Teaching English in China – Debunking the Myths

Do a Google search on “teaching English in China” and what you’ll find are over 54 million results listing websites primarily from Chinese job recruiters, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification schools, forums, etc. of EFL and “cultural exchange programs”. “That is, glorified recruitment agencies, all of which stand to gain greatly from convincing Westerners that moving to China to teach oral English is an opportunity and a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.” While it is generally true that an EFL teaching position can be a good way to subsidize travel expenses to exotic places around the world, it is completely untrue for anyone to suggest that doing so makes sense as a new and permanent job. midway race. Move on.
 
This article will debunk some of the most common myths you will read about teaching English in China and argue that doing so should only be considered by a very limited number of people who meet the criteria outlined below. It is written by an American psychoanalyst who has been working in China since 2003 as a mental health consultant and professor of psychology.
 
Myth #1: All Chinese desperately want to learn English and will use it in their daily lives
 
China’s education system was completely overhauled in 1979 to achieve the goals of the Chinese Communist Party’s 1978 reform movement, adopted at the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee, in what is commonly known as the Four Modernizations. These four modernizations were in the fields of 1) agriculture, 2) industry, 3) technology, and 4) defense and were specifically intended to make China a self-sufficient major economic power in the early 21st century (Wertz, 1998).
 
Nowhere in these four broad fields will you find English as a foreign language or any other humanity. The truth is that English as a foreign language has a very low status as an academic discipline in China. Basically, it is assigned as a required course of study to first-year students who scored too low on the National University Admission Test (Gao Kao) to receive the requested major in a more lucrative field.

Unless students have definite plans, as well as considerable funding, to study abroad one day, hope to work for an international company, or intend to marry a foreigner, they will never use a single word of English for the rest of their lives. of their studies. lives after graduating from college. In fact, in a land of 1.3 billion people, Chinese, not English, is the most widely spoken language in the world today. Many of us who have lived and worked in China for years have realized that what the Chinese really want is for the rest of the world to learn Chinese, and that wish might one day come true as the Middle Kingdom continues its rise. rampant as a world economic power.
 
Foreign English teachers are recruited so competitively as to meet a highly resented and bitterly contested national requirement enacted by the Ministry of Education that requires exposure to a native speaker for all foreign language learners. Aside from public schools and universities, the proliferation of private language schools, where the greatest abuse and exploitation of foreigners occurs, has created an insatiable demand for white faces in the classroom to attract new students and charge higher tuition fees than the average. that they can pay. they will be charged for classes with their Chinese English teachers only.
 
What you need to keep in mind is that because Chinese academic leaders and administrators devalue the teaching and learning of English in China, the role of the foreign English teacher is deprofessionalized: it is limited to facilitating the speaking and listening of the students. skills, with very few exceptions. Whether a foreign teacher has a Ph.D. in linguistics with a specialty in second language acquisition methodology or is a recent university graduate with little or no relevant work experience, in the vast majority of cases, each will be assigned to teach precisely the same classes with a wage differential of no more than 700 yuan ($102.00) per month.
 
Myth #2: A foreign teacher can live very comfortably on the provided salary and can even save money
 
The average salary for a foreign English teacher in China, outside of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, is in the range of 4,000 to 6,000 yuan per month ($584 to $876, respectively) for 14 to 20 hours of face-to-face classes. face-to-face teaching per week (Mavrides, 2009). While it’s true that this salary is up to 70 percent more than the current national per capita income of 1,800 yuan (Economy Watch, 2009), that doesn’t mean much unless you’re willing to live like a Chinese.
 
While it’s possible to save up to a third of your typical salary of 5,000 yuan a month, you’ll have to live fairly frugally to do so, which means forgoing all Western food and services altogether and carefully restricting your use of public services. . especially air conditioning. For example, a single can of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken Soup sells for $3.21 (22 yuan) at a local Western grocery store in Guangzhou, and that 2-to-1 price comparison ratio is fairly consistent across all imported products in China. , even if you’re lucky enough to find them (and you won’t outside of China’s three aforementioned international cities). Also, Western-brand home appliances and personal electronics will generally cost as much in China as China, sometimes a little more, and you’ll often buy very fancy clones, that is, counterfeit products that won’t last as long as the originals. genuine items yes.
 
The reality is that any Westerner who lived a middle-class existence in their home country will barely get by on the typical salary paid to most foreign oral English teachers in China. Even if you deprive yourself enough to save some money, those savings will quickly disappear if you decide to travel or become seriously ill (no actual health insurance provided, only accidental injury insurance). Most foreign English teachers in China don’t do it because they don’t have enough.

In addition to salary concerns, you should also be aware that the “free” housing provided to foreign English teachers varies considerably in size and quality, and is more common today in what the Chinese working poor live in, it is say, small (580 to 900 square feet), old and dilapidated units in eight-story buildings with no elevators and hot water available only for showering. You’ll need to get used to washing your hands, as well as dishes, with cold water unless you decide to purchase water heating units for your bathroom and kitchen sinks on your own, and you can plan on getting plenty of exercise especially if your apartment it’s on the eighth floor.
 
Myth #3: Teaching English in China is fun, easy, and personally rewarding

The reality is that teaching English in China is extremely tiring and challenging work and, for the most part, it is thankless work. While students who think they will use English someday will have already acquired reasonable speaking and listening skills, most of your students will not be able to understand English at all unless you speak very slowly and use simple vocabulary. Unfortunately, this is not only true for your students, but it will also be the case when you are trying to communicate with your colleagues, administrators, and just about anyone else you have contact with in China, unless of course that other person is also a stranger. .

It is highly unlikely that someone who is not a career EFL/ESL teacher will find the job personally or professionally rewarding, nor will anyone who is not an educator with a master’s degree and state teaching certification be able to make a real living from it. . and only then by teaching at an international school, a joint venture program, or a Western university with a branch in China.

Myth #4: All native speakers can and should teach English in China

There are four groups of Westerners for whom teaching English in China might make sense: 1) recent university graduates who would like to study Chinese or gain some travel experience before returning home to resume their real careers; 2) active older adults in very good health who are seeking a short-term adventure (four to six months); 3) retired people looking to stretch their western pensions in an Asian country and, as mentioned above; 4) career EFL teachers who will work as school and program directors, or in positions only available to fully credentialed and licensed educators.

For anyone else, especially middle-aged and middle-aged people without considerable means, moving to China to teach English will likely make you an economic prisoner of the Asian EFL system – you’ll be stuck spending the rest of your life teaching English like a foreign language with no savings, moving from job to job, maybe country to country, hoping to find greener pastures, and forever cursing the day you decided to teach English in China.

Ratings

Observatory of the Economy (2009). China Income, China National Income. EconomyWatch.com. Retrieved July 3, 2009 from http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/china/income.html.

Mavrides, Gregory (2009). Guide for foreign teachers on how to live and teach in China. Middle Kingdom life. ISBN number 978-0-578-02423-3

Wertz, Richard R. (2009). Chinese history. China and the Four Modernizations, 1979-82. Retrieved July 3, 2009 from http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/01his/c05s03.html.