| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
choudoufu
Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC
|
 Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:54 am Post subject: |
 |
|
this is getting popinjay strange........
| jm21 wrote: |
| ....request from a recruiter to lie at a job interview about my experience.... |
| jm21 wrote: |
| ....my own occupation, attorney.... |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
|
| Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 11:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
I grew up in Oregon in the Willamette Valley
I grew up in Portland. I always enjoyed the Shanghai festival when I lived there. Have you ever gone? It seems like everyone in the state descends upon Portland in September. Its sort of like octoberfest because of all of the craft beer brewers.
If you grew up in Willamette Valley, the Chinese smog shouldn't bother you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jm21
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 406
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Just to follow up....
One recruiter thought that you absolutely had to have two years of teaching experience to get a visa so asked me to lie about my teaching experience.
I took the job in Qingdao and it's great. About 20 hours per week, awesome students, and the administration leaves you alone. No assistance as far as lesson planning goes so you have to be at least a little bit gutsy. My only problem with the job has been that they have me teaching some regular university courses (not oral English) and the students not only do not speak much English but they don't really want to learn.
I'm in the Huangdao area of Qingdao. The weather is great, the food is amazing, not much smog...having a good time. Got an electric scooter which is fun as hell.
Finding a serious relationship may be a lot more difficult than I had thought but we'll see. Foreign teachers seem to have a bad reputation in that department.
The pay here is low compared to other cities but pretty sufficient. $5k yuan per month and all housing and utilities covered. I figure it's pretty similar to earning about $35-40k/year in Seattle. Some things cost more and some cost less. Cars are expensive and electronics as well.
If anyone has questions feel free to PM me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
| You could do a lot worse than that Qingdao gig. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mw182006
Joined: 10 Dec 2012
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| jm21 wrote: |
Just to follow up....
...My only problem with the job has been that they have me teaching some regular university courses (not oral English) and the students not only do not speak much English but they don't really want to learn. |
Thanks for the update. I'm in a similar boat and wanted to comment on/question this. Have you found any activities/approaches that are more successful than others? Last semester I had amazing courses such as Extensive Reading and Advanced English, this semester I've got Business English and Reading again. I decided I'd just ask each of my classes what topics they want to learn about this semester, and they gave some decent suggestions so hopefully it will be a little more productive. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
muffintop
Joined: 07 Jan 2013
Posts: 803
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
| jm21 wrote: |
Just to follow up....
One recruiter thought that you absolutely had to have two years of teaching experience to get a visa so asked me to lie about my teaching experience.
I took the job in Qingdao and it's great. About 20 hours per week, awesome students, and the administration leaves you alone. No assistance as far as lesson planning goes so you have to be at least a little bit gutsy. My only problem with the job has been that they have me teaching some regular university courses (not oral English) and the students not only do not speak much English but they don't really want to learn.
I'm in the Huangdao area of Qingdao. The weather is great, the food is amazing, not much smog...having a good time. Got an electric scooter which is fun as hell.
Finding a serious relationship may be a lot more difficult than I had thought but we'll see. Foreign teachers seem to have a bad reputation in that department.
The pay here is low compared to other cities but pretty sufficient. $5k yuan per month and all housing and utilities covered. I figure it's pretty similar to earning about $35-40k/year in Seattle. Some things cost more and some cost less. Cars are expensive and electronics as well.
If anyone has questions feel free to PM me. |
You should enjoy Huangdao. The scooter was a good idea, I wouldn't recommend one for inside of Qingdao but in Huangdao it's fine.
As far as finding a relationship....it will be easy. If you have a smartphone just install momo or weixin and....wait. It helps if you can read and write a little Chinese. If not...just let a friend or student set up momo （陌陌） for you. As to finding a 'real' relationship...that will happen when you aren't looking for it most likely.
