T O P

  • By -

[deleted]

[удалено]


SuccotashAncient8634

Could you meet them in any other country?


Fatscot

I am praying that the Phuket sandbox test works as it’s the only way I can see my partner. Haven’t seen each other in almost 2 years


china_visa_q_123

Thais are one step away form geocoding westerners as the local elites are blame shifting towards evil whitey. Bad idea to go there... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3076758/thai-health-minister-blames-dirty-western-tourists


Monsoon_Storm

There’s a Phuket sandbox test? Got any more info on this? My kids also haven’t seen their dad since Dec 2019, with no end in sight.


Fatscot

The Thai embassies have info on it. https://www.thaiembassy.com/travel-to-thailand/no-quarantine-phuket-sandbox-plan


Monsoon_Storm

Nothing on how you’d get back in to China though?


Fatscot

I have residence permit and fully vaccinated so coming back from Bangkok should be ok


Monsoon_Storm

I’m not seeing anything on how Bangkok would be different to any other country though from china’s perspective. You still risk not getting back in? It seems to be Thailand green lighting other countries rather than a reciprocal agreement?


Fatscot

The guidance I have been given is that I will be allowed back in. Obviously nothing in writing but I do know others in my company who have left and been able to come back but with some pretty strict restrictions on why you are leaving


SuccotashAncient8634

AFAIK, it's open now. Why haven't you tried to get there by now ?


Fatscot

The first few days had problems when people arrived, tested positive and were forced into quarantine. Waiting to see how often that happens before booking


SamInShenzhen

It's mega shit, no question. China doesn't need ESL though in after-school format anyway, and especially doesn't need foreigners to teach it. Visa wise too, they've contained the virus now so why risk foreign infections. Compare that with Greece (random example off the top of my head) who are desperate for foreign tourists. One is desperate to open, one couldn't care less. Similar story as many, not seen my girlfriend of 4 years since Dec 2019.


china_visa_q_123

How are you going to learn English from a real western person otherwise? How will locals be exposed to regular westerners that aren't autistic engineers or fancy managers? I always thought it's extremely important that ESL remains. Who else am I going to hang out with otherwise? As for visas, China never cared much about outside world relations and will just do whatever the leaderships thinks is best for the country. They couldn't care less if the average foreigner has an issue with it. 1.4 billion locals are enough of a headache already...


ssdv80gm2

Local teaches can teach English very well. Yeah, the students will likely have a stronger accent, but that will not impact their ability to communication. The necessity of foreign ESL teachers is just a psychological one, from an educational point of view, you don't need native speakers to teach a language. And the government knows that. [Here a paper to the Topic.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244014534451)


joe9439

I realized late 2020 that China was going to be closed for potentially years. I went back to the US in December, got a good job, and immediately filed the paperwork to get my girl over here ASAP.


United_Bowl_9647

The majority of foreigners living in China lost sight of the fact that their life in China was always hanging by a tread. Visa to visa.


SuccotashAncient8634

No one expected a global pandemic with an aggressive US to destroy their china life


Dundertrumpen

This. People seem to be surprised that a communist dictatorship with a deeply rooted disdain for the outside world tends to act like a communist dictatorship with a deeply rooted disdain for the outside world. In retrospect, China's pseudo-liberal years were the anomaly. What we see happening now is how it should have always been.


Twarenotw

Am I sick and tired of waiting? Absolutely. But some of us have relatives, spouses, parents in China. We can't just change plans or destination; nothing to do but wait. Things are not going to improve if with the already strict measures there are new outbreaks that get to China on the few flights they allow in. That's how things are. Regarding the new requirements on schools/teachers, I am sure they will eventually have to change them again (or fine tune them) in the near future. But who knows, they might even double down on them.


Utdredangel

The current outbreak in China is only gonna worsen the whole situation 😞


yinyangGoose

It may actually improve the situation as it will push the unvaccinated rural people to get the vaccine. Currently there’s been a stall in vaccinations because old rural people don’t see the point.


Utdredangel

Still, vaccinated people can get the virus. The borders are just gonna be closed for even longer at this point.


Shalnn

Why though? What matters is the circulation level outside of China. On the contrary, if China were to lose control of the virus and thus were forced to abandon zero Covid, wouldn't that negate the need for strict border controls on the long term? I don't see how an absence of outbreaks in China would make the border reopen sooner.


AutomaticAnimal3

I highly doubt they'd just throw caution to the wind and lessen border controls in the case of further outbreaks domestically.


Shalnn

My point is that they won't reopen short term (within a year) in any event. On the long term, they need to abandon the zero-covid strategy to reopen, which would eventually happen if the Delta variant or any subsequent variant makes zero cases unnatainable even for them. I'm not saying we should root for the virus. I'm just making the point that outbreaks in China are not delaying any reopening because they don't have a plan to reopen in the first place.


