Job Discussion Forums

[chryanvii]

I currently have a "face" job in an office, where I just show my face in meetings...and they pretend that I am in charge of the company's designs. It is considered prestigious for the company to have a foreigner as part of the team, for some odd reason.

In light of this...I have quit and am going back to teaching ESL. HOWEVER. After being in this job, it has made me realize that maybe ALL jobs in China for foreigners are just "face" jobs.

We are there to make the school look more "prestigious". The more foreign teachers a school has, the better the school looks.

If you think about it...aside from the stories we can offer about our culture, and the pronunciation [which is never really over-emphasized in class anyway, except in small segments]...chinese teachers are just as qualified as us to do our jobs [if not more qualified because of credentials].

[7969]

[SahanRiddhi]

In the case of private language schools:

I don't know if "face" is the way to conceptualize it. I guess you could look at it that way. More accurately, though, is that the Chinese are convinced that they can best learn English via lessons from a white native speaker. So the schools are providing that product. It sells. It's not so different from any other business.

Perhaps if I were looking for a kung fu class, I'd be more impressed by the one with an Asian instructor, rather than a Caucasian instructor? Or maybe if I wanted jazz saxophone lessons, I'd want them from a black guy, not some white dude.

We as westerners like to say we'd evaluate the instructors based on their abilities, without race factoring in. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not. But keep in mind, East Asian cultures are much more concerned with image. You gotta have the foreign-looking instructors to make the school a go. In that sense you might say it's face. But I'd just call it marketing.

[johntpartee]

Is teaching ESL in China just a face job?

Yes.

[Scott 1955]

ww

[Banner41]

My ESL job at my school has transitioned to a more of a "face" type of job. I basically come in on meetings or special presentations, sit there and smile and leave without really knowing what was going on in the meeting. They drag me around to everything that is a sales pitch or a marketing effort. On the downside, it is incredibly boring at times, on the plus side, I am paid well and don't set foot in a classroom (well, that is actually a wash because I do enjoy interacting with students at times).

Marketing is a powerful tool and now I am pretty sure I am just taking advantage of the system that is in place. I am well aware that if there is any kind of downturn in the economy I would be the first to get axed. Just like most I am taking opportunities as they come because I am sure in the next few years that they will realize that we are not "as needed" as some may think. Could be good because you get rid of people who really don't know how to teach and could benefit the ones who are really good at their jobs and really like teaching here.

I am not sure how long I will actually want to keep this face job because as stated above I do enjoy working with students (one's that actually want to learn mind you) but it's a nice break and am happy that I can get these types of opportunities. A resume showing international marketing experience may work better in the long run then "English Teacher" in China.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Yes, absolutely we are a large part "face not only for the school but also for the parents who send their kid to the "school with the foreigner".

A private school teaching kids that has no foreign teacher VS. a school that has a foreign teacher will attract a lot more students, full stop.

There are foreigners right now dawning suits and cutting ribbons and pretending that they represent a big foreign company or even on behalf of an entire nation itself (I met the Irish 'deputy minister' of international trade a few years back)... in fact he was nothing more than a college dropout who was good looking, well-spoken and old enough to fit the role.

It is presented as 'acting' but to the Chinese audience it is anything but. It gives 'face' and thus credibility to whatever the Chinese company is selling/doing.

Most of us in private schools (and many in public schools) are not teachers; we are promoters and actors for our schools.

And make no mistake- even colleges and public schools make heaps of money from us and we are none the wiser.

[sistercream]

I've been in both extremes here - a job where the boss seriously couldn't care less if the teacher were a Martian as long as he/she/it did a thorough job of teaching, and another one where I wasn't even allowed to teach any class where a student got upset at needing to "work" - we were expected just to play games and then write totally spurious notes about the material covered in the *parent-teacher communication notebook*.
Both these places were private language centres.

[LongShiKong]

I'm in that latter category here at a Longman School in Beijing. Half the foreigners aren't native speakers but on the flip side Chinese teaching staff are hired based on their English. As with foreign staff, they receive virtually no training and as long as parents don't complain, nobody cares what you do in class or even if you're on time. It's a daycare more than a school.

Smaller city franchise schools will hire anyone, as long as they're foreign. I had difficulty understanding a teacher from central Africa who taught at a Disney English several years back in a city of less than a million. Blacks actually outnumbered whites for a while.

I agree with SAHAN RIDDHI. It's not what we teach that matters--Chinese are all only too aware of the problems with their test-based educational system which is why they go to western universities. They're definitely not forking out 10,000 RMB for our courseware and I don't think they're entirely sold by the prestige of our foreign brand name when management here is exclusively Chinese.

They just don't have the political precedent or the means to organize and express their collective desire. Instead, they settle for the next best thing to a language immersion school.

I'm staying with a family that hopes their daughter's English will improve simply by having me around speaking English to her mother and the other foreigner here. Perhaps they'll learn faster than my students' parents that language learning doesn't work that way--it takes more than mere exposure to learn a second language.

[DosEquisX]

That's the case for pretty much any for-profit English institution.

As long as you do just the bare minimum, you're okay to keep your job barring any dick moves done by your employer.

[LongShiKong]

[SahanRiddhi]

[LongShiKong]

What!?!? You're making marginally higher income, the same, or less than your Chinese colleagues (for the same time commitment)?!?!?!

I stand corrected!! Bleach your hair blonde, don blue contacts, dress to depress and apply elsewhere.

[SahanRiddhi]

This has been discussed ad infinitum. Chinese teachers tend to have low nominal salaries, mostly for tax reasons. They tend to have many benefits, however, that FTs don't have -- more than making up for any difference in the nominal salaries.

[igorG]