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An Introduction, my plans and some questoins
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Ebbo98 -

Hi,

I am 31 years old, English, and currently working in IT which I have been doing so for over 8
years now. My current job is ending in roughly 18 months due to the company I work for being
bought by a larger group. It is very complicated and boring so I will not go into any details.

Once I am redundant, I am planning to move my family to China. My wife is 29 and my children are 8
and 5 years old.

I want to move to China for the experience and to teach. I have always wanted to be a teacher and
I have always believed that living abroad is something everyone should try but due to
circumstances, neither has been an option for me. Now with my job coming to an end and my kids
growing up, I think it is the perfect time. Money has never been important to me; as long as I
have enough to keep a roof over our heads, I am happy. I have been lucky in that I have a job that
is pretty well paid but I know that coming to China is certainly not going to make me rich. In
fact, I am expecting the opposite to happen.

By the time we are ready to leave, I should have at least £10K saved not including my redundancy.
Will this be enough for a family of four?

While in China, I hope to be studying to become a qualified teacher in the UK so that when I do
return, I will be able to carry on what I have started. Would this be possible with work
commitments?

Does anyone have any experience of taking youngish children? I have read a couple of threads but
the children involved have been a bit older than my pair. If possible, I would like to send them
to a local school but I would imagine that the language barrier would stop that. I intend to learn
Mandarin with them before we go but I very much doubt they could learn enough in 18 months to be
able get along. Would I have to live near a large city to get them into an international school,
as I would prefer not to if I could help it?

Would it be difficult for us both to get jobs teaching in the same school? My wife has been a
housewife since the children came along but before that she used to work as a teaching assistant
at a local school and was actually planning on going to uni to become a teacher before the
children came along.

What is the likelihood of an employer offering accommodation for the four of us?

Finally, neither of us have degrees. I have IT certifications that I know will not be of much use
practically but would these be of much value when applying for jobs? We will be doing a TESL
course later this year but I do not even know if that will count for much.

I have waffled on long enough now, so thanks for taking the time to read this. Any replies will be
gratefully received. I know that no one can give definitive answers to these questions but any
thoughts will be most useful.



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kdavid -

Aside from your family, your individual qualifications are more than enough to land you a job
anywhere in the country (outside of the better-paying large international schools--with a few
years of experience and some ESL-related qualificaitons, however, you'd be able to qualify later
on). Finding work out here isn't difficult. However, find *good* work can sometimes be a task.

Your only obstacle, I forsee, lies with your family. Here are some things to look into:

1. Housing. While the money you've saved should be a good amount put towards buying a house /
apartment out here, whether or not foreigners can legally own property out here might be a problem
for you. While I don't have any direct experience with this, I have read on these forums that we
can't *own* our own houses, and instead have to go through a middle-man to buy property.

2. Schooling for your children. Unless you're children enroll in an international school (private,
expensive, and most likely filled more so with Asians than westerners), your children will have a
very difficult time assimilating to the school system here. It's nothing like what we are used to
as westerners. Add in the language barrier, and the initial difficultyin learning spoken Mandarin
(and the long-term investment needed to master writing and reading), I'd fear that your kids
wouldn't be able to keep up with their peers back home.

If you were coming alone, I'd say go for it. However, bringing your family sounds like quite a
task, and while I'm sure it's far from impossible, I wouldn't expect the transition to be easy to
cope with, especially since your children are at a very young (and important) age for learning and
developing their own identity.










muyongshi -



Quote:

1. Housing. While the money you've saved should be a good amount put towards buying a house /
apartment out here, whether or not foreigners can legally own property out here might be a problem
for you. While I don't have any direct experience with this, I have read on these forums that we
can't *own* our own houses, and instead have to go through a middle-man to buy property.

I hope this isn't true because that means my friends didn't just buy their house and will be very
disappointed when I tell them. But from what it sounds like in your case is renting will be a
better option as you plan to go back to your home country eventually. Right?

No problem getting a job. I know so many people that have moved here with their families and even
at similar ages to your own children. There is an adjustment and a stretching but you can all do
it!

Just consider cities carefully as you look at where to live and what type of your can't do without
things that city will or will not have. Especially for the kids.

