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| Useful Advice for Prospective Teachers | ||
| My name is Lee Odden and I am a former high school teacher and adjunct university lecturer from the United States who has taught in Chinese universities for about two years now. In light of some of the more condescending and judgmental “reports,” recently submitted to the International Job Informational Journal, admonishing prospective foreign teachers about how they should and shouldn’t behave when working in China, I thought it necessary to comment with what I consider to be practical and useful information – information that would have been helpful to me if I had read it prior to coming to China. I have compiled what I feel is genuinely useful information for anyone contemplating teaching English as a foreign language in China. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have regarding this material. 1. Teaching English as a second language is very tiring. It’s not particularly difficult, especially if you are a native speaker and you can remember basic grammar, but it can be extremely draining especially if the English level of your students is particularly poor. Try reading a newspaper out loud as if you were reading it to a 5-year old child. Read very slowly and very clearly and take the time to explain every word that might not be readily understood by the child – but make sure you use only very basic vocabulary in order to do this. Try doing that for one hour. Now multiple that by 12 to 20+ hours per week and that should give you a relative idea as to what your experience may very well be like. Teaching English as a foreign language is not for everyone; it requires the Patience of Job and a great deal of dedication and commitment. Teaching English in China is not an “easy gig,” such that it is truly very tiring work. 2. Choose your school very carefully. Research the school extensively by reading reviews on this forum (and on others) and by soliciting comments from other members on EFL forums such as this one. There are significant differences in how contracts are honored and in how foreign teachers are regarded and treated from school to school. Although one negative report may not be sufficient cause for you to entirely eliminate the school as a choice, a pattern of negative reports should definitely dissuade you (watch out also for gross contradictions in reports, e.g., “XYZ school is a nightmare!” and then “XYZ school rocks and you know it!” Many schools will cajole 'positive reviews' from current teachers in response to a particularly bad and revealing one in exchange for some benefit; real or imagined). Before accepting any teaching position, ask the foreign affairs officer (FAO) or Western recruiter for the contact information of, at least, two teachers; preferably of one who has already completed his/her contract. Reputable schools that treat their foreign teachers well will have absolutely no difficulty providing you with this information. If you receive any resistance or hesitation whatsoever when asking for this information, especially in regard to past teachers, treat it as a big red warning sign and stay away. 3. Reputable schools are authorized by the government to hire foreign experts and will send you the proper paperwork for you to obtain your Z-Visa (work Visa) before coming to China. Make photocopies of all your paperwork before submitting them to the Chinese embassy. If a school urges you to come to China to work on a L- or F-Visa (promising conversion to a Z-Visa after arrival), that may be a warning sign that the school is not authorized to hire foreign experts. You should not come to work in China with anything but a Z-Visa. 4. Appreciate that contracts do not have the same meaning in China as they do in the West. Contracts, although steadfast in the West, are far more fluid in China. Do not necessarily assume that ambiguous wording in the contract is the result of a poor or inaccurate translation (as I had erroneously assumed with my first contract). Ambiguity in the contract will always work against you in the event there is a dispute later on. If something is unclear to you, ask as many questions as you need to in order to clarify the meaning. Then modify the contract to include the clear meaning as reported to you by the school. Despite what many Western recruiters of private English language schools will tell you, contracts are negotiable and amendable (as is everything else in China). But the real truth of the matter is, there isn’t much you can do, practically speaking, if your employer fails to honor the terms of the contract. A few foreign teachers, who have been cheated, have successfully hired attorneys and won decisions and money but the process is long and tedious and potentially not worth your time and legal fees. Remember that the contract protects your employer far more than it does you. As long as the contract is in effect, you will not be able to change jobs within the same province, in the event you are exploited or abused, unless you have a letter of release from your current employer. That is why your best protection is in choosing a reputable school to begin with. Trust the experiences of those who have been there before you. 5. As a rule, it is safer to teach for public (government regulated) schools and universities than it is for private English language schools. However, if you do not meet the basic requirements (minimum of a bachelor’s degree and two years of relevant experience), you may have little choice but to work for a private school which will typically fabricate your credentials. The greatest abuses occur in private English language schools, in part, because they know teachers who do not meet the basic qualifications have fewer choices and will, more likely than not, tolerate whatever conditions they are presented with. If you are working at a teaching job in China, that you otherwise would not qualify for back home, you can expect, as a rule (there are, of course, exceptions), to be disregarded, unappreciated and exploited. 