A Korean friend of mine had connections to very large company in Korea. I wound up applying for a job there with no experience other than a degree in math and economics. I thought it would be a fun to do for a year. I did 1:1 lessons at first, then I moved into a more traditional style classroom. I liked it, students from a range of backgrounds liked me so I was asked to do an accent training course too 1:1 and group business English classes.
After my year, I did not renew my contract because I didn’t want to do it for more than a year. Just something to do after university for a year. Big mistake. I came back to the states (this was around 09) and getting a job for what I wanted to do was very difficult. After a year, I decided to go back to Asia and make a career out of it. Made some gains so they paid for me to get a CELTA. It’s easy to get started but to make money takes some time. The real money comes from private classes.
I can tell you right now that you can earn a shitton of money teaching English at a university in China. My Aunt is a six figure salary English teacher with a private vacation mansion.
Don’t go anywhere where you might attract suspicion. If you’ve EVER been critical of the government, they can block access to SPECIFICALLY YOU on public computers. I’ve had a friend have that happen, cause he kept talking politics and diplomacy from an overly critical standpoint online. Also, you forfeit your right to privacy as soon as they take a picture of you at customs. Always know you are being tracked in some manner.
Always SSH Tunnel to a server you own. VPNs are actually illegal by law now. They’ve been fully outlawed. SSH has not been made illegal yet, so SSH Tunnelling with remote DNS, assuming the encryption is strong and the server you’re encrypting your pipe over is strong, is the way to go.
Remember, the only link to the outside world is A SINGLE PIPE. If you arrive when there’s a major international story involving China (I went there last when MH370 disappeared) The entire country will be accessing the outside world on ONE PIPE. If the entire country is seeking news about something like MH370 at once, your connection will slow to a crawl.
Also, don’t be surprised to see Internet Cafes having Overwatch and PUBG. Those have risen insanely in popularity.
oh @zovc and to get rid of all the doom and gloom (because its not all doom and gloom over there tbh) get your ass in a KTV with some friends. Def. bring some Chinese friends. It’s a great time. Even if you hate singing and that kind of stuff, it’s a blast. I hated karaoke and things like that but over time I grew to love it. This is one of the things I miss the most.
I’m back in the states now. I taught for a couple years then was promoted to a trainer and did that for the remainder all with the same company. I still took a couple classes on the weekend for fun but I mainly taught new employees what I learned from CELTA and how to use that in a real classroom.
CELTA is aimed at English…that being said, lesson plans and the like are formulated the same way in any subject. I worked for a very large company but they only did English. I’ve thought about going back and teaching another subject. Truth be told, I’ve always wanted to teach Economics.
Where I am right now, I’m considering just committing for a year of teaching in China through this program. I’m still “casting the net” for other prospects and work stays, but I’m imagining that a year of teaching English at one job and a year of Chinese coursework (plus compensation!) will probably put me in a much more marketable/qualified position for other opportunities like this.
When your bootloader is locked, you can’t install your own firmware. And when you unlock it, it deletes all the data on the phone. So keeping it locked is a security measure.
VPN wise I recommend setting up a VPN server that is behind cloud flare warp and uses TCP/443 for connection. I would be so suprised if that got blocked because it would look exactly like an https request to a cloudflare server and I don’t think that China blocks them. You can message me if you have any problems.