<p>My daughter will graduate college this coming Spring. She’s double majoring in Education and Sociology/Anthropology and will be certified to teach K-9 in Illinois. She is looking into the possibility of teaching in China for a year. I have mixed feelings about it. My head thinks it’s a wonderful idea (especially if we can visit!) but the rest of me would like her just a little closer to home.
Hong Kong has also been suggested. She has one contact so far and will be looking into it more as soon as she can. </p>
<p>Anyone have any experience with teaching abroad for just a year?</p>
<p>A middle school teacher I know has been wanting to teach in China for a year–but so far hasn’t talked his wife into it. He said that the teachers he has talked with about it said that they had a great experience. Sorry, don’t know details, but he’s still sweet talkin’ his wife hoping for a “yes” vote.</p>
<p>Your D should contact World Teach at Harvard or Volunteers in Asia at Stanford. Both programs have sent students to teach English. If you are concerned about your D being in the PRC, how about Taiwan?</p>
<p>I know an adult (middle school teacher) who successfully taught English for a year in China. I know a UCLA grad who went to teach English for a year with a particular organization and there were mucho glitches. Mucho. He ended up leaving the country, not easily, and spending several months doing community work in Thailand through a professional connection of his father’s. </p>
<p>I don’t know the organization he went through and might not be able to find out right away (death in the family), but could check for you. It appears that some organizations make promises they can’t keep.</p>
<p>In the UCLA kid’s case, he went along with a friend and that was a big help in just acclimating when he first arrived and things were going well, and a great solace when things fell apart and he at least had someone by his side.</p>
<p>He did have excellent access to email etc. the whole time and could communicate with parents back home.</p>
<p>My D taught in China for six months as an undergrad. (Because she had had some abroad experiences already they made an exception to the “must have a college degree” requirement for her.) </p>
<p>She took a leave of absence from school for the fall semester of her junior year and was in China from June - January. She did this as a low-cost alternative to a JYA experience. We figured why pay tuition to experience another culture when you can get paid to work there?</p>
<p>It worked out GREAT. She was teaching business English to adults (government employees and then managers of a large corporation). She was based in two cities in China – one outside of Beijing and another across from Hong Kong. </p>
<p>She got to live well on a modest (by American standards) salary and also had opportunites to experience the culture with natives rather than as a tourist. </p>
<p>She was able to do a good amount of travel as well.</p>
<p>China is VERY safe and the government is particularly careful that foreigners are protected. </p>
<p>We were able to communicate just like when she was in college - IMs and e-mails with an occasional phone call. Since we knew she was safe we were not anxious.</p>
<p>It was a wonderful experience for her to have on her resume when she was looking for a job after her graduation in May '06.</p>
<p>It is great for kids to do these things when they are young and not tied down.</p>
<p>The only negatives are that the pay is low compared to salaries here and also that opportunities for women are not as great in China as here.
Oh and also, the cities are smoggy and dirty – pollution control is not as advanced. She could not wear her contact lenses. </p>
<p>If you want more details please PM, or better yet, e-mail me.</p>
<p>My good friend (mid 50s in age) taught for six weeks in China last summer. She taught high school students learning English at a private afterschool program. She shared an apartment with another teacher (had her own bedroom) and was able to travel some on weekends and after her teaching stint ended. She had a positive experience overall. Most of the teachers were in early 20s.</p>
<p>My S who just graduated college is interested in teaching English abroad – Japan, China or Korea – next year. There have been several articles in American papers lately re: teaching mills in China – long hours, unpaid salaries, leaky pipes, and physical threats. Do your homework so you end up at a place that treats foreign teachers decently.</p>
<p>Everyone, thanks for your replies! Jyber, I just tried to send you a pm. Your e-mail didn’t work, but I might be having server problems. </p>
<p>3boys- Yes, she’s investigating pretty diligently and I don’t think she will make the leap if she’s not sure it’s safe.</p>
<p>She is not looking to make much money because the experience itself will be priceless. One company I know about will pay for the plane ticket over and back if one signs up to teach for a year and enough money to live on, but probably not save much. Well, the girl is an ed major, she doesn’t have much hope of getting rich anyway.</p>
<p>I can’t think of a better time to go. Once she gets a teaching contract she will be bound to stay (somewhere!) so it seems to make sense that if she wants to do a year abroad, this would be the time. Marite, I didn’t really have any qualms about PRC until I saw your post. Is there something bad about it? I haven’t really heard about teaching in Taiwan. Do you know anything about that?</p>
<p>She should consider Princeton in Asia; a great program that is open to non princetonians. They offer various non-profit opportunities including teaching.</p>
<p>No, I would not have qualms about the PRC, although conditions vary greatly between different parts of the country. Taiwan is just more manageable in terms of size and the country as a whole is more “modern” (not speaking about Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou here). The same groups that operate in the PRC also operate in Taiwan. It really depends on what kind of environment your D wants to be in.</p>
<p>My sister is currently two months into a 1 year contract teaching English in Taiwan. Before this she had been teaching English at a French university for two years. However, she is a fluent French speaker. Her Taiwan experience is very different because she knows no Mandarin and is obviously a foreigner (with red hair and all. People keep asking to take her photo because she is such a novelty!) She is enjoying the experience so far, but has a rather limited social circle of other ex-pats because of the language barrier. </p>
<p>My sister did a 1 month intensive TEFL course, which is a well recognised certificate for teaching English. The TEFL web-site (linked below) lists many thousands of English-teaching jobs. When she got her certificate my sister was offered several other jobs in Vietnam and Thailand, but chose to go to Taiwan because the school offered her various benefits such as a free return flight home and accommodation (not free) in school-owned apartments (though she has found her own apartment now). Generally she has found Taiwan to be a busy modern country. Though she has had to learn to ride a scooter to get around, as public transport is poor in the region where she is living. So that is a little scary as the roads are bad and crowded. She hopes to do some travelling when her contract finishes this time next year.</p>
<p>My daughter has a good friend who did it.She came home more confident and knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life as a result of the experience. She is in law school now with the intension of becoming a civil right’s attorney.</p>