Hope you enjoy your time there. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
doogsville
Joined: 17 Nov 2011
Posts: 924
Location: China
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 6:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
[quote="mw182006"]
| jm21 wrote: |
| this semester I've got Business English and Reading again. I decided I'd just ask each of my classes what topics they want to learn about this semester, and they gave some decent suggestions so hopefully it will be a little more productive. |
I teach a lot of business English and I have reading and international business communication this semester too. The books can be a bit wordy (wordy books, who knew, but I think you know what I mean). There are very few exercises for them to do and since a lot of them have fairly low level English they won't even try to read it. I try to summarise as much as I can, sometimes with PPT's. My favourite thing though, and theirs, is I try to find short videos to illustrate whatever is being taught. Youtube is a great resource for that, if you can access it. I also ask them to compare and contrast the material with their own lives wherever possible, or find some way to make it relevant to them. If they don't like speaking up and answering questions in class, play a quick game of 'twenty questions' with them at the start, it helps me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mw182006
Joined: 10 Dec 2012
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| doogsville wrote: |
| I teach a lot of business English and I have reading and international business communication this semester too. The books can be a bit wordy (wordy books, who knew, but I think you know what I mean). There are very few exercises for them to do and since a lot of them have fairly low level English they won't even try to read it. I try to summarise as much as I can, sometimes with PPT's. My favourite thing though, and theirs, is I try to find short videos to illustrate whatever is being taught. Youtube is a great resource for that, if you can access it. I also ask them to compare and contrast the material with their own lives wherever possible, or find some way to make it relevant to them. If they don't like speaking up and answering questions in class, play a quick game of 'twenty questions' with them at the start, it helps me. |
Yeah, my students are similar. A handful will answer questions but it's always the same ones, even when I try to call on others. I've decided I'm just going to try to teach them as much practical info as I can - resumes, interviews, etc. - and I started supplementing with videos as well. My school uses the PASS Cambridge BEC book, and it's just too far over their heads in my experience. None of them have any plans to even go for the certificate. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
One recruiter thought that you absolutely had to have two years of teaching experience to get a visa so asked me to lie about my teaching experience.
So you lied. And you have so many doubts about the integrity and abilities of others. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jm21
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 406
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
Where did I say I lied? They asked me to change my resume and I refused.
The textbook they gave me for the public relations class is a couple hundred pages of wordy BS that I'm pretty sure only about 20% of the class understands. Maybe one chapter in the book is useful material. And all the brands are different so it's hard sometimes to talk about companies. Next time i think I will refuse anything but oral English classes. They wanted me to teach international economics when I've had maybe one economics class in my whole life.
Videos seem to work and the VPN thing was really easy to figure out. You can find some good powerpoints on slideshare from American professors. Talk really slow. Explain any activities or assignments in detail multiple times. Just because they say they understand doesn't mean they do.
Huangdao is easy to get around in...good first place to live in.
They weren't sure what was the right criminal background check to get which I thought might be a problem....I had sent them a quick online one from the Washington State Patrol...apparently it worked...
EDIT:
And they arranged my class schedule so that my classes are done by noon every day. That's worked out really well. lots of time to explore. Tangdaowan is a really nice park to have close by too. Those little boats tied off there are freaking cool. I want one... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GreatApe
Joined: 11 Apr 2012
Posts: 582
Location: South of Heaven and East of Nowhere
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
jm21 wrote:
| Quote: |
| Next time i think I will refuse anything but oral English classes. They wanted me to teach international economics when I've had maybe one economics class in my whole life. |
You may quickly find that teaching only O.E. classes gets EXTREMELY OLD after a time! I taught way too many O.E. classes in my first two years in China and grew tired of it. Besides, there will typically be a huge component of O.E. in your "regular classes" depending on the levels of your students. Sometimes it's about all you can do to talk to them and try to be understood, especially depending on the quality of students and the difficulty of the books and topics. You have to connect with them in some way. And this is the way to start.
I had a good laugh at them wanting you to teach Econ. I've taught a bunch of different classes outisde of English, but this last semester my boss approached me about teaching Math. All I could do was laugh, long, and hard! 
I'm quite possibly the worst Math student of all-time! Everyone needs to find a boundary and a line which they will not cross. Math is mine.
Good Luck, and KEEP GOING!
--GA |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
