Hi, I'm just curious what the average teaching salary for native speakers with degrees is in Kunming? I've heard that a lot of people want to be there so it drives the salaries down. Is it around 8000-10000 per month plus apartment?

This is going to depend where you work.

If it's in a training centre then your figure is probably right.

If you're in a government school it will be more providing it's something more than a primary school, preferably in one of the ''international departments'' and if you're in a university it will be less.

Accommodation should come with any worthwhile job. If it isn't provided for then ask them for an amount to cover that on top of the salary and use it to find your own gaff.

What you may find is a lot of the schools, judging by the ads on here, seem to favour signing a contract with you and then paying you by the class, therefore meaning that your salary is only as good as their marketing team/ location/ reputation is. If you're thrown something like this, look elsewhere otherwise your salary could be all over the shop - you should be looking for stability and making some money when there are no classes to teach - summer holidays and Chinese New Year for example. Something by the hour is going to leave you seriously short at those times of year.

All foreign teachers on contracts should be native speaker and have a degree, so wheeling those two assets out isn't going to give you a jump in salary.

Do your research about any school offering you a job, and there's no reason you shouldn't be making a little more than the 8-10,000 you mentioned.

A new teacher with little to no experience won't get 10k. They'll be lucky to make much over 9k, and more likely be on 8 something.

Add in some experience and you're looking at around 9-10k.

If you have to teach a lot of classes, you may get 10k or more.

Accommodation is not always included, so don't expect it to be. In the past public schools and universities usually had on site accommodation, but teachers don't always want to live on site.

The average salary inland runs 8,000 to 10,000. Sometimes an apartment or housing is added. Sometimes a food supplement. Some schools have offered plane ticket one or both ways. Some include holidays and vacations. Sometimes medical insurance. Some pay is taxed first sometimes not. On the east coast the salaries are running 10,000 to 20,000 and up with benefits depending on the subject, experience and credentials. Most places want American white 24 to 45. The demand is to teach Average student age levels of 3 to 6 or slightly older. I have seen a few offers at 30,000 in Beijing or Shenzhen.

the OP asked about Kunming. Pay in Kunming isn't very high, then again its enough to live on whilst saving some because the cost of living is lower than the 1st and 2nd tier cities.

What do you mean MOST places want American????

Most places want/need native speaker, and this may come as a shock to you, but there are more English speaking countries out there.

Absolute rubbish to say MOST places. Did you give your little blue passport a quick double tap as you typed that?

Those looking specifically for Americans would be either US foundation courses, ACT courses etc, at the top end of the spectrum because of college affiliation / accent / training / employees being contracted in America or low grade training centres at the opposite end, because, well, they're all about form over substance.

It could also be down to diplomatic affiliation. I know that Hubei MoE actively encourages Australian citizens to be hired in it's schools because of an affiliation with the MoE in Australia, Nanjing warned it's pre-schools off hiring Americans around 2 years ago.

MOST places will be absolutely made up to receive a CV from a native speaker of any nationality who is able to perform the job.

Napoleon. I did not say or mean in any way that American native speakers are any better nor better qualified to teach English than any other native speaker of English. What I see advertised most often nation wide for native speakers is American ones. I did not say it has anything to do with quality or capability to teach well. I know many non native speakers who are great educators too.

I haven't implied that you made any comparison between native speakers.

What I'm pulling you up on is your "Most places want American"

While I realise there are exceptions that ask for American, as I mentioned above, these are a very small minority, not even approaching MOST.

No one is saying Americans are better or worse than other nations when it comes to teaching English. You didn't catch my drift.

This......

Occasionally some places will insist on American citizens applying, others will look for Brits, Aussies etc. Sometimes for specific reasons, sometimes because they don't know what they're doing. However if you are a native English speaker and have the necessary qualifications you should not be put off applying for any job within the ESL industry in China.

..... would have been better.

It might be true to say that most places that stipulate a nationality want American native speakers. I have been turned down for a job in Kunming because they wanted American native speaker teachers.

I have come across 3 reasons for this. Firstly, parents want their kids to go to America to study in the future and believe an American teacher will provide an advantage. I tend to agree with this one on the basis of familiar accents and cultural insight (especially academic practice). Secondly, for bridge schools that are using the US curriculum, teachers that have studied under that curriculum are better equipped to teach it. As a Brit, who has taught US history and social studies, I agree with this one. Thirdly, students who have watched a lot of US TV (in the old days it was Friends) expect to have fewer problems with the accents. I tend to think this is wrong, as the US has many, and widely different, accents.

My statement was in error. Most, meaning many, ads for teachers nation wide that I saw up until about August asked for Americans. Now that is no longer true. I believe that was due to the agents looking for teachers to sell at that time not specific schools. So my word "MOST" was in used in error. At the time I thought it was excessive.