| The Pleasures
And Pitfalls Of Teaching In China |
| Some Thoughts
On China |
| By Charlotte Turner |
| One way to
immerse yourself in the culture, customs and lifestyle of another country
is to pack your bags, jump on a plane, and become a TEFL teacher.
I taught in Beijing, China from July 2002 until I left at the height of
the SARS outbreak in April 2003, and I found it to be one of the
most interesting, challenging and exciting experiences of my life.
Preparation
I began teaching
in China at a summer school in North Beijing, organised and run by a Sino-English
company. The company was based in London but largely run by Chinese staff,
and the experience certainly taught me a lot about some of the potential
pitfalls of dealing |
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| with an unknown
company and venturing into a culture about which I was completely naïve.
The summer school turned out to be the catalyst for my continued teaching
in China and travels in Asia, and in this context, I cannot fault it.
I would strongly
recommend anyone who is considering teaching in China, (or anywhere
else abroad for that matter,) but has doubts about their suitability
for such an experience, to try to gain experience in a short project abroad
such as a summer school, as this gave me a brief but varied insight into
some cultural differences as well as the experience of teaching itself.
Most summer schools in China last for 4-6 weeks, and a standard deal generally
offers return airfares, accommodation and food in the school, and a very
basic wage designed to cover any extra fundamental living costs.
This makes
it a cost-effective way for a recent graduate, those taking a career-break,
or even those with 4 weeks of holiday from work still available to them
to sample the lifestyle, and still return home after a month if the do
not like it.
The Next
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| Personally,
I returned home after the month, did my washing, and promptly jumped straight
back on a plane to Beijing a week later. The summer school had enabled
me to visit a primary school that need a foreign teacher for a year prior
to signing a contract, check out the facilities, and make sure that all
the terms of the contract appeared to be correct.
I also took
a walk around the surrounding district, checked the local amenities, checked
the distance of the school from the city centre, and checked that the accommodation
on offer was a place in which I could happily reside for a year.
On arrival,
the only thing that differed from the original contract actually worked
in my favour, as I ended up teaching primary students as oppose to middle
school. I later found out from a Chinese colleague of mine, (their information
was also |
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by my own observations of the way in which I was viewed within the school
and local district,) that I was placed in the primary school because
I was the only foreign teacher that they had met prior to hiring, and was
wholly due to my physical appearance as a young, white, slim woman with
blonde, (albeit dyed blonde), hair. The Chinese place great importance
on physical appearance, and I was considered to be maternal-looking, (just
a brief note, an English dress-size 10 is considered to be rather voluptuous
in China,) and attractive, (white skin and large eyes are considered
beautiful.)
Teaching
The first day
I walked into a classroom in my new school, I was faced with forty, six
year old boys and girls, many of whom had never seen a foreigner before.
They were completely awestruck, and to my surprise, fascination, and sometimes
annoyance, this interest did not seem to abate much throughout the year.
As the week progressed, I realise that each of my twenty classes a week
involved different students, and this would mean me that I taught six hundred
Chinese students under the age of eleven every week. |
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| This may seem
like a daunting prospect, but I actually found it to be beneficial for
myself as an inexperienced, first-time teacher as it provided variety and
exposed me to a huge amount of different students, situations, and teaching
opportunities.
Finances
And Practicalities
As each class
lasted only forty minutes, my timetable in the second semester meant that
I only worked mornings, finishing my classes at lunchtime. Although most
full-time contracts stipulate that you are not allowed to do extra part-time
work, this is flexible depending on your relationship with your employer.
Many schools will turn a blind-eye to this, even offering you overtime
within other departments of the school or partner schools much of the time.
I worked extra hours in my own school as well at other schools, and with
extra work, a net monthly wage of 10,000 RMB, |
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| (approximately
$670 at the time of writing,) is certainly achievable. Depending on
your plans to travel and your lifestyle, it is certainly possible to save
at least half of this whilst still maintaining a high standard of living,
as schools should provide you with at least a return airfare and free accommodation,
(inclusive of utility bills,) for a year’s contract, (a one-way
airfare is standard for a six month contract.) My school also provided
me with three meals a day in the school canteen should I wish to take advantage
of this, and this meant that I has no compulsory expenses at all.
A minimum,
reasonable basic salary for an inexperienced TEFL in Beijing could
start from around 3000 RMB a month (approximately ?200 per month at
the time of writing), and this is in addition to free accommodation
with utilities, (usually in the school), return airfare and a travel
allowance for the holidays as holiday pay is not standard. A TEFL
certificate could increase your wages, although a degree is usually the
only requirement to be a TEFL teacher in China. If you do not have
plans to travel or return home in the winter or summer holidays, work in
a summer/winter school is easy to find, and you may find that your own
school runs a suitable programme. This could be a way to earn a reasonable
amount of extra money if you are already in Beijing, as the normal offer
of a return airfare would not apply and your wages would subsequently be
higher.
Possibilities
The demand
for foreign teachers in China is huge at the moment, a trend that will
certainly continue at least until the Olympic games in 2008, and subsequently
the possibilities and choices for potential TEFL teachers is huge.
All of the experiences that I have described in this article are either
personal, or have happened to friends and colleagues of mine that I met
whilst living in Beijing, and so I can vouch for the feasibility of all
of these ideas. However, one thing I would recommend to anyone contemplating
TEFL
teaching in China, or anywhere else, is to do your research, and always
be prepared to try something new if you realise that the experience is
not working out for you. Incidentally, out of the six foreigners at my
original summer school, (two Americans, one Australian, two English
and one Irish,) I have been dating the Australian for the past two
years, and my fellow Englishman married a Chinese teacher from the summer
school in January 2004, which just goes to prove that you can never predict
the experiences that you may have whilst teaching abroad!
To contact
Charlotte Click Here |
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