Job Discussion Forums

[Dagmar]

Have always taught Uni's or College, am College teacher in UK..Have a High School offer. Any comments from those in the know.....(incidentally, am rather highly qualified.)

[China.Pete]

Compensation-wise, the education market in China is basically upside-down. In other ESL markets, or teaching markets in general, language schools will pay the least, having the lowest job entry requirements; universities, requiring advanced degrees, the most. K-12 schools are usually somewhere in between. In China, language schools will offer some of the higher-paying jobs if you can tolerate the long hours and the repetitive teaching, while colleges offer ridiculously low salaries (although housing of some sort may be included). K-12 schools often pay much better than colleges, especially the "international" ones.

Now, there is a similarly counter-intuitive situation at work in terms of teaching expectations. An advanced degree might be nice, but a BA is just fine at most universities, and little will be required of you other than an ability to entertain your way through an "Oral English" class. Even using a textbook is optional. But K-12 schools will usually have a particular syllabus to follow; for example, A-Level or IB in the case of international programs, or some variation on the national curriculum in the case of a Chinese school. Even if you are only teaching "Oral English," the need for students to prepare for a standardized exam is likely to lend some importance to the work.

[englishgibson]