Job Discussion Forums

[william wallace]

I'm hoping to get the opinion of non-China oldbies. I have taught here in Beijing for over 14 years; broken up by 2 months in Thailand and 6 in Manila.
Prior to that 2 years in Canada and 6 months in Scotland.
Here's the question:
When I finally leave this..this...China, will it be a serious blemish on my resume ?

[Gringo Greg]

I don't think so. I think China has an allure and I think it could be seen as a positive on your resume. I think if it was Thailand on your resume then you'd had problems, but I think China is positive.

[parrothead]

Pardon me, but why would "China" or "Thailand" be damaging to a resume? Wouldn't your qualifications, the kind of job you had and your duties within it be more important? Why would teaching in China or Thailand be less appealing than other countries?

[Justin Trullinger]

I'll second that- I have a colleague now who spent 5 years in Thailand. He was well qualified, and taught two years in language schools there, 3 in a university. That looks great on a resume.

Maybe if you were unqualified and with untraceable employment in Thailand, that would look bad, but then, that looks bad anywhere, regardless of country.


best,
justin

[johnslat]

Dear parrothead,
I think that some countries sometimes get (unjustifiably, in my opinion) a dodgy reputation for the EFL teachers they hire. I've heard some EFLers jokingly say that all you need to teach in China is pass the "mirror test" (i.e. they hold a mirror in front of your mouth, and if it fogs up, you're hired.)
I've heard (to my surprise) similar comments about Saudi Arabia, a country I worked in for nineteen years. And I know that 99.9% of the colleagues I worked with there were highly professional dedicated and hard-working teachers.
So, like most stereotypes/generalizations, while there might be a small grain of truth within, most of the nasty comments are based solely on ignorance.
Regards,
John

[parrothead]

[sidjameson]

Why did you spend 14 years in China? China does have a rep for employing losers and I do think that some people will ask themselves if not you my opening question.
Fluency in Chinese, university level teaching will compensate for that, but 14 years in some tiny little language mill. Well, some will look down on it for sure.

[Marcoregano]

[william wallace]

Well, I asked this question because in all my years here I've usually come across dodgy schools;It never mattered if they were private or public.Years ago during my training I was told the bare minimum was an undergrad degree,some recognized TEFL cert and native ( near Band 8, IELTS) English speaker.But I have taught alongside Russian, Africans,German and Pilipinos etc..and some of these folks had no degrees and some were foreign speakers with English as low as Band 5. I've even taught college accredited classes that were a joke(a UK scheme)- The program required instruction completely in English,but I was the only one teaching in English,as the other Chinese teachers were teaching in Chinese.
So, on my CV it appears attractive(3 "famous" Chinese unis..),but in reality I found them to be boring, uninspiring, and often unrealistically overly dependent on myself to make everything come together.

[Marcoregano]

[Stephen Jones]

[james s]

...

[FuzzX]

For UK employers, teaching EFL abroad qualifies somewhere between a spell at Wormwood Scrubs and one at WalMart.


lol, ain't that the truth. I always get the blank stare followed by the "so umm why are you applying with US, would'nt you rather be in country XYZ!?!"