Last year I taught at a private school in Shanghai, China. I have been looking into some options for employment in the future. I posted my resume on Dave's Esl Cafe ; within 2 days I have recieved several proposals from schools in Asia. One of these contracts offered the possiblity working with Chinese government owned schools. Chinese education is a little different from privately owned school education. I haven't taught within a Chinese government run school, so I can't give my personal opinion yet. I came across "Chineteachonline" ,I found it very interesting. Many (if not all) of the students I taught in Shanghai, were from a finacially secure background. I don't agree with the statement "[Private Schools] are generally perceived in China as being for students who have the money but not the brains." Each one of my students had a brain; sometimes their brains were focused on their new digital pets, but they had a brain somewhere.
A question I'd like to ask is:
What do you think the differences are between government schools and private schools? (In Canada and China).
Private schools are better off? I`m just guessing.
ReplyDeleteI think successfully run private schools are finacially better off then public schools. But does a finacial backing make a school "better"?
ReplyDelete-At what point does a school need to accommodate the rather expensive "needs" of the ideal modern classroom?
I'm just guessing too, but it helps to prepare for the future If I have at least a guess to guide me. Thank you for your guess Alex, it's a valid one. I guess, when we have more experience inside of schools, we know a little more into this topic, till then we can guess and question.
I have a question for you. How did you end up teaching in China? I have been interested in teaching overseas for awhile now.. would love to hear some of your advice and knowledge!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I took a 7-day TESOL course from a company called Global TESOL. When I got my certificate I was set to apply for jobs. There are many websites dedicated to ESL teaching, "just google it". Once I found a contract and made sure the gig was legit I was on an airplane.
ReplyDeleteI went to China not knowing a word of Chinese. I couldn't use chopsticks. I surrived and thrived. I would advise any first time TESOLs to go to Shanghai for their first trip. The city is very international and English is usaully present somewhere. Culture shock never really hit me. The best advice I can give anyone interested in teaching overseas is "just smile" and be yourself (if you're a jerk, you'll get hurt). I also found it very helpful to learn a little bit about the history of the country (while I was living there)-in China, DVDs are pretty cheap, so I overloaded on BBC documentaries. If you're interested in teaching in China I can let you borrow an interesting documentary about China. It's called "China: A Century of Revolution". You should watch it while you're in the country though. History is the past, so don't let a country's past reflect your opinion of it.
Teaching over-seas is not for everyone. I enjoyed it so much, it was an experience I'll never forget. If you're not affraid to explore and jump out of your comfort zone, you should enjoy teaching/living in another country too.
If you have any other questions about teaching over-seas I can try and answer them the to best of my ability.