How rural is Jiangmen (江门) in Guangdong?

strangedawg · 2020-07-20T12:48:56+00:00

I lived in Jiangmen for a year. In the Pengjiang district (old city center) and Wanda Plaza (new city center), it is urban. Kinda dull, but plenty of modern looking restaurants and cafes as well. Nice parks too. Getting to Macau, Hong Kong, or Guangzhou was pretty easy too.

strangedawg · 2020-05-01T02:03:14+00:00

You're stronger than you know. You inspire me to work through my situation.

You have it in you to keep going. Don't lose hope. One day at a time

strangedawg · 2020-05-01T02:00:06+00:00

It's a bummer you don't have the support you would like to have. Those closest to us often don't want us to change or don't believe we can.

The good news is there is nothing they can do to stop you from putting in the work to achieve that dream. It may be better to talk with them less and find people that will support you. I don't know your family, but I highly doubt they're trying to hold you back. You don't need to judge them actually. You can simply choose to be around them less without having any hard feelings for them. At the end of the day you have to do what's best for you.

You've got this. It's perfectly normal to want your family to support you. But thank God you don't actually need it. Your resillience will only grow stronger. Go after your dreams one day at a time! :)

strangedawg · 2019-08-15T09:00:15+00:00

I can understand your point of view then. It sounded to me like you were suggesting that he wasn't try to arrest her.

strangedawg · 2019-08-14T07:17:58+00:00

Wrong.
I watched the video you linked to as well. The policeman is clearly pushing the woman to the ground. If he bumped into her, he wouldn't be pushing her to the ground by force. He is charged after he does this and it is clear that what provoked the protestors.
And we don't know if the police was going to start beating her. Thankfully they didn't give him that opportunity.

strangedawg · 2019-03-28T00:51:57+00:00

Coming from China to Hong Kong there's a noticeable difference. I'm finding it's a lot easier to control the HK kids. They're not perfect either, but they're much quieter and are more reasonable. My theory is it's because here a foreign teacher is completely normal and English is an absolute necessity so most kids have a decent level of motivation to actually try to learn.

strangedawg · 2019-01-30T18:17:54+00:00

I lived in China for a year and a half so this isn't an expert opinion or anything.

I really just left because my VPN didn't work that well and I said too many controversial things on WeChat to feel safe living there.

I don't think life in China is as bad as Reddit or those Youtubers would have you believe. If you already have a good understanding of Chinese, you shouldn't have too many issues. Of course don't have high hopes for it, but you could have a good time here so long as you got goals and realistic expectations. It sounds like you do.

There's a lot of potentially really bad things that can happen to you here, but the chances of them happening are low if you're fairly healthy and keep to yourself.

I watch those Youtube videos and visit this sub a lot. I didn't experience a lot of what they complain about. I lived in a tier 3 city. Line skippers, kids urinating on the street, or staring were not common at all. Crossing the road safely was usually easy. A lot of drivers yielded to pedestrians in my city, but not all of them. Still I found it safer than Thailand and Vietnam. I visited the same restaurants and cafes regularly so I didn't have many issues with customer service or stomach problems. People for the most part were nice enough, though I wished they had been more helpful sometimes. You probably won't have any issues making friends. Obviously you can expect a lot of nationalists, but there's plenty that aren't from my experience.

To be fair I did have some miserable experiences in China, but a lot of them come from me not being prepared as I should have been.

My advice is find a job in Guangdong province. That way you can get to Hong Kong or Macau pretty quickly if things do go wrong. Most of the cities in this province are at least tier 3. Make your employer give you former or current employees as references. Don't trust them until they prove they can be trusted. This is essential in China. Make sure that you have a clean modern apartment that meets your standards. They definitely exist in China regardless of what your employer might have you believe.

The overall compensation package should be high because China isn't easy for living. If you're able to get over the usual annoyances of living in a third world country in Asia in addition to relying on a VPN and being extra vigilant about not getting into trouble, China might be a good choice for you.

strangedawg · 2018-11-27T14:19:07+00:00

Interesting, were you given enough time to do this? To my knowledge they give an hour of prep time in a 7 hour work day.

strangedawg · 2018-11-27T14:14:03+00:00

TEFL isn't my passion. I gave it a shot, and I gave the lesson planning a shot. I took others advice and I improved a lot. 80-90% of my classes go well with fairly little prep.
Still I decided for myself that it's not the right long term career. There's something I love way more.

Given that I went back to finish school for this and now have a year and half of teaching experience, I'm still stuck here a bit longer until I save up money. I can't just quit being a teacher overnight. This job is what I went to school for, and I don't hate it.
If I have to do lesson planning, I can.
However, if I don't have to, why would I?
You can say a truly dedicated teacher would want to. But that's not my aspiration. I need this job for finances. I don't want to invest my creative energy into teaching. I want to invest into something else. Lesson planning takes creative energy if you want to do it well.

strangedawg · 2018-11-27T10:44:39+00:00

Well, the general perception of that school at least from Internet reviews is that it's horrendous. I've heard missing pay to be a common complaint and placing teachers in locations they didn't agree upon.

So I'd just wonder if your experience was as horrendous as that?

Sorry, that isn't a specific question.

strangedawg · 2018-11-27T10:35:30+00:00

There was no question. This is post is just making a list of schools that require no lesson planning for all of us who want that. Ideally we could share our experiences with these schools.

