How To Be A Foreign Teacher In China
I’ve been a foreign teacher in China far longer than I’ve worked in any other industry, so maybe I can give some tips and pointers to anyone thinking of following suit or even already here:
Remember for most parents in China, their child’s education is of incredible importance. The benevolent neglect of Western parents doesn’t happen here so often. The parents will want to know what’s happening, and if they’re paying money (if you work in a language school or international school), you’d better know what you’re talking about.
Concomitantly, many parents will ask for special treatment for their child. Of course it’s impossible to treat every child specially, but thinking about how that child learns and differentiating appropriately would be a good idea.
On the other hand, an alarming number of Chinese children are “left-behind” - both parents working in another province, with them left in the care of grandparents or boarding school. These students often have developmental or learning difficulties. Try your best to look after these kids. They are often attention-starved.
Chinese parents spend around one-third of their disposable income on education for their kids, extra-curricular classes etc. The kids’ weekends will be filled with piano classes, art classes, maths classes, English classes. They don’t have time to become aware of popular culture. Time spent with the family usually involves family meals, games and the local parks. Their references are hence greatly different to what yours were as a teenager.
Chinese kids generally respect you as a teacher, far more so than kids in Western countries do. This makes classes pretty easy on the discipline front. But don’t be a jerk and play on this. They are still kids - don’t tease them unpleasantly, don’t take class easy, don’t act like a kid yourself, and don’t play films. Their parents will be questioning them every day about how school went.
Chinese kids aren’t generally as immediately outgoing as Western kids. Boys especially can feel like their natural energy has been squashed out of them with all their studying. But if you invest some energy and make class fun, they’ll soon come out of their shells. They enjoy teamwork and competitive activities - it makes such a change from the traditional schooling they often get.
Kids aren’t angels, of course. Some can be unresponsive, disinterested, or even a little hostile. But for the most part, they respond to clear directions and boundaries. Show you’re the boss and that you know what you’re doing by maximising the time students are on-task.
Similarly, Chinese kids are used to strictness and might find your liberal western groupwork ways a bit childish. Make sure your tasks are sufficiently challenging.
I find many Chinese kids are excellent at drawing, probably through the difficulty of learning Chinese characters. If you’ve got a difficult student, a poster task is a good way to allow you to praise them and so build a connection.
Chinese students love technology. But often it’s a coping mechanism to hide their weak language skills. Ban all tablets, translators, etc. Get as many dictionaries as possible. Make dictionary work a regular part of class. A little rote-learning doesn’t hurt anyone.
Chinese managers can be rather indirect. You may have to manage up - show what you’re doing, and show the (hopefully positive) results.
Chinese managers also generally take efforts to get to know them on a personal level as sheer political influencing. Chinese culture is all about developing connections so people tend to assume an external motive if you’re being friendly to a superior. Shame, but it’s true. This means things can feel socially very hierarchical - only people of the same level consorting.
Make friends outside of school. If you hang about with colleagues, it all gets a bit cliquey and incestuous. (This is especially true in smaller cities). It’s far healthier to spend time with others. There are usually ways to get to know Chinese adults, from Toastmasters to hiking to barhounds. Get on the local WeChat groups.
Remember you as a foreign teacher get paid significantly more than local teachers. You are expected to shoulder more of the burden when it comes to marketing. Local staff tend to keep their head down, as that’s Chinese working culture. Don’t complain.
Visit places outside your city. The train network is very very good. You can easily book tickets and hotels on trip.com.
Read about modern Chinese history or current affairs. Listen to the Sinica or China Talk podcasts. Subscribe to sinocism.com. Read China Daily or Global Times.
Learn to use Meituan, Didi, Taobao, JingDong, and Dianping - and if you can’t use WeChat or Alipay, what are you even doing in China?
Don’t whine. Yeah, Chinese people will try to get on the elevator before you get off, and smoking is still far too prevalent, and driving is still a bit wild, and it can be hard to find, I dunno, good cheese or chorizo. It’s almost like China is a foreign country. Accept it.
On the other hand, local markets/supermarkets almost always have fresh produce at very reasonable prices. Rice, vegetables, meat, fish, fruit - and you can use thick noodles instead of spaghetti. If you stock up on herbs and spices from the Metro supermarket, you’ll be sorted. Most other things you can find on Taobao.
E-bikes are great. Seriously. Get one. Scootering at 50km/h on a sunny day is such a pleasure, and Didis might be cheap but they add up.
Chinese parks are wonderful. Really, really wonderful. Explore them.