I would also suggest being very prepared as a family. Talk about it a lot and let the kids really
process out their feelings too.










Ebbo98 -

Thanks for the quick responses.

My children are obviously my number one concern in all this. If I do not think they will be happy
and able to settle in, then we will not be going. It is as simple as that.

I think that I have enough time before we plan to go, to get them ready and to make sure they are
happy going. I just know that when I was their age, I would have loved to live somewhere
completely different. It would have been a huge adventure for me.

muyongshi - I don’t suppose you could put me in touch with anyone you know with children who
have gone to live in China. It would be useful to get an insight on how they started and how they
are getting on now.

Thanks










gato -

Are you sure your wife and kids want to come to live in China as much as you do? It may be
particularly difficult for them if they are not mentally prepared to living in a third world
country.










imron -

Check out this episode of the "Up Close" program run on CCTV (click on the little icon to play, or
follow this link). It's an interview with Charlotte MacInnis, an American who moved to China with
her family when her and her sister were about the same age as your children.










simonlaing -

Hi Ebbo,

Teaching English might be one thing to do , but you may want to consider teaching some IT reslated
courses at some of the Tech universities.
My friend Thomas from Canada teachs computer game graphic design and programming. He seems to
enjoy it and can keep up with some the industry changes.
You should apply to the large unviersities that have science and technologies as part of their
curriculum.

If you can afford to get a teaching degree before you come to China you will earn 4 times normal
ESL teachers by working in International schools. They pay upwards of 25k RMB a month where as
you're looking at 5 -10K for normal ESL jobs.

You wife may be able to get work as well as a teacher, the cost of nannies and babysitters here
are low.

Suzhou and Nanjing both have decent international schools. Plus other mid sized cities will have
them aswell. I did know of a swiss family that had their child in grade 1 or grade 2. But into
Highschool CHinese local kids have no life outside of school and you may want to take that into
account. Elementary and Middle school, they are still stressed with music lessons and tutoring at
night but they can still occassionally go out to play.


Good luck,
Simon










Ebbo98 -

Thanks for the responses so far.

My wife is as excited as me about moving to China but we have so far only mentioned it in passing
to the kids. I am popping into our local bookshop on the way home from work tonight to hopefully
find a guide that the they will understand. After that then it is plenty of TV and websites to try
to get them to understand what is going to happen. I don't know how much my 5 year old will take
in but we will see.

I have had a look at a few international schools. Looking at the fee's that is certainly out of
the question. There is no way I can afford £7K each a year, so it's back to the drawing board
there.

I hadn't thought about teaching IT. Is that something that is in demand? I assumed the language
barrier would prohibit me from teaching anything other than English. When I do return to the
England, I intend on becoming an IT teacher anyway because it really is in demand here now so that
sounds very interesting.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I would be able to get a degree in 18 months. I was looking at the
life degrees that certain places advertise now. I know it’s not worth much here but does anyone
think it may be worthwhile getting in this situation or would a company take a few IT
certifications in place of a degree.

Thanks for the TV link. I will certainly watch it this evening.










imron -

I think at that age your kids will find it to be one big adventure. I spent a period of time in
Indonesia when I was around that age and it was great. Personally, I also think that at that age,
sending them to a local school will be fine. Yes there will be a language barrier to begin with,
but by the end of the first year, they'll be speaking Mandarin like natives










roddy -

Few thoughts.

In your circumstances, I would recommend looking at a university teaching post rather than a
private school job. They don't pay so well, but you're likely to get decent accommodation on
campus, which will remove one of your major headaches. Those jobs also tend to be more stable, and
at a guess would be more open to the idea of taking on a family - although I'd imagine they won't
be too keen unless both you and your wife are taking on jobs. There are often schools attached to
the universities and you should be able to get your kids in there, if you decide that's the way
you want to go, at little or no cost.

Not having a degree could well be a problem - most places will ask for one and in some (all?)
areas you can have trouble getting all your documentation without one. The situation is unlikely
to be any more relaxed in 18 months time. Emphasize what you've got in terms of certificates /
experience and see what happens. I'd start looking now - it is early, but it might take time to
find something you are happy with and knowledge gained now will stand you in good stead later.












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