{"id":22,"date":"2010-04-16T10:51:43","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T16:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2010-04-16T10:51:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T16:51:43","slug":"do-the-research-about-teaching-and-living-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/04\/16\/do-the-research-about-teaching-and-living-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Research About Teaching and Living in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s post talked about trying to be ready in terms of teaching skills and how to get some. \u00a0At the end, I said that in the end, it came to being open-mined in terms of the world of differences one experiences upon arriving in China. \u00a0How does one prepare for the culture shock? \u00a0As always, research is a good place to start. \u00a0There are a few good places to engage with people already in China, already teaching English in a variety of locations from kindergarten to university and in private language institutes or at factory sites. \u00a0Just one word of caution in checking out these places, what you will hear will all be opinionated based on different belief systems and world views. \u00a0Some are new to China and still see everything through rose-coloured glasses; others are jaded and should have left China to return to their home countries; thankfully, most are somewhere in between. \u00a0Putting all the different voices together, you can get a clearer picture of the China you will experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, what and where are these discussion forums? \u00a0I began the search at Dave’s ESL Caf\u00e9<\/a> in the China forum. \u00a0One of the members there brought another discussion forum to my attention, Raoul’s China Saloon<\/a>. \u00a0Then, I did an e-search to find others as I believe the more information we have, the better we will be prepared. \u00a0A current e-search finds these sites: \u00a0the China ESL Teacher Forum<\/a>, TEFL.Net<\/a>, and ESL Teachers Forum<\/a>. \u00a0I guess the graphic here indicates my preferred discussion forum. \u00a0I have found this place to be the best place for open discussion. \u00a0Of course, that is my personal opinion. \u00a0Dave’s ESL Caf\u00e9 is busier, but it is also more negative. \u00a0The weakest of all these groups mentioned would be the ESL Teachers Forum as it doesn’t give one the sense of any kind of “community.”<\/p>\n

Of course, one has to look for more than discussion forums filled with ESL teachers. \u00a0It would be a good idea to be reading newspapers and magazines as well as watching China-related programs on television, programs such as China Rising<\/a>. \u00a0Of course, reading an English-language newspaper from China<\/a> would give you yet another perspective, one that is biased from the official Chinese viewpoint.<\/p>\n

All the information aside, you have to decide if you are the type of person who is more comfortable at home or whether you can live with ambiguity. \u00a0Are you able to put your certainties aside and allow other possibilities to emerge? \u00a0If you answer “yes” to this last point, then perhaps teaching English in China is for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s post talked about trying to be ready in terms of teaching skills and how to get some. \u00a0At the end, I said that in the end, it came to being open-mined in terms of the world of differences one … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,35,37,60,74,76,183,191],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-china","tag-china-daily","tag-china-rising","tag-daves-esl-cafe","tag-esl","tag-esl-teacher-discussion-forums","tag-raouls-china","tag-saloon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}