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Nauczyciel
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 319
Location: www.commonwealth.pl
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 Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:27 am Post subject: Chinatefl paints a better picture of China |
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Read this:
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4.How do teachers cope with the lack of English speakers around them initially?
There is never a lack of English speakers around you. As every person in China is attempting to become proficient in English everyone will be attempting to practice on you. Obviously the ability of some of these people (students and adults) range from poor to good, the ability to convey your message however is quite easy.
Coupled with this is the fact that every foreign teacher has a school appointed Foreign Director whose job it is, is to assist you with your requirements in regards to your employment and living at the school and in the city, your Foreign Director can speak English. Remember also that we are not too far away if you require our assistance with any matter whatsoever. |
[from "Life as a teacher in China", http://teachinchina.chinatefl.com/help/faq1.htm#1.]
The statements in bold are obviously untrue in most cases. I can only hope that the prospective teachers will turn to eslcafe after reading the above. Otherwise, they may be in for a big disappointment when they arrive in China. |
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Shan-Shan
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1074
Location: electric pastures
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| As every person in China is attempting to become proficient in English everyone will be attempting to practice on you. |
"to become proficient" is not necessarily untrue if we interpret "proficient" to mean the ability to say "hello". Ultra-proficient, however, is something much more.
The website is honest about people wanting to "practice on you". Chinese just want to continue the monologues they recite in the morning by the duck pond; the foreigner can fine tube the Chinese vocal nobs to assure some semblance to English phonetics.
No dialogue, nothing spontaneous with the foreigner. Few Chinese have come to the realization that the English language is a tool for communication. |
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Nauczyciel
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 319
Location: www.commonwealth.pl
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:08 am Post subject: |
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Definitely not "every person" in China attempts to learn English (let's leave the proficiency matter aside  ). Except for the odd 'Hello', most of the Chinese can't speak a word in English, thus making "conveying messages" not "easy", but practically impossible. And neither of my Foreign Directors (I've had two) spoke English. I remember reading on this very website about the irony of the fact that so many FAO who are supposed to be the first person to contact to by a FT in case they have a problem can't speak English 
Honestly, this misleads teachers. What's the chance for a foreign teacher to have "English speakers around" for all the time in China (exactly what the text says)? Very slim  |
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7969
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| Nauczyciel wrote: |
Definitely not "every person" in China attempts to learn English (let's leave the proficiency matter aside ). Except for the odd 'Hello', most of the Chinese can't speak a word in English, thus making "conveying messages" not "easy", but practically impossible. And neither of my Foreign Directors (I've had two) spoke English. I remember reading on this very website about the irony of the fact that so many FAO who are supposed to be the first person to contact to by a FT in case they have a problem can't speak English
Honestly, this misleads teachers. What's the chance for a foreign teacher to have "English speakers around" for all the time in China (exactly what the text says)? Very slim |
its always wise to check different sites when looking for a job, just like its wise to read different news sources to get a better picture of whats really going on in the world.
for the record, of the four jobs i've had in china, i found three of them on that webiste you posted in the OP. all turned out to be good jobs as they provide lots of links to the schools, lots of detailed information and direct contact names, numbers and emails with the schools. while the answers to a couple of those FAQs on chinatefl could be more accurate, they're not that misleading, in my opinon. the website seems to have been redesigned lately, at least since i last visited it in april of this year.
7969
PS: i fear to think what some potential FTs think about this life if they only read this website.... LOL |
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tw
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 3898
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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| 7969 wrote: |
| for the record, of the four jobs i've had in china, i found three of them on that webiste you posted in the OP. |
Three of my last four jobs were found through ChinaTEFL.com as well. Other than the first one, all turned out to be decent to pretty good jobs when everything is taken into consideration (not just salary alone). |
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Nauczyciel
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 319
Location: www.commonwealth.pl
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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Don't confuse two different things, guys. Wherever did I say anything about the quality of jobs posted at Chinatefl? I referred ONLY to the bits posted above. And I do hope that FTs will turn to other websites to find out the truth about life in China, because the info given on Chinatefl website is... shall we say... exaggerated?  |
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Gregor
Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 842
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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I don't care how inexperienced someone may be,
If newbies believe a blanket statement covering everybody, such as everybody in China is..., they are setting themselves up for some serious dissapointment, to say the very least.
