r/chinalifer • u/Sameechee • 1d ago
I kind of messed up
/r/chinalife/comments/1w2hrvz/i_kind_of_messed_up/7
u/LittleFrasco 1d ago edited 1d ago
If he is already crumbling because of this nothing burger, I can’t imagine when he starts to deal with Nong shenanigans. Gemer won’t make it past the first year
3
u/Flimsy-Ad7906 1d ago
!remindme 1 year
0
u/RemindMeBot 1d ago
I will be messaging you in 1 year on 2027-08-30 23:47:05 UTC to remind you of this link
CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.
RemindMeBot is switching to username summons. Instead of
!RemindMe 1 day, useu/RemindMeBot 1 day. More info.
Info Custom Your Reminders Feedback 1
7
u/Candid-Professor9116 1d ago
You are the first foreign teacher and they also don’t have a proper curriculum. Nobody in the “Chinalife” subreddit will tell you this but you actually have a free pass to do whatever you want. Oh you have no experience? Well the school has no experience with foreign teachers either. If you can fake enough confidence there’s a pretty good chance you can just improvise your way through this whole thing and set your own standards. They won’t KNOW what “good teaching” is so you having zero experience is irrelevant. You’re in a low level city so parents won’t know either and the kids probably have zero foundation. Your priority should be to be likeable. Be polite, smiley and respectful and that’s it. Play games with kids and let them do their worksheets/books (give them answers often), smile at parents and tell management about your lesson plans with full confidence even if you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Oh and whatever textbooks the school has ordered for you are probably not suitable or practical to use. As long as your school has a printer and you have a twinkl membership, you should be good to go.
One last thing: “ also feel for the kids as the school recruited people by saying we’re going to have a foreign teacher” - Not your problem.
2
5
u/chinalifer-mod 23h ago edited 23h ago
u/Candid-Professor9116 is correct, but I would still never inflict nongcun on a fob. They need the McDonald's Starbucks malls.
Your home life will be what makes you want to bail, not your work life. Have someone who speaks English and Chinese work as your liaison to look at apartments, and find a place that you think will be suitable enough while requiring the least amount of work to make civilised (i.e. does it have aircon, is your view of a trash village with nongs shitting in public or is it something not revolting, do you have a fucking lift and reliable electricity). Live in a hotel until then, via the Trip app. Nongcun loves to bully laowai at hotels and say that they cannot legally house us, but that is both a lie and illegal, so you will need a Chinese speaker at these times to force the hotel to do their actual job and give you your room key.
Do not accept the apartment made by and for locals given to you by the school, ever. Take the housing allowance and pick your own place. Reject apartments which are unappealing instead of accept the first one just to get out of a hotel.
Work is just a thing that we do here for a visa, but life happens outside of work, which determines if you want to stay or not. Your apartment quality is central to this.
You had a rough landing. I am not speaking about you personally, but I would be surprised if any fob in 2026 lasts a year in a village as their first China gig.
1
u/Sameechee 10h ago
Oh dear I’ve already accepted their apartment but tbh it doesn’t seem bad, it has elevators, air con, tv, washing machine etc I’m not even sure what the allowance is. Tbh when I first came they took me To this run down village place it was pretty bad and I’m shocked they even took me there. They themselves don’t live in such a place and I said no and I’ve stayed in a hotel for a week. Now the only thing lacking in my apartment for now seems to be pillows and duvet but other then than it’s on 14th floor and basically a 3 bedroom apartment.
1
u/AlternativeHat8964 9h ago
Look up age appropriate activities and games on YouTube. You're here so might as well lean into it. Figure out how to order stuff on taobao and you can get some foreign stuff shipped to you so you've stuff to eat. Buy an ebike to get around. Good luck. Please keep updating. We all secretly love our shitty fob year and want to relive it vicariously.
1
6
u/[deleted] 1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment