>>6099well, take all i say with a grain of salt because ive been working in Shanghai which is the most western city in china as far as i can tell. i cant speak to the rest of china which is probably what you want to know. also, my knowledge is filtered through the class gateway of knowing English. i can only speak to Chinese people in English so my information comes with a bias toward the upper middle class.
that being said. i got my job from just an ESL website, it was pretty easy, they were desperate. kindergartens get paid stupid sums to have their kids have a native English speaker teach them. but capitalists being who they are, will typically hire anyone who can fill the role and then lie about where they are from. indians say they are british, russians say they are American etc. sometimes the parents have good English themselves and see through it but the administration tries their best to not let the parents see how schools work. i thought i just had a bad kindergarten at first but no, this seems universal. i have a lot of friends here and everyone has similar issues with their kindergartens.
they sell the aesthetics of education at the expense of actually teaching them shit.
Chinese teachers are treated like dirt. threatened with firing.over just about anything. called in every weekend to do random "school beautifying" bullshit. 996 is pretty common and while my coteachers dont quite get that most weeks, atleaast every other week.
i dunno, the place is depressing. Shanghai would be a cool city if everyones nose wasnt to the grind 24/7. lots of cheap shit, great people, great experiences. no one has any time to do it.
actually, to be fair there are a shitton of ppublic holidays. like, every other month. the long ones though you have to make up some of the days you got off by working weekends. this is legally required and not dependant on the job.
god i dunno theres so much to say.
politics wise, it seems most chinese people ive talked to like the stability of the state but have huge complaints about the increasing nationalism, increasing workload, crackdowns on drug use and party venues. no one hates the government but they always talk shit about this kind of increasing… what would you call it.. conservativism? theres a couple people who are pretty diehard communists in support of the party who are my friends. they talk about it as necessary in the face of the American empire collapsing. which like, yeah, its a valid argument to an extent.
i dunno i dont really want to say that much. life for.me is pretty good here and i am well aware the government only tolerates foreigners. i do constantly feel watched.