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Teaching English in China - Marc's Story

Marc took a weekday TEFL course in London in January 2011 and is now teaching English in China. Here, he tells us about what it is like to live and work in the city of Shenzen.

What I would, however, like to emphasise, is the way in which people who go out there to teach English are treated with a lot of respect. Because I have a `neutral' accent, this got me head-hunted by a few schools before I finally settled down in my two schools.

I had two Chinese agents who were making sure I was happy with all the schools I was teaching in and also they found me one or two adult clients for me to teach, after the term ended. They did ask for a `finder's fee' which I was happy to give them - well, I was staying in their flat for 3 weeks!

Generally, after accommodation fees, I had more than enough to live on. The rates your literature quote are better than what I was earning, but even so, I ate fresh fruit for breakfast, along with one or two (or three or four) meat and vegetable dumplings, piping hot from the vendor on the corner of my road. Some of the kindergarten schools provide breakfast - usually a sweet sticky bread cake or some noodles. A hearty lunch was also provided and for 2 RMB (about 20 pence) they provide dinner as well. In the evening, I chose to have dinner back at my part of town, comprising a plate of noodles or rice and a soup all for the equivalent of £1!

In Shenzhen there are lots of Muslim run restaurants. These have pictures on the wall of all the dishes they provide, so if one isn't too confident in ordering, one can point to the picture. A lot of these dishes are very filling, meat as well as fish, but, obviously, no pork. All will give you change of £1!! Grocery shops, of which there are hundreds, sell beer from the fridge, to wash it all down, at around 20p for a 600ml bottle.

I was based in Bao'an district, which is near the airport and surrounded by lots of hills and places to walk. Kindergartens are usually Monday to Friday so I had ample time at weekends to wander so, in the searing heat and thanks to my carbohydrate diet, I lost a lot of weight!

The kindergartens themselves were fantastic! I was the only `foreigner' at each of my schools. I had two schools both run by the Jingjing company, who teach the youngsters song and dance as well. One school was Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the other Tuesday and Thursday. At both, the staff treated me like a headmaster. I was in charge of all my classes (aged 3 to 4, 4 to 5 and 5 to 6). I would strongly recommend class and lesson preparation and a structure to everything a teacher does. The other staff were my `helpers'. They also gave me playground duty every day. For this they gave me a microphone and `carte blanche' for 20 minutes every day, to induce exercise, songs and a bit of knock about fun for the kids. The teachers and the onlooking parents loved it and joined in, too.

This got the kids in a good mood, so when I came round for more serious classes, the respect was already there.

Shenzhen is a modern town - around 30 years old. It was a fishing village and there are lots of older parts to explore and enjoy. As it is only 200 yards from Hong Kong at its nearest point, the middle part mirrors their high rise sky scrapers. This means traffic is fast and furious and a lot of care is needed when crossing main roads. With a more than adequate bus system (20p to 50p) and a Metro system of about the same cost, you can get from the suburbs to town in an hour.

Bai Shi Zhou is where a lot of the bus routes meet. There, you will find Window of the World, a look at the seven wonders of the world all in one park, OCT and the many art stalls and high brow entertainment, fun and theme parks and lots of shopping malls. Western food and clothes are priced at London - Paris prices, so buy local and save money!

Joe, as you can see, I still rave about my time in China and I'm afraid, I've left you rather a lot to precis but I hope it will give potential teachers some idea of how good an idea it is to travel to SE China and teach English to kids. However small the kids may be, they'll love you and you will get, guaranteed, close on to 100% job satisfaction.

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