I'm seriously considering teaching English to students in China. Living in the shitty UK, all that's left to get my teaching degree.
Any of you guys have any experience in any of these fields? Teaching abroad in general, are a Uni student taking a teaching course, thinking of living in China, etc?
Anything would help, be nice to get a few more opinions and hear from those with experience..
It seems like a huge number of people from Britain are going/have been to teach in China. I only know one friend of a friend who didn't like it, everyone else seems to have had a great time. It should be noted that you don't need a "teaching degree", like a PGCE, in order to teach Enlgish as a foreign language. Most places require you to have a TEFL qualification of some sort, though, but that's usually a 100 hour course or less.
I interviewed for the JET programme this year, which involves being an English language teaching assistant in Japan for a year (or more, if you like). They require (and give) no real training, operating on more of a "work it out for yourself" sort of principle. I'm sitting here biting my nails until April when they'll let me know if I'm in or not.
My mum also is interested in coming out of English teaching in the UK and taking TEFL course, (One of the Cambridge colleges does it I think, no top end qualifications required of course) so she can teach somewhere like China.
So yeah double appeal for word of how good this is.
That's brilliant, I'll be researching places to complete a TEFL course tomorrow morning.
Good luck >>2
I wonder if my young age would be a dilemna, what age do you guys think is the "minimum" age for this career..? I've heard the most respected Universities in Beijing and Shanghai are looking for teachers 21+
One way to get your feet wet without devoting too much into it would be a mission trip. Teaching English is a semi-common activity. You get to visit the place for a few weeks, get a chance to try teaching, etc.
My uncle went to China to teach English. I don't think he knew much Chinese when he went, but I don't really know the specifics.
Came back a few years later with a wife ;(
paging Albright TTT!
I taught in Saudi Arabia for four years. Not as cool as japan, which is what you weeaboo fags would want to do, but it was a blast.
So why the sad smiley? Are you a Racist WN or what?
Because it was Saudi Arabia, and i was tired of the stress of being a white person in a crazy arabic state. It was just me, i couldn't really take it, in fact, the standard of living was pretty high, and everyone was nice. But i just felt scared too often, and more than that, i felt like i was an outsider in their culture (which i probably was).
Also, i know arabic, (protip: learn it, its in soooooo demand right now) so its really easy for me to get translation work. I wasn't getting paid very well, (i WAS a teacher after all :P), and after 9/11 people pay through the nose for arabic translators. I've gone back twice since i quit, in fact, to do translation work.
Its a pretty crazy place to visit, if you ever want to go on an adventure vacation or something. Most of the state is really well-off, modern buildings, services you'd expect, clean, etc etc. The rest of the state is what you'd picture a middle-east nation to look like (read: sand and nothingness for miles). A really stark contrast.
teaching english in a foreign country is sort of a backup plan if i can't get into grad school or something. it's hard though, i'd like to go teach in china or some sort of asian country and from what I hear, they prefer white people because they figure, if you're white, you've gotta speak good english. i'm chinese but born in an english speaking country. might as well be white :P but alas I think it might present a problem when applying. anyone else know anything about this aspect of those teach in other country programs?
I was wondering, for China specifically, when they say they require a University degree, can this be any degree of choice?
For instance I plan to do a 3yr course and get a BA for Arts and Animation.
Anyone got any clues?
From what I\'ve heard, a BA in anything can get you a position in a mass market style English school. Expect a very low salary, though (this can be especially impacting while living in a country with such high cost of life as Japan).
So if I take English as my BA then I'll earn a higher sallery? I mean high in regards to the earning power in China, not that I expect you to be all knowledgeable about foreign teacher wages..
You see, I figure that if I'm going to take that path, then I might as well aim high right?
If you're going for a run-of-the-mill ALT position (which is what most people in this thread are talking about), then the nature of your degree is irrelevant as long as you have one, so there's no point changing your major.
If you want to be a true, career English teacher, though, an English degree is probably a prerequisite to getting the necessary qualifications, and you'll need to be fluent in the language of the country you want to work in as well.