For many people the lure of this employment and/or lifestyle choice (depending how you look at it) brings you one of the most affordable ways to travel and see the world. With the abundance of job positions out there to prospective candidates, it is fairly certain that when asked “Where would you like to go?” [...]

Going on a trip to China is more than exciting, and you’re probably the envy of quite a number of your friends right now. While you’re there, whether for a week or a year, it would behoove you to immerse yourself into the culture as deeply as possible. Here are four fool-proof ways to do [...]

New Course Maps My school, EF Shijiazhuang, has been implementing a new course layout over the past couple months. On the 18th lesson, a parent to teacher meeting is arranged in order to discuss the students’ progress and goals. These meetings are quite beneficial for both the teachers and the parents because there is direct [...]

What I thought When I first arrived here in Shijiazhuang the only goal I had was to survive. I needed to learn how to plan lessons efficiently and effectively within the given time parameters. I needed to learn how to stand in front of an audience most of the day and not be so scared [...]

In my fledgling TEFL career I have encountered many different classes and juggled a few too many grammar forms to the point that it even becomes confusing to me. So, as a native speaker who might have to take a step back and think about the mechanics behind the sentences I am using, it must [...]

I am fortunate that being a teacher in China allows me spare time, whilst earning money, to also explore the country. We work weekends, so have the start of the week off, which isn’t as bad as it may sound. The weekends are usually extremely busy, with children off from school, parent’s home, and everyone [...]

Time to travel In a previous article I wrote about the great location of Fuzhou in accordance to some rather interesting places to visit. I said I would be visiting Xiamen eventually and luckily last weekend, my friends and I took the trip westwards to this idylic coastal city. Being only between an hour and [...]

Holiday Prep Work The Chinese New Year crept up on us this year in Shijiazhuang. I was fortunate enough to be able to take my paid holiday at the same time as the national holiday which culminated to a whopping 18 day travel. I decided to travel with one of my friends Amber, since she [...]

The Starting Line From the very first day I arrived at my new job at EF Shijiazhuang I had been hearing of the much dreaded summer course. At first, I heard teachers casually talking about how we had a month to prepare and get ready for the transition but as the time progressed, the casual [...]

Easily Accessible Last weekend, I traveled to Beijing with my roommate, Tariq. He had never been to the magnificent city and wanted me to accompany him since I had been there twice. It is quite a luxury to be able to easily access one of the biggest cities in the world. With a simple visit [...]

There are many aspects to living in China. The difference in communication, culture, food, music, fashion, and even animals, and so many more. So I am a keen animal lover, I have dogs, I have had rabbits, cats, goats, hamsters, chickens, and so many other animals. I love animals so much, that I am a [...]

Planning My Lesson The time leading up to the beginning of class is quite a vital time period. There are many things that go into preparing for the classroom, things that one would not consider never having taught before. I know that I never looked at the tiniest details when I was the student on [...]

Welcoming 2013 in China As the new year approached I had decided long ago that I didn’t want to spend Christmas and New Year in the same city. It was definitely a stange experience having Christmas here but the adventurist side of me wanted to celebrate the turn of another annum elsewhere. First Stop – [...]

Winter Course Activities So this week saw the start of winter courses for our school. This is one of the busiest times of the year where our current students will come everyday throughout the holidays to attend a special course and fun activities. As my role of Life Club Coordinator it was up to me [...]

Deciding on what to study at university is something you want to get right as it will set the course for the rest of your life. Choosing a subject that truly interests you is vitally important, opportunity follows passion and life is just a lot more enjoyable when you’re doing what you love. At the [...]

Knowing Your Strengths and Weaknesses It has been eight months since I arrived in to China to start my teaching job with York school and it has been an interesting and wholly pleasant experience. As you may have read, I started my TEFL training in Prague, teaching some classes and getting to know the basics [...]

Happy Chinese New Year Fireworks exploding 24 hours day, bright blinding lights, streets constantly bursting with people, yep it’s that time of year. Happy New Year! So with that said where best to spend it? In one of the busiest cities in the world? It has to be done, Shanghai here I come. This was [...]

Teaching Adults vs Young Learners Doing a CELTA course is excellent preparation for getting in to teaching. They allow you to take your own classes from between six and sixteen people and you teach perhaps a minimum of fourteen hours. In teaching terms this is quite a lot – the downside is that most of the [...]

Christmas Day at School You here all sorts of stories before you come away to China. The variety of conversations about the weird foods that are available, the culture shock, the pollution, the list goes on for some people, for me however when I accepted my teaching job in China It was the lack of [...]

