The ad-hoc grassroots organization, China Foreign Teacher's Union, recently announced they had obtained a secretive ESL teachers blacklist used by various schools throughout China to keep tabs on teachers who become "problematic".
The list, sent to the group anonymously and entirely in Chinese, "contains the names of 796 teachers of which 673 are foreigners. 82% of the foreign teachers listed working in the Beijin…
A few weeks ago I finished my first academic year of teaching Oral English at a university in the Middle Kingdom. There've been ups and downs, yadda, yadda, but it's been, overall, good. Even the work has been okay. Here's a short piece I wrote back in March about my favourite lesson.
This week, in the often frustrating battle to make my students speak English, I’ve been doing a speed dating exercise with my class…
I've given some thought to doing an MA in TESOL. After all, I taught it in China, liked it, so why not earn 5,000 RMB a month instead of a mere 4800?
All I need is a golden ticket.
Luckily, I found one, via a Google ad on a message board. Upon seeing the heading, Master's in TESOL, I immediately clicked through to find a big banner full of jolly students on a pristine campus that has clearly gone beyond the cal…
I've taught English to two-year-olds in split bottom pants. The trick there is not letting them sit on your lap for storytime.
I've taught English to bartenders and asked them to repeat after me. Bud...Wise...Er...
I've taught businessmen and doctors, flight attendants and fry cooks.
I've taught Little Emperors in large classes, I've taught university students and training school students and done English Co…
Keith, already suspicious of John, is doubly suspicious now that John missed their dinner appointment. On a rainy Friday, he wonders about John's motives for being in China, as he implements a fresh idea into the classroom: a poetry exercise, where the students go outside, and use English to write a poem about what they see.
Keith started class. He did Tongue Twisters. He had arranged them in such a manner tha…
Our hero is John, who is wandering through life without purpose. This wandering led him to a humanities degree, then to unemployment, and finally, to the great refuge of unemployed humanities majors: ESL in China.
Though Wuhan later becomes an existential swamp for John, here at the beginning, everything is new and exciting.
This is John's first day of teaching, where the incumbent dancing laowai, Keith, school…
Be sure to start at the beginning with "The 7-Year Laowai: Part 1 – Introduction", or see all posts in the series here.
Paul left in June, and that August brought us Keith. Within a year he had transformed our university into his own private playhouse.
Keith was at first unassuming. From somewhere in the Midwest, he said he had done career counseling, and after an early retirement, had decided to come see China…
Be sure to start at the beginning with "The 7-Year Laowai: Part 1 – Introduction", or see all posts in the series here.
A foreign affairs officer once said that to renew the contract "the teaching must be really excellent".
If they wish to sing that particular song, then I'll let them, as long as we understand something: your position here is not based on teaching ability, hiring you wasn't based on it, and th…
Teaching ESL at a university in China is a good gig: low hours, long holidays, weekends and more than enough money to survive on.
If you've chosen this route you'll find that most universities (and agents on their behalf) are very happy to offer basic terms, conditions and vague information to hurry you through signing a contract and securing you for a year.
There's still a high level of incompetency in the hir…
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Lost Laowai
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