Job Discussion Forums

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

I've been wanting to head over to china for a long time now. Possibly even making it my new permenant home. Teaching english would become my job, and living out there would be my new life.

With teaching abroad becoming a more common thing, I've been hearing more and more that not having a degree would make the chances of a job find very difficult.

I've finished highschool, and I have a College Diploma. But I don't have a degree in anything. I plan on taking a Tesol course prior to making a move of any kind. But worry and doubt continue to surface in the back of my mind everytime I think that my College Diploma just isnt going to cut it.

Can anyone please shed some light on this matter?

A'Moo · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:38 pm Post subject:

Hello, and welcome to the forum. This is a topic that comes up a fair amount, and there is no easy answer. My situation is a little different than most, but a little similar to your own. I don't have a degree, do have a TEFL cert., and teach here. Sort of. I am employed and paid as a teacher here, an occupation at which I am average. So, the task that has befallen me now is one of doing parent interviews, for I am the only FT where I am that has a white face and speaks Chinese. What I do is embarassing, I must admit. I basically spend many hours each week telling parents how brilliant their children are, how they will have no problem adapting to life in N.A. etc..
In your case, if you don't get a degree, and really wish to teach here, get a TEFL certificate, make copies of all of your college cert's (however inconsequential) and come here with a commitment to improve. If you don't speak Chinese, it may be easier to find a job prior to arriving...
Others on this site will try and scare you by telling you "get an education first, or you will be incarcerated" (no visa)....There is some validity to what they say, though I still have yet to have proof of any FT from a G8 country incarcerated for teaching without a visa. If you are willing to live in a rural area (not BJ,SH,GZ), and take a lower salary,you shouldnt have any real problems, though there are no guarantees with anything in life......
Good Luck

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

Thanks for your reply. Sounds to me like you're linking getting a visa to having a degree? I don't recall one needing the other as a prereq...or do they?

I had planned on getting a visa too, but never having had one before, I really don't know the 'ins and outs' behind acquiring one.

The plan was to arrive with Diploma/Visa/Tesol as my best means to start. As well as having gotten a job setup before getting on the plane.

I'm totally up for the challenges of the new lifestyle and everything that comes with it. But never having travelled before, and arriving in a country where I wont speak the local language all that well....I'd feel more confident knowing that my particular form of education was working for me, rather than against me. Especially since I'd likely be selling much of my belongings as a means to make my trip.

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

brsmith15 · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 1142 Location: New Hampshire USA

Follow your heart. To blazes with the nay-sayers. If you come here and you find it's the wrong thing for you, you've learned something about yourself and can return to Jia Na Da -- Chinese for Canada.

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

mlomker · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 378

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

Synopsis · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: WPG, MB, Canada

Not sure where you get these "just finished high school" or "near 20 years old" assumptions. However, I am now starting to understand what you're saying.

I don't know if you've ever had an unexplainable desire. A longing or calling to do something, go somewhere, or be something. I don't want this to sound like a bunch of tree hugging hippie crap (assuming quoting southpark doesn't further assumptions about my age of course). Going out there just feels very right. Which should almost sound weird, being said by someone thats never traveled before.

And like I said before, I make no promises I'll even enjoy my stay out there. Which could in turn bring me back here, or take me somewhere else. But going out there has felt so right for so long, that when I do, I do so assuming I won't return. But that being said, I'm no fool. I don't plan on dropping everything and taking chances without a little forethought, which brings me to questions such as the above. I won't even pack my bags unless I've made sure I got a way to get home in case things don't work out. As sure as I am, I'm still very careful.

This is a very big leap of faith.

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

In hindsight and after perusing the replies your post has generated I can say my above post is not wrong although you have clarified a few things I didn't know before...

A sudden urge to come to China, some sort of infatuation? A personal reason? Sounds weird but oh so understandable...

What I can say at this stage is: you are going to let you in for a number of big disappointments. Does China want you? Will China tolerate you? Will your system agree with the food, the air, the people?

And if circumstances beyond anyone's control - the job situation, the poolitical frame, should drastically worsen you will be tied down to a place in China from which removing yourself might have to be done in something akin to haste! Also I doubt it's a good idea to think of China as a retirement paradise! A big doubt, man!