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Free lodging in China — if you speak English

Free lodging in China — if you speak English

Old May 12, 2010, 12:29 pm
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Free lodging in China — if you speak English

Free lodging in China — if you speak English
Budget-minded visitors offered free stays for language tutor sessions

SHANGHAI - Visitors seeking to see China on a budget would do well to brush up their English language skills to take advantage of a scheme that offers free lodging in Chinese homes in exchange for English tutoring.

With the cost of one hour of English tuition costing up to 500 yuan ($73.26) — unaffordable for the vast majority of Chinese — a not-for-profit Chinese organization called Tourboarding launched the initiative last month.

Lodgers must speak at least two hours of English a day in return for their keep while their Chinese hosts can learn for free from a resident live-in English teacher.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37082789...-destinations/
wr_schwab is offline  
Old May 21, 2010, 10:55 pm
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Neat idea. However, decent hostels can be found in China for sub $10/night, even in tourist cities like Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.
Cool if you want to connect with the locals, but 2 hours of English tutoring to save $10 seems like really low pay.
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Old May 22, 2010, 12:24 am
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Anyone else getting flashbacks to "Stripes"??
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Old May 22, 2010, 12:28 am
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Anyone else getting flashbacks to "Stripes"??

"Son of ......... ....!"
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Old Jun 6, 2010, 4:42 am
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Originally Posted by skaven
Neat idea. However, decent hostels can be found in China for sub $10/night, even in tourist cities like Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.
Cool if you want to connect with the locals, but 2 hours of English tutoring to save $10 seems like really low pay.
$10 for 2 hrs is good pay in China. Compared with US or EU standards it seems to be low. Compared with Chinese white collar workers it is not much, but not really low pay.
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Old Jun 9, 2010, 5:26 pm
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Originally Posted by Togo001
$10 for 2 hrs is good pay in China. Compared with US or EU standards it seems to be low. Compared with Chinese white collar workers it is not much, but not really low pay.
that may be true, but you need to be a westerner to get the 'free' housing. So it is from that perspective, not the Chinese worker.
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Old Jul 22, 2010, 10:34 am
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With the cost of one hour of English tuition costing up to 500 yuan ($73.26)
Do people really pay $70/hr for an English tutor? I wonder if you need to also be able to speak Chinese. I'd be fine with getting paid half that...
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Old Jul 22, 2010, 8:45 pm
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I know people who teach there, they definitely don't get 500RMB/hr

If you are lucky you might get 200-250RMB/hr.

However, keep in mind that you will probably only get a few hours of private lessons like that per week. You won't be able to fill your schedule at that rate.

You'll probably have to work in a school making way less and will then get hired on the side. In many situations the good teaching jobs require getting your TOEFL.

Also, a lot of the schools are backroom operations that will try and get out of paying you or offer you housing that is sub-standard, ect.


Teaching English in Asia can be a great experience and you can make OK money doing it, but don't expect to get rich or of it to be easy.

Originally Posted by gizmoduck
Do people really pay $70/hr for an English tutor? I wonder if you need to also be able to speak Chinese. I'd be fine with getting paid half that...
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Old Jul 23, 2010, 4:44 pm
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Originally Posted by trooper
Anyone else getting flashbacks to "Stripes"??
if this is a movie, then i sure as hell need to rent it!
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