Teaching in China

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It seems that nowadays either everyone wants to teach English overseas or knows someone who is. After retiring from the Canadian education system, we chose teaching in China for a new adventure.

Agents in Canada hire teachers for positions in China, and if that seems to reduce you to a piece of marketable goods, that’s because it does. It also gives you someone here to provide the information you should know (in English) before you go—there are lots of questions you should have answered.

You want to know salary and working conditions of course, but dig a little deeper to ask if there is a salary scale and how your position on the scale will be determined. Our agent promised a salary range of 5000 to 10,000 RMB (renminbi), but few applicants were able to merit more than 4000 RMB per month because they had no previous experience teaching in China or were not fluent in Mandarin. With a PhD in Education and 40 years experience, Derek drew 8000 RMB or $1600 Cdn. per month.

Find out as specifically as you can what the working conditions are: the number of students per class, how many different classes per week, what out-of-class involvement is expected, what examination writing and marking is expected. We had 40 students to a class, but the dean would customarily hold review classes of 80 or more. These weren’t “classes” as we know them but rather recitations of English sentences demonstrating some element of grammar. We tried to demonstrate a variety of teaching and learning processes, but not many of the Chinese staff members were interested. They knew that they would have to deal with large-group instruction after we were gone. We like to think the students benefited from some of our innovations.

Resources are something else to ask about: Is there a curriculum which you are required to follow, or may follow if you wish, or are you expected to write as you go? This would then be turned in to the office to be filed for use at another time. What textbooks are in use and are there supplementary texts?

These are important questions about the job, although except for money and contact hours, you may not get reliable answers. Either the agent won’t know and will say so and tell you who to email to find out, or the agent won’t know but will say anything to get your commitment and his commission. That’s what makes it an adventure. We had lots of adventures in China.

After a 10-day swirl through the major northern cities and tourist sites, we arrived in our chosen spot, Nanning, in Guangxi Autonomous Region. We really had no idea what to expect in China, but knew we wanted to live in a less developed, more traditional town, so we chose the south. Beijing and Shanghi are huge cites with vast regions of very upscale, modern buildings and a western atmosphere—not where we wanted to be.

We discovered very early that speed limits are not of much concern to drivers around Nanning. We were picked up at the airport about midnight and driven to the campus at speeds over 140 kph. We tried to carry on a conversation with the co-ordinator who had commandeered a car and driver to come out to get us, but the sense of imminent, horrible death was too much. We begged her to ask the driver to slow down, she did so, and the car slowed to under 100 kph. A few minutes later, the speedometer crept toward the 140 mark again. Later we found that pedestrians in the city had as little regard for the rules of the road as did drivers in the country. People crossed streets wherever they felt like it, playing a game of bluff and feigned disinterest as frustrated divers inched forward through the mass of cyclists, motorbikes and pedestrians.

Our assignment, as a group of 14 Canadians, (some trained teachers, some not), was to set up a new College that was a two year immersion in English at the large Guangxi University. There were six classes of 40 in the second year program that we began. The range of ability went from beginners through to early high school level. The textbooks we were expected to use were written for immigrants living in the US who were learning the American culture with CNN clips and university level materials. We were expected to cover one chapter a week—an absolutely insane request if we actually wanted more than the top ten to learn English. For us, this was completely inappropriate.

Thanks to the students’ willingness to learn, we all survived. Also, as a group of Canadians, we were able to effect some change in the bureaucracy and systems in place. The first term, Beverly railed not only because the students couldn’t read the books, but also because she had three blocks of Reading and two blocks of Listening and Speaking with her class ALL ON THE SAME DAY: she saw Class 5 on Mondays and nothing more till the next Monday. At least in second term we had spread the schedule and also began the purchase of more reading materials. Also, she relaxed—the students by then had a good base and we had established an incredible relationship with them.

We were heartily welcomed at receptions by the dean, by the university president and by the party secretary for Nanning. Often we had less than a day’s notice, sometimes with a half hour’s notice. One of us—all new staff—would take a phone call late in the afternoon and be told that a bus would be picking us up to attend a banquet and would we please tell everyone. A big request since it assumes closer contact than one usually has with staff.

These functions were truly splendid. The table settings were magnificent. There was always much good food and bottomless wine glasses. Some Chinese cannot drink alcohol while others can pour it down with abandon. Beware! You may be the recipient of several toasts, at the culmination of which the proposer will shout “Gan bei!” or “Bottoms up!” If you can handle it, gulp away and toast them right back. If you can’t, grab the juice glass instead of the wine goblet.

We were also invited to student celebrations at autumn Moon Festival, Spring Festival, and other holiday events. We were hosted at facilities on campus with hundreds of students as well as at private homes. The guiding principle was always to accept the invitation and to participate as fully as possible. We munched our way stoically through chicken feet, sheep uterus, and things we did not even care to ask about.

One very tactful young woman invited us for a day’s outing with her parents. A car picked us up, we were driven about the countryside, treated to wonderful restaurant meals and brought back to our apartment on campus. The young lady said it was her pleasure to treat us but that it might not be proper to mention the outing to other students because most of them were very poor and would feel bad that they couldn’t offer us equivalent gifts.

Our thanks were expressed most often by giving Canada pins of which we had a substantial supply, courtesy of our MP in Victoria. We learned early that hugs and kisses would have been inappropriate and so we did a lot of handshaking. Beverly, however, began to change that and other traditions.

To give a short statement about the vast experience of living in China for a year is difficult. We have so many images and impressions that it is hard to choose one or two to focus on. We will talk about our students in the Fall issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine. Stay tuned!

Derek and Beverly are retired educators who taught in China in 2002/03. Beverly is the author of Names Will Never Hurt Me, Bullyproofing for Children (see www.PacificEdgePublishing.com). Derek has several educational books in progress. They live in Victoria, BC.