Job Discussion Forums

[gnwilliams]

My college life is nearing it's end and I have been thinking about teaching English to children in China. I am a linguistics major and my main goal would be to learn Mandarin and experience the culture of China. I will have a BA but no teaching experience and at the moment, no Certification (tesl, trinity...ect). Are there any villages that you can recommend? I am not looking for villages with nightlife, a bar or even a big Expat community. I am looking for a place where I can learn the language rapidly and interact with the people. A place where foreign presence is more of a rarity.

Any Idea's or suggestions would be great.

[7969]

I think your idea to live in a village is an interesting one (i love villages myself), and there are thousands of them to choose from.

but practically speaking, this is going to prove difficult. since your main goal isnt employment, any old visa will do. but after that, I can foresee a few problem areas:

1. where are you going to live? villages typically don't have hotels.
2. do you have money to sustain yourself?
3. if you get ill a village is the last place i'd want to be.
4. then there's the food (lack of variety). eating the same stuff in a village everyday will wear on you fast.

a lot of universities in china (ours included) have students who venture out into nearby villages for short stints to teach, and help out the local people (most of whom are very poor) in a general way. I've done this twice and enjoyed it, but the living conditions were extremely spartan. I'm used to roughing it but this was really roughing it.

Alternative: You might consider taking a university job (your lack of experience and training are only minor obstacles) in a small city somewhere in china and then get the students there to introduce you to village life slowly. this should solve the potential problems i listed above. after getting a taste of village life then you can decide if living in one is something you really want to do for a longer period.

[choudoufu]

you might could try one of the ngo's for placement in a village, or there
are numerous 'volunteer' organizations that will place you for a fee.

i assume you've never been to china? your sole knowledge of chinese
village life is from movies or the odd documentary?

why not take the summer off and travel through china first. you might
find you can't do without such western amenities as flush toilets and
running water.

and if you want to learn mandarin, a village is not the proper location.
the local peasants will likely speak some dialect only used in the
immediate area.

[gnwilliams]

I understand exactly what you are saying.
1. I would try to find schools with housing or maybe I could set up a host family type deal if I help the family's kids with English or something like that. I know that the host family deal probably won't fly because of culture differences but its worth a shot.
2. At the moment, no, I don't have a lot of extra money. I couldn't afford to volunteer, even though as soon as I save a little money, that is the plan.
4. Food is also not too much a concern for me. Yes, I know the food will eventually get old, but I'm adventures and I do like Chinese food so that should help.

Do you know of any cities near the mountains that would fit in the category you are describing? What town did you teach in? I would like to go to a more traditional city in the sense of culture. Also, I hear in some smaller cities the pay is more because there aren't as many English teachers that want to teach in those smaller cities.

[7969]

[choudoufu]

if that's what you really want.....

look into buckland. they're an agency, but.......they'll get you
some esl training, maybe a certificate of sorts, then will place you
in high schools or universities, mostly in rural guangxi.

i'm not recommending them, just giving them as an option. do your
research. i know they offer placements in baise, guangxi province.

pop 250K (technically a village!), only 5 foreigners in town, has the
western stuff you need (except cheese), good weather, nice location.
easy train connections to nanning, kunming, guangzhou. no industry,
minimal pollution. easy bike ride into the hills to visit the villages....
the names of which even some of the villagers don't know....

pay is low, but expenses will be minimal. they can place you in
the minorities medical college or at two of the local high schools.

[A'Moo]

If you havent been, whatever your idea of a Chinese village is-is wrong...
This isnt South or Central America-villagers here do not take pride in, nor embrace the lifestyle-they want nothing more than to find a way out of the "village", then spend the rest of their existences making fun of/looking down upon their previous kinship (villagers)..
The posters who have recommended travelling first have offered sage advice-take it.

[xi.gua]

[gnwilliams]

Thanks everyone. I have had my fair share of traveling in different countries but your right, I have never been to China, let alone any country in Asia. I thank you all for your words of wisdom. Even though there may be that perfect village out there, I know it is unlikely I will find it. I think that trying something like 7969 said would be my best option. And then again, there is always other Asian countries, I just wouldn't be learning Mandarin.

[gnwilliams]

Do any of you know about the Henan province? I noticed that they had a lot of China's Shaolin Kung Fu history and temples. I also would be very interested in stuff like that.

[xiaolongbaolaoxi]

I know there are posters here who love Henan, but I had two students from Henan who I became close friends with who flat out said going there for kung fu, culture, and teaching was "a scam." I would really reconsider that province.

Perhaps a "posting" in a school that is on the outskirts of a major city is more appropriate. Not so much western amenities, but in terms of the ability to meet people who you can ask questions of. My wife speaks three Chinese dialects and couldn't understand the maids who cleaned the classroom 45 minutes away from where she grew up... you can find a more rural existence than most teachers in PRC and still be 45m-1h away from a Starbucks.

If you really want to go for language purposes, sign up now for something like chinesepod.com or livemocha.com.... trust me, your pronunciation will be shot, but your listening comprehension will be better than nothing.

Best of luck.

Aloha,

XLB

[xi.gua]

I can second what XLB said about the Shaolin Temple. It's basically just a regular school and a tourist attraction. For what you want I think Guizhou or Inner Mongolia would be right up your alley.

[sistercream]

If you want to be learning standard Mandarin (Putonghua is the Politically Correct term on the mainland) then you could do worse than heading out to one of the smaller provincial capitals out west like Lanzhou or Xining. Although there are lots of dialect-speaking locals, there are also a heck of a lot of people who were "sent up" to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution and their children/ grandchildren - the standard of "standard" Putonghua spoken by teachers and professionals there is very high, you can get excellent multi-cultural experience (lots of Tibetans and different Hui groups as well as Han), and these cities are still small and laid-back enough for most people to be curious about and generally hospitable towards foreigners.
The expat communities are comparatively small, but enough to provide somebody you can vent to or play Scrabble with when you need time out from cross-cultural sensitivity (and trust me, we all do - usually within a month). You will also find the small imported food stores in cities like this a godsend at times.

[TexasHighway]

I would never recommend volunteering as a teacher in China whether you have to pay for the "privilege" or not. While I do respect the altruistic spirit of those who volunteer, I always suspect that some corrupt administrator or recruiter is pocketing the money that is earned by the teacher. If someone really wants to teach for nothing, I would recommend getting paid a salary and then donating their pay to their favorite charity.

[7969]

anyone who wants to teach for nothing, contact me. you can do my job while i stay home and collect the salary.