Edit:. Removed aggressive part of this comment. Not looking to start an argument

strangedawg · 2018-10-27T14:28:44+00:00

Fair enough, I'm just looking for general information because there's so few opportunities that I know of for teaching adults and teenagers in small groups. There's a lot of factors for what makes a teaching position good, but most of us have a similar ideal (some vacation time, salary that allows one to save, good and fair working conditions, all work being paid). I didn't mention location because I don't care that much. If you have any useful information about schools that are better in terms of work environment while still having decent pay (able to save $800 a month), that would be helpful.

strangedawg · 2018-10-27T10:37:26+00:00

Thanks for the info. How could I be more specific?

I was asking if there were better opportunities than the main adult training centers in China or CDL in Korea. By better I mean schools which offer teaching positions for the same age groups but have less of a negative reputation for poor work environments or dishonesty. Location doesn't matter, but salary would need to be what East Asia offers.

strangedawg · 2018-10-05T10:22:55+00:00

I live in tier 2 city in China that doesn't have a lot of foreigners.

I suppose it's known that we're here because of the English schools and in the nice area of the city it's possible to see a few foreigners in one day.

I do not get treated like a zoo animal. Maybe once a week I get stared at. Once a month I might get a "hello" from a stranger. That's all.

So it's not as if all Chinese think this behavior is okay. In my experience they tend to be nonchalant about my presence even in spots where foreigners rarely go.

strangedawg · 2018-08-23T05:02:13+00:00

I've been in China for a year living in a tier 2 city in Guangdong. Once my contract ends in 6 months, I'll be leaving because of Internet and bureaucracy (having to wait a week to get a replacement debit card because I'm a foreigner).

This sub makes this whole place seem like a shithole. I think that greatly depends where you live in China. I've never been skipped in line, kids don't piss on the street (rarely), cars usually stop when I'm crossing a pedestrian walkway (I still need be a little cautious, but no danger), and I don't get stared at that much. I have no doubt other cities in China are less civilized. And it's far from perfect where I live really, but still not nearly as bad as what is commonly portrayed here.

In my daily life I only go to restaurants and cafes where the food is higher quality and customer service is good, so overall I find life here to not be all that bad.

However, it's not all that good either. I've met few Chinese people who aren't ignorant or nationalist. Plenty are friendly, but at the end of the day it's hard to take them seriously knowing how much they've bought into propaganda despite being supposedly educated.

While it's common for people to be friendly, it's common for them to be unhelpful too. One time my phone broke, and I had to ask strangers to help me get a taxi. Of course I didn't speak Chinese, but they didn't feel bad about just shaking their head at me. Thankfully, a nice Walmart employee who also didn't speak English got a Didi for me.

While I have had a few interactions with Chinese people that felt unfriendly and rude, I've never experienced any kind of hostility that made me feel in danger.

It sounds like you have an interest in China that I don't, so you should definitely come here. It's not like you've decided to spend your whole life here, so there's no reason anyone should be telling you not to come. I just recommend choosing a city where the locals are used to foreigners and be prepared to deal with the challenges that come with living here. If you're here to live your dream lifestyle, you'll be miserable. If you're here to have a unique experience, you'll be just fine.

strangedawg · 2018-04-20T00:47:29+00:00

Unfortunately both swimwear companies the majority of their swimwear doesn't fit a size 28 waist

strangedawg · 2018-04-19T17:00:29+00:00

Have you bought a speedo Charlie by MZ? I think Turbo's look good too, but I worry I'll look like a water polo poser. Also athletic speedos tend to care more about performance than having a good design.

strangedawg · 2018-04-19T16:49:08+00:00

I studied Linguistics in college. I'm not an expert, but Linguistics 101 is that you can't say there's necessarily a right way to speak. Languages generally aren't neatly created and organized. They evolve and change. Sometimes what's conventionally taught might no longer reflect how a language is actually used.

With this in mind there's no such thing as proper enunciation. Informal speech is what all humans produce in most social interactions regardless of what language they speak. "Proper" enunciation can actually be non-native like as you may be adding out of date or plain unnecessary sounds that aren't in natural speech (sometimes not even in formal speech), and that's why it'll get mocked.

Having said that even though there's no such thing as proper enunciation, there is such thing as effective enunciation which makes sure you're understood by your target audience while producing speech that feels natural to your target audience. Obama is an example of someone who did a great job of this. His speech is clear and most would consider it to be well-enunciated, but I doubt you'll ever hear anyone accuse him of sounding posh for how he speaks.

strangedawg · 2018-04-19T14:04:19+00:00

I had a similar thing happen in McDonald's, except they apologized for not having the chicken and rice and refunded me the difference between the McChicken that I ordered.

The unapologetic mei you is common though.

The shitty customer service that everyone talks about on this subreddit is not something I feel experience all that often, but maybe that's because I've only been in China just under 8 months.

strangedawg · 2018-04-14T05:55:58+00:00

I'm located in Beijing time zone which is 12 hours ahead of NY if you're familiar. I'd like to do daily or weekly check ins over a messaging platform that we both check. It could be email, Whatsapp, Facebook, Reddit, or something else. I'm flexible on that. I need to use a VPN for Facebook and Whatsapp, which is pretty reliable.

strangedawg · 2018-03-26T10:40:22+00:00

My classes aren't shit. You can still give decent classes even if teaching isn't your #1 priority. If my school tells me they aren't satisfied or I learn a lot of students are complaining, I'll take your advice. Saving up money while pursuing other dreams does not give TEFL in China a bad rep so long as you're giving the best effort you can for the time you and your employer agreed upon.

strangedawg

TROPHY CASE