Tag Archives: preparation

Hangzhou Cityscape

How money works in China

Preparation, Teaching English in China Leave a comment

All about that dollar…. *Yuan Currency  The Chinese currency is the Ren Min Bi (lit. people’s currency).  However people also refer to the currency as the Chinese Yuan. To complicate things further, in China, you will often hear the word ‘Kuai’, meaning ‘piece’ used to refer to money. Kuai is a colloquial expression used in the same way we say ‘quid’ in the U.K or ‘bucks’ in the U.S. The note denominations are 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 & 1 RMB notes. There are also 1 RMB coins along with 5 mao and 1 mao coins. 10 mao makes 1…

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Zhenyuan riverside

9 things you’re gonna feel hard during your first week in China

Inspiration, Preparation Leave a comment

Teaching in China takes you on long both real and emotional journey and the first week of China is commonly known as the most difficult part of the whole experience. Here are 9 things other teachers identified as being very real during their first week and why you will feel it. Anxiety Before landing in China you’re gonna be anxious to get started. You’re gonna feel eager to get stuck in and curious about all the new sights, sounds and smells that await you. Tiredness When you first arrive your body clock is going to be running behind and Jet-lag…

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Suzhou garden

7 things you really should take to China with you

Teaching English in China Leave a comment

None of these things are life or death, but bringing them will be prove helpful for you in the future. Laptop Obviously, laptops can be bought readily in China, but the tax structure and import duties mean that it is often considerably more expensive to buy a laptop in china than back home. Furthermore, if the laptop is a windows PC and bought in China then it will have the Chinese operating system and the language permanently fixed in Chinese. This can lead to obvious problems if you still have a way to go on your Chinese character recognition .…

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Packing your luggage for China, four key things to remember

Daily Life, Teaching English in China, Trips Abroad

Cramming your entire life into a 23 kg suitcase and small carry on can be a frightening and stressful ordeal. But there are ways in which you can make this task much less daunting. Here are a few  tips for how to pack as much as necessary and as little as possible. Avoid heavy textbooks  Textbooks are made of paper and are heavy, you won’t ever be able to carry enough to give to all of your students and the schools will have textbooks of their own. Do your back a favor and try to drastically limit the number of…

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