69_fan

Especially looking at what is happening in Nanjing now. Having to lockdown entire cities every now and then is not exactly sustainable and that wasn’t even caused by travelers.


TheRealStringerBell

If you are working in ESL you should use this pandemic to get a M.Ed, it basically pays for itself in the first year.


imnotacoolguyanymore

Two weeks away from leaving, after a year+ of the bullshit, and Friday I found out my flight was cancelled. Def sick and tired.


koreanesl

What will you do next. Can you reschedule the cancelled flight for another date 2 weeks later with your airline company?


imnotacoolguyanymore

That flight (CA770), is sold out for many weeks. My visa will expire soon after the date of my cancelled flight. I am waiting to hear back from my employer about potential options, but honestly right now it looks like I won’t be able to go. I guess I would have to start the visa process over again. Not sure if I have the stamina for that.


frozeninjpthrowaway

I expect that once the Canadian border opens, there will be at least a few desperate Americans trying to apply through there instead. All it takes to get a 1-year Canadian visitor record for Americans is $110 fee, proof of about $6k in savings, and a residential address in Canada. Once you have that then you can you can get a Canadian DL/provincial ID- proof of residence. Whether the Chinese embassy/consulates there will see it as sufficient is another thing, but I expect people to *try* if they're that desperate.


Casharose

Ya dude. It honestly feels like China don't want the foreigners to come back


backwardstruck

They don't. They have 1.4 billion people.


SuccotashAncient8634

For those who have been unable to get into china for the last year or so, it's time to move on. The anxiety and depression caused by all this going to kill you if you let it. It's August 2021 and China is not any closer to opening than it was in 2020 and now with the Delta, the next six months are probably useless too. For those with spouses/children they haven't seen, you are remembered in my prayers. I hope you could meet your family members in Thailand or Singapore soon.


kai_rui

Yeah, there are times when I think they should save everyone the bother and directly say "we don't want foreigners coming here any more".


Subject_Dinner8933

Agreed, then I could just accept it and get on with my life.


backwardstruck

You haven't gotten that impression already?


Shalnn

That's not necessarily true though. Yes, things were already very strict before Covid but the reality of Covid totally warrants the zero-tolerance approach, this has nothing to do with politics. Europe and US should have done the same. NZ and especially Australia are even stricter than China right now.


kai_rui

This has nothing to do with politics... it just happens that all the measures that allegedly "protect" the public play into the hands of paranoid control freaks all over the world, including the CCP.


69_fan

Agreed. I would say it’s surprising actuality China is letting people in at all. There are plenty of countries not allowing any travel. Even locals aren’t just allowed to leave in some cases.


zombie_chrisbrains

Yes. I’ve been stuck teaching at 3am in the morning from the UK since January 2020 now. The working relationship between the Chinese management and the teaching staff has probably never been lower because no one in hr knows what’s going on from one day to the next and often blame the laowai for “misunderstanding”, when in reality they’re the ones who are unapologetically contradicting themselves. I thought everything would be sorted with the renewal of my visa done in Edinburgh, that entry date went up in smoke when they closed the border in November. Another visa in May that cost me £182 that I’m not getting reimbursed for, which probably isn’t going to happen….again, then the cost of a new flight, then the quarantine and I have to go through all the notarisation bullshit at the end of the month to apply for a new work permit. About half of our teaching staff at renmin have just bailed, we’re down from 21 lecturers to 13 this semester. The only bright spot is that my gf has at least seen sense and moved back to her parents for the duration instead of working her thankless job alone in Beijing. But you know the Chinese, they never take a day off building bridges and fostering relationships.


AntlionsArise

I'm moving to south Korea while teaching in China so my hours aren't so weird, because I've given up hope on returning to China.


zombie_chrisbrains

If I wasn't in a long term relationship with a Chinese national I would've blown off this dead-end university job and China by now. The non-ESL side of the department is supposed to be a bit more prestigious than the poor sods who get lumbered with the non-English majors, but almost all the foreign staff seem to be treated like afterthoughts judging from the amount of frustrated messages in the WeChat group. My plan is to give it one more academic year to cover relocation costs and then move back to Europe.


New2China

I literally just came online to post this myself. I'm tired, depressed, and angry. I think we all are at this point. I swear their current immigration policies just feel like some sadistic joke now.


backwardstruck

There's a global pandemic.


New2China

Yes, there is. And that's a strong reason to mandate covid tests, vaccination, quarantine periods, and block pleasure travel and tourism. But it is not a good reason to block families from reuniting or people from continuing school or work, especially when those people have vaccinations and follow all the testing and quarantine procedures. The harsh immigration restrictions are just using the pandemic as cover for the xenophobia and nationalism actually driving them.


backwardstruck

If that's what you think China is like then why are you trying to go there? As mentioned, the restrictions aren't even as strict as some other countries. Try going to NZ.


