Living and Teaching in China

How Can I Get a Job?
You can find a job on your own through the Internet, connections, sending resumes, or being on the spot. If you feel like you need more help and support in this endeavor, you can apply for a program or join an organization that will set you up with a job and training.

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If you're the adventurous sort, you can try just going to China and seeing if you can find a job on the spot.
Many foreigners who go to China go under the auspices of some nonprofit organization. While English was the subject taught by nearly all foreigners in the past,  some universities and other organizations now have Business-teaching programs. The Peace Corps and Britain's Volunteer Service Corps have programs. There are a number of Christian organizations that do this. You can find links to some organizations in my China Links page. Organizations are a good way for the inexperienced or non-Chinese speaker to get to China. The organizations have contacts in China who negotiate with schools to send teachers each year. They provide training in ESL and hopefully cross-cultural training (usually several weeks) before you leave. Many have only minimal requirements.

Organizations usually have a staff person based in Hong Kong who may travel periodically to visit you and help negotiate with the school if there are problems. They also provide help when you come to Hong Kong, and may put on a retreat for you there during Chinese New Year break. They charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000-4,000 per person if the Chinese school gives you a salary, and more if you have to pay your living expenses as well. Be careful about joining a small or new program. Try to make sure the organization really knows China, and that the services they promise will really materialize. Many sound better on paper than they actually are in practice. The staff should be experienced in China, and probably should have Chinese staff people. Let's be honest. It's really hard for Americans to get things done in China, no matter how well-meaning they are.

There are now private English schools popping up all over China. I don't have any personal experience with these, but they are common in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Many of these schools recruit teachers via the Internet.

If you are an established scholar, you may be able to get a Fulbright teaching fellowship. The Hopkins-Nanjing Center also places teachers of Economics, Government, and Law at their center. If you can do this, you will experience China in style. The Fulbright stipend is about 10 times what Foreign Experts are paid, you only have to teach about 6 hours a week, the U.S. government pays for your students' books, they pay for you to take Chinese language classes before you go, and you get to hang out at the embassy, etc. Many universities have exchanges where they send faculty to teach for a few months. Then there's research funding and international organizations like World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, UNDP, Ford Foundation, etc. I would like to know how to get these funds myself, so I won't give you any advice.

There are no hard and fast qualifications for getting a job teaching English in China. These days there is a huge demand, and there are schools that will take anybody who speaks English. (Yes, you can teach other languages too, but I don't know much about them.) Most schools are looking for native speakers (preferably U.S./Canadian without a regional accent). If you are not a native speaker, it will be more difficult for you (even if you are fluent in English), but not impossible. If you have a degree in English or a degree from an English-speaking country, you should be able to find something. A college degree (in anything) is usually requested, but there are opportunities for those without a degree. Employers are especially willing to count work experience in lieu of college for people who have worked for at least 10-15 years. (Native speakers of English can find jobs without a college degree, it's just a little more difficult. I've heard of 12-year-old kids being hired to teach!)

There are some TEFL-certificate programs that train you in a matter of weeks or months to teach English. You can find info about these at this cool site: eleaston.com. An MA in TESL is for those who want to make a career of teaching English. This can be helpful, but I have heard that the theoretical material at the core of MA programs (phonetics, pedagogy, etc.) is not very practical in the Chinese classroom. For one thing, Chinese-style language education breaks all the rules you learn in grad school, and there's not much you will be able to do to change it.

If you have a Master's degree or higher, you are qualified to be a "foreign expert" in China (higher pay and benefits). Your degree doesn't have to be in ESL or anything related to TESL (or whatever you're teaching).


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Here are ads from a Changchun newspaper advertising a foreign language school and a service helping people study overseas.

 

Chinese playing cards. "pu-ke" are 2 chinese characters that sound like "poker." I don't know whether they've figured out that "puke" is a slang English word for "vomit."		 If you are adventurous, not afraid of risks, have experience overseas, and independent, you can find your own job and just go. The best way to find a job is to contact schools directly. Make up a short introductory letter and a short resume. (Remember, the people who read this will probably not know much English.) Then find people to send it to. One source of job announcements is Dave Sperling's ESL cafe, which gets a fair number of listings from China, as well as tons from Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. You can find a list of Chinese colleges and send off resumes at random. My China links page has links to lists of web pages for Chinese universities and colleges. China Bound, by Anne Thurston has an appendix that lists Chinese universities. There are also China business directories that list addresses of Chinese universities and colleges. If you don't have a name to write to, address your letter to "Foreign Affairs Office." Send a lot of letters. Many will not reply. However, they often pass on resumes to other schools. I got offers from schools I hadn't even written to.
If you have personal contacts, use them (although I found personal contacts to be less useful than expected in looking for a job.) A lot of Chinese people will say they can help you find a job teaching English, but most will not deliver. If they do, the resulting job may be less than ideal. Remember, when they say they will help, it may be Chinese etiquette. To say they can't help would be considered impolite and insulting to you. In other words, a Chinese friend may say he/she can help, when they really can't.
Teaching in China
Do I Want To Do This?
General Principle No. 1
How Can I Get a Job?
How Much Money Will I Make?
How Did My Students Get Here?
After My Students Graduate
What's a Waiban?		 Living in China
Travel
Accommodations
Food
Getting Around Town
Health and Medicine
China Pro Shop
What to bring, getting married, taking kids and pets, schools, internet, religion, health, etc.
China Links
Links to all the info you couldn't find here
China Books
Read before you go		 China Photo Gallery
See what China's like
China: A Decade of Change
Where has China been and where is it going?
Glimpses of China
Online slide show--sights and sounds of China

Back to Living and Teaching in China main page
Fred Gale
Lumabner@aol.com