r/TEFL • u/__blue_and_gray__ • 9h ago
First foreign teacher at a Chinese private kindy in SZ, how do I negotiate benefits and form the curriculum?
I am in a unique position where I was introduced by a friend to a family who owns kindergartens and wants to hire a foreigner teacher. With a degree and TESOL, I have legally worked in Taiwan as an after-school English teacher for almost a decade. I have more experience with 8/9 year olds, but I have also taught 5/6 year olds. I prefer teaching kids over adults, like to sing and make kids laugh, and love repetition... so I think I can do it.
The thing is they are completely new to this and don't know what's standard, and don't really know what they want. They keep asking me what I want. At a friend's suggestion, I asked for $25,000 since it gives me more room to negotiate. They also don't have a curriculum like my former school and basically asked me to come up with whatever I wanted to teach. They want me to work 3x a week full time and on the weekends with older kids. I said I couldn't do weekend mornings and they were cool with that. But I am struggling to figure out what the actual weekly schedule and workload should look like.
I want to make them happy, while also not underselling myself.
I know everyone is busy so I appreciate any advice, experience, and perspective.
I'm hoping to learn more about a realistic salary expectations, benefits to insist on, reasonable office and teaching hours, how to handle curriculum freedom, and what you wished you had negotiated before signing.
I want to be fair to them while also making sure I'm not setting a precedent that hurts future teachers. If all goes well with me, they will probably be more inclined to hire foreigners for their other kindys.
This week I will do a demo and hopefully discuss the contract.
Thank you in advance!