Job Discussion Forums

[omarr380]

Hello. I have considered the Peace Corps for a long time. Currently I am teaching in Japan. My students are from the age of 6 to 15. After I finish here, I will have one year experince in Japan and a past two years volunteer teaching in the U.S. I am correct in that the Peace Corps places volunteer English teachers in Northern China, right? If they do can someone who has experience with this tell me how did it work out? When I sign on with the PC can I choose where I want to go or do they place me? I would choose China as you may have guessed. What kinds of qualifications would I need? Can somone tell me how teaching with the Peace Corps compares with any other kind of teaching in China? Is there anything else I should know?

Thank you.

[2 over lee]

Your questions are quite hard to answer, I haven�t read anyone on this board with exactly this experience, indeed, someone in such a `position� would be unlikely to look here. Go through the application process. I would be facinated to know where they would place you, given the saturation of English Language teaching programs in the North of China at the moment. I could just see peace corps having a deal with the Beijing govt under the guise of getting ready for 2008. Geez I�m cynical. However I have seen many volunteer positions, which seem to be in big high schools in big cities, before. Considering what I know of China something smelled fishy. Proceed with caution my friend.

[Sinobear]

As Lawrence Welk used to say, "And a one..."

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-se1071.html

"...and a two..."

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/3643.html

"and a three..."

http://www.uedge.org/jaala/chinatravelogue.html

The second may be blocked in China.

Good luck!

[brsmith15]

For my money, I would stay dead away from the US Peace Corps. What began as a gilded vision has degraded into a fetid sewer. It's now filled with time-serving bureaucrats who spend their days counting up their leave and looking at the value of their pensions.

Go it on your own, mate. You'll have more personal choice, make more money and be free of their moronic meddling.

Take it from someone who's had some experience with these folks. After all, if you were bright, sensitive to the needs of others, concerned with the planet and the environment, why would you sell out to a government agency whose only purpose is to sell your services cheaply? What kind of person do you think would work on a full-time basis for the USPC? Someone with a vision and some ambition? Bloody hardly.

[Don Smith]

Subject: Teaching with Peace Corps in China
Hello over there in Japan,
I am a Peace Corps Volunteer English Teacher at a University in Southwestern China. If you are in it for the money Peace Corps is not for you. We are volunteers and do not receive a salary. We get a monthly subsistance allowance to cover food and bare necessaties. We are provided comfortable (by Chinese standards) living quarters by the University. We also are fully covered for health care and have our own doctor here in China. We commit for 27 months which includes 3 months training in China before beginning to teach. We are encouraged to travel during school holidays and vacations but we don't have pensions or other things the other benefits to count. Peace Corps's mission is to provide training for a countries workforce in some field: help other countries to understand Americans: and to enable Americans to understand other cultures. I am proud to serve with the talented, enthusiastic, and dedicated young Americans who are giving up the best years of their lives to try to make this a better world. We only go to countries that invite us. The Chinese government and the Peace Corps Hgs in China decide where you will be assigned, however, several personal interviews during training allow you to make your desires known. At this time we have 45 Volunteers teaching in Universities in Sichuan, Gansu, Chonqqing Municipality, and Guizuo Provinces. Foreign teachers are treated with great respect and Chinese students are the greatest. Teaching experience, degrees in many fields, and other life experiences make up the requirements to serve in the Peace Corps. I was here in 2001-2003 but when SARS became an epidemic, that "self-serving bureaocratic Peace Corps" closed down China, evacuated us in 24 hours, and observed us back in America for a week to insure we were not infected. They opened China this year and I am back to finish my tour. China is hiring hundreds of English teachers and there are may web sites that give you information. [email protected] is one Austrailian recruiter who is seeking North American teachers to provide a balance teaching the language. I will be happy to answer any other questions you might have on Peace Corps.
Sincerely,
Don Smith

[ChinaEFLteacher]

what a deal, teach for free while others make a buck off your back. there's gotta be something more to it, eh?
sounds like what I'm doing already, and i get enough $ to have fun and travel. don't get to 'hold the moral high ground', but the u.s. has lost that already.

[fat_chris]

Greetings!

I too was a Peace Corps Volunteer like Don from 2000-2003 in China. Don was actually a colleague of mine and he is the salt of the earth.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Smith. If your main agenda is to make money, then Peace Corps is not for you. One receives a modest monthly allowance plus travel money. On the other hand, the medical insurance is stupendous (100% paid and nothing to pay). I had a hernia in February, 2001 and Peace Corps/China flew me to Bangkok, Thailand to have it repaired at a Western hospital. Peace Corps paid for everything: round trip airfare, all medical costs and a week's worth of hotel and food bills while I recuperated and slowly got around Bangkok. That definitely leads to a calm mind. I couldn't imagine what I'd do if I got sick and had to deal with Chinese hospitals on my own. Question: would your medical insurance take care of you so effortlessly if you did get into a jam?

I find that spending two (or in my case, three) years with the Peace Corps in any country really helps one to learn the culture and language of the locale. Peace Corps gives a solid ten week training before beginning service as a Volunteer. Included in that training is cultural knowledge, TEFL methodology and language classes taught by top-notch local teachers. Peace Corps provided language materials and funding for me to continue studying during my three years as a Volunteer. During my first summer, I spent five weeks studying Chinese at Dalian University of Foreign Languages. Peace Corps/China assisted me in paying my tuition. My Chinese was pretty damned good after three years thanks to Peace Corps/China.

Think about life after Peace Corps as well. They offer a solid Fellows program in which you would work on a master's degree at several partner universities (ranging from MBAs to MAs in TESOL to MPHs) while working when you are back in the States. I am currently a Peace Corps Fellow in New York City. I am a full-time ESL teacher at a New York City public school and am on scholarship at Teachers College, Columbia University while working on an MA in TESOL. Without the Peace Corps that never would have happened. Because it seems that I will be in TESOL for life, I am currently working on my ticket to bigger and better things (I'm thinking that I will be back in Asia after two years when I finish my degree and teaching obligation to my school).

Regarding your question on choosing where you could go, on the initial application, you do get to choose the region to which you wish to head, but you don't actually get to pick the country. Case in point: I chose Asia and they told me that I could head to Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines or China. I took in the possibility of enjoying the exoticism of the first three and and I initially disregarded China, but they sent me to China (equally exotic) and I absolutely loved my experience.

As for the naysayers who tell you that Peace Corps is a waste or that people will be making money off of you, ignore them. It is indeed true that no matter how much you give to a city, school, program and country you will receive much much more in return. It is a sweet thing to put on your resume. Employers do respond positively to it. A lot of my colleagues from Peace Corps are currently studying with me at Columbia University in the Law School, the Business School, Teachers College and SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs): world-renowned schools in their own right.

Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions. You must be patient though. I am swamped with work because of my current duties, but I do do my best to make it in here at least twice monthly.

Cheers!
fat_c