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Q: How will Coronavirus affect the teaching business in China?
I know people are leaving. Some will not return. In what way will the virus reshape the teaching business in China?
Will there be shortage of manpower or not?
Wuhan has experieced a serious runaway of teachers from all over the world since the virus broke out. Those under the lockdown need to deal their exit desperately, as depicted online, through the diplomatic representatives from their countries.
The virus will not be tackled any soon at all. Very likely schools will be affected and probably the beginning of the new term will be delayed. Thus, the employers, agents and the very educational institutions will have to face economic repercussions. Money is very important. Payments are better in China than at home. Will the employers have to pay any better only to secure their existent manpower and the future of their business afloat on the short and long run knowing that the virus is not going to be controlled too soon?
Whom, in this business, will get benefitted from the virus and who will lose?
4 years 11 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
I'd say a lot depends on how long this thing drags out.
Previous outbreaks like the bird flu and SARS are probably the best indicators as to how this will affect the teaching business.
During SARS a lot of teachers left, but were eventually replaced after things got back to normal. Schools were forced to close for a while, some training schools couldn't afford to keep paying rent etc while not having any income so went out of business because of it but the market for learning English didn't change.
Assuming this plays out the same way other outbreaks have, ie fizzles out eventually and doesn't turn into a pandemic that kills millions and turns China into a no-go zone I think this will be exactly the same.
There will be some tough times financially for some people but things will return to normal eventually and the teaching industry will be the same as it was a month ago.
If this situation does develop in something huge then we're in uncharted territory and questions about the teaching business will probably be the least of our worries.
I'd say your comparation between epidemy and any business (e.g. English teaching .., he he) is moot.
I read reports LTA that "China will have 300 million English students by year 2020 ...".
At that time, mathematician-in-me was heard saying ..:
"There aren't enough Native English teachers in the whole world to satisfy this Chinese demand ...".
And a year or so after, Chinese changed laowai employment/Labour law:
"Only Native English passport holders qualify for Chinese Z visa ...".
Considering 'novelty-Corina-virus' I read US Stocks EX website 'ZeroHedge' ... and here you have the latest one:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/scientist-calls-draconian-measure...
Mon, 01/27/2020 - 12:25
Now that health officials in China have admitted that patients infected with the novel coronavirus often become contagious long before symptoms emerge, and Canada may or may not have just confirmed its first case of human-to-human transmission, health officials around the world are finally listening to some of the experts who warned about the virus's lethal potential (and were rewarded with accusations of being an alarmist).
And nowhere is that advice being followed more closely than Hong Kong, where the city government has already inspired riots after considering using a new public housing project as a quarantine for virus victims.
The pushback to that plan was surprising and appears to be an isolated incident. Because University of Hong Kong academics are urging the city's government to embrace "draconian" measures to stop history from repeating itself.
Hong Kong was rocked by SARS 17 years ago, when the virus - one of seven coronavirus strains (a family that also includes nCoV and MERS) - tore through the city's financial district, causing 300 deaths, according to the SCMP.
more ...
I'd say a lot depends on how long this thing drags out.
Previous outbreaks like the bird flu and SARS are probably the best indicators as to how this will affect the teaching business.
During SARS a lot of teachers left, but were eventually replaced after things got back to normal. Schools were forced to close for a while, some training schools couldn't afford to keep paying rent etc while not having any income so went out of business because of it but the market for learning English didn't change.
Assuming this plays out the same way other outbreaks have, ie fizzles out eventually and doesn't turn into a pandemic that kills millions and turns China into a no-go zone I think this will be exactly the same.
There will be some tough times financially for some people but things will return to normal eventually and the teaching industry will be the same as it was a month ago.
If this situation does develop in something huge then we're in uncharted territory and questions about the teaching business will probably be the least of our worries.
If you can't see the writing on the wall, then it's time to take your rose-colored glasses off and buy new ones. Lenscrafter's is having a sale I think.
Did they build new 1000 bed hospitals during SARs or N1 ?
We don't know much just what they want to tell us
Viki87:
Why would the government tells everything in truth? It will cause social anxiety and not good for controling the virus.
icnif77:
See the link about building new 1000-bed hospital on Sorrel's thread.
