Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

How common is it for non-native speakers to get a job teaching in China ? I am thinking specifically of those with native speaker competence. Eastern European nationality.

[Toast]

To teach English...? Legally..?

There was some guy asking about this with regard to his Polish GF a few days ago.

The general consensus seemed to be that it's now much more difficult than in the past.

Some of the more "desperate" provinces or towns may be willing to use their guanxi to get a Foreign Experts Certificate, but at least my local PSB claim it's no longer (as of this year) possible for non native speakers is have teaching the Engurishee.

As a result the circus of crazies, lazies, creepies and drunks from the "Big 7" will continue waltzing shirtless and shoeless around campus baijiu in hand, making weird 3am gurgling noises and trying to kiss the boy students in their teacher's dorms for another year, whilst (in my case) the couple of highly qualified, skilled non-native teachers from the Philippines and The Ukraine were given the proverbial bum's rush.

Seems like as of last week the PSB upped the fines and punishments for NETs and N-NETs getting busted teaching whilst on tourist or student visas also which used to be a nice backdoor into the profession - as always in China whether it amounts to anything is anyone's guess.

[dean_a_jones]

It depends on your school's pull as well it seems. I work at a place that does both French and English study and we have had teachers from a variety of countries, all above board on proper residency permits, from a mix of countries.

French teachers from various African countries (obviously the French speaking ones), Poland etc. English teachers from Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands. Most of them have had pretty much near native levels of English (or French), and often studied in places like the UK/USA. A lot of the African French teachers completed their degrees (usually MA/PhD here and stayed on afterwards to teach after switching from a study to work visa).

Having said that, it takes a bit more persistence and, now with the rules changing and at least the threat of more oversight and higher standards, perhaps this will change in the next 12 months. However, the rule of thumb in China is that if someone has the right connections (in this case I am thinking of the school rather than the teacher) then it can probably be done, especially in lower tier cities.