druther not say
- 2008-09-20
Gotta agree with the Charters dude again. And, no, I'm not in the employ of EF. Very few foreign teachers here teaching anywhere at any level at any type of school are "well trained" if you are using an objective criteria. There is a huge disconnect between the reality on the ground and the rhetoric I read here. MOST FT's here in China suck, including me. Let's face reality, man. There are a few genuine idealists here who for whatever reason think they are somehow serving humanity by teaching English in China but the rest of us are here for our own personal, selfish reasons. We dig Chinese women, like to live relatively "well" and not have to work hard to do it, have a restless streak that forces us to switch jobs frequently,like being "important" etc. Again, there are exceptions, but well-trained folks who take ESL seriously simply don't come to China. The pay sucks, in real terms, for starters and the education system does too. You can protest profusely but the ugly reality is many of the FT's here can't make it anywhere else. Sorry to be so honest but it's true. If I were a "DOS" here in China the first question I'd ask in an interview is, "Why, exactly, are you here in China?" I have never been asked that anywhere I've ever been interviewed. (Honestly, most of the time I was never interviewed at all. You're a White dude and American? End of interview. When can you start? ) I won't even attempt to offer a solution to this problem. China will get the best people teaching English when it offers the best money and working conditions and it is nowhere near that now. Have you read about all the money the government laid out to hire foreign coaches for the Olympic team? It's because THAT'S the kind of thing that is important to them. Pay English teachers 100K a year and you'll get good ones. Pay them barely 8K and you'll get, well, 8K worth of teacher.
Mark Charters
- 2008-09-03
"Teachers at universities are always better trained and more experienced than those at places like EF and Linguaphone."
True. For example at Shi Da University in Fuzhou, where ANY non-Chinese who is studying the Chinese course there is asked to teach English TO ENGLISH MAJORS!!!! So, there are now 18 yr old Russians, French Cameroonians and Nigerians (here for business) without even a degree in their own country and a little more than rudimentary grasp of the mechanics of English, teaching at tertiary level to MAJORS in English.
This proves your point entirely.
You all know in China that a white face is in itself a teaching qualification. This disease is not confined to Universities by any means, training schools and other state schools are just as guilty. This is a big problem for those of us who take our jobs seriously. These clowns are undermining us and doing a disservice to all dedicated and serious teachers in China. Those of you who seem intent on criticising chain schools at any cost are really failing to examine the wider picture - I'd back my staff against those of most universities any day of the week. At least here, we have a supportive environment, teaching workshops to make up our shortcomings and the constant supervision of an experienced academic manager and senior teacher. In addition a solid curriculum and a library of supplementary material can assist new or inexperienced teachers to grow as professionals.
Let's all please get over our snobbery about what type of school we work in. We are all in the same boat here in China, more or less, and this competitive and unnecessarily critical rhetoric doesn't really help anyone. In fact if I were a new teacher thinking of coming to China and reading these message boards, I don't know if I'd be tempted to come. So can't we have a more positive, encouraging exchange of ideas amongst us please guys?