Teaching English in China

I'm back!!! I am sorry that I have not updated my blog lately but for the last month we were back in Canada for Christmas and the 2 previous months I was working as a English teacher and had trouble finding spare time. Teaching English was something that I thought I could do to keep myself busy once we moved to China. Shortly after arriving we saw an ad posted outside the Starbucks that we frequent looking for ESL teacher - no experience required. The school was actually located in the same building as the Starbucks so I headed inside to inquire about the position. Within the week I had been offered the position working 2 days a week, 3-4 hours a day, making 100 yuan an hour( about $14).

My "orientation" took about 10 mins. as they showed me around the school, assigned me a desk, and pointed out the binders with the lessons in it. I was then told that they would see me on Tuesday and make sure to prepare a topic for the English corner class - what??? Am I able to watch a class so I know what I am doing and what the heck is an English corner? I was told that it was very easy and that all I needed to do was show up 10 mins before my shift and review the lesson plans but if I wanted I could come and observe another teacher. The English corner is an hour long open class that is about a topic of the teachers choosing but must get the class talking.

I was nervous for my first day as I have always been in retail management and had no real teaching experience but after watching the other teacher I was confident that I could do a good job, my biggest concern was the English corner class. I had decided to talk about Canada since it was something that I was very familiar with I figured I should be able to get an hour out of it. My first couple of classes went fairly well but I found that I was done the lesson before the hour was up. The problem was that the lessons were designed for large groups of students and my classes only had 1 or 2 students therefore you had to improvise quite a bit when the lesson called for group discussions or partner work. Next came my English corner class, there was about 15 students and they were very nice and welcomed me . Unfortunately about 40 mins. in I ran out of things to talk about in Canada - I never was very good at history and geography!!!

After my first week I inquired about when I would be getting my Chinese work permit, but I was told that since I was only looking for part time they would not provide me with a work Visa - this was a big problem!!! Although the chances of being caught without a permit teaching English were small to none I could not take the chance of possibly being deported. They informed me that it was not necessary but I insisted and said I would have to resign if they did not apply for the permit. A few days later they told me that they would get the permit for me but I would have to pay half and work 3 days instead of 2 and fill in when someone called in sick - deal.

I was enjoying the position but was finding that I was working more that I had originally wanted. They were calling me almost daily to fill in for shifts, and often scheduled me for 4 days instead of the agreed upon 3 and the hours for each day went from 3 to 4 to 5. I was also spending 2-3 hours every day preparing for the English corner class on top of going into work an hour early to prepare for my classes. It was really getting to be to much, so I decided to quit before they finished with the work permit.

So, with all that being said, I now have lots of time to write in my blog:)