Looking for a Teaching Job – Advice?

[Brian]

JerryS-

Who do you work for? The company I work for seemed reasonable at first but they’re driving me nuts. And I turned down several jobs based just on the ridiculous contracts…

-Brian

[Chris Ziich]

Quote:

howdo u do privates?? i want to start doing privates but i cant convey chinese t them

I guess this where having a good grasp of spoken Chinese and culture comes in handy. I just naturally try to have good relationships with the students and their parents. You might call it sucking up.

I just remember being treated out for dinner often, smoking and drinking when offered, bringing gifts of fruit and mooncake, talking to them about their vacations and answering their questions about America etc. And eventually these turned into private classes.

[JerryS]

Good enough. I guess my flaw is that i can’t speak the language.

[Chris Ziich]

Chinese culture 101: it’s not about what you know, it’s how much 关系 you have

[Lucy Knowles]

Hey Karen,

Sound advice on this thread, but it shouldn’t be impossible for you to get a job by any stretch – the language school I work for employ local teachers, Australians, Americans, Indians, Canadians and Brits.

I would definitely do the CELTA – you may not ‘need’ it in order to get a job, but it’s invaluable in terms of equipping you with the skills to teach. I’m really glad I did mine – worth every penny!

Would also thoroughly recommend jacking in your job and moving to Chengdu – I LOVE it so far!

PM me if you ever need anything – I’d be happy to help 🙂

L x

[Vic]

@Jerry & Chris, networking (关系) is definitely the most important element here. It applies to everywhere, not just in China. Chris is good at social networking and it has helped him tremendously, not just jobwise.

Knowing Chinese would most likely give you an upper hand, Jerry. However, your appearance and manner do make you worth more than you expected. Wonder how you train people boxing when you dont know Chinese, jabbing and kicking alone wont be enough. right?

Maybe we could put our ‘connections’ together. am sure it could be a great resource for many foreigners here at the forum.

[Ye Ming]

I speak fluent Chinese, but still have some trouble finding a teaching job. Although I may not search actively for it i got turned down twice when i was offered a job, just because i was not a native speaker. Now i got some advice to post an ad up on ganji.com.cn, any toughts on that? I’ve not so much kuanxi in the teaching field so I dont really know where to start looking.

[Albert]

ISMART ENGLISH CLUB IS NOW LOOKING FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS(PART TIME AND FULL TIME) TO TEACH OUR KIDS .

ADRESS:龙腾中路泊景湾ISMART ENGLISH CLUB

Pay: 100 -200YUAN/HOUR

TEL:13438908826

E_MAIL:[email protected]

[Karen]

Chris, you got good life & sure know how to mingle haha. Thanks for giving us a preview on how personality shines through! I gotta adopt a new accent, man.

Lucy, thank you! That’s assuring cos i’m still a little stuck on whether to spend that money. And time, of cos. I better be quick then. Happy to get in touch too! 🙂

This should last me for a while. I’ll check back in every now & then so gimme a holla anytime 😉

[Richard Agyapong]

I’m really enjoying the flow of info and the discussion in general. Big ups y’all.

[Justin Doutre]

I’m 25 years old, white, I speak both English and French fluently, I’ve been a hockey coach to little kids since I was 18, I’ve been teaching youngsters the piano since I was 18, I hold a TESOL/TEFL certificate…….But I don’t have a bachelor’s degree.

I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and I’m having an INSANELY hard time trying to find a job. I swear, I must send out a hundred emails a day, and I was always get something along these lines as a response:

I am sorry, Justin. A bachelor or master degree is necessary.

Thank you for your attention.

Someone on this forum, Rick in China (super cool dude btw ), told me that this really shouldn’t be a problem and that maybe getting to Chengdu would increase my chances. I think this might be out of the question though. Is there anyway around this crap?

It’s so annoying because I’m actually passionate about teaching.

Also, on the majority of job postings that I rsee, I see something along the lines of ” Must be willing to stay at least 3/6 months.” Which is nuts because I’ll stay for years! My life has been geared towards China and Chengdu in particular for the last year or so. I’ve been practicing Chinese 2 to 3 hours a day lately and been going to all the local dépanneurs to hone my skills. And what’s holding me back? Some bogus post-secondary education paper?

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be really appreciated!

[Christine]

Hi , Richard

Please contact me at [email protected]. I am not an agent. We are looking for native English teacher. If you are still interested to teach in Chengdu. Contact me asap.

Christine

[baoluo]

Justin-

The problem is that you don’t have a bachelors, which is a necessity to get you a working visa, which is necessary for you to teach legally and the school to legally employ you. While, if a school really wanted you, could either 关系 their way around it or just photoshop some lame facsimile of a diploma to give the PSB, this is becoming less and less worth the effort for schools. This summer new legislation was passed making the fines and risks for employing illegal foreigners much more severe. There was also a pretty big crackdown in and around Beijing, Shanghai and even a bit in Chongqing and Chengdu… and as a result a lot of schools that used to hire illegally are not doing so any more.

