china: how are things over there at all?

synchro

china appears to be growing by the second
id say even one day it mite be up there near the usa in terms of global market dominance
are there many jobs available over there ie contract work etc for irish ppl does any one know?

Merrion

China is widely projected to become the world's dominant economy by 2020.
However this economy is largely built on low wages, high labour pool and artificial manipulation of the currency markets to maintain competitive advantage so, outside of teachiong English as a foreign language, there is not much of a market for Irish contractors there (IMO)...and the Aussies have cornered the TEFL market

davidoco

Unless you are going to Hong Kong you must be prepared to learn the language which is very difficult.

The wages are very low so they can afford to export dirt cheap. They are also raping the environment to feed this growth. I was there in 2004 and while some parts are very nice and interesting there was some serious pollution and overcrowding. I don't think they have such as thing as employment rights or unions either.

Merrion

IIRC : You can get around Beijing and Shanghai with English (and a bit of miming if you get stuck).

There are employment rights and unions in the public sector (it is, after all, a nominally communist country) but not in the private sector which is pretty much where most employment is.

The country is extremely safe for the ex-pat (next to no street crime apart from overcharging and scamming) but most find it claustrophobic as you never really get any space or time to yourself and are sometimes the focus of large gawping crowds.

Some of the larger hotels have informal deals whereby you can get a cheap meal or room if you agree to do conversational English training for the staff. Paid TEFL is also arranged through the main universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong uni being the only one I have experience of) and also through NGO's such as the Bristish Council.

nlgbbbblth

it's a crap place to buy records/cds

Japan is far better

Merrion

It's the worlds fastest growing and currently third largest economy and they make a good deal more than "crappy records". Nearly half of all retail consumer goods are made in PRC and most of the worlds flat screens and DVD players are made there.

nlgbbbblth

Merrion wrote:

It's the worlds fastest growing and currently third largest economy and they make a good deal more than "crappy records". Nearly half of all retail consumer goods are made in PRC and most of the worlds flat screens and DVD players are made there.

for the serious music fan like myself China has very little to offer in the way of second hand cds and vinyl

pwd

I know someone who worked there (I think in Shanghai) designing intranet sites for benq. He liked it and wants to go back. While the wages are low by our standards, but so is the cost of living, and there was a reasonably large Irish community where he worked. He went over with basic Chinese from a 3-month Fas course, and seemed to get by well enough.
There is some interest in hiring Europeans there because we understand European language and customs, which is useful to multinationals that are based there.

nlgbbbblth

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/13/ms_ban_freedom

wrote:

Microsoft deletes 'freedom' and 'democracy' in China
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Monday 13th June 2005 09:30 GMT

Microsoft has bowed to Beijing's political censors and has banned the use of the words "freedom" and "democracy" on some areas of its Chinese internet portal, along with a host of other politically sensitive words such as "Taiwan independence" and "demonstration".

According to the Financial Times, portal operators have imposed the restriction on the names users give their blogs, although the words can still be used within blog's text. Users who try to use the offensive terminology are met with error messages informing them that they have used "forbidden speech", which they are asked to delete from the item.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

drdre

china is amazing i went there last year for fun. i went to a electronics trade show in shanghai and it was amazing.theres loads of potential to make a alot of money. but yo have to have money to make money. so its no good to me as i have no money.:o

kasintahan

davidoco wrote:

Unless you are going to Hong Kong you must be prepared to learn the language which is very difficult.

Not true, Mandrin is not that difficult compared to the likes of Vietnamese.
I'd rate it no more difficult than French (assuming no prior knowledge of Latin).
Plus the writing system has been simplified, but even that's not necessary to learn intially with the Romanised Pinyin system (used alongside simplified Chinese on all roadsigns etc).

davidoco wrote:

I don't think they have such as thing as employment rights or unions either.

China has some of the toughest fairest employment legislature in the world.
It's just systematically ignored and rarely enforced...

whykay

kasintahan wrote:

Not true, Mandrin is not that difficult compared to the likes of Vietnamese.
I'd rate it no more difficult than French (assuming no prior knowledge of Latin).
Plus the writing system has been simplified, but even that's not necessary to learn intially with the Romanised Pinyin system (used alongside simplified Chinese on all roadsigns etc).

davidoco mentioned he was in Hong Kong. They speak Cantonese there. Mandarin is slowly creeping in, but primarily Cantonese-speaking territory. It's much harder than Mandarin. Intonation is very hard, and if you don't get it right, the whole meaning can change. I know, I speak Cantonese (love to pick up Mandarin though). Mandarin is much easier to learn. And many foreign people who take up Mandarin speak so well, you cannot tell the difference between them from a local (of course, the Mandarin dialect taught is "Beijing" Mandarin whichever course you go to, book you buy etc... as it is easier on the ear to listen.).