As they sent diggers to the area ... Wuhan's leader claimed: "It's got to be finished by the end of the next week."
Viki87:
I am not talking about building hospital. I was actually commenting Phil's comment about the death number on my wechat
my school (public university) sent a message out yesterday telling students they are not allowed to come back to dorms yet. as far as I can tell we are not going to start-up at usual time after holiday. seems everything is on hold,,, everywhere. We all know President Xi officially extended holiday time. I doubt chinas handing out too many Z-visa these days....
Viki87:
lol. Enjoy your holiday. Good to be an.employee, too bad that I am a business,owner
diverdude1:
xiexie,,, yeah,,, I understand as an owner you are under a lot of stress. :(. I sure hope things go ok for you.
You might be thinking ...this is OT, but read titles and compare it with English teaching in China ... and you'll see the thingy affects the life ..
Number Of Coronavirus Cases Surpasses SARS As China Holds 60k Under 'Observation'
Is This The Man Behind The Global Coronavirus Pandemic?
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/man-behind-global-coronavirus-pandemic
Coronavirus And The "Unsinkable" Titanic Analogy
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/coronavirus-and-unsinkable-titanic-ana...
Beijing Economist: China GDP Growth Could Sink Below 5% Due To Coronavirus Outbreak
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/british-airways-ends-all-flights-...
Watch: 1 Kilometer Line For Face Masks In Taiwan
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/british-airways-ends-all-flights-...
American & Chinese Airlines May Never Bounce Back From The Coronavirus Outbreak
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/american-chinese-airlines-may-never-bo...
I am in Zhejiang near Jinhua in Dongyang and I am stuck here. My Residence Permit is being processed and was in the process of processing when this virus thing started. To make matters worse, the passport is in Hangzhou, about two hours away by car. I dont know when the government itself can reopen so my agent can get my passport back to me.
To make matters even worse, I have a Residence Permit/Visa and am legal but dont have a job, I am hired with an agency and I havent been hired yet. If it werent for the virus, I would probably be hired now. Now I am unemployed, on house arrest and no way to improve on control the situation.
I live in a cluster of low rise apartments and the authorities have locked the usual doors out and the only way out is through the parking garage and the guards outside are basically counting everyone coming and going and taking note of that. According to my wife, one of us is allowed to leave every two days. If I go out (and I may day after tomorrow for supplies), she cannot go out for another two days after I return. Basically I am in jail here. I am slowly going batshit actually from the boredom. Another thing is quite often the VPN is slow and so Youtube is slow, and you can only watch so much Youtube. But I have a loving wife here and she is cooking for me. Could be a lot worse, I could be alone here at my previous employer's housing in Haining, which was a shithole nothing and me being alone cooking the same food everyday.
Even if I had my passport, it would be difficult to leave and I dont want to go back to the USA and end up in a two week quarantine situation. The airlines to the USA are now not running until late March and into April. So I cant leave if I wanted, not really. I wish I were home, I would look for a job, get some dental work done and take care of some stuff. But I am here sitting on my ass not knowing how long this will last.
I wish things would just get back to normal but I can see everyone being paranoid about everyone else. Is that person a virus carrier? Am I in danger? My babies, kids or elderly parents? I dont want to walk around in my life wearing a mask either. Thats not living.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/harvard-expert-warns-coronavirus-...
Authored by Alvin Powell via The Harvard Gazette,
The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have continued to surge inside China, sickening tens of thousands, with a death toll of more than 1,000. But outside the Asian giant the numbers remain a fraction of that, a trend Harvard’s Marc Lipsitch views with suspicion.
Lipsitch thinks it is just a matter of time before the virus spreads widely internationally, which means nations so far only lightly hit should prepare for its eventual arrival in force and what may seem like the worst flu season in modern times.
more ...
icnif77:
Interesting article/blog on 'Alternative media' on CoV-19 with some scientific research links ...:
https://www.unz.com/article/was-the-2020-wuhan-coronavirus-an-engineered-biological-attack-on-china-by-america-for-geopolitical-advantage/
If you are unable to open the weblink, pls. let me know. I'll employ my c&p ... function. 
