Saturday, July 5, 2008
What's it like teaching English language to the Chinese? For Gary Toner, Beijing is anything but a forbidding city.
Gary Toner is not an ordinary English teacher. He had taught English abroad. He started teaching English when he was 22, soon after he graduated from university.
he's taught in Russia, Argentina, Spain and Slovakia and stayed an average of two years in each country. That said, he'd been in China for five years. (he’s married now - her wife Sinead also works in Beijing and they have a little daughter called Niamh.)
His apartment is in the Sanlitun area, not far from the main football arena, and he work at various schools in the city. The demand for English language teachers is staggering. Basically, if a Chinese person wants a job with an international company such as Hewlett Packard, then English is a must.
Teaching English language in a nation like Italia is another story. Everyone wants to work in Florence and there are bound to be lots of you chasing one job. In Beijing there aren't enough teachers to go round. Both the Chinese government and the business world are investing heavily in getting people to speak English, not least because of this year's Olympics.
In China there's no shortage of work, though the pay can vary. If you teach English as a second language at an international school, you can earn 22,000 yuan a month, which works out at €2,200 or £1,500. At the same time, some teachers at the university earn only 4,000 yuan a month (£300), although their employers often provide them with an apartment and at least one flight home per year.
If you are short of cash, you can always do a bit of extra private tuition, which pays really well - about £30 an hour - although you can only pick that up when you're already out here. In his experience, going for a pint in the Irish bar in Sanlitun is the easiest way to tap into the job grapevine.
If you want to get English-teaching work in Beijing, come out here and start knocking on doors. Failing that, you could take a six-month post at a university, just to get a foot in the door, or apply from home via an ESL website (I'd recommend www.eslcafe.com).
As for qualifications, he'd advise anyone to get the full CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) qualification. It's a 100-hour course that takes in all aspects of the work, including real teaching practice. There are other, more intensive courses that take only 20 hours (over one weekend), but they are not going to be as widely recognised as the CELTA, which you can upgrade to degree status (DELTA) if you want to.
It's a bit of a shock the first time to find yourself in a foreign country, totally on your own in front of a class. The training can only prepare you up to a certain point. That said, in all the years I've been doing this, there have been very few times that I've been completely lost for an answer. You learn to get by!
People often ask how it's possible to teach English in a country where you don't speak the local language, but these days there's no such thing as someone who speaks no English. In China, for example, everyone knows words such as "dollar" or "I love you", and it's usually possible for a teacher to be understood.
Many schools will provide tapes, CDs or English language textbooks for the pupils to work from, in which case the techniques of teaching English are pretty much the same whatever country you're in. Others just want you to conduct English conversation classes, without books.
The best thing about Beijing is that you are not going to be lonely. There's a huge expat community here, mostly based in Sanlitun and growing all the time.
Gary Toner's tips for teachers:
Don't refer to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language); the correct acronyms are TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) or ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).
Acquire the right qualification. A 100-hour class such as the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), administered by the Cambridge University ESOL department and taught at 286 centres in 54 countries, will give you more job potential than a 20-hour course.
To find an ESL job in China (or anywhere in the world) visit www.eslcafe.com, also known as Dave's ESL Café.
Take the social temperature of your destination by visiting a Time Out-type website such as www.thebeijinger.com. Be sure to check the cost of living, particularly accommodation.
Gary Toner is not an ordinary English teacher. He had taught English abroad. He started teaching English when he was 22, soon after he graduated from university.
he's taught in Russia, Argentina, Spain and Slovakia and stayed an average of two years in each country. That said, he'd been in China for five years. (he’s married now - her wife Sinead also works in Beijing and they have a little daughter called Niamh.)
His apartment is in the Sanlitun area, not far from the main football arena, and he work at various schools in the city. The demand for English language teachers is staggering. Basically, if a Chinese person wants a job with an international company such as Hewlett Packard, then English is a must.
Teaching English language in a nation like Italia is another story. Everyone wants to work in Florence and there are bound to be lots of you chasing one job. In Beijing there aren't enough teachers to go round. Both the Chinese government and the business world are investing heavily in getting people to speak English, not least because of this year's Olympics.
In China there's no shortage of work, though the pay can vary. If you teach English as a second language at an international school, you can earn 22,000 yuan a month, which works out at €2,200 or £1,500. At the same time, some teachers at the university earn only 4,000 yuan a month (£300), although their employers often provide them with an apartment and at least one flight home per year.
If you are short of cash, you can always do a bit of extra private tuition, which pays really well - about £30 an hour - although you can only pick that up when you're already out here. In his experience, going for a pint in the Irish bar in Sanlitun is the easiest way to tap into the job grapevine.
If you want to get English-teaching work in Beijing, come out here and start knocking on doors. Failing that, you could take a six-month post at a university, just to get a foot in the door, or apply from home via an ESL website (I'd recommend www.eslcafe.com).
As for qualifications, he'd advise anyone to get the full CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) qualification. It's a 100-hour course that takes in all aspects of the work, including real teaching practice. There are other, more intensive courses that take only 20 hours (over one weekend), but they are not going to be as widely recognised as the CELTA, which you can upgrade to degree status (DELTA) if you want to.
It's a bit of a shock the first time to find yourself in a foreign country, totally on your own in front of a class. The training can only prepare you up to a certain point. That said, in all the years I've been doing this, there have been very few times that I've been completely lost for an answer. You learn to get by!
People often ask how it's possible to teach English in a country where you don't speak the local language, but these days there's no such thing as someone who speaks no English. In China, for example, everyone knows words such as "dollar" or "I love you", and it's usually possible for a teacher to be understood.
Many schools will provide tapes, CDs or English language textbooks for the pupils to work from, in which case the techniques of teaching English are pretty much the same whatever country you're in. Others just want you to conduct English conversation classes, without books.
The best thing about Beijing is that you are not going to be lonely. There's a huge expat community here, mostly based in Sanlitun and growing all the time.
Gary Toner's tips for teachers:
Don't refer to TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language); the correct acronyms are TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) or ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).
Acquire the right qualification. A 100-hour class such as the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), administered by the Cambridge University ESOL department and taught at 286 centres in 54 countries, will give you more job potential than a 20-hour course.
To find an ESL job in China (or anywhere in the world) visit www.eslcafe.com, also known as Dave's ESL Café.
Take the social temperature of your destination by visiting a Time Out-type website such as www.thebeijinger.com. Be sure to check the cost of living, particularly accommodation.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment