The International Schools Review Forum

Yes the pollution in China can be bad and probably will be for the foreseeable future, however at least the country is moving in the right direction and change for the better is visible; unlike the USA where the current administration is apparently trying to rewind the clock to the time when environmental regulations were far and few between and fossil fuels reigned supreme.

Exactly.

So, again, WHY are so many people still working in China schools? Can they all just be unconcerned about health issues?

People working in China now and wanting to continue, can you share your reasons?

@senator

Health concerns arent the top of their priority list.

senator wrote:
> Exactly.
>
> So, again, WHY are so many people still working in China schools? Can they
> all just be unconcerned about health issues?
>
> People working in China now and wanting to continue, can you share your
> reasons?

Not in China, but some reasons could be...

1) Money
2) Women
3) In the right school, the work is easy.
4) Everyone does things that are unhealthy, so it all depends on your personal risk tolerance. Most of us drink alcohol, despite the well reported health downsides. I bet just about everyone here has been to a McDonalds but we all know their food is unhealthy.
5) Can't find a job elsewhere.

senator wrote:
> Exactly.
>
> So, again, WHY are so many people still working in China schools? Can they
> all just be unconcerned about health issues?
>
> People working in China now and wanting to continue, can you share your
> reasons?
=============
The same reasons you had for living/working there for quite a few years. Things may not have been quite as bad when you were there but they certainly weren't close to be being good (go back and reread all of the concerns surrounding the Olympics being held in Beijing).

Whatever you told yourself to make it OK for you then is probably the same thing the current teachers in China are telling themselves now.

If you work at one of the top schools with clean air at school and support for air purifiers at home it can be worth it. The days when the air is clean doesn't make it into the news. And there are grocery stores that cater to Westerners.

It's a drag when you have days when the pollution is bad, but where I work in China (one of Those Big Schools) is truly amazing and when the air is good it's a great place to be.

If I was offered a job at a school that didn't take pollution seriously I'd never take the job.

I fully concur with @WT123

@worldtraveler

I worked in southern China and I checked the AQI every day, sometimes several times a day. Never got above 100.

Even then I would NEVER worked in Beijing.

When I was in China, even Shanghai had pretty good air quality and nobody talked about food poisoning like they do know.

And how the hell can anyone justify working at a school because they have air filtration systems?! Wearing a mask outside or just never going outside is ok with you?

So, whatever you have to tell yourself to rationalize your working in polluted countries - and even if you need to pretend that my actual experiences aren't factual - it's your lungs...and liver and kidneys and colon and...

senator wrote:
> @worldtraveler
>
> I worked in southern China and I checked the AQI every day, sometimes
> several times a day. Never got above 100.
>
> Even then I would NEVER worked in Beijing.
>
> When I was in China, even Shanghai had pretty good air quality and nobody
> talked about food poisoning like they do know.
>
> And how the hell can anyone justify working at a school because they have
> air filtration systems?! Wearing a mask outside or just never going outside
> is ok with you?
>
> So, whatever you have to tell yourself to rationalize your working in
> polluted countries - and even if you need to pretend that my actual
> experiences aren't factual - it's your lungs...and liver and kidneys and
> colon and...
=================
Oh, you must have worked in one of those Chinese cites where there wasn't significant air pollution and that weren't affected by tainted food and/or heavy metals/toxicity in the soil/water.

I hadn't realized that Shangri La and/or Xanadu had international schools. My mistake.

Employment is the reason people work in China. Simple as that.

In my country there are too many teachers and not enough jobs. I wouldn't enjoy a good quality of life (economically speaking) if I stayed back home to try to pursue teaching further (go through the substitutes list, mat leaves, and wait pretty much 10 years for a full time job).

There are so many schools in China compared to the rest of the world that it's easy for a new teacher to gain teaching experience and have a full time job. Also, pretty much anywhere outside of Shanghai and Beijing has a lower cost of living and a good wage. I've saved quite a lot of money in my three years here and I've been in the third-tier so far in my career.

I last lived in Shenzhen three years ago. It wasn't as bad Beijing or Shanghai. I never saw someone wear a mask because of air pollution. We had our bad days in the winter and the only time I physically noticed it was on hard runs such as speed work or tempo runs. Then my throat would burn.

