Job Discussion Forums

nellychess · Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 187 Location: USA

I have been a tennis teacher for the past 15 years, with excellent credentials. My current goal is to gain experience teaching English, but my absolute dream situation would be one where I could teach English at a school, and perhaps teach tennis classes, and run tennis programs after school.

I could even run a program to train people to teach tennis.

Would a University hire me at some point? Currently I have a BA in Sociologhy, and plan to get a CELTA after my first year.

This dream can wait, but I would love any advice on possibly where in China I should go, and what a good starting point would be.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

There's a Beijing Sports U which may be worth a look.

rioux · Joined: 26 Apr 2012 Posts: 880

Shandong Sport University

http://www.sdpei.edu.cn/?action-viewnews-itemid-767

They are looking for a teacher (teachers?)

http://www.chinajob.com/jobposter/teacher/jobdetail.php?job_id=1287?topage=12&job_id=1287

roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

Physical Education is a relatively large department/faculty/major in Chinese universities. PE majors, if they plan to stay in their majors go on to teach PE. I doubt there would be much demand for a foreigner to teach PE as a full time proposition. However, it may be that you would be requested to teach teachers (to improve their English and potentially share techniques) or (less likely) teach tennis classes to students, in addition to teaching English classes. If you get a job with a university, bring your background and availability up with the PE department if you meet their faculty members because they may not be in communication with the FAO or Foreign Language Department.

Private lessons on the side with wealthy locals is another potential source of income. ("Wow, s/he has a foreigner tennis pro!")

choudoufu · Joined: 25 May 2010 Posts: 3325 Location: Mao-berry, PRC

whatever you do, don't use the googles!

do not type "teach tennis in china" in the search bar!

do not hit the search button!

do not look at the results page with over 6 millions hits!

do not for any reason go to the very first link advertising tennis
coaching jobs at gs academy in beijing!

do not scroll down to find the two links to current job listings!

do not bookmark this link! http://www.tenniscoachingjobsinchina.com/

do not apply for either staff tennis coach or senior coach!

.........but do send a certified check to stinky tofu recruiting, inc.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Yeah those upstarts Brin and Page and their pesky app!
The Beijing Sports U have vacancies for sports related English (native) teachers.
BTW I know the international women's golf controllers require pro players to have English.
They are packaging a product for the international TV audience and these females pretty soon learn that if they want to be in the bucks, they need English.
Interestingly the young Koreans etc don't bleat imperialist plot, but just get on with it.

nellychess · Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 187 Location: USA

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

I think we all know the post was sarcastic, but two legit sports unis have been mentioned. These should be followed up.
At the basic level you need an employer to get you to China and the least risk avenue for this is a public sector school with the correct credentials to secure you a visa, pay you an OK salary plus perks and give you a chance to look around.
Don't want to sound patronising but if you think that contributors to this site are insensitive, wait until you have to deal with our gentle hosts.

it'snotmyfault · Joined: 14 May 2012 Posts: 527

A lot of the contributors on here seem to be the kind of guys who probably have:

an ego the size of Jupiter combined with a tinky winky the size of an acorn

That's why they're all so angry all the time.

choudoufu · Joined: 25 May 2010 Posts: 3325 Location: Mao-berry, PRC

hey, quit peeking!!!

sorry op. a little sarcastic, yes. it's just that there are so many posts where
the op has done no research whatsoever.

"hey, read this contract" with an entire 30-page contract appended.

or "what do you know about guangzhou?" in the title, with "know anything?" as the message text.

or "what about wall street" and the text says "any good?"

it just sorta kinda seemed you hadn't read any of the threads yet....so many
explain what is required, or not required.

15 years teaching experience, BA, pulse.....of course some uni somewhere
will hire you.

doogsville · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 924 Location: China

It sounds like you want to come here and start teaching English, with a view to branching out into tennis coaching, with the goal of eventually dropping the teaching and coaching full time. It sounds like a good plan to me.

First thing I'm going to suggest is come to the south. The weather here is better suited to outdoor tennis, and it's good almost the year round. I live in Zhuhai, and I worked with a guy who was a tennis coach. He's no longer here or I would have tried to put you in touch with him. My uni has tennis courts aplenty, and all the students are required to study PE, even the English majors and finance majors. They don't all do tennis but it does seem quite popular. I gather it's a wealthy persons pursuit here, but there are certainly quite a few courts dotted around the city.

One issue is what language are you going to coach in? Is your Chinese up to scratch, or would you have to coach only English speakers at first? If so why not look at a few of the expat websites for cities here in Guangdong and other southern provinces, and try to get an idea for how popular tennis is. Then you can figure out the best place to start looking for jobs.