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Where to Teach ESL in China
Written by Robert Vance on July 28, 2008 – 11:16 amI almost accepted the first teaching job that I was offered in China. A contract was sent to me for my consideration from an ESL recruiter in Dalian, a city in China’s Northern North Eastern Liaoning province. All I had to see were the words “there is a beautiful beach nearby” and I was ready to sign my name to the paper. Thankfully, I did a little more research and discovered that Liaoning is a very cold place in the winter; I do not cope well with extremely cold weather. Living near the ocean would be nice but I wanted to find a place where I could enjoy hot to mild temperatures all year around. In the end, the first contract that I signed did not put me anywhere near the sea. Instead, I chose a historically and culturally rich city that sat near the banks of a beautiful river. Maybe I could not go surfing or take long walks on a sandy beach, but looking back, it was the right city for me to start my ESL teaching career.
One of the great aspects of going to teach English in China is that there are so many diverse locations to choose from. From oceans to deserts, mountains to grasslands, ancient to modern, and frostbite to sunburn, China has it all. While finding a good ESL school is important, it is equally important to find a climate and environment that suits you. Do not settle for the first contract that is thrown your way. Do some research first and then focus on a few cities that catch your attention. With the power of the Internet, it is very easy to find out everything that you need to know about that particular location in China. You can read what other students are saying and discover all the advantages and disadvantages of teaching there.
Of course, no Chinese city will probably have everything that you want. But do not worry. Hopefully, if you found a reputable ESL school to work in, you will have a chance to do some traveling on your holidays. Some schools even offer a travel allowance for each semester worked. Relatively speaking, traveling in China is quite cheap and if you are comfortable with riding on the train, you can go almost anywhere you want.
People always want to know where I recommend they spend their first year in China. Usually, I cannot answer such a question. It completely depends on you! Click here for more information about finding ESL jobs in China.
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If you have a look at a map you will see that Harbin is pretty far from the ocean. Russia and North Korea are in the way.
@Simon,
Thanks so much for catching that. I doublechecked the story through an email archive and discovered that my first contract was offered to me by a school in Dalian, not Harbin. I was hesitant to post your comment (considering that it’s a little embarassing for me) but we do publish EVERY comment on TeachAbroadChina.com.
Thanks again!
Is it true that looking for teaching job in Zhejiang province is hard especially for NNS for racism is still commonly practice? How about in Changchun, Jilin, should it be avoided or what, for most schools don’t follow the contract as what my friends have epxerienced when teaching in that province?
Hi. I live in Australia, am a New Zealander with dual citizenship. I have a Cambridge University Certificate for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, also a BA in German, French, Japanese, am a mature-aged student half-way through an external Diploma of Education (for teaching state high school languages) and am an experienced librarian/records manager (I have a Master of Library & Information Studies). I have experience teaching in France & Japan as an assistant teacher, have also taught high school as a teacher in NZ for a year. My ‘end goal’ is to work as a teacher librarian in Australia, although I have had other ideas recently……. I saw a full-time librarian job advertised in Changchun, Jilin Province, but it looks like it could be a difficult city to live in. My ‘problem’ (well, my joy, of course) is that I have a 5 year old son. Working full-time in China (with him there) would not be a good idea. Part-time work is the only option, or school hours at least. I am wondering if you can advise me? Would work in China be possible for me with a 5 year old (with whom I need to spend time. His Nanna would visit from time to time also)? I would need to live in a healthy and safe place (for his sake), I’d also need to earn enough to live on well enough (& pay for his school fees - I guess I’d need access to a bilingual school), and I’d need a job with either school hours or part-time, either an ESL or a librarian job (or combination). I would be very keen for us both to learn Mandarin. If you or anyone have any ideas, please reply?
Linda
Thank you
@Linda,
There are plenty of ESL jobs out there that would probably fit your time needs but the financial aspect of living in China could be difficult. I assume that you would be sending your son to an international private school, correct? Someone please correct me if I am wrong but I believe that those are pretty expensive even in China. I don’t think that you will be able to find a part time job (or a job teaching ESL) that is going to allow you to send him to such a school and live comfortably at the same time.
While I appreciate your desire to live in a ‘healthy and safe’ place I have to warn you that such cities are hard to come by these days in China. I am not sure what you mean when you say that Changchun may be a ‘diffiult’ city to live in. I think that Changchun is probably just as difficult or easy to live in as many other cities in China. Changchun is an industrial city so you would definitely have to put up with the bad environment but that is a common story throughout Chinese cities.
I don’t want to discourage you from coming because living here IS a great experience. However, you have to be aware that since China is still a developing country, there are plenty of negative aspects that you will have to deal with here. You can read about quite a few of them on this website. However, I will tell you that I do know families (one family I know has 4 children) who have made it here and learned to adapt.
I hope that someone else out here can add more…especially if they have experience with children here…