TeachingEnglish
Teaching English in China
Submitted by stacey 33 on 31 May, 2009 - 09:40
Hi
I am about to do my CELTA course in July and I would like to teach in China. If you have taught in China, I would welcome your comments...I've only ever travelled to Europe!
Also what areas of China would you consider to be the most interesting? I'm also afro-caribbean origin and have lived in London for 17 years so it would be beneficial to be in an area which is perhaps more open-minded and cosmopolitan in it's approach.
Any comments welcome
Thanks
Stacey
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Log in or register
Follow TeachingEnglish
 |
 |
 |
 |
Hi Stacey
I thought your question was very interesting because I am also of afro-caribbean origin (female) and I have been learining Mandarin for a while and I was interested in going to teach in China in the future and had the same concerns as you. It would be interesting to read any comments you get. I was told by a consultant from an agency in London that places teachers in China that it can take a bit longer to get a teaching post for black teachers due to lack of understanding that you can be English and not white....however I don't know if it is the same for male and female black teachers. However, I would still like to go to China at some point.
Hi Stacy,
I made the move from north east London to East China in September this year. It is certainly different to Europe!
I am in a small city called Suzhou in Anhui province (安徽，宿州), which is a very poor province, and is populated with mostly Han Chinese. The city is full of shabby tall white tilled buildings, the main streets covered in advertizing and neon. The back streets are chaotic, full of fruit sellers, baskets of eggs, roast chickens, sweets, people sitting on stools playing cards, chickens dogs and children running amongst the cracks in the pavement and with tangled wires hanging overhead.
The university in which I teach is a 'Normal College', which means most of my students are training to be English teachers. The campus is new but is not like a UK school or university. The Classrooms are a bit shabby, the students (normally 20-45 of them) sit in rows and the teachers 'podium' has a wooden desk and a blackboard. Every day I come home covered in chalk.
My home is a simple but confortable 4th floor 2 bed flat, with a living room, kitchen and shower room/toilet. I have cable TV, with the English CCTV9 channel - which basically shows cheesy pop-idol music shows and news all day. I also have fast interenet and a computer, AC (which doubles up as a heater), a rice cooker, microwave and single electric hob.
The weather here is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, and the classrooms have no AC or heating... This week all of my students are wearing thick puffa jackets and gloves - difficult for a writing class! The staff room is full of teachers at break time but, like the students, they are very shy, and perhaps embarrased about their English - after all they are Eenglish teachers, and many of them are far from fluent. Also they smoke. Many times I have walked into the office and found a male teacher with his feet on the desk pensively blowing clouds of smoke into the room.
The students can speak English at an OK level, but for most classes I have to sloooow down a lot. At first they were very shy, and even now I sometimes have to pick someone to talk before they will say anything for the class. The typical teaching style here is just lecturing to the classes, which is different to what you will learn with CELTA so you can sometimes come away from classes feeling very frustrated. After some time the students will get used to you though and begin to improve quickly and also include you in their lives, and that is perhaps the most rewarding aspect. Talking about food, festivals and people with a culture so different yet so similar is very interesting. They are also very kind, I have students that may only have a little more than 10RMB a day (about 9p) and they will still insist on buying me lunch!
Chinese hospitality is amazing. Every weekend I go out for about 3 large meals with different groups of people. Yesterday it was a local nursery school. I went to the school and played with the kids for about 2 hours (mostly talking, dancing, singing and letting them hug me a lot) and after went out for a Chinese vodka infused meal. Chinese people like to fill their guests full of food and booze.
As for you having afro-caribbean origins, you may have a little difficulty, but nothing too bad. The last teachers here were black africans from Cameroon and they had some difficulty with the school. They were paid less and were not respected by some of the faculty, but still made lots of friends, and stuck up for themselves when they though there were injustices. Perhaps most importantly they made a big impression on the students and when they left many of them cried they were so sad.
One piece of advise: learn Chinese. Do some lessons before you come and some when here as not many people speak English. Students can be helpful but you cannot take them everywhere with you, e.g. travelling.
