Rural China struggles to find English Teachers

momopi · Post by **momopi** » October 3rd, 2013, 5:10 pm

Rural China struggles to find English teachers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/busin ... d=all&_r=0

More Koreans opting to attend college in China:
http://qz.com/131148/south-korean-stude ... a-degrees/

Ghost · Post by **Ghost** » October 3rd, 2013, 11:50 pm

RedMenace · Post by **RedMenace** » October 4th, 2013, 12:17 am

How long does it take the obtain a TEFL degree? or can I use an Electrical and Electronic Engineering Degree instead?

Taco · Post by **Taco** » October 4th, 2013, 12:20 am

RedMenace wrote:How long does it take the obtain a TEFL degree?

You can get 60 hour TEFL certificates that are good enough for teaching in China. CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

Cornfed · Post by **Cornfed** » October 4th, 2013, 12:40 am

Taco wrote: CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Jester · Post by **Jester** » October 4th, 2013, 8:19 pm

Cornfed wrote:
Taco wrote:

CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?

Cornfed · Post by **Cornfed** » October 4th, 2013, 8:29 pm

Jester wrote:Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?

Yes, especially if I were getting on in years. The bar is always being raised. Besides, you would want some satisfactory teaching method to at least partially base your lessons on.

gsjackson · Post by **gsjackson** » October 4th, 2013, 10:23 pm

Jester wrote:
Cornfed wrote:
Taco wrote:

CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?

I've applied for some jobs in China and Korea to try to work for a year and rebuild cash reserves. Have the Duke degree (Princeton was second choice -- too cold during baseball season), PhD, JD, varied and interesting work experience, presentable anglo appearance looking less than my age, but no TEFL cert. I've had no luck. Don't even get to the Skype interview stage. I assume the reasons are age and lack of cert.

tre · Post by **tre** » October 5th, 2013, 12:10 am

gsjackson wrote:
Jester wrote:
Cornfed wrote:
Taco wrote:

CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?
I've applied for some jobs in China and Korea to try to work for a year and rebuild cash reserves. Have the Duke degree (Princeton was second choice -- too cold during baseball season), PhD, JD, varied and interesting work experience, presentable anglo appearance looking less than my age, but no TEFL cert. I've had no luck. Don't even get to the Skype interview stage. I assume the reasons are age and lack of cert.

How old/young are you? I'd like to get an idea of what is considered "over the hill" in regards to BEGINNING teaching in a foreign country

Taco · Post by **Taco** » October 5th, 2013, 2:14 am

gsjackson wrote:
Jester wrote:
Cornfed wrote:
Taco wrote:

CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?
I've applied for some jobs in China and Korea to try to work for a year and rebuild cash reserves. Have the Duke degree (Princeton was second choice -- too cold during baseball season), PhD, JD, varied and interesting work experience, presentable anglo appearance looking less than my age, but no TEFL cert. I've had no luck. Don't even get to the Skype interview stage. I assume the reasons are age and lack of cert.

There are some recruiters in China that will hire anyone under 60, they only get paid if they can get you a job.

gsjackson · Post by **gsjackson** » October 5th, 2013, 4:27 am

tre wrote:
gsjackson wrote:
Jester wrote:
Cornfed wrote:
Taco wrote:

CELTA is 3 months long but is considered to be the best course in the industry. Or you can just buy a fake TEFL online.

You would generally do CELTA in a month.

Cornfed,

If you were a highly qualified Princeton grad, good speaker/teacher/writer, tall and White-looking, wanting to teach in Asia, would you bother with an expensive CELTA certificate?

I'm thinking it's more important in Middle East and Europe?
I've applied for some jobs in China and Korea to try to work for a year and rebuild cash reserves. Have the Duke degree (Princeton was second choice -- too cold during baseball season), PhD, JD, varied and interesting work experience, presentable anglo appearance looking less than my age, but no TEFL cert. I've had no luck. Don't even get to the Skype interview stage. I assume the reasons are age and lack of cert.
How old/young are you? I'd like to get an idea of what is considered "over the hill" in regards to BEGINNING teaching in a foreign country

62. And if they think I would be a one-year wonder, they're probably right.

To Jester's question: I'm assuming, based strictly on what I've read here and elsewhere, that if you get yourself over to China there wouldn't be any problem finding a job, but getting an employer to fly you over may not be as simple as flashing prestigious academic credentials. Then again, 60 may in fact be the magic line of disqualification.

Jester · Post by **Jester** » October 6th, 2013, 1:13 am

Thanks.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » October 6th, 2013, 2:26 pm

I have not worked as an English teacher overseas and am commenting only based on what my friends who taught English overseas told me. They say that in Japan and Taiwan they prefer English teachers in their 20's and will get rid of you before you turn 40. To attract students the English cram schools want to hire young good looking foreigners and put them in the front for parents to see. They think it's easier for students to relate to a younger teacher than some old dude.

I am sure there are exceptions, but all my friends from CA who went to teach in Japan and Taiwan have quit and returned before they hit 40. Someone mentioned that age discrimination is less of a problem in Vietnam for teachers, but you would need to ask someone who teaches there for more info.

gsjackson · Post by **gsjackson** » October 6th, 2013, 2:58 pm

momopi wrote:I have not worked as an English teacher overseas and am commenting only based on what my friends who taught English overseas told me. They say that in Japan and Taiwan they prefer English teachers in their 20's and will get rid of you before you turn 40. To attract students the English cram schools want to hire young good looking foreigners and put them in the front for parents to see. They think it's easier for students to relate to a younger teacher than some old dude.

I am sure there are exceptions, but all my friends from CA who went to teach in Japan and Taiwan have quit and returned before they hit 40. Someone mentioned that age discrimination is less of a problem in Vietnam for teachers, but you would need to ask someone who teaches there for more info.

Thanks for the info. This recruiting company keeps sending me notice of openings I'd be well qualified for -- most recently SAT prep in China, while teaching a bit of American history and culture. But if the culture has rigid age discrimination, I'm not even going to bother to take the ten minutes to apply. I'm sure they're happy with the American twenty-somethings they get (unless they are ever called on to string together two or more coherent and correct written English sentences).

I'm not interested in going to Asia for any extended period, but I could bank 2-3K a month in one of those jobs, which makes it tempting as a nine-month gig.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » October 7th, 2013, 10:50 am

http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... .htm#china

Teaching English is not the only path to China. If you're religious, there are various Evangelical and missionary groups that send people to China. Both religious and secular volunteer groups are also avail. Example:
http://backtojerusalem.com/v3/opportunities/

Last week, I attended a dinner banquet held by an evangelical group and the founder spoke about expanding their operations to China, and using China has a "springboard" to evangelize the Islamic world. Personally, I'm not religious and was there to hang out with my ex-coworkers. But the presentation on training and sending missions from China to Islamic countries raised all kinds of alarm bells in my head.