Worldtour in China

Teaching English in Harbin lets one see some very unusual "attractions". I had seen ice sculptures before, usually at a reception of some sort. They were beautiful but could not compare with the magnitude of these creations. The building you see here is two or three stories tall. The types of ice you will see are, buildings, pavilions, people, animals, heroic depictions, all lit up from inside the ice. It is quite beautiful. Where ever you decide to teach in China, you will find some local festival or attraction that will be worth investigating. One thing that you should ask yourself is what kind of an experience am I looking for? You can teach in the cities, they have most everything you could find in most other large cities. It will certainly be uniquely Chinese. You could teach in the barest of facilities in some regions. You may want to pick an area by climate or natural surroundings. Or perhaps you have an area of interest and want to be near that. For instance, you like archeology so you want to teach in Xian and regularly visit the terra cotta warriors, all 3000 of them.

Consider carefully what level and age of student you would like to teach. You can choose from kindergarten through university age and above. You may not realize how much you like teaching younger students or vice versa. I find that the best rewards usually have come from the students in private language schools. Most are willing and even eager students. Working in public schools was much more difficult in some ways. You may have a class of 60 or more students so that in itself is a huge challenge. Chinese students are ranked and recorded throughout their academic life. Scores from testing determines which students will be sent to the higher ranked schools. The best of the best end up at Beida, Peking University, or Qingwa in Beijing. Most political types would probably choose the later as 7 of 9 of the top government postdating attended Qingwa. So naturally some schools are populated with students who achieve or test higher. Here is another twist. In the West private schools are often thought to have better educational systems. In China, many of these schools are populated with students who could not test high enough to get into a school that was highly rated. They may belong to families that can afford it so they go to a private school. The teachers may be perceived as better or the class size may be smaller. You still may end up with largely disinterested students.

Private language schools can be a great choice or the worst choice. You will have a heavy weekend schedule and days off during the week. The pay will be better than most public schools which usually is 3-5 thousand rmb. The average teacher with a BA should be able to get 5000 rmb per month in most schools. MA's maybe 6000 rmb. There are plenty of message boards to find out about shady operations. One can also find jobs that pay much closer to western wages. If you are good enough and have the experience you could make 2000 dollars per month. These type of positions always require advanced degrees, certificates and usually experience in China. They are usually joint ventures between foreign universities and Chinese universities and may offer diplomas from the foreign university. The other way to make the higher salaries is to be the director of one of the larger schools, like a kindergarten.

University teaching is another choice you have. You will need at least a BA. Teaching hours range from 14-20 per week. This may be based on a 50 minute teaching period. Always check the details. You will have less classroom hours and more working hours away from the class for prep, and marking. Some schools have tons of off hour activities too, so you should like that age group if your going to teach at a university. You may also find a large degree of lethargy in some schools which may not feed your need as a teacher. Challenges at every corner.

The Chinese classroom have some characteristics that are key to understanding. The one child rules put lots of pressure on these kids. Their system is demanding but seems to be wear these kids down a bit. They school during vacations on the weekend, all day with more subjects than in the west. But there is little focus on varied ways of teaching so the teacher may be teaching what they know will be tested rather than building learning structures that can be used in many learning situations. Couple this with no work experience until after college and you have many who finish school without any real skills. Many will tell you that high school is the time when students really study and once they get to college it's much easier, or perhaps they mean they take it easy. Of course high achievers are rare anywhere. Till next post
Worldtour