Today I received another e-mail from CIT looking for needed documentation. Even though we had been there two years ago, they do need a current resumé, photo, medical, scan of passport main page, and other stuff in order to be able to get the official documents from the government for our assignment as Foreign Experts at their university, a necessity for the needed work visa to China. I had hoped that having done this already in the past, we wouldn’t have to repeat the process. Oh well, it’s all to be expected. So, on with the paper trail activities.
So what exactly does one need to do in order to get a job teaching English in China? Well, first thing is to have some basic qualifications. And in saying this, I mean “basic.” First and foremost are the two qualities of being white and speaking English as one’s mother tongue. As for documentary qualifications, having a university degree is preferred. If that is missing, one should have at least completed some sort of post-secondary program obtaining a certificate. The field of study is not important. What is important is the fact that the education was done in English and that English is one’s first language. It also helps to be from one of the major English-speaking countries such as Canada, the U.S.A., Britain, Australia and New Zealand. As far as having a lot of work experience in any field, it isn’t really necessary as recent graduates from college or university are frequently hired.
Now I realise that some of you are probably wondering how you can teach with no teacher training or experience. Honestly, it isn’t all that easy. It would pay to at least take some training such as taking an on-line course in English Second Language teaching (TESL or TEFL). This is the route Maureen took even though she has had years of experience teaching emergency response programs. She took a course from i-to-i TEFL training so that she could feel better prepared. Of course any preparation is better than no preparation. A person is only inviting disaster by assuming he or she could just wing it and fly by the seat of their pants. Maureen and I have seen a number of crashes by those who came totally unprepared and lacking teaching skills of any kind. That said, there are a number of other decent on-line courses that can be taken such as: TEFL Online, TEFL Corp, ICAL Online, and the TEFL Institute. Better would be the ability to take this training in a face-to-face environment such as Oxford Seminars, the Trinity TESOL program, or better still, the Cambridge CELTA program.
Of course, being a retired teacher of second languages is likely to more than enough preparation. However, being somewhat trained is not enough if one is unprepared for the change in culture. A person has to be willing to leave behind all expectations and assumptions about teaching and learning; a person has to be willing to accept a different model, a different mindset. Nothing makes local colleagues and students more frustrated and disappointed that being told that “In Canada (the USA), we do it this way.” In today’s world, we can’t assume that the way we have been educated is the best way to be educated. This is truly a time for being open-minded.