6. Currently, the overall demand for foreign teachers is greater than the supply. It is completely unnecessary to use recruitment agencies and services to secure a good job. (In fact, using these services can actually limit your options. Keep in mind that reputable and highly desirable schools - ones that treat their foreign teachers well, do not need to engage the services of recruiters and pay commission fees. Many of the more advantageous positions in Beijing and Shanghai are not even advertised; they are filled by word of mouth and by internal referrals from current teachers.) It is always better to trust your own discretion and judgment (based on your extensive research) than to rely on the integrity of anyone who stands to personally gain from your employment. The responsibility of a Western recruiter, at a private English language school, is not to apprise you of problems with housing, management or the environment; it’s to have you sign on the dotted line and to bring you over to China. 7. Salaries in mainland China typically range between 3500 to 6000 RMB per month, depending on the qualifications of the teacher and, to a lesser degree, on location. Some private English language schools will offer more and, a few, less. You should not accept less than 3500 RMB per month. There seems to be something of an unwritten ledger sheet, among all the schools, where remuneration is concerned. When considering the remuneration, look carefully at the total package – factor in total work hours (hours required for face-to-face teaching, grading papers, English corners, office work, etc) against salary, quality of housing, paid holidays as well as medical and other benefits. In my experience, when you factor-in all the variables, there seems to be something of a balancing-act taking place. For example, schools that seem to pay more for the same amount of work hours may compensate for that increase by offering inadequate medical benefits, sub-standard housing or less reimbursement for airfares. Consider all the variables very carefully before making a decision. As a rule, you should receive a salary, an apartment, paid holidays (verify that the holidays are truly paid days off and not just re-scheduled work days, as is often the case), medical coverage and roundtrip airfare. Some schools pay for all utilities, others do not. Check the details carefully and don't assume anything. If it's not in writing, the chances are great, you are not going to get the school to pay for it, no matter how reasonable it was for you to assume otherwise. Can you live on the amount of salary being offered? That really depends on how you like to live, how well you like to eat and, particularly, on where you are teaching. Obviously, the cost of living in Beijing or Shanghai is considerably higher than it is in smaller, especially northeastern and inland, cities (although the higher cost of living is over-represented by housing, which, typically, is included in your package). Many foreign teachers, who are frugal and eat simply, manage to save up to 2,000 RMB per month on their salaries (approximately 240 dollars US). However, if you have special needs, like to frequent Western and 5-star hotel restaurants, if you get really sick, need expensive medication that is not covered by the school's policy or you decide to visit an ex-pat medical facility staffed by Western doctors, those savings can quickly vanish, and then some. Financially speaking, teaching in China is most viable for those without considerable indebtedness back home – those who are recent college graduates (who haven’t, as of yet, begun their “real” careers back home) and early retirees (people who have finished their careers and are endeavoring to stretch their pensions by living in a developing country). On the other hand, there are many of us in the mid-career stages of our lives who have opted for a relatively less stressful life in China. The problem with leaving your life, in the middle of your career to teach in China, becomes one of not having the financial means to return home and begin anew at a later time (such that whatever you are able to save will undoubtedly be insufficient to rebuild your life back home, depending on your circumstances). Thus, for some, teaching in China can create a type of economic prison in which the individual has little choice but to remain or move to yet another developing country in search of something better. For those who love China (and many do), that is not a problem and many do prefer living in China to fighting the rat race back home. 8. Living in China is not an easy adjustment to make. The cultural differences between China and the West are formidable and include all facets of life, e.g., language, food, personal and social hygiene, social mores and customs, air and environmental conditions, etc. (Browse the threads on the Off-Topic Forum for detailed information about what it is like to live and work in China.) Obviously, you will need to be a fairly resilient and tolerant individual in order to successfully make the myriad of adjustments required of you. The initial adjustment can be extremely frustrating and stressful; especially if you are not mentally prepared before arriving. Here are some of the conditions that I personally found to be the most challenging: Because China is a developing country, living conditions and standards are considerably lower than in the West. What your employer considers “suitable and customary housing,” will most likely not meet with your Western definition of it. I have lived in three different apartments in two years and each one was filthy and in varying states of disrepair when I arrived (but, despite that, was still considerably larger and nicer than the apartments lived in by most of the locals). Plan on the need to hire a cleaning service to scrub down your apartment shortly after arrival or mentally prepare to do it yourself (you can hire a good cleaning lady to come in for several hours per week for about 24 dollars per month). For the most part, furnishings are stark and utilitarian only. (I, for one, cannot live without a night table next to my bed and a reading lamb. Only one of three schools has ever provided a night table. I have spent no less than 500 dollars, each time I have moved, to supplement my furnishings.) In all three