I would say it’s still completely possible for you to find a job, but you would probably have to come here first. Most schools that deal in illegal hiring and the like don’t do a lot of overseas recruitment because it’s simply too much trouble. Schools that would hire you overseas are doing so because they are generally above board and you technically have to hire people from outside of China due to the whole rigamarole surrounding the Z-Visa. This is a huge gamble on the schools part (They will spend a lot of time and money and 关系 on a new FT before they even get over here, so if the teacher flakes out or fails at getting a visa the school gets burned), so a school just hiring any schmuck with a white face is definitely not going to go to all that trouble.

If you come here you’ll be able to find a job under the table very easily. I know plenty of students and people from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia who have teaching gigs when they should technically not be able to hold any English teaching job legally, so it’s not hard. I used to be a teacher, now I’m a grad student, and I get job offers almost every day just walking around downtown.

That said, if you legitimately have a passion for teaching, I wholeheartedly recommend NOT coming to China to teach ESL. Stay in Canada, get a degree in education, and if you want to come to China or Chengdu use those actual teaching credentials (Knowing French will make this much easier, as non-English foreign language teachers are harder to come by) to find a job at one of the many international schools there are around. You’ll get paid something between 10x and 20x the salary of your average 补习班 teacher, have far more vacation time, more benefits, be treated more fairly, and above all else given respect and actually treated as a teacher.

Any ESL job you get, especially if you’re teaching illegally like you will be doing, will not be anything close to actual teaching. At best you’ll have a few decent 1-to-1 students or teach some adults and high school kids who actually give a damn while being mistreated, underpaid and generally exploited by your school, and at worst you’ll be paid to be a white-face a babysit kids for a couple hours a week.

Sounds harsh, but I’m speaking from experience. I taught in China for over two years in both the public and private sectors, and now I’m getting a graduate degree in education because I’d like to teach at a real school and make a difference at some point. My two years teaching didn’t give me a whole lot of useful experience (Most schools in Europe and NA will sort of glance over teaching ESL in Asia on your resume, by the way) outside of learning and the ins and outs of how poorly run the English education system is in this country.

edit: internet is really weird today!

[Nick Morrissey]

Hey I’m a current teacher at EF in the Shawan area of chengdu. I know we are hiring an extra hand over the next few weeks as two of our teachers’ contracts just came up. I’ve come to realize since i’ve been here that all schools have different rules for hiring, but it’s really just about finding a good fit with the boss and I’d say we have just about the best Director of Studies you’ll find.

PM me if you’re looking for a teaching position!

they offer anywhere between 6500 and 8000 depending on experience plus airfare coverage and provided accommodations or a monthly accommodation stipend. Pretty sweet deal all around

[Tracy Lee]

Make sure that you have a working visa first, otherwise you may be threatened by teaching agents in the future, especially if you have a contract with them.

[Tracy Lee]

If you are really interested in teaching, maybe I can introduce a reliable place for you to teach. If you want, you can Send me a private message.:)

[Venus Xiong]

hi,everyone. we are a kindergarten in Huayang County, Chengdu. we are looking for a part time job foreign teacher. there is no requirement of nationality and teaching experience.so if you wish to be a member of us, please contact me at [email protected]. i will reply as soon as possible. wish you all good day. by the way, you can call me Venus.

[oh davey]

Hi Guys,

This is a stupid question but is there any other way of teaching legally in a college without having to apply for the foreign expert licence or does your institution/school have to apply for it.

Any ‘work arounds’ or do I just have to change visa type.

I’m on Spousal L visa which means that I can stay for a year but not legally entitled to work

[baoluo]

oh davey,

There is no way to legally teach at a college without a FEC. You can probably still find employment of a legally dubious nature at many schools or universities anyway, though. You should go to the schools in person and ask if you don’t have any connections that could help you out.

Since you’re on a spousal L visa, it’s entirely possible for you to find a job and then get converted over to a legal Z visa/residence permit, though. Normally the laowai in question would do nothing besides provide a myriad of documents during the application of the FEC and worker’s permit, most of that stuff is handled by the Chinese employer. Really, even in a 100% legal and above board situation, the most the foreigner would have to do is get a check-up and head to the PSB to get a new visa and then the residence permit, and sometimes a big company or school will even do that for you. (Not the check-up, unfortunately)

So no, there is no way to work legally. Yes, there are “work arounds” insofar as you can find plenty of illegal, low-risk work. And yes, there is a way to possibly change your visa into a legal Z/Residence permit, but it depends more on your employer than anything.

[oh davey]

Hi Baoluo

I’m really grateful for your words of advice.

I just sent you a PM.

Very grateful!!

[Author]

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