Hello world!
I am so pumped to be writing today. This time it is for an entirely different
reason. I have spent the last 4 days
hardly leaving our little apartment…I know, can’t you see why I’m so excited?
Reason being is I’ve been attached to my computer creating Sophia and I’s new
company…Teaching Nomad!! Like the name? catchy I know. Just to make sure World
Nomads doesn’t feel left out, I have applied to them for an affiliate account
(BTW, we are now ranked as the #5 writer on World Nomads). Teaching Nomad is a teacher placement company
focused on bringing quality teachers to quality schools right here in China. I
guess you could say our niche is being focused solely on China. All the
recruiters I have found are spread across many countries. We have so many
reasons for putting this all together and many are related to our experiences
in the short time we have been living here…so I’ll try to interweave them for
you.
(picture from mountain biking trip I took last weekend...very cool, only crashed once)
I guess I didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived…I
had been told that Shanghai had a well developed expat community but I never
expected it to be SO well developed. I started looking around and I’m seeing
Americans, Europeans and Australians all over the place. I believe it was our 3rd day here
and we found ourselves in an English language improve show in what I like to
call “America town”. The place was
packed full of all sorts of English speaking people, even Asian-Americans which
gets even more confusing. It’s not
actually called America town, it’s actually called the French Concession. If you go here, you won’t have to worry about
ordering food in Chinese or whether or not the bartender will understand what
kind of beer you want.
Then, as we meet more and more people (the Expats are super,
super friendly) I discover that no one I meet is leaving. Everyone is either
taking a new job with higher pay, moving to a different part of the country or
getting promoted within their company. At this point I’m starting feel like it’s
the 1920’s in America…you know, people looking for opportunity. I’m no economist but I don’t think the
economic recession has affected people here the same way. The outlook from the locals I talk to is that
it’s easy to get a job, the value of their house is going up and their children
have a bright future ahead of them. Now
wait, I’m not telling you to jump ship, every country/economy has its day and
with hard work and some changes in America things will improve there as well.
But back to China, I’ve been hearing on the news about how China can sustain
their growth, it says they must shift their economy from one that relies on
manufacturing and exports to one more like the US that relies on consumerism…I
believe I read that the average Chinese family actually saves 6% of their
income, while the average American family spends more than they make. To buy a
house here, you have to put down a minimum of 20% (rare) to usually 50%. Hearing this information about the
consumerism before we left, I was totally blown away to see how much shopping
there is here! Absolutely incredible! In some parts of town, every block has
4-6 story mall on it. Block after block after block. Some malls are just electronics;
right by our apartment is the Metro City mall, 5 stories of electronics and 1
story of a fitness center. Others are all clothes…and clothes are the deal
here, quality manufacturing of Chinese brands and sold for cheap.
(One of Shanghai's malls. The largest mall in the city is 13floors & 250K sq.ft.)
Speaking of these Chinese brands, these guys copy anything
and everything; they make copies of copied Iphones…seriously. You can buy
software like windows 7, Office 2010, etc for 8RMB (6.5RMP = $1), games for the
wii for 5RMB, blue ray movies in the case for 20RMB…it’s never ending…how about
new North face coat for 150RMB? I’m not advocating the purchase of black market
goods, but good luck trying to find the real thing? Not happening. The things you can find originals of are brand
name electronics like real iphones, laptops, tv’s, etc and these are not a
great deal, prices are fixed somehow and even though it’s all made here the
prices are the same or even higher than you would pay in the US. Sometimes you
can get a better deal on a computer primarily because it’s running a stolen
copy of windows. Rumor has it that Hong Kong is the place to go for deals on
these brand name electronics…something about no tax. I’ll keep you posted, my tourist visa will
run out around mid April and I will have take an overnight trip to Hong Kong to
renew it…maybe by then I can afford that new DSLR…hehehe.
So, back to the recruiting business, just in China, the
English language industry generates over $2billion USD/year and growing rapidly…many
schools are opening centers by the dozen and all need teachers. The teachers
get paid more around here than many other positions (how’s that for strange)…I
was offered a position as Sales manager for an Export company, they told me it
would take at least a year and a half with the company to get to the income
that Sophia makes as a teacher (classroom time of less than 20hrs/week). The average income of all people in Shanghai
last year was 3,000RMB/month. Not including bonuses, airfare, insurance, etc…Sophia
makes 14,800RMB/month. Granted, Disney is one of the higher paying schools, but
many others are at the same level, close or even pay more. That means that teachers here are able to
afford their own apartment, housekeeper, eating out and still save a portion of
their check each month. They can use that money to pay off school loans, credit
cards or build savings for the future. We met people while traveling in South
America that in one year teaching abroad had saved $5K-$8K. So, if you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited and
will continue working non-stop to make this happen…except for a short break to
attend the Sinopec Formula 1 Grand Prix on April, 17th which I just
purchased a ticket to…sorry to all you American racing fans that have no access
to the fastest cars in the world…I will make sure to take pictures…J
Feel free to check out the site for the new company www.teachingnomad.com any suggestions/criticisms are certainly welcome
as are your referrals for anyone interested in this exciting industry.
Until next time…take care and Zi Jian (Mandarin for good-bye)
Brett
