How I scratched my entrepreneurial itch while teaching English in China | Hacker News Reader

How I scratched my entrepreneurial itch while teaching English in China

ninjodo.com

46 pointsmustafabisic123 comments

I've lived in China, even did a bit of English teaching on the side from time to time. My experience was that the bar for English teachers was very low, people with no skills other than speaking english as a first language could move there and have a comfortable life.

The chinese government perceives this import of low skilled workers as a problem. Working illegally (on a non valid visa) in china is quite common as an expat, but it was pretty much the only industry I saw that deportation was strongly enfoced.

Reading between the lines, this doesn't strike me as a story of pushing yourself to achieve your goals, but instead one about a person who lacked focus, moved to china and settled into the easy ex-pat lifestyle of teaching english. I would be hesitent to take any advice he gives.

Thanks so much for adding your 2 cents here. I appreciate it. For me, it was more of a story of searching for his passion and path in life. But, you read it like that and it's probably our fault to not communicate it right. Once again thanks for adding value.

I lived in China for a few years as well, and most expats you run into are usually teachers. This doesn't mean they are all low skill or lost perse. Many are young and come there after college for a gap year or two, to travel and experience something different. However, many are enticed by the ease of life: 16 hour work week for Uni foreign teachers, relatively decent salary, ability to travel, and other assorted reasons. I've seen many people get into side businesses while over there, but it was usually running a school (most likely with a foggy legal arrangement and no ability to procure residence permits - eliminating the true draw of a school for many parents over there). It's been a while since I was over there, so things might have changed, but I think, for the most part, the poster above is correct.

It's clear the comment you're responding to bothered you a lot because your thinly-veiled compliments do nothing but reveal your insecurities.

The guy you are responding to is correct - this is more a story of a lazy person taking advantage of a system than it is about "searching for passion".

A few thoughts after reading the article:

(1) The writing style isn't impressive given the author claiming to be a native English speaker and a teacher. A bit wordy and incoherent.

Example: I was in China from February 2007 until June 2010 I lived in 3 cities while I was there, 2 years in Harbin (where they have the Ice Festival, and a wicked beer garden in Summer), 1 year in Shenyang (awesome city where I started my first business) and 1 year in Changchun (where I started my second business, and met my amazing wife).

(2) Pretty obvious advertising on Ninjodo, and I feel this is the main theme of the article instead of 'sharing of lessons learned'

I'm off to do the same thing from Japan of all places (girlfriend is teaching English out there) and without a job. I realised recently that dipping your toe in with part time work does not give you enough time to ever launch something worthwhile (or that I would consider good enough), let alone do the hard bit of selling it to customers.

You should get into some of Tai Lopez's programs :P just kidding. Actually, I discovered a cool guy on Snapchat that might be helpful. Can I contact you on your email in the profile? And check out this youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7dywl5wDxTu1RM3eJ_h9Q This is a cool designer guy, he's pretty much unknown - but we can learn so much from him. I love those kinds of rising talents resources. Thanks for your comment, hope this helps.

Of course! Feel free.

The guy in that video you linked has the douchiest face I have ever seen.

Ugh what's the deal with college aged kids going to Asian countries to "Teach" English with zero qualifications?

You can work 20 or less hours a week and earn a reasonable salary and have a pretty fun life - booze, travel, girls, culture. Or you can work 40-50 hours a week and earn a cracking salary, maybe save a whole bunch, maybe get exposed to entrepreneurial opportunities that you wouldn't back home.

It's easy; the main, and oftentimes only, qualification needed to teach english is being anglo-european, i.e. white.

The money is pretty good, especially with the relatively low cost of living. Lots of free time to be a hedonist, travel, etc.

This is also why you see not only lots of college aged kids in Asia, but also lots of older, middled-aged expat english teachers.

Thanks for the love guys. If you have any questions about China, entrepreneurship, saas or crm. You can ask it here and we'll answer asap. Thanks again!

Great article – Really curious how much this is due to China rather than Asia as a whole

unrelated: it says your real name is simon. why is your username here mustafa?

Simon is the CEO of Ninjodo and the author of the article. I work there. I'm active on HN and love everything that gets on the homepage here because it's intriguing. I submit various articles I think HN community will like. I wrote we will answer every question here because I'm in constant contact with the author :D Thanks for the interest man

After three spelling and grammar errors I stopped reading.

TLDR advertisement for agency hiring English teachers to come

the guy claim he has one of the most recognized brands yet nobody in China ever heard about him

most probably just abusing HN for SEO optimization

Nah, man. It's nothing like an advertising for an agency. It's a personal story of a man who developed a language agency 6 years ago in China and lessons he learned from it! And I don't know why would that be known in Cuba.

because you can try to swipe China on Gboard

there is pretty much zero information about developing anything, just personal advertisement and only reason went people are upvoting it is because it had magical word China in title, as someone who lived there better half of decade I consider this article waste if time even for people who never been there

Yeah man. It says clearly in the introduction that it's a story. "A little side-note. Did you read Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and grow rich”? In that book, the author mentions a secret that he writes subtly. This story will be just like that. Read carefully and draw your lessons from it." - I don't want to take anything away from you and your experience. I'm not here to create enemies. Thank you for pitching in and sorry if I offended you in any shape or form. :)

I understand that you're personally invested, but you're comparing this poorly written drivel to Napoleon Hill?

You're officially hurting your brand and it's time to disengage.

>agency hiring English teachers to come

I've heard this is the only way to make decent money in Asia as a "teacher".

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