Moving to China, you will want to watch this

[Overhere]

Chai Jing's review Under the Dome – Investigating China’s Smog

Youtube has the subtitled version, its excellent and hopefully will cause the Chinese to stop and think.

[PsyGuy]

Think about what? They have done the cognitive -, and reached the current conclusion that represents the position on Chinas air quality. A you tube video of anything is not going to change the Parties opinion, or position about anything.

[Overhere]

Psyguy, its not that it was on Youtube, it was on Youku and in a single week was hit over 200 million times. The video won't change their thinking but the reaction of Chinese society will. The greatest threat to Communist . rule is social instability and currently one of, if not the greatest, threat to a stable society is the state of the environment, its going to crap at a very rapid pace. The Government has tactfully acknowledged this at least three times in the past week, each time from the top, from the Premier, the President and Environmental Protection Minister . Knowledge is power and as the average Chinese citizen is exposed to the problems facing their soil, the water, the atmosphere they will begin to demand change.

[PsyGuy]

@Overhere

I know kitten videos that have the same number of hits.

In China acknowledgment is cheap. China is pretty good at handling social instability; The cultural revolution, Tienanmen Square, none of them changed very much. China changes when there is blood involved, and even then its only marginally. Look at the occupy movement in HK over suffrage and the Chief Executive, nothing happened, and that was Hong Kong not the mainland. The only real issue was how many citizens were going to get hurt in the process. If they cant get that they arent going to get environmental issues changed which would have a HUGE impact on the Chinese economy. If Taiwan ever declared independence, this is a country whose leaders would glass the ROC.

The Environmental Ministers post is an empty sack, hes a puppet. Its a warm, feel good, attempt at paying lip service to make people feel better.

[Overhere]

I think you are wrong, but then again you think I'm wrong. In the end, there has been a great deal of conversation on this forum about the pollution problems facing China. I think this video offers an interesting perspective to anyone moving to or thinking about a teaching career in China. If it helps one person/couple make a decision they are comfortable with then it was a worthy post.

[PsyGuy]

@Overhere

It is a most worth post and its value to ITs considering relocation is very valuable.

Where we disagree, is that it will change China.

[senator]

Why would this change international education in China at all? It is clear that there will always be enough teachers willing to breathe poisoned air, eat food from poisoned soil, take showers in poisoned water if they are paid enough.

The liver and kidneys always know even if the person doesn't.

And I LOVED my years in China - sad that it has become so bad in so short a time.

[mamava]

It's not just pollution...of course people will always go places and China has so much that's worth experiencing and there will be people (including us for 5 years) that will deal with the down side to experience the highs of being there. But...a fair number of companies and organizations are starting to consider China a hardship post...not only because of the pollution, but also because of the increasing restructions on Google, etc. The Great Firewall of China has grown again in the past few years and it does affect a company's ability to conduct international business. The pollution does put people off. There will be ramifications for the pollution in China....if not for China itself, but for the rest of the planet, as the pollution in the air doesn't respect any border. We all bear the brunt of what any country does.

[HereThereEverywhere]

I loved watching this video, but most of these posts are likely correct. This will do nothing in the short term for China's pollution. Its an interesting documentary, but if you want clean air tomorrow that will take a revolution, not a video on Youtube (or Youku). Chinese people aren't bling, more or less they know the score.

@Senator Hey man, I'm sorry you didn't use a filter on your tap, put an air filter in your home, buy imported food, or drink water from a cooler (most abroad positions now days in Asia), but that was up to you. Chinese schools will throw buckets of money at you for positions just like elsewhere in Asia as professionalism is concerned. Its not because you are special. Its a "hardship" position. The money is meant to accommodate the hardship.

[senator]

Hey, Man,

China always threw money at you, even when I worked there in the 1990's when all was beautiful and no hardship was involved.

And filters don't filter everything, pal.

And don't be sorry for me. I did my time overseas when things were still pretty good. Not like you guys now who gladly put up with BS we never would have.

P.T Barnum was right.

[HereThereEverywhere]

"no hardship was involved." Right, because China in the 90's was at the top of everyone's list of places to go.

Yeah, the job market has changed since the 90s. Its a lot more competitive and if you want the best jobs you may have to put up with some hardships along the way.

[senator]

Yeah, man, you're right, about that. It's just unfortunate that this new generation of international teachers seem to be ready to compromise themselves in such a multitude of ways to get "the best jobs" - which is ironic since there are only a few of these and most IT's will never come close to getting them.

As I've said before, health is too important and I hope nobody has to be in a hospital bed someday wondering if that liver cancer they were diagnosed with developed from breathing in heavy metals in China. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but different strokes.

[PsyGuy]

China wasnt on top of anyone list to go, it was hard to get into China in the 90s. Tienanmen square happened in 1989, and you had to use FECs in China up through the middle of the 90s. It was hard just getting a foreign newspaper. Back then a western university English lecturer could make more than the Uni president and 10-20 times the average annual salary for a professional.

A lot of younger teachers entered the profession during economically depressed times of recession. they got out of Uni and expected there would be jobs and that their field experience would lead to a position. Many of them just found themselves unemployed and unemployable with out experience or an academic background that was marketable outside of education (and there really arent enough corporate training department positions available). In many ways the domestic teaching and education fields have not recovered. Class size grows, but services and resources get cut. Teachers retire and their vacancies dont get replaced. Many of the entry level current ITs are just happy, ecstatic even to have a job offer in a foreign country where they dont have 40 kids in a class, and the only resources available are textbooks, with half of those students on an AP/IEP. So for them having to use filters and bottled water is almost a trivial sacrifice or imposition to them.

[senator]

Yeah, Baby!

Teaching the kids without the silver spoons in their mouths, the challenging students, the ones who you have to really motivate and work HARD to reach! That's what REAL teachers do.

[wrldtrvlr123]

senator wrote:
> Yeah, Baby!
>
> Teaching the kids without the silver spoons in their mouths, the challenging students,
> the ones who you have to really motivate and work HARD to reach! That's what REAL
> teachers do.
-------------------------
Actually (as you probably realize), teaching the ones with the silver spoon in their mouth can be pretty challenging as well.