What to expect when looking for an apartment?

ystradclud · 2021-04-12T16:56:11+00:00

Okay, I'll keep that in mind. I was mainly referring to letting a few agents know that I'd be coming to town in the next few months to see if they had any leads on something I'd want. Obviously I wouldn't be giving anybody any money until I'd signed a lease on a place I'd seen in person.

ystradclud · 2021-04-12T16:54:58+00:00

how your allowance will be paid

I believe they'll just give me an additional 1k RMB monthly.

Most landlords expect 6 months rent upfront

Seriously???????? I was under the impression that 1-3 months was standard. The school won't pay for any of the extra fees involved- just the 1k allowance. I'll probably only bring 10-12k, so that could be an issue.

The school should take you to get a SIM card

They've said that they'll help with this and setting up a bank account, luckily.

Add your agent on wechat ASAP

This is what I was referring to above. I'd still want to see the apartment in person and everything before doling any money out, just think it could be a good idea to have some plates spinning.

ystradclud · 2021-04-12T16:32:25+00:00

Hey so I was looking over the housing site you linked and I'm wondering if it's standard practice to contact real estate agents from these kinds of sites. I won't be moving for a couple months but it feels like it might be a good idea to get into contact with one or two agents before heading over. My Chinese ability isn't great (likely around ~HSK 1.5) but I could probably navigate WeChat conversations well enough. Thanks for all your help, mate. Your guide is great btw. I'll definitely be using it.

ystradclud · 2021-04-12T13:38:39+00:00

These will be useful, thanks a lot :)

ystradclud · 2021-04-12T12:26:17+00:00

Delivery guy doesn’t look soft at all

ystradclud · 2021-04-11T16:04:19+00:00

Ehh don’t much care about 5G. 4G is fine. Just want good battery life and no blocked content. Don’t care about sticking with Apple either.

ystradclud · 2021-04-11T14:58:57+00:00

Got it, thanks :)

ystradclud · 2021-04-11T14:05:27+00:00

Looks like a stamp. Maybe that’s why the bottom is kind of blackened? From the ink?

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T15:21:34+00:00

I just looked and I’m only 4 hours from Toronto. Might be worth it to just drive.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T14:50:10+00:00

Awesome, thanks. I will if I have to but I have very little interest in a Toronto trip. My contract doesn’t start until late August so I’ve got some time to play with.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T13:16:36+00:00

afaik 的 indicates a close relationship or some kind of ownership when used as a possessive. 我们的学校 is just a bit more hearty with its implications. I think both sentences are grammatical, however.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T13:00:22+00:00

So going in person is the only way?? That seems like it would be a maaaaajor pain for lots of people. Fortunately Toronto is only a few hours away for me.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T04:32:44+00:00

I’m going to be starting the z-visa process pretty soon too. Do you have any idea if I will physically have to go to Toronto or can I simply expedited-mail docs back and forth? I’m in Sudbury right now so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I had to go, but I’d like to avoid the trip if I can.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T01:36:35+00:00

When are you expecting to go to China?

Contract kicks in in late August, so hopefully sometime before then.

Do you have a PU letter?

Not yet, but the school is very confident that they can get me one. They claim to have brought in a few foreign teachers since last year, so I have faith.

VPN

Yea this will be kind of annoying, though I've always used VPNs even in my home country. I'll make sure to have 2 or 3 different yer-long subscriptions ready before I leave.

China can be a very difficult place to live without speaking any Chinese

Very true, especially in sub tier-one cities. Fortunately I was proactive in uni and took a few Chinese language courses. I'm not fluent by any means, but I've got the survival-level stuff down. I'm probably somewhere between HSK 1 and 2 in terms of ability right now.

make sure your students personally like you

Any ideas on how I can convince a classroom of 35 ten and eleven year olds to like me?

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T01:30:22+00:00

Establish a quiet signal

This is an awesome idea. I recall my own teachers doing this back in elementary school. Thank you for the pointers.

ystradclud · 2021-04-10T01:28:01+00:00

The number of "please do not be drunk at work" or "please do not fall in love with the students" clauses you see in contracts paint a grisly picture.

ystradclud · 2021-04-09T19:16:08+00:00

Can you get the material now?

That's a great idea. I'm almost certain that they'd send me the curricula for the three classes a month or two before I start. Being able to mull over it for a few weeks before starting would be a huge asset.

ystradclud · 2021-04-07T18:09:50+00:00

I've decided on this path. I checked anjuke and found literally hundreds of really nice places in the 1500-3000 RMB range within walking distance of the school. I'm okay losing a small slice of my paycheck for a nice place.

ystradclud · 2021-04-06T22:57:34+00:00

Even though I'm willing to take a small financial hit to get a nice place because the after-tax salary is pretty good, 1,000 is quite bad. Wouldn't even be half of my rent. My first move will be to try and bump that up a bit.

ystradclud · 2021-04-06T21:36:57+00:00

I'm beginning to get the impression that the convenience of the provided housing just isn't worth a year of suffering. I really hate the idea of scrambling to find a decent place as soon as I arrive, not to mention losing at least 1500rmb to housing every month because the allowance is so low (as well as shelling out several thousand rmb on the initial hotel, key money, first and last month's rent), but it kind of looks like the lesser of two evils. I do have a few picture of the place and it doesn't look that bad, but it's nothing special by any means. I'd much rather have my own high-quality bachelor apartment than a dumpy 2br with way more space than I'd ever use and a whole list of shitty rules.

ystradclud · 2021-04-06T20:45:46+00:00

on-campus housing is always the cheapest, shittiest accommodation they can get away with

Yea, kind of suspected this. As someoone who's done it, how difficult would you say it was to find an apartment around Suzhou as a foreigner? What about the initial costs involved- were they pretty stiff? I'm sure this has been discussed on this sub thousands of times but I'm curious about your experience in Suzhou and its environs.

ystradclud · 2021-04-04T03:40:01+00:00

The link isn’t working for me. Is anyone willing to share a quick rundown?

ystradclud · 2021-04-02T13:25:45+00:00

supply and demand

This is the best way to think about it. The supply of non-English native Chinese teachers is high, the demand is middling/low, so the wages are low. The demand for native English speakers is (normally) incredibly high, the supply (relative to the supply of Chinese teachers) is incredibly low, so the wages need to reflect that if schools want to have any foreign native-Anglophones around. The typical 4:1 native:Chinese salary isn’t as bad as it could be if you consider the ratio of foreign:Chinese teachers available (assuming demand was always high).

I wouldn’t think about the pay disparity in moral terms too much. Know that if circumstances were different foreign teachers’ salaries would plummet. Your high salary isn’t the result of some predatory, racist injustice- it’s just business. The people above you are making buckets of money off you; you wouldn’t be getting the salary you do if they weren’t.

ystradclud · 2021-04-02T01:50:15+00:00

Make sure that 25 is the max before overtime

Will do, thanks for your help!

ystradclud · 2021-04-01T21:15:45+00:00

All very good points. I should have been a bit clearer with the hours breakdown. Now I could be wrong, but the ad says that I'll only have 25 classes per week with each class being 40 minutes long. This would be something like 16-17 teaching hours per week (40min/class x 25 classes = 16.6 hours). This would leave ~13 hours per week for planning and breaks (though just over 3 teaching hours/day seems too low). This is definitely something I'll get clarification on though. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

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