Job Discussion Forums

[Kurochan]

Hi --

As those of you who know me have heard, I've gone to East China Normal U., supposedly to teach oral English and writing in the graduate department. Now I've found out I may NOT be teaching there. I might be teaching sophomores and juniors in the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language department.

Now supposedly, this department is the best in the campus, and according to the lady who is the department rep, the students there speak much better English that the grad students, who study all different subjects, and are from the inland of China. BUT I think having taught grad students would look much better on a resume you submit to an American employer.

What do you think I should do? I'm thinking of going a compromise route, and asking them to split my classes between grads and the other students. In fact, I was a little anxious about teaching writing to grad students, so that change might be better.

Any advice? Am I mistaken in thinking having grad teaching on my res. will be a big plus when I go back to the US? My rationale was that there are a lot of foreign grad students in the sciences who need help with their English, and if I could say I had taught students like that, it would be a good thing.

K

[randyj]

The knowledge of most Americans with respect to Asia in general and China in particular ranks so low that few prospective employers will have the ability to put such experience in any kind of perspective. A person's having taught in China carries a novelty value somewhat akin to a sojourn to the far side of the moon. Make the choice based on the here and now rather than vague possibilities later.

[carken]

Agreed 100%! Many people in my neck of the woods here in Texas confuse China with Japan. I'm talking about people who are "educated".

Carole

[dan]

i am in complete agreement with both previous posters. teaching graduate students or college students will have little if no impact on what type of employment you secure back in the states. if youre REALLY that keen to put that on your resume, offer to do an a few tutorials free of charge for eager graduate students and then slap that down on the old CV along with your undergraduate teaching experience.

I guess the other thing you should consider is that ESL teaching gigs in the states (full-time, at least) depend more on your degree(s) than your experience. i had quite a bit of ESL experience in Asia, but it wasnt until i got an MA that I was considered for jobs at colleges and language schools. as im sure you know, the job market it tight in the states, becoming even tighter with immigration restrictions here and more lax tendecies elsewhere. I guess the circuitous point im trying to make is simply a repeat of what i said in paragraph 1: it wont make much of a difference.

and finally: gaining some managerial and/or curriculum designing experience might benefit you in the US (as, perhaps, will learning chinese). teachers, in the strict sense, are a dime a dozen, but a relative few can oversee day-to-day operations (scheduling, student placement, testing and test designing) of a school/department. rare is the job post requiring that you only teach. teachers here are increasingly being asked (even required) to do a lot of non-teaching duties. my department laid off 3 teachers last year due to low enrollment; however, they also promoted a few who could do things in addition to teaching English.

[dan]

clarification: teaching undergraduate AS OPPOSED to teaching graduate students will make little or no difference. It seems as if I was discrediting both with the way I worded the sentence earlier. Yea, Im a fantastic teacher...