Some teachers were really worried about it. They stayed their two years to get their experience and then moved on to greener/cleaner air pastures. Other teachers seemed fine with it. Honestly, the ones who worried too much seemed to really psych themselves out. If I was that worried, as much as they were, I wouldn't live in China. I was looking at some schools in Myanmar and some of the reviews mentioned vipers. I'm sure some IT's would just shrug and deal with it but I'm not living anywhere that has issues with vipers. So I can understand the reluctance to deal with bad air.

Lastname_Z wrote:
> Employment is the reason people work in China. Simple as that.
>
> In my country there are too many teachers and not enough jobs. I wouldn't
> enjoy a good quality of life (economically speaking) if I stayed back home
> to try to pursue teaching further (go through the substitutes list, mat
> leaves, and wait pretty much 10 years for a full time job).
>
> There are so many schools in China compared to the rest of the world that
> it's easy for a new teacher to gain teaching experience and have a full
> time job. Also, pretty much anywhere outside of Shanghai and Beijing has a
> lower cost of living and a good wage. I've saved quite a lot of money in my
> three years here and I've been in the third-tier so far in my career.

What's the point of money if you die as a result of breathing in cancerous air for a few years?

jschott wrote:
> Lastname_Z wrote:
> > Employment is the reason people work in China. Simple as that.
> >
> > In my country there are too many teachers and not enough jobs. I wouldn't
> > enjoy a good quality of life (economically speaking) if I stayed back home
> > to try to pursue teaching further (go through the substitutes list, mat
> > leaves, and wait pretty much 10 years for a full time job).
> >
> > There are so many schools in China compared to the rest of the world that
> > it's easy for a new teacher to gain teaching experience and have a full
> > time job. Also, pretty much anywhere outside of Shanghai and Beijing has a
> > lower cost of living and a good wage. I've saved quite a lot of money in my
> > three years here and I've been in the third-tier so far in my career.
>
> What's the point of money if you die as a result of breathing in cancerous air for a
> few years?
=======================
Very little if that was the case. But the reality is that the vast majority of people who teach in places like China for a few years (or more) will not die as a result of anything that happened to them while they were there.

Worldtraveler

Are you a doctor now? How the hell can anyone argue with the statement: Breathing polluted air is bad for your health?!

Do a little research. Just like only a few years of smoking can produce molecular changes in your body that lead to disease, so too can poison in the air.

Now, if you are saying that nobody knows whether they will be in that unfortunate category, then you are correct. And will you die or become ill within a short period? Probably not. But that is not important as I hope we all strive to live long HEALTHY lives.

But just like a lot of people can, for example, use cocaine or smoke for years with no negative affects, there are plenty of people who have fatal heart attacks the first time they do a line of coke or who develop emphysema from smoking for a relatively short time.

AND in China, you DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT KIND OF SHIT you are breathing, drinking, or eating.

So stop making foolish statements when people's health is at stake, because there are a lot of people on this site who so badly want to work that they will grasp at anyone's validation - even incorrect and uninformed ones - in order to support their desires.

senator wrote:
> Worldtraveler
>
> Are you a doctor now? How the hell can anyone argue with the statement: Breathing
> polluted air is bad for your health?!
>
> Do a little research. Just like only a few years of smoking can produce molecular
> changes in your body that lead to disease, so too can poison in the air.
>
> Now, if you are saying that nobody knows whether they will be in that unfortunate
> category, then you are correct. And will you die or become ill within a short period?
> Probably not. But that is not important as I hope we all strive to live long HEALTHY
> lives.
>
> But just like a lot of people can, for example, use cocaine or smoke for years with
> no negative affects, there are plenty of people who have fatal heart attacks the
> first time they do a line of coke or who develop emphysema from smoking for a relatively
> short time.
>
> AND in China, you DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT KIND OF SHIT you are breathing, drinking,
> or eating.
>
> So stop making foolish statements when people's health is at stake, because there
> are a lot of people on this site who so badly want to work that they will grasp
> at anyone's validation - even incorrect and uninformed ones - in order to support
> their desires.
================================
Of course not, and neither are you. I'm not the one who has made any foolish statements or seems to be hard of thinking when it comes to accepting that other people make different decisions or come to different conclusions then I do about how and where they should live their lives (and that doesn't necessarily make them idiots or suicidal).

Feel free to say anything you want or keep asking the same question over and over. I will feel free to offer my comments when and how I see fit.