Where is the cheapest place to live?

[chingleutsch]

Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, language mills won't bother with applying for a visa for you unless you are locked into a year's contract.

Most of the contracts I've seen or heard about seem to have fairly dire penalty clauses for leaving early, but the cost of enforcement would be way higher than the 3 or 6 months' pay they might say you owe them for doing a runner.

[chodaboy]

Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, language mills won't bother with applying for a visa for you unless you are locked into a year's contract.

Most of the contracts I've seen or heard about seem to have fairly dire penalty clauses for leaving early, but the cost of enforcement would be way higher than the 3 or 6 months' pay they might say you owe them for doing a runner.

I have another friend who's in the same boat as my mate from the U.S.;
he's looking for tutoring jobs, but he won't need a working visa - he already has HKID.
Do you know any good websites where you can find vacancies for easy-to-get tutoring jobs with no quals?
Someone told me locals put up advertisements at Wellcome and Park N Shop for English tutoring, but I never seen any before lol

[snoopy1234]

I have another friend who's in the same boat as my mate from the U.S.;
he's looking for tutoring jobs, but he won't need a working visa - he already has HKID.
Do you know any good websites where you can find vacancies for easy-to-get tutoring jobs with no quals?
Someone told me locals put up advertisements at Wellcome and Park N Shop for English tutoring, but I never seen any before lol

I have seen this kind of advertisements at ParkNShop noticeboard in TKO, maybe not all supermarket have a noticeboard

[Versi38]

Signing contracts in HK as a teacher doesn't mean a whole lot. They do have lots of scare tactics, like saying you'll have to pay the remainder of your contract's salary if you quit early etc, but none of these things actually hold up in reality.

If you tell your employer your heart isn't in it anymore, they'll usually try to find a replacement for you. If they don't, you just get fired, in which case none of their threats hold up. Turn up late every day, miss classes and be rude to the parents and you'll be kicked out before the week is up. Yes, it's kind of awkward, but if you embrace it, it can be funny too. Basically, as soon as they see that you won't bring them profit, they'll cut you.

As far as cheap, but feasible places go, Sham Shui Po is one of the best spots. I cared more about low rent than anything else, so I sacrificed a lot to keep rent down. I live on a 10th floor walk up, which isn't much larger than a decent bedroom with its own bathroom and kitchenette, 5 minutes from the subway for $2.7k - typically $3.2k with bills. Choose an apartment that's a penthouse slum (illegal structure on top of a building) or illegally subdivided and you won't have to fulfill your contract either (since they can't come after you with any legal proceedings), and will usually get away with paying less deposit. I've seen flats for $3k with 0 deposit and 1/2 a month's rent for agency fee.

[Elegiaque]

What qualifications do one need to be accepted into the NET scheme?
I don't think my friend even has a TEFL/TESOL certifcate LOL
He told me the cram schools across Taiwan will hire any foreign-looking person to teach English, whether he has a experience/qualifications or not.
Would he be able to land a simple tutoring job (even if it's not NET) here?[/QUOTE]

Follow the previous advice. Don't come here if you're under qualified and would be struggling to survive. Language schools can be a nasty, bitter environment to work for, and in HK it's difficult to survive. Find a more easy-going cheap country. Get experience and qualifications, then consider HK.

[jmbf]

I have another friend who's in the same boat as my mate from the U.S.;
he's looking for tutoring jobs, but he won't need a working visa - he already has HKID.
Do you know any good websites where you can find vacancies for easy-to-get tutoring jobs with no quals?
Someone told me locals put up advertisements at Wellcome and Park N Shop for English tutoring, but I never seen any before lol

I'd say it wouldn't be easy to get (decent) work without qualifications. However, it wouldn't be impossible either if your friend is willing to work hard at it. Just google search "English tutoring Hong Kong" and he will find plenty of relevant sites. Once he has landed, there are better ways to find tutoring work as well.

[Bob Loblaw]

I live on a 10th floor walk up,

wow... that's hard core. pretty impressive.
i lived in a 6-floor walkup for a year when I was in Paris. yeah, it meant i got to have a nice apartment with a great view while still a grad student. but after 6 months i had a noticeable limp that took a while to shake even after i moved out.
adding 4 more flights... no thanks!

[Versi38]

wow... that's hard core. pretty impressive.
i lived in a 6-floor walkup for a year when I was in Paris. yeah, it meant i got to have a nice apartment with a great view while still a grad student. but after 6 months i had a noticeable limp that took a while to shake even after i moved out.
adding 4 more flights... no thanks!

I like to think of it as mandatory exercise. No matter how sedentary I become, I'm walking 20 stories up and 20 stories down at the bare minimum. Sucks when you get downstairs and realise you forgot your wallet, though!

[jmbf]

I like to think of it as mandatory exercise. No matter how sedentary I become, I'm walking 20 stories up and 20 stories down at the bare minimum. Sucks when you get downstairs and realise you forgot your wallet, though!

Are you living there because you want to or because you have to? I could probably handle it as a cost savings exercise (for a while) to save more but not if it was my only option.

[Versi38]

Are you living there because you want to or because you have to? I could probably handle it as a cost savings exercise (for a while) to save more but not if it was my only option.

I chose to. I was thinking I was going to have to spend 5-6k on an apartment, then someone presented me with this and I took it. I'd rather have some minor annoyances and leave Hong Kong with an extra $20K at the end of the year. I've been here for 4 months and it doesn't bother me at all anymore. I don't feel tired walking up because my body has adapted by now.

I think people learn to accept whatever is in front of them over time. I am perfectly happy in my apartment as most people are - except I have $3k extra left of my paycheck at the end of the month.

People pay $5-6K to live in one bedroom of a shared apartment (their private space being of similar size to my apartment), and have to wait for the bathroom, follow house rules etc. I have the same amount of private space but am totally independent for half the price - I just have to spend 5 extra minutes of my day walking up stairs.