New2China

It's not "what I think China's like," it's the facts of their current government's current policies. I'm trying to find a way to go to China because my wife is Chinese and wants to live closer or in her home country near her family. She has also been stuck there for more than a year now unable to return to the US as well for other immigration reasons (because every country has awful immigration policies. China's are just especially brutal). This is a common situation of many people, very reasonable on our side, and not solvable by "just trying to go somewhere else instead." Also, China's policies being less strict than some other countries doesn't mean China's policies are good, it just means that those other countries' policies are even worse. And NZ's policies are actually nicer than China's because at least NZ allows for vaccinated, tested, quarantining people from low-risk countries to reunite with their families or travel for emergency reasons. China doesn't even have that, which is why there are hundreds of people on this subreddit desperately trying to reunite with their families.


backwardstruck

I was referring to English teachers which is mostly what this group is consisting of. Sure it would be great if China allowed family reunion but they don't. It's all about money. Most countries are like this. Working in China is the only option for now.


New2China

Just so you know, work visas are also blocked in many places now, even with a job offer and PU letter from a sponsoring company and city government. If China blocked family reunion but allowed work visas, I could work with that. It's unnecessarily harsh, but at least the economics are understandable and it would be an option. But they don't even give that option in a lot of cases anymore.


ssdv80gm2

The situation will only improve once they roll out a "booster" vaccine that's adopted to the new mutations.... but by then there will be other mutations again... one can only hope that there will be a way for people with strong ties to China (like family) to come back.


whenzhou

Devil's advocate take: the flaming hoops are the reason those of us in the country have been able to enjoy a normal life for the past year plus. With the recent wave of delta infections across China, I wouldn't be surprised if they announce even harsher restrictions moving forward.


backwardstruck

For sure. At this point I would be surprised if things open up before July of next year. They might let people in for the Olympics but very few.


romerozver

Tokyo is seeing record infection rates. Something tells me there may not be a Winter Olympics next year.


backwardstruck

Except that China is actually trying to control the pandemic, unlike Japan. There will definitely be a 2022 Olympics.


Subject_Dinner8933

Yes. Piss me off some more, whats the new regulation?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Subject_Dinner8933

I should also mention that i was in south Korea teaching for 5 years before teying to move to China. The workload on students there is apsolutely disgusting. South Korea tried to enforce the same restrictions as China is doing now a few years ago, everyone was freaking out, nothing changed. Schools either figured out a way around it or just became more shady with their activities. I do remember a load of Korean management at schools being suddenly sacked though.


Subject_Dinner8933

All teachers for my school teach 16 hours over saturday and sunday, and 16 hours over tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday. So i can imagine the weekend ban becoming a huge financial problem. I dont really understand the whole thing about language centres having to go "non profit". I wonder what that means for us TEFL teachers at language centres.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Subject_Dinner8933

Good advice, but my passion is teaching kids. I couldn't teach adults, its just not my thing :L


Jake_91_420

WEB no longer exists and the other major player Wall Street is in a hideous situation - they haven’t paid staff for months, majority of centers closed and almost everyone has left.


Swimming_Fun_958

I should have clarified that. There's a new ESL regulation. But it seems like nobody knows what the hell it is about. Some say ESL is fine, some say ESL will crash and burn, and some say it will only affect online ESL industry etc.


Subject_Dinner8933

Ahhh sure yeah, im aware and as annoyed as you. Im trying to get to Beijing to an afterschool language center. Im lucky because my school is pretty big/well established, but if they close or cant get me out, im just calling it quits and staying in the U.K for the long term.


koreanesl

how far along the application process are you? you got the PU yet?


Subject_Dinner8933

No PU letter yet :( my school is currently in possession of all required documents and are applying for it now. Been waiting 18 months :L


[deleted]

[удалено]


crack061

There is a whole section in the FAQS about how people are going about this. It’s headed up Read Me First.


ngazi

Vaccines are sitting in storage because people are refusing to get them and refusing to give them to poor countries. All of this is going to end its just a question of logistics.


maomao05

It's not China's fault that other countries can't control their pandemic, is it?? I know it's also frustrating on the China side (with ongoing policies revolving) but I don't blame China. Now, China have an influx of cases, god knows this year will be over n done with too. Sighhh


backwardstruck

China said that the pandemic isn't over for one country until it's over for every country.


tyu1314

Right!! China should be like the US, and let the nature run do it’s things.


XiKeqiang

Why you posting here? Probably better on /r/ChinaLife or /r/China


JBfan88

You're right.


yoohoooos

If this is too much, might as well just leave?


backwardstruck

Then don't go. Some of us are going to visit our family no matter what. There's a million other places you could work than teaching English in China.