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Teach English in Wuhan: The Complete Guide
Learn about the famous historical city of China and what to expect teaching here
Wuhan at a Glance
Wuhan (['wu:'hɑ:n], woo-hahn) is the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is honoured as Famous historical and cultural city of China, for it plays a highly significant role in building China's history and culture. During the time of the Three Kingdom, Wuchang city of Wuhan was chosen to be the capital city of Wu dynasty. Later in the Yuan (1206-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, it continued to be a province capital. Toward the end of the Qing dynasty, political and historical factors accelerated the modernization of Wuhan, making it a crucial economic centre of contemporary China, and it is called 'Chicago of the East'. As one of China's four major science and education centre cities, Wuhan has a developed education industry and market. it is also a base of China’s Science and Technology Research Institute.
Where Is Wuhan
Wuhan locates in the east of Hubei Province, the centre of China. It is surrounded by nine provinces, so it is a vitally important transportation hub. Moreover, because it is also the confluence of the Han River and Changjiang River (Yangtze River), it also has highly developed water transportation.
Population of Wuhan
The report of Wuhan government has shown that the population of Wuhan by 2019 is 11,212,000. The population density is 1200 people per square kilometre.
Weather in Wuhan
The average temperature of the whole year in Wuhan is 17℃. Wuhan is hot in summer. The hottest month is July, with a mean temperature of 29℃. In winter the weather is relatively mild, with a mean temperature of 4℃. The annual precipitation on average is 644.7 mm, and the average humidity is 75%. The rainiest month is June, average precipitation reaching 104.8 mm (). The number of days with Good /Excellent Air Quality of 2019 in Wuhan is 245.
How to Get to Wuhan
The total straight-line flying distance between Shanghai, the closest tier 1 city, and Wuhan is 690.4 km (429 miles). For driving, the distance is 827.1 km (513.9 miles). Taking a high-speed train from Chongqing to Guangzhou takes less than 5 hours.
Teach English in Wuhan, Hubei Province
As a relatively developed large city in China, Wuhan has a huge demand for ESL teachers. Overall, there are 3 kinds of institutions (click and see our definitions) in Wuhan that need foreign ESL teachers.
- International Schools
- Training centres
- Kindergartens
They differ in terms of responsibilities, salary, and requirements. Here we will first elaborate the how the jobs are like in international schools, training centres and kindergartens, before introducing the salary condition, after which we will explain the requirements.
International School Jobs in Wuhan
Wuhan has a great many international schools. For most international schools, job openings include ESL teacher, subject teachers and leaderships. Other English-related teaching jobs are available as well, such as SAT/A-level trainers. In international schools, ESL teachers mainly deal with pupils, middle school students and high school students. Commonly, an international school would require its ESL teachers to work for 25-30 hours per week, from Mondays to Fridays. Two days off at weekends. The class length is usually 40 minutes.
Click and check more information about these top international schools with TTJ:
- Wuhan Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School
- WeiMing School (Optics Valley Campus Wuhan)
- WeiMing School (Wuhan Campus)
Kindergarten Jobs in Wuhan
Abundant kindergartener jobs are available in Wuhan. Kindergarteners in Wuhan's bilingual kindergartens are mostly English teachers. The basic responsibilities of these English teachers often include delivering English lessons to kids from 3 to 6 years old in class in small sizes, usually 25 students. Other responsibilities could be recording and assessing the progress of the kids and provide feedback to the parents, getting involved in training, workshops, meetings and some other activities. Some kindergartens might have extra requirements. For example, Montessori kindergartens will ask ESL teachers to teach English using Montessori teaching tools.
Training Centre Jobs in Wuhan
There are numerous training centres founded in Wuhan. All kinds of English training centres from baby English, teenager English to adult English, are looking for ESL teacher from oversea. The responsibilities of ESL teacher in different training centre can be quite different. Generally speaking, the working content contains planning lessons for and give class to students at different ages, depending on the type of the training centre. They may also be required to offer extracurricular activities and academic advice. Usually training centres would decide their own curriculum on their own, so ESL teachers are expected to adapt to a particular curriculum or teaching method.
