Lhet on 24/6/2007 at 18:28
I will be teaching english in China for a month (June 30th to August 1st). I'm going to a high school in the city of Xinxian (which I still don't know too much about). Anyways, should be fun, and I think I'll post here from time to time when I'm over there.
Also, depending on how well this goes, I might consider doing JET in a couple years when I graduate college.
demagogue on 24/6/2007 at 19:44
Cool. I also spent a month or so traveling through China. Sounds like fun.
I also did JET, which I whole-heartedly recommend, at least if you don't mind being vastly overpaid to play English games with well-behaved, fun students and more vacation time than you can shake a shakujo stick at. :D And you get an inside track to one of the most bizarrely fascinating countries in the world. Really, you can't lose. You may be placed way out in the countryside, though.
TJKeranen on 25/6/2007 at 06:19
Great!
I'm also going to China next week, in my case for about 8 months. I'll be traveling around the more northern parts (Chengde, Qingdao, visiting South Korea) for a while before I settle down to study Mandarin in Beijing.
It might be interesting to wander south to Henan province to visit Xinxian, though. :)
Lhet on 1/7/2007 at 04:28
Yay, I leave in like 17 hours.
I might post here if I can find intarnet. I'm thinking of going down to Wuhan to check it out on some weekend, we'll see though.
Lhet on 5/7/2007 at 12:12
Ok, been here for a couple days and finally reached an internet cafe. Really cehap, like a quarter an hour. I've been doing the generic beijing tourism stuff, great wall, forbidden city, etc. Anyways, I'm going to leave by train to teach tomorrow afternoon. I'll post more after I find another cafe.
Lhet on 9/7/2007 at 12:52
Hopefully tomorrow I will post some pictures.
Laser Eyes on 9/7/2007 at 22:23
I've thought about going to China to teach English too. How do you arrange something like that?
BEAR on 9/7/2007 at 23:01
That is like my ultimate horror as I dont understand english whatsoever.
I would think, oh I can teach english I've spoken it all my life! But alas, it would be a nightmare, I pity you (unless you actually know how english works which seems unlikely).
demagogue on 10/7/2007 at 00:29
You don't really have to know English that well as in most cases the curriculum is already put together. They've got "proper" English covered. What they need is that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes it sound native ... good pronunciation, common peculiarities like idioms you don't find in a textbook, like that "freeze" means to stop, or that "bitch" can nowadays apply to men as well as women, etc. Most of the "work" is just reading off the already-put-together lesson with a native accent, and commenting on what sounds natural and what doesn't, and just being there for a natural conversation.
Really, most of the students are often like businessmen or university students wanting to make contacts in the West, and they really want to sound natural when they talk to natives, not "proper" per se. So unless your speech just makes you sound like an idiot, you'll be in demand. Of course, experience shows that even when you sound like an idiot, many times they usually don't know any better, and you'll still be in demand.
@Laser Eyes. As for what you can do ... the first time I went to Korea, I seriously just googled teach english Korea, found a site, emailed them, called some of the teachers already there to see what I was getting into (very important), and I was on a plane two weeks later because the turn-over is so high (they've all got wanderlust).
If you're debating what's the best program, my vote is with the JET Program in Japan.
Swiss Mercenary on 10/7/2007 at 01:32
Because the Internet can never have enough stories about little boys trying to stick their fingers in a Gaijin's ass.
