Job Discussion Forums

fpshangzhou · Joined: 13 Mar 2012 Posts: 280

Hi there Teachers,

I've been here in China for the past 2 years working in the hotel business. Part of my job entails teaching English (Industry related) to my fellow colleagues. During this time, I've come to really enjoy teaching them. I've looked into our corporate website to see if they offer further career development, but, unfortunately there is no such certification. I've been told to invest in a TESOL/Celta certificate. I intend to attend a program in Thailand for one month training. Is it possible to use my past 2 years teaching experience of informal classes here at the hotels towards teaching at schools if I decide to switch over to ESL teaching in schools, along with the TESOL/TEFL certificate and a non-related BS degree?
If this all pans out, I'd like to look into the opportunity of getting state certified to teaching in International schools. Would I be able to use English teaching as experience as most of them require a minimum of 2 years IB experience?

Cheers,
Aaron in China

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

Yes, you should find your course a lot easier than newbies and yes, transfer to employment in language schools should not be difficult. I am less sure of the exemption you consider at the end of your message.

rtm · Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 1003 Location: US

Xie Lin · Joined: 21 Oct 2011 Posts: 731

As others have indicated, your hotel experience should be useful to you in a language school position, less so in a K-8 or secondary school setting. Employers will not give it as much weight as if you had taught in a school, but more than if you had no teaching experience at all.

The two years experience required by most international schools is meant to be post certification and in your home country. There are exceptions, of course, among lower level schools, but this is the minimum you will need to be competitive.

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Shroob · Joined: 02 Aug 2010 Posts: 1339

fpshangzhou · Joined: 13 Mar 2012 Posts: 280

Hey Guys, thanks for posting so quickly to my inquiry. Sorry for the slow response. Hotel life gets hectic at times.
To clarify myself, I'll give better details of the situation. In regards to the ESL teaching experience, I've held classes in a training room environment most of the time. Sometimes, I would hold them in the various parts of the hotels, such as in the Front Office dept or Food & Beverage dept. depending on the type of training provided. Most of the time I had to create my own lesson plans from scratch. I would use the corporate SOP's to extract the rules from and apply into a story format dialogue in which the associates would perform conversational role play scenarios. For other lessons I would create general conversation starter material, such as greetings, discussing weather, travel experiences, etc. with the guests. I thought these experiences would be applicable to the associates personal lives as well as in the workplace.

In regards to the International School experience inquiry, I goofed after reading the post later. What I meant to ask was if I was hired at a public school in a 1st or 2nd tier city to teach English, would I be able to use that school to do my teaching experience(2 year requirement) for the state certification back home? While watching random videos about teaching English, this one guy who is from the US is currently teaching English at a public school in Korea. He mentioned that he is in the process of obtaining his state teaching certification credentials through TeacherReady. It's basically a online course where you can earn the credentials while working abroad. You just have to go back to the US to take the state exams. I asked him about his school, but he said China and Korea education systems might be completely different.
I hope this clears up any confusion and I look forward to any and all of your feedback.

Cheers,
Aaron in China

Chancellor

Big Worm · Joined: 02 Jan 2011 Posts: 171

Your time spent teaching English at a hotel will have zero weight on your ability to get a job in an IB school. In fact, it might even put off some hiring managers. IB is academic English with very specific assessment requirements. Teaching maids to talk about the weather in the food and beverage dept. will most likely make people roll their eyes.

If you can get into a real (read: IB certified) IB school then it will probably work for teacherready. Have to check with them tho. I believe you will also need to work with someone who is already certified as a sort of "sponsor" tho.

Good Luck.