Job Discussion Forums

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

Anybody on here experienced about this industry ?

Is it difficult to get started in Asia ? Is it profitable ? How to get your course accredited ? Etc.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you so much !

tttompatz

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

Develop it from ground up is the idea we've got.

tttompatz · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:21 pm Post subject:

AGoodStory · Joined: 26 Feb 2010 Posts: 738

Adrian, do you plan to stay in Harbin, the home of Will-Excel TESOL? It seems that Dan and Kyle could have benefited from a little advice on name selection, so here's some for you: choose a name that will not cause your graduates to cringe when telling their future employers where they got their TESOL cert, nor employers to laugh when they hear it.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

The place I got my cert from was like that. A woman started it up on her own. She had a language school first though, so knew a little about the TEFL business to start with.

She went out of business last year though. Not sure if it's because she retired or decided to do something more lucrative.

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

It's funny.

I only thought of this because I was trying to find a TESOL course for my buddy. I've already sent two of my friends to Will-Excel, a friend to ITTO in Mexico and another to INTESOL (where I did mine,) but this buddy doesn't want to do it in Harbin. He wants to do a course in a smaller southern city in China, but it's hard to find. I always see Will-Excel come up and a few other courses, but that's it when I did some research. Really, there's only a handful of China-only TESOL courses in China so I asked Kyle from Will-Excel about why China doesn't have as many TESOL courses as one would think in a country where it seems like 75% of foreigners are English teachers.

And then he assumed I was trying to make my own tesol course and I was like, "Uh, no!"

And then I actually thought about it and I'm like, "Wait, my own TESOL course .. is that a good idea ?"

So here I am .. thinking about it now.

I'd plan to do it in DaLian, where there's no other TESOL course here besides the 10 day Aston English school tefl crash course.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

I'd assume it's because China makes it hard for a foreigner to open their own business.

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

Perhaps - but China still has many foreign owned businesses, I feel. Restaurants, English schools and Bars ..

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Actually, I'd think it could be quite a nice strong niche market, if one could start a course geared specifically for newbie EFL teachers aiming specifically for China. It's fairly well agreed that the classroom approaches and methods, and the expectations and motivations of the students are pretty specific to the region (don't necessarily translate to other parts of the world). If someone could do an effective study about what range of stuff would constitute 'best practice' for the Chinese market, it would be pretty valuable.

I've worked on development projects for entry-level teacher training courses. In our case, it took a small team of relatively highly qualified and experienced teachers to make the course itself effective. I've got friends who have run a generic 120+ hour course for about eight years now. It took a bit of time to build up (see post above about advertising) but it's been a steady job for quite a while now.

I'd say you need to dig up a few MA holders with considerable experience in the region and an interest in course design as a start on the pedagogical side.

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

Yes, the course would be focused mainly on China. I'd also want it to feature some lectures about how not to go clinically insane like 3/4 the ESL teachers do here.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 6:27 pm Post subject:

Dear AdrianG4,

"I'd also want it to feature some lectures about how not to go clinically insane like 3/4 the ESL teachers do here."

That comment begs two questions:

1. Do they go to China because they're clinically insane or does being in China make them so?

2. Aren't at least 3/4s of EFL/ESL teachers anywhere clinically insane?

Regards,
John
Very Happy

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

I've taught in Mexico and China -

in Mexico, I thought that the teachers had more of the, "world peace, let's backpack everywhere and sell useless jewelry at the local mercado" vibe.

Here, even many of the 20 year-olds are sadly .. alcoholics, with some serious, serious issues. Every time I've witnessed the breaking down of an ESL teacher in China, I will wonder if there's any post job training that could prepare them for this life - maybe a spiritual training of sort.

I really think a lot of the bigger issues I've seen with ESL teachers could've been prevented if they had been better prepared.