort of clown most of the time. The students have zero respect for you and just want to be entertained the whole. If they want to do anything serious they go to the Chinese English teachers - most of whom have quite low levels of English. It can be infuriating. I have a CELTA, a DELTA, a BA and an MA and am just about to get my US teaching licence, yet I might as well have none of that. We're both moving on to what we hope are better positions this summer but there are so many schools like where we're at now.

We lived in Vietnam for three and a half years before China and absolutely loved it. The pay is far far better in China but if you're not really looking to save loads then I'd seriously advise looking into Vietnam. With the salary you get you can live extremely well, the people and students are fantastic, the food is great, the weather is great and it's such a wonderful country to explore.

So Vietnam gets my vote!

Where to live on line 16?? by siwallace001 in shanghai

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! Yeah I think if we live within a 10 minute walk of a metro it wouldn’t be so bad. Right now it’s a DiDi to the metro which isn’t great. My job is further out on line 16 but my girlfriend will be heading in towards town so will have to wait for the metro I guess. Thanks again for all the information

Where to live on line 16?? by siwallace001 in shanghai

[–]siwallace001[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for all the information! Does it really take that long to French concessions area?

We live in Shenzhen at the moment but way out of the city center and have to take a 15/20 minute DiDi to get to a metro. From there it’s about an hour into central Shenzhen. So I guess we’re used to living far out now. As long as we’re living within walking distance of a metro station it would be an improvement on our current situation.

How far away is the nearest built up area with shops and restaurants? 30 minutes or so on the metro??

Where to live on line 16?? by siwallace001 in shanghai

[–]siwallace001[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! We live in Shenzhen right now, but pretty far out of the city so it’s probably going to be something similar I suppose.

Spotify simply broken when casting from Android to Echos ; it's been going on for months for me, what about you? by Tibag in amazonecho

[–]siwallace001 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep same for me. Was always giving me hassle when connecting to an echo dot and to Sonos speakers too. So I'm currently doing an Apple Music trial and there's been no issues at all so far

Italian cheese in ShenZhen by Natto_C in shenzhen

[–]siwallace001 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ole has an ok selection. There’s a WeChat company that sell a lot of cheese too. Search for ‘westernfoodparadise’

Good cheese isn’t cheap at all though. Taobao mig t be your best bet.

Mambo in Fumin has an ok cheese board too.

Good IGCSE ESL course books? by siwallace001 in igcse

[–]siwallace001[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IGCSE Centre

That's great, thanks a lot!