“Sin taxes” on downmarket alcohol and cigarettes are substantially lower than you’re probably used to. But just because you can afford to buy lots of them doesn’t mean you should. I have known of two foreign teachers who died through over-indulging. Yes, literally dying. Don’t do that.
Because of the enormous demand for English teachers around 2000-2015, some unsavoury characters came to China and created a bad reputation for foreigners living here. Look - if you’re single, you’ll doubtless want to date. Sure. But please treat people with respect, not like you’re on the last night of a Club 18-30 holiday. Living abroad, you’re to some extent representing your home nation.
Related to that - some guys get swollen egos when living in China, because they get attention from women, because their formerly nerdy interests suddenly seem exotic and interesting, and so on. Chinese women can be soft-spoken and keen to talk, but that doesn’t mean they want to fuck you, big boy. Check your head.
The days of China being a teaching destination for backpackers who want to earn easy money are long gone. The push now is for greater professional standards and certification. The language school dragnets that would take anyone with a degree are much diminished. Come to China to teach if you actually want to teach. If you want a glorified holiday, best try somewhere else.
It used to be that English teaching was the entry-level job for foreigners in China and that people could make something of their hobbies or interests. They could become writers, bar owners, restauranteurs, life coaches, PR agents, headhunters, etc etc. With the increased professionalization of the education sector, and the numbers of Chinese students studying abroad then returning to China, that too seems to be over, so the chances of industry-hopping are lower than before. Again, come to China to teach if you actually want to teach.
Perhaps relatedly, the once-thriving expat media sector has collapsed. Most Tier 2 cities used to have a magazine or website or two. Beijing and Shanghai had about five magazines each. Now they’re down to about one website each. It can be harder, therefore, to find out where to go and what’s on. The real action is in WeChat groups. Get yourself into them.
There is a marked stratification in China’s educational institutions, and hence for places in which foreign teachers can work. From easiest to gain a job (and lowest salary) to hardest to procure (with highest salary), the gradation goes: university oral teaching → language school → local school → university lecturer → international school. The pay goes from RMB10,000 a month at the bottom of the scale to maybe RMB35,000-40,000 at the top (for management, it can go up to RMB 60,000 or even higher for those with experience at renowned schools). A Masters and certification in your home nation should see you fine for an international school, but a language school may only require a degree in any subject. (I didn’t even have a phone interview for my first job teaching at a university. They saw my CV then sent a job offer. That’s how scarily easy it was back then.)
Chinese banks are vile, ghastly, horrendous places whose sole aim is to prevent you from doing anything. Do whatever you can to minimise the time you spend in them, and your blood pressure will be much improved.
Chinese medicine is an area that doesn’t really translate well. If you have a health issue, make sure you either take enough medicine with you or you know the Chinese equivalent.
It is obviously very useful to learn Chinese, but with apps you can get away with not knowing it. I would however suggest that it’s a great idea to really get to know one aspect of China - food, history, culture, politics, geography, technology, writers, whatever. It’s a big country. There’s a lot to it.
Don’t be politically gauche. Chinese people know the system in which they live. If they don’t like it, there’s nothing they can do to change it. If they like it - and many do - your strictures on their political system will not be appreciated. Either way, as an outsider, your understanding is necessarily limited and conditioned by your own upbringing, like everyone’s political viewpoint. Don’t make an ass of yourself and go about dissing the powers that be like you’re Noam Chomsky of the Middle Kingdom. Chinese people are masters at getting around the stupidities of the authorities. Making a show of your opposition is to them extremely naive.
Taking drugs is not worth the risk. Police will occasionally do random busts on nightclubs and give everyone (Every. Single. Person) a drugs test. You can be thrown out of China for having traces of marijuana in your system from months ago. It really is that draconian. It’s simply not worth it if you’re serious about your career.
It’s significantly harder for LGBT people than in the early 2000s - the community spaces have almost all had to close. (Shanghai’s dream of being a great world city sounds laughable when things like this happen). Then again, I would guess there are plenty of online spaces, if you know where to look. Obviously, the larger cities will be better.
Anti-black racism in China is still prevalent. You see still teaching adverts asking specifying white candidates. I detect little overt racism amongst kids, but parents often take against POC teaching staff. They also often express concerns about the accents of Indian, South African or Caribbean teachers, even when they are native English speakers. This is deeply unfair, but it’s a fact, and it’s best to be aware of it.
That all said, is it worth coming to China to teach? Well, it really depends on you. What do you think?