Stay in China or move to the US?

Gutock

Thank you in advance.

I'm currently teaching English in China, and while I love it, it's not exactly a great plan for the long-term unless I get my own school underway. I tried to open a training center earlier this year, but due to a lack of funds (we didn't have any investors) we just had to shut down. If I am going to open this school of my dreams, I'm going to need funds.

This means I should probably go back to the US and find a 'proper' (re: high paying) job. I've read a lot about the growth of trade between the States and China, but looking online I can't find anything that seems like a career. I've also read the Army thread extensively and it seems like the Navy would also take me in, with CIA/FBI or other institutions interested in finding native Chinese speakers.

I guess what I'm asking for is advice towards long-term economic stability. Should I stay in China, hoping to catch a break but enjoying myself or head back to the US and strike for gold?

Some personal details: I only have experience being a foreigner in China for my adult life, which entails a combination of scholarship study, English teaching, running that small failure, and various recordings/acting jobs.

I'm 25 next February, graduated May of '09.

I wouldn't mind getting more education, but I can't afford it as I'm still paying off by double BA in Chinese and East Asian Studies.


TL;dr : I'm a mid-twenties guy trying to find a path to economic stability. What do I do?

If anyone could offer advice I'd be sincerely grateful.

Hevach

Gutock wrote: »

I wouldn't mind getting more education, but I can't afford it as I'm still paying off by double BA in Chinese and East Asian Studies.

Just to snip out this part, where are your existing loans through? You can put most student loans into deferment if you're in school again. I used it to stall my payments after college - went back and took a few random classes the next fall to push my payments back a year, but it also means if you go back and get a new degree, you can just rack up new debt on top of the old and not worry about payments until you finish.

Gutock

I had a deferment when I was studying in Nankai University, but since I didn't reapply for it (wanted to work and feared that most US educational institutions wouldn't take any non-Chinese language masters.) So, I think I have a month (6 months after last class, if I remember right.)

Thing is it's about 30,000, not a small amount. Still, thank you!

RadicalTurnip

This sounds racist, but it really matters in China: are you white? Especially white and tallish (anything over 6 ft)?

My cousin taught English in China for 5 years (when he went he didn't know any Chinese), met his wife there, and eventually moved back to Canada. He seemed pretty successful without ever buying his own school, but ymmv...if you're trying to get rich, I guess that isn't necessarily the way to go, but I would imagine there are a lot of opportunities for a white guy to make some cash, but good luck whatever you do!

Gutock

I've lived in China for over two years, I'm not at all offended. I am mixed White/Latino, but that concept goes right over most heads, so I'm white.

I make pretty alright, and I'm sure it would be fine if it were just me for a few years. I'm just curious if there are any longer term options for me, I suppose.

Red Raevyn

Should I stay in China, hoping to catch a break but enjoying myself or head back to the US and strike for gold?

This is what stood out to me. If you're enjoying yourself, why leave? I'd stay.

BlochWave

This is what stood out to me. If you're enjoying yourself, why leave? I'd stay.

Planning for long-term economic stability is still important. My sister has been doing what he's been doing for the last 4 years (coming home in October!) If you're paid anything like her, you haven't stockpiled a noteworthy savings. Neither have a lot of people your age, sure, but remember that when you hit 30, your remaining life expectancy is going to put you pretty near 80. Thinking about old age sucks, but you're going to be there for like the entire length of time you've been alive to this point nearly, and it's getting time to keep it in mind!

You could probably teach ESL in the US for much more than you're making there. You might also find the environment more receptive to entrepreneurship, or if nothing else you can stockpile capital to try again in China.

Bloodfart

In China you should be making a decent wage just teaching English let alone running a biz.

The common rate for teachers in Beijing is 150rmb per hour. Averaging 12000rmb+ a month is close to $2000us.

Add in the fact that most things you buy here are super cheap (25 cent litre beers anyone?) and savings become much easier here than in north America. Lifestyle for expats is very high which leads to a lot of restaurant eating and taxi rides.

Plus there's no recession here. You could make more in America but you won't save more, resulting in being better off in china.

My wife and I have a small kindy/training place, all English and it's doing very well. Chinese are very serious about spending money on their kids and English is a top priority.

Did you teach kids or adults?

I think adults can be much more difficult to make a living off of.

Here's a tip: start with classes in your apartment and skip rental costs of a business. The rules here become very confusing plus Chinese usually cheat anyway. Nobody knows how to function according to the book and likely the book doesn't even exist.

I am adamant against bribing and have often had to tell my wife to not even think of HongBao (traditional bribe in a red package). But even without using HongBao the inefficiency and lazyness of beaurocracy make things fairly easy to manage regardless.

Customers are just fine with your business not being 100% legit. Pretty much all take time to get there.

Example: I worked for a company with 3 schools. They paid taxes, advertised, had one school for super rich people, yet never had the legal right to have foreigners working for them. They would have the officials tour the school to get the right to have foreigners working while we were working!

Gutock

I make a little less because I work fewer hours, only about 10,000 rmb a month. In Tianjin I can still get 150 an hour and find plenty of kids to teach for tutoring one on one, but it seems like it's just... capped.

The little school I had was mainly kids, anywhere from 4-16. My biggest class were still lil' ones, about 7-8 year olds. I know for a fact that I can do it if I had enough capital to actually advertise, as our numbers pretty much quadrupled to around 40 kids, but it just wasn't enough.

I can definitely save to put aside and I'm strongly considering putting down for a place in Tianjin now, as the burden is only slightly greater than my loans to the US.

I'm still very hungry for opinions, and thank you all for your advice!

Cauld

I think you should go for it. Tianjin seems to be growing pretty quickly from what I've seen, and the commute time to Beijing is also decreasing rapidly. My wife is from there and everytime I go back I'm amazed at the rate of growth.

finral

Hey, I was asking myself a pretty similar question to you recently. I just returned to the US from two years teaching ESL in China. My experience so far is that the economy in the US is a pain in the ass for getting a job (at least in Seattle). My career focus is a little odd though I guess. Anyway, teaching wasn't really something I wanted to do long term, so I came back. If you want to stay in China and make money teaching, I would recommend getting some sort of real teaching degree (not just an ESL cert) and teaching at an international school in China. You can make a US level salary while living there doing that, so pretty sweet. Good Luck! I'm kind of wishing I was back in China right now.