cases, I had to purchase my own mattress because the one provided was little more than what we would call a box-spring. As a rule, only the bathroom will have hot running water provided by a hot water heater wall-unit connected to a shower head attached to the wall, with no shower stall or curtain. You will need to buy a sponge mop to push the water down a drain after taking a shower. There is only one English-speaking television station in China; CCTV-9 and not all cable companies carry it as part of basic service. Many of us rely on the abundance of cheap (pirated) DVDs available in China for entertainment. Plan on purchasing a DVD player (I purchased a decent one at Walmart for about 36 dollars US). Keep in mind that Westerners typically operate from an internal-locus of control whereas the Chinese operate far more on an external-locus of control. That is, Westerners greatly value independence, autonomy and self-determination (and believe that success is mostly the result of hard work) whereas Chinese put far greater emphasis on luck, group norms and “fitting-in” (and believe that success is mostly the result of good luck and who you know through networking relationships, I.e., “guanxi”). Whereas Westerners are far more likely to assume responsibility for their mistakes and actions, and are quick to apologize for wrongdoings, the Chinese are far more likely to attribute their faults to a “misunderstanding” on your part and are extremely reticent to apologize as this constitutes a considerable loss of face, I.e., “mianxi”). Based on my experience, the best way to handle this situation is to “give” the Chinese face by agreeing to the presence of a “misunderstanding.” In this way, you have “earned” considerable relationship points and are technically “owed” at a later time (and this is one very good way to build guanxi). It is very important not to attribute the same type of motivation to the Chinese that we naturally would to a Westerner. One of things I found very difficult to adjust to was the manner in which organizational bureaucracy affects even the simplest of requests. Sometimes a simple request will not be responded to because the wrong person was addressed and he/she did not want to lose face by directing you to the right person. (And, at other times, depending on the employer, you are actually being ignored and disregarded. But, sometimes, knowing the difference can be a very difficult call and learning that difference is often simply the result of experience and biding your time. If you don’t already have an enormous amount of patience before arriving in China, you will either develop it or you will eventually leave the country in frustration.) The Chinese simply operate on a very different timetable than we do and there is no getting away from that. It took me months to acclimate to receiving phone calls advising me of a meeting or class that I was to attend in less than one hour. Now, I take that not infrequent occurrence with a grain of salt – in the beginning, it used to raise my blood pressure by 30 points. In the West, we trust in labels whether they are on medication, DVDs, foods, clothing; whatever. China leads the world (followed by India) in the production and distribution of counterfeit and adulterated goods, including medication (some estimates report that 50 percent of all pharmaceuticals sold in China are counterfeit; see, for example, http://www.kshp.org/June.htm and http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue188/nation.htm). In some instances, the prevalence of counterfeit goods can work to your advantage, such as when building your DVD or software collection. In other instances, it can be dangerous, such as when walking into a drugstore and purchasing antibiotics that you assume are real and are not. Bring plenty of real, broad-spectrum, antibiotics from home. I suffered severely for months from a mistreated sinus infection because I could not secure reliable antibiotics in the city I was living in at the time. The problem is, and this was confirmed by both the Chinese and ex-pat doctors, there is no reliable way of knowing whether the antibiotics (as well as other medications) are real without chemically testing them first. No one prepared me for the amount of stair-climbing I would have to do in China. Only buildings taller than eight floors seem to have elevators. For some, this is an opportunity to get some exercise. For me, it was an anathema. One major factor in my decision to accept my current position was the fact that my apartment was in a 22-story building with two elevators (and with a backup generator in case of power failure – I checked!). Of course, I still have to climb four to six stairs every time I teach, but this I can live with. China is grossly overpopulated and, as such, personal space is at a premium. Expect people to occasionally cut in front of you while you are waiting in lines. You can either accept it or quietly, gently but decidedly reclaim your space – the latter is readily accepted because it is understood. All in all, I really do love working and living in China. I find teaching college students in China far more personally rewarding than I did back home and I have true academic freedom, for the first time. The Chinese students do not take talented teachers for granted, nor do they feel entitled, as consumers, to demand excellence (as is often the case with Western college students). Their highly warm-hearted and demonstrative appreciation of and gratitude for a good teacher is overwhelming at times and the main reason I am still here. Despite the differences, and in some cases because of those differences, I really do love the people and the relatively laid-back, relaxed and relatively informal way things are done here. My life in China is considerably less stressful than it was back home. Believe me when I tell you that teaching in China can be a very rewarding experience if you are emotionally capable of making the host of internal changes that will be required of you. Despite all the adjustments I have had to make, and perhaps because I have already made them, I will probably stay here for the long haul. Lee Odden Beijing, China Lodden1973@yahoo.ca |