Two weblinks I came across ...
https://public.tableau.com/profile/kuldeep.ram#!/vizhome/WuhanCoronavirus/CoronavirusTracker
Just my 2 bobs worth here, I think residence permits may be lengthened to encourage foreigners to stay and re-apply for residence permits once their current one is up, and encourage new talent or old talent to return. I predict possibly slightly more relaxed rules for people applying to work in a China. There's already a shortage of foreign teachers, that much we know. I'm pretty sure that's why schools have been offering more money over the last couple of years. I don't think many schools hiring foreigners could afford to push salaries up much higher than they already are (The current higher salaries being a product of the already-made shortage of teachers resulting from the expulsion of under-skilled, illegal and non native teachers which made it necessary for schools to compete for qualified and native teachers lol.) That's a mouthful. So I feel that this new virus has already, and will ultimately continue to add to the shortage of foreign teachers in China. For these reasons, I think the teaching market will be given a break, so to speak, to help the economy in these difficult times. I might be totally wrong and living in the clouds, but I like to stay optimistic.
diverdude1:
I'm with u on most of that. But also gotta look @ the flip-side. If this thing really gets/is out f control there is a big chance China will tell weigouren to hit the road. There ain't no way they want to deal with us here, and report deaths of laowai too. So, we will find out in short order,,,,, a lot of china is going back to work u know,,,if weigouren get told to hit the bricks,,, well,, there is your answer. I'm personally suprised we haven't been kicked-out yet,,,, CCP are some crafty devils.....
Stiggs:
It's funny (well not funny haha but you know what I mean), I was just thinking about this over the weekend - at what point does China start kicking people out?
I think that if it gets to that point it means that they're throwing in the towel and admitting that everywhere that employs foreigners - schools, international companies etc aren't operating anymore so working visas are null and and void.
To do that would mean that China is basically saying to the world they've lost control of it,they're out of business so forget about doing any business in / with the guo. The ramifications of that would be massive, I think we'd be looking at mass panic, social disorder... all the stuff from the first 45 minutes of an apocalypse movie.
I don't think that would be a message China wants to send to the world, let alone their own people. When locals see every foreigner in the country heading for the airport it would probably be like watching the rats jumping off the Titanic and realizing sh*t is going to get lively soon, now's the time to panic.
My guess is that China -actually, every country the virus gets a foothold - will be doing everything they can to maintain business confidence and control the panic.
EDIT Then again. if things get really crazy and they need to resort to drastic measures they might not want media or foreigners there to tell the story.
Two excellent articles on NCov ...on probable origins of the virus:
1. Science and all ... :
https://greatgameindia.com/covid19-files-scientific-investigation-on-mys...
2. Blaylock Wellness Report (pdf.) on how to protect yourself:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/0418-Blayloc...
If you can't access it ... let me know!
I am Johnny come lately to this posting, but here are my two cents. Regardless of when this virus dies out, the world media has given China a black eye. Prior to the virus, many refused to come to China due to environmental concerns and other things. Now, it is going to be even worse. To maintain current teachers, China will need to up the ante. I suspect increased beginner salaries, easier visa opportunities, and enhanced benefits from employers. I also suspect that there will be a continued relaxation of which foreigners are permitted to teach in the classrooms (Non-native English speakers). It will be interesting to see how the recruitment opportunities change in April and May as schools try to fill empty slots for the 2020-21 school year. I am also curious to see what happens in my contract renogiations in the next month or two. Having been with the school for five years, I have pretty much capped out with salary for what is permitted for foreign teachers. With the possibility of going through this again in the Fall, I donot think too many foreigners will want to get trapped in China at that time.
Sandnose:
Did you see that today D.O.L.E. announced the floodgates will open for Filipino teachers imminently. Problem solved at half the price. Jobless, well educated people living in poverty are more than happy to spend a couple of weeks in a hotel if it means a steady income afterwards.
I think after travel bans , many schools cant find enough teachers.
It will be funy to watch these schools hire anyone with a heartbeat, and even that would be negotiable after they realize that no mentally balanced qualified teacher will ever go back to China after this.
