Teaching in China

Landing in China without a job teaching English: calculated risk, or foolhardy gamble? Depends who you ask - some people get a job with little difficulty, while others spend weeks traipsing round schools with no luck. It might help to know that the people in the former group are almost certainly those who did their research before they got here. But is it a good idea?

It certainly has a lot to recommend it. If you’re a first time English teacher, you have little in your application arsenal to help you market yourself, other than your qualifications and your foreignness. For you, sheer proximity might be your secret weapon in seeking work. A school that is looking for a foreign English teacher faces posting adverts, replying to emails, arranging accommodation, refunding flight costs, and many other hassles. Then lo and behold, you turn up on their doorstep, qualified, fresh-faced and ready to start tomorrow. They’re hardly going to pursue those applicants from Aberdeen or jobseekers from Johannesburg, are they?

An additional advantage is that China makes more sense face to face. This is not a country that works well on contracts. You might think you’ve got a rock-solid job offer - but that only matters if the school thinks so too, and it’s a lot easier to resolve when you can pop in for a chat instead of firing off frustrated emails from hundreds of miles away.

But it’s undoubtedly a gamble. You will need enough money to be able to write off the cost of your flight, as well as sufficient cash to support yourself while you look for a job. How much money you’ll need depends on where you’re looking - in the cities, $2,000 would be a reasonable amount to see you through a six-week job hunting period. And beat in mind that depending on a range of factors - where you are from, where you are working, and the direction of the wind - that when you find your job you may need to hop over a border for visa reasons.

Also helpful are sufficient language skills to be able to fend for yourself without the support system that a school or university would offer you. And above all, you WILL need a backup plan - what will you do if it all goes wrong and you have to get yourself home?

Bear in mind that others have trod this path before you, and lots of them will be willing to talk to you about it. Here’s one just one of many discussions about the issue that might help you make your mind up.

Fundamentally, should you do it? Depends - if you’re the sort of person who is deeply unsettled by uncertainty, then no, definitely not. But if you’ve got the cash, the communication skills and the cojones, then why not?