How Much Do You Get Paid to Teach in Wuhan?
As Wuhan City & Salary 2020 Research Report has shown, to teach in Wuhan, the salary is comparatively satisfying. The salary is various according to the type of institutions you work in. ESL teachers who work in international schools have a mean minimum monthly salary of ¥11,333.00 ($1618.35), a mean maximum monthly salary ¥14,000.00 ($1999.20). On average, the monthly salary is ¥12,666.67 ($1809.52). For ESL teachers who work in kindergarten, the mean minimum monthly salary is ¥17,750.00 ($2535.71), the mean maximum monthly salary is ¥25,000.00 ($3571.43), and the average monthly salary is ¥21,375.00 ($3053.57). In training centres, the mean minimum salary is ¥14,750.00 ($2106.30), the mean maximum monthly salary is ¥21,885.00 ($3,126.43), and the average salary is ¥18,317.00 ($2615.67).
Wuhan ESL Job Requirements
The job requirements vary depending on the institutions and the job type. Generally, the requirements cover educational background, teaching experiences, the English level, and licences.
- Educational background: bachelor or above.
- Teaching experiences: international schools and kindergartens are stricter than training centres on this. Most international schools and kindergartens would require at least one year or two years related experiences, and some ask for longer and more specific experiences, while training centres sometimes accept candidates with no experiences. By specific experiences, we mean some institutions, for example, Montessori kindergartens, might ask for Montessori teaching experiences other than common teaching experiences.
- English level: native English speakers are benefited. However, not all positions require native speakers. Non-native speakers are also encouraged.
- Licences: not all jobs need teaching licences. Teaching licences here includes PGCE, PGDE iPGCE, QTs/QTLS and SACE. However, in international schools, chances are that you must have a teaching licence to teach. In kindergartens and training centres, certifications such as TESOL, TEFL or CELTA will be enough for you to get the job.
- Others: every job opening might have specific requirements. For instance, some have requirements for personal traits, such as enthusiasm for teaching or patience for kids. Other requirements include passing medical exams, etc.
Living in Wuhan, China
Wuhan is a huge city, so the infrastructure is perfectly completed. Living in Wuhan is quite comfortable. You can live at a moderate cost with a rather high salary, enjoying the food, the culture and the tourism resources. With the developed transportation, travelling to other cities is also fairly convenient.
Things to Do in Wuhan
As a gastronomic capital of China, Wuhan has a variety of delicacies.
One of the symbols of Wuhan city is Hot-dry Noodles with Sesame Paste. It is one of China's Famous Five Noodles. Wuhan people have it almost every morning.
Another must-try dish is Wuchang fish, which is famous for being written into a poem by Mao Zedong. It is highly nutritious and tasty, and resultantly liked by many people.
Wuhan is the first batch of Outstanding tourist cities in China. It holds Wuhan International Tourism Festival annually. The attractions involve both man-made and natural sightseeing place. Famous attractions such as Wuhan University Cherry Garden and Yellow Crane Tower Park, are full of tourists every year.
Cost of Living in Wuhan
Numbeo displays a list of data of Wuhan living expense.The cost of living in Wuhan is less than in tier 1 city such as Shanghai, but it an international provincial capital city, so the cost is higher than some small cities. Renting an apartment with one bedroom in the city centre costs ¥2,549.14 ($364.02). Water (0.33 liter bottle) costs ¥2 ($0.29). One dozen of eggs is ¥21.67 ($3.09).
Where to Live in Wuhan
Some expats would choose to live in French Street (法国街), Hong Kong Road, Hankou (汉口香港路), etc. Wuhan has a huge number of foreigners, so it would not be a problem to find a place that suits expats.
Wuhan Subway Map
Wuhan City&Salary Report
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