So for me China is a fantastic experience so far. The teaching can be frustrating but is rewarding, and in just 4 months I have been to Nanjing, Shanghai 3 times, Qufu and many local cities in Anhui. I do not think I will stay here in Anhui longer than a year, but may migrate to a big Chinese city and will definately never forget my year in Anhui.
Hi Stacey:
I'm a learner and teacher of EFL in China. I'm now conducting a research visit with Athabasca University, AB, Canada. Teaching English is really a challenging job in China. Due to a lack of English language environment, most of us do not have chances to get involved in authentic dialogues or conversations. Most learners just learn about English but not learn English. It's very hard to engage them to talk or discuss in groups. But everything is changing and people are becoming less shy than before. And now, more students are brave enough to talk in class.
I think Shanghai and Beijing would be the most interesting cities to go, which are more cosmopolitan in it's approach. But maybe some underdeveloped cities have greater demands for foreign teachers.
Fangyi
Hi
What students have you decided to teach in China? Middle school students or youngsters ?
I've been in China teaching for 7 years. China is a country of extremes in my opinion. First off I should clarify that I love teaching in China, love my students, hate the schools with a passion and find life in China to be about as polarizing as any place on Earth.
First off, about your Ethnicity. Yes in some places of China it might be an issue. In the smaller cities or areas where there are not so many foreigners Chinese do still find darker skin to be less than desirable, I've been asked a couple times during phone interviews for jobs what colour my skin is and I know some Blacks in smaller towns who get paid less. It has to do with their history where the only ones who were dark were the poor people working in sunshine out in the fields all day and the rich were living indoors so the rich women were often very white. This has led to a country which doesn't really have the same tact in regards to colour of skin as most of the West is used to. I used to live in Nanjing (now in Beijing) and I had many African friends there, they all had many stories of incredible racism and ignorance towards them (and Nanjing was one of the first cities to actively promote student exchanges with Africa in China), my student once made a comment about the bad Black people and I asked why she thought they were bad, her response was "Look at their skin!" I made a mention that my skin was MUCH more white than hers so I am better than her? She didn't like that very much but such is life.
Colour can be an issue, if you are sensitive about it don't go to the smaller cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other large cities with large foreigner communities will be much less troublesome. You will still see people staring, commenting and some may even comment directly to you as many Chinese don't really get the whole idea of being subtle about ethnicity (or any part of appearance really) as they are mostly all so similiar they just don't see it as wrong. To be perfectly honest China is one of the most Racist countries I have ever heard of, however it's not meant, usually, in a bad way, it's more just int he way a Child is racist, they don't mean anything by it, they are just very curious.
For most interesting places in China, Stay away from the East Coast, It's basically one big Industrial land with a few areas of parkland in between. Most of the major cities are very polluted and with 1.3 Billion people you can imagine that it's very crowded in most places. The problem with China is if you want a comfortable life style and lots of work options you have to stay ont he East Coast, if you want interesting places, more diversity among the ethnic groups (I find most of the ethnic groups much more interesting to be honest) and beautiful scenery you need to get off the East coast. South is mostly all nice though, my favourites are Guilin, Kunming, Dali and I'm told Fujian is really nice too. For where to live you need to decide what kind of life you want, Beijing has the best of all worlds for food, entertainment and lifestyle but it's very polluted, crowded and INCREDIBLY sprawling (slow to get around). Shanghai is like every other major metropolitan city in the world, not exactly filled with culture but for money there's no where better. West of China is beautiful and full of amazing amounts of culture but jobs are not so plentiful, money is lower, life style is lower. South is varied. So you would need to give more detail about what you are coming here for and what kind of lifestyle you expect here.
For pure open mindedness and cosmopolitian feel, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen or any major tourist city would probably be alright.
If you have any other question feel free to email me at estraussATgmail.com. If you are wanting to come to beijing in September let me know, I think the school I'm at currently is needing more teachers next semester.