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As an ESL teacher in China, I have always been fortunate enough to have worked for schools that have not deliberately attempted to cheat me. However, mistakes have been made by these schools in payroll and the ‘burden of proof’ was always placed upon my shoulders. Fortunately, I had been advised before I came to China [...]
I recently visited the city where I first taught English in China. I was suprised to find the photo of a foreign teacher, who had worked at the school three years earlier, still featured on colorful advertisements which were plastered on billboards and bus stops throughout the city. When I stopped in to visit the school, my [...]
I am not a confrontational person by nature. So when my apartment was robbed and I lost an expensive camera, I was hesitant to approach my boss and ask him for some restitution. Why did I even consider asking him for some money? There was a clause in my contract which stated that the school [...]
“Robert, please talk to the staff now and give them some tips that will help them to improve their English teaching skills.” No matter where I have taught around the world, I have always dreaded hearing my boss utter these words. It is not that I dislike staff meetings. I enjoy mingling with my Chinese colleagues and having a chance to participate [...]
The day that my boss asked if me if I thought he was too old to have an affair on his wife was the day that I realized that I should probably ‘tone down’ my friendship with him. It is not that I did not enjoy talking to him about topics unrelated to work. It [...]
China has a bad habit of turning introverts into extroverts. If you are going to China to teach English, prepare yourself for the real possibility that you will be making a speech in front of a few hundred people. If you are teaching for a year, you may make multiple speeches. But do not fear. Most [...]
Too many foreign teachers in China take the fact that they are treated like royalty to mean that they can do whatever they wish. If they want to show up late to class who is going to stop them? If they want to skip a staff meeting who is going to care? In fact, no [...]
Once you’ve had some experience teaching English in China you will discover that most of your bosses will treat you well. Not only are they bound by the contract but they want to make a good impression on you as well and they hope that their school can establish a good rapport with the foreign [...]
It was eight o’clock in the evening when my phone rang. I had just taken a shower and was in the middle of popping a movie into the DVD player. It had been a long day. I had given five classes and three of those had been with squirming little Kindergartners who just would not [...]
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