Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

(Note: The following is an opinion piece.)

Future bleak for China’s foreign ESL teachers
By S.N., Global Times | May 5, 2016
Source: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/981575.shtml#.VzBeFd2Ee7Q.twitter

A decade ago, China was considered a goldmine for Westerners. From the industrial boom to the massive expansion of its financial institutions, the Middle Kingdom was the place for foreigners to be at the turn of this century. Lured by paid plane tickets, free apartments and salaries far outweighing what they were making back home, English teachers also jumped on the big-money bandwagon and began to arrive in China in droves between 2000 and 2008.

During the same time period, ESL schools began to spring up in every neighborhood across the country as Chinese people quickly realized that speaking English was now a necessity, given China's burgeoning economic ties to the West. These English schools recognized just how marketable a foreign face was to their success, and treated them with more respect than their Chinese counterparts.

As China scrambled to fill its supply of ESL positions, they began hiring any foreign candidate in order to continue profiting from the desperation of students and their parents. Word quickly spread in the West about how easy it was to land a teaching job in China without any qualifications. Unemployed foreigners began faking their academic degrees and work experience in the hopes of cashing in and joining the party.

The rapid expansion of ESL institutions in China culminated in thousands of unqualified foreigners jeopardizing the quality of education being provided to students and ultimately making a mockery of the system. In turn, the schools realized how expendable their so-called teachers were due to the sheer number of applications they received. Salaries and the conditions at ESL work environments lowered, only serving to further reduce the quality of education that students were receiving.

While there are still a few reputable ESL institutions employing qualified teachers in China today, the majority of the market has become overrun with fly-by-night training centers. The owners of these makeshift schools tend to break teachers' contracts without notice, make false promises and cheat instructors out of money and visas. They are fortified with the knowledge that if one foreigner quits, they can easily replace them with yet another fresh-off-the-boat newbie.

Given all of the HR drama that foreign teachers in China have to deal with daily, one can only image the low morale they have - which translates through the quality of their classroom work and negatively impacts students' education. Current students are unfortunately getting the short of the ESL stick, whereas those who attended courses throughout the golden years of the mid-2000's have now become professionals with refined English language skills.

As a result, the demand for Chinese ESL instructors is steadily increasing while foreigners are gradually being pushed out. Local parents in big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have become especially aware of the fact that the foreigners teaching their children are generally unqualified and now seeking out Chinese-only ESL schools.

It is much easier for reputable schools to verify the academic and personal credentials of Chinese nationals instead of foreigners, especially in light of the numerous in-class sexual abuse cases involving Westerners posing as teachers that have occurred as a result of a lack of criminal background checks.

Chinese parents can communicate freely with Chinese teachers to gain a better understanding of how their child is progressing, while with foreign teachers the parents feel left in the dark due to the language barrier. To capitalize on the Chinese ESL instructor trend, an increasing number of bilingual Taiwanese are now moving to the mainland, lured by the same promises that Westerners once were.

Unfortunately, the days of Westerners relying only on their foreign face to get a job in China are at an end. The Chinese are no longer impressed by Westerners, at least not on a superficial level. Heavily invested in their own education, this generation of Chinese parents demand that the paid instructors spending time with their children are equally as serious about academics as they are.

While there are still qualified foreigners working in China as ESL instructors, the reality is that the larger number of those who took advantage of the Chinese educational system by faking their credentials have directly contributed to its demise.

(End of opinion)

[roadwalker]

I'll tell you one industry that is going strong and has a bright future: the doom and gloom industry! What started out as simple folk holding signs proclaiming: The End is Nigh! has grown into a whole movement, complete with sweeping statements and anecdotal evidence to back them up. I'm still waiting for Gordon Chang's collapse of the Chinese economy. Eventually there will be something that he will be able to point to that confirms that he was sorta right.

If China were to go to homegrown talent to teach classes previously taught by foreigners, that's their right, that's the way most sovereign countries behave and it might mean that we foreigners are starting to have some success.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

The biggest problem facing foreign teachers in China is the Middle Kingdom's impending implosion under 28 Trillion dollar debt.

This is a nice little back hand insult:


It is much easier for reputable schools to verify the academic and personal credentials of Chinese nationals instead of foreigners, especially in light of the numerous in-class sexual abuse cases involving Westerners posing as teachers that have occurred as a result of a lack of criminal background checks.



No citation of origin of this opinion.

I can't speak to the fly-by-night language schools, but in public schools and private schools offering full-curriculum English studies, the FT isn't the only English teacher in the school. The schools have have Chinese English teachers who can give fair appraisals but probably won't because the Chinese students often speak better English than the Chinese teacher. (Some of my students complain that they can't understand their Chinese teachers' English).

How many sexual abuse cases are we talking about, and which ones? Are we talking about the documented ones or the ones manufactured by bimbo administrators and crummy news rags?

This is the epitome of yellow journalism, and where is there a better place to find it but in China (Metro China)?

Let's leave the job to their Russki comrades to teach them English.

[Shanghai Noon]

[Non Sequitur]

Maybe these concerned parents should first look to the schools and their 60+ student classes?

[RiverMystic]

What is correct is that foreigners are being increasingly seen as undesirable, and the shift in the last ten years has been dramatic in this respect. Some FTs seem to be unaware of this trend, which I find incredible. Both schools and the general public increasingly hold foreigners in low esteem, including the white faces. This trend will continue, I predict, to the point where it will be genuinely unpleasant in many workplaces and living environments. What will exacerbate this is the continued cooling off of the economy, which will create greater social tensions allround. FT professionals will be wise to be very careful choosing which locations they choose to go to, and especially to which schools.

[Non Sequitur]

I asked a former English major student whether English-speaking Chinese would want to pick up ESL jobs.
She said no.
Too low paid and low status, if you have spent a fortune to get a US/UK degree.

[bluetortilla]

[bograt]

[bluetortilla]

[RiverMystic]

[shawadywady]

[/quote]"There are so many foreigners here now, we are sick of the sight of them." And that was said five years ago.[quote]

case closed! i think a lot of chinese people in the top cities are under the impression they live in a multi-cultural society but they are seriously mistaken. hearing the above quote i'd have to ask if they've ever been to London/New York or even Hong Kong.

i would agree there is hostility to foreigners in China, all of which is bred from ignorance and the whims of the party's fantastic 'education' system & propaganda. the bullying insecurity of Chinese men doesn't exactly help either.

[bluetortilla]

[bluetortilla]

[bluetortilla]