Also, I hope newbies inexperienced with China read enough on this forum to know that attitude is going to make a huge difference, as will expectations (or lack thereof).
A huge problem I have encountered with new teachers is that they listen to and believe recruiters, who are often giving them unrealistically rosy, or even uninformed, information about what they are to expect.
I swear, I have no idea why they do this. I have had no trouble getting new teachers with the truth, and then they are more prepared. Sure, it takes a bit more work, but it's been my overwhelming experience that teachers react with pleasant surprise when you tell them the bad bits. They tend to believe you then. Who here hasn't listened to a recruiter or hiring manager who made everything sound so perfect that it made you nervous? It's like used car salesmen (who still do this, to my utter amazement).
This is mostly a heads-up to newbies to be ready for anything, and take "facts" about a country they've never been in with a grain of salt (think about your own country and people, and try to think of any single statement that applies to ALL people and ALL areas of your country and you'll see what I mean). But it's also a (surely to be ignored) message to recruiters and other hiring people - TELL THE TRUTH. It will cause you a LOT less trouble.
One more thing: If you really think you're in a terrible place and you really feel that the job you are trying to fill is a bad one, then you should not be the one charged with filling it. |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:11 am Post subject: |
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bending the truth to achieve economic gain of course isn't a chinaTEFL monopoly - why just look at this testimonial from the EF site.
http://www.englishfirst.com/trt/testimonial_cn.html
Something even more sinister about this one - since luring the naive on the promise of teaching angels certainly doesn't ring true!!!! In fact if you read the piece more carefully it promotes travel rather than teaching!!!!
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China is great.. better than I could have imagined, so very different from the life I was used to but in the same breath, the best choice I ever made.
Xi'an itself has a really good mixture of old and new, it is developing at a rapid rate but in turn keeping the old China alive by incorporating traditional style architecture into the new buildings. People's attitudes are still very traditional and it seems most older people are reluctant to change, however the young people are very excited about their future, for the first times in their lives.
The schools here are amazing, the people here who I work with are all really cool, all of similar age and background, I work with 3 people from Brighton and 1 from Chichester so it's really nice to have something in common. Everyone is or has been in the same boat at one point or another and knowing that makes the first few days after arriving not so daunting.
China is an amazing place with so much going on, life here never stops and every day is a new experience. The students are all so eager to learn, so beautiful and so well mannered. I can honestly say this is the best thing I have ever done and want to continue working for EF for a long time. I have loads of places I want to visit in the world and know that with EF I have the opportunity.
Rachel Marfleet, EF Xi'an 2005 |
by the way check out this EF side
http://www.englishfirst.com.cn/englishfirst/default.aspx?etag=EFCN_E1COM_001
all those pictures of attractive young ladies - are these pin-ups supposed to attract professional teachers  |
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Nauczyciel
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 319
Location: www.commonwealth.pl
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| Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| vikdk, you're right, this one's even worse! The students are all so eager to learn, so beautiful and so well mannered. How insincere can we get?! |
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7969
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong
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| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| looks like the chinatefl link originally posted has now morphed into a rather useless page of esl links that take you all over the place. thats not the same webpage that nauczyciel posted earlier this week. |
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Laoshi1950
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 198
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:32 am Post subject: |
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I visited the site today expecting to see the usual map of China with the listing of available job vacancies by province - but, all that appeared was a disappointing, confusing, collection of links to other employment sites and information sources. I thought the old job advertising format was quite useful, because it provided contact details to allow prospective teachers to approach potential employers and negotiate with them directly.
Perhaps the site is in a 'transition phase' while it is being reconstructed. |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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