Edgy investigative journalism mag VICE has published an article delving into the rapidly declining frontier of shady ESL gigs. “The Chinese ESL-Industrial Complex: How English Teachers in China Are Lied to and Exploited,” features interviews with a handful of teachers that backup the article’s exposition on bad teaching jobs in China.Read More
The following is an excerpt from my recently completed novel, Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside. The first chapter was awarded 1st Place in Medium.com’s 2012 Fiction Writing Contest. At the moment, I’m trying to find a home for it. If you like what you read here, please pass it on!Read More
With school starting up again this week, a recent CCTV news report may hint at an increase in crackdowns on illegally employed ESL teachers. In the video, a hidden camera captures a sight that surely many of us have never witnessed — foreign teachers working at a language mill without proper papers. Even the “Expats …Read More
According to the Shenzhen Daily, several foreigners have been arrested at English training centres on suspicion of working illegally in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen.Read More
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 …Read More
I’m a week away from finishing my first academic year as what can loosely be described as a university teacher in China. Someone told me that I should write some kind of retrospective/memoir, but that sounded like far too much work. I mean, I’m on holiday in a week. I’ve begun the wind-down and I’m …Read More
I’m betting most of us haven’t thought twice about what would happen if we shuffled off our mortal coil while living as laowai here in China. Unfortunately, tragedy happens here as anywhere, and this is the situation that David Woolman’s family is now forced into dealing with — from thousands of kilometres away. The 23-year-old …Read More
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, …Read More
I’m a huge bibliophile. When I moved to China in 2005, half my luggage weight allotment went to books. I knew that, living in Hainan, I probably wouldn’t have access to the kind of foreign language (i.e. English) bookstores you can find in Beijing or Shanghai. So I brought my own. Of course I could …Read More
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 …Read More
I caught this video on Hao Hao Report. Basically, Vahram Diehla is a 23-year-old American who is pleading for some advice on how to quickly raise some money to get the hell out of China.
According to his blog he’s working up in Dalian as an English teacher, but the ESL racket has lost its luster and a woman on the other side of the ocean is pulling at his heart strings.
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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 …Read More
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