So, where I work we are given a strict curriculum to follow for our kindergarten classes, and Hip Hip Hooray classes. We know what vocabulary and what grammar we are expected to teach in that lesson, and all we really have to figure out is how, and the timing for each activity. The homework is [...]

Making the most of our time off I have had quite a unique experience living and working abroad in China. The celebration of the holidays was nothing short of a “once in a lifetime” experience. It was the first holiday season that I have spent away from my family, friends and America. Leading up to [...]

Having Ourselves a Very Merry Chinese Christmas Christmas in China is not a very big deal at all and if it wasn’t for daily updates from friends back home it would be entirely possible to forget it even December. Being on the South East coast too doesn’t allow for a very ‘Christmassey Vibe’ being that [...]

My First Taste of Fame Being a foreigner in a densely populated city of Chinese people means, naturally, you are going to get a lot more attention that any normal person walking down the street. Some days you want to blink your eyes and disappear and on others you embrace the novelty of being unique. [...]

How It All Fits My work week has a pretty set routine as far as meetings, classes, feedback, and stress goes. Every Wednesday we hear our weekly feedback from the Director of Studies and we either try to do better or keep up the good work. On Thursdays we have our weekly workshop. The workshops [...]

China’s Cuisine Food is a major part of any culture. We all use it as a form of socializing, or as a hobby, or a way to relax. However, every country has its own cuisine and its own take on different dishes.  Depending on where you go in China, each province has its own school [...]

Travelling on a Shoe String Budget China is a wonderful country and there are countless places of natural beauty to visit. There are waterways, metropolises, forests and coasts to explore and as an English teacher, you have countless opportunities to visit all of these sights and you can do it all on a relatively shoe [...]

Teaching in China When you teach in China, I have already noted that the greatest resource you have available to you are the other teachers in the office. But who is going to be the biggest support, well that is your Teaching Assistant. Each class is assigned a foreign teacher and a Chinese Teaching Assistant [...]

My name is Andrew Ho-Lung I am from Daytona Beach, Fl, USA. After finishing my degrees in International Affairs and Geography from Florida State University, I decided to take a leap of faith and I ended up landing in China to teach English. I used to be (still kind of am) quite the shy person [...]

That’s Chinatown, Jack Coming from a city heavily populated with Chinese natives in London everyone is completely nonchalant when meeting someone of oriental descent. On the flip side, being in Fuzhou where there are limited meetings between Chinese nationals and foreign nationals things are not quite the same. Being in England most people were well [...]

Halloween at York School Aside from providing private classes for up to sixteen students at a time, York School of Foreign Languages also puts on extra curricular activities for all of the major holidays. Although heavily Americanised – you won’t see a celebration of Guy Fawkes night here; although they seem to have fireworks displays [...]

Sue Badsworth is a freelance writer. She is raised by teachers and growing up had experiences of moving to exotic locations as her parents took up overseas teaching assignments in including America, Chile and Japan. Financial Planning for Your Teaching Job in China Teaching English in a foreign country is a hugely enriching and rewarding [...]

Decision Time The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, comes once a year sometime in the eight month of the Chinese calendar.  All of the teachers had these days off and were able to travel and do anything and everything they wanted.  Though celebrating the holiday in China would be very nice and [...]

Killing Three Birds with One Stone Having come out of University with the same exact idea of what I wanted to do with my life (zero clue) I ambled from inane office job to regrettable pub job and back. Having a degree in European History was fantastic and I wouldn’t swap my decisions for the [...]

Sue Badsworth is a freelance writer. She is raised by teachers and growing up had experiences of moving to exotic locations as her parents took up overseas teaching assignments in including America, Chile and Japan. How Do I Prepare for Teaching English in China? Teaching is one of the most rewarding career paths you can [...]

Growing Up Teaching at EF is quite exciting and challenging because of the varying levels of English learners we have filtering through.  I have students ranging from four to eighteen years old and everything in between.  Our young learners start as Small Stars students’ and then move up to High Flyers, Trailblazers, Super Blazers, and [...]

I am sick I struck down, after 6 months living in China. It came on slowly, and then suddenly hit. I thought it was a simple bug, and armed with antibiotics written in Chinese, I headed to the pharmacy and bought myself some medication, thinking that, an early night, and lots of water would see [...]

Thanks Summer course was a feat for us teachers.  We pushed hard to make it through and our bosses knew it.  To thank us for all of our hard work, my boss planned an all inclusive weekend trip for all of the employees of EF Shijiazhuang.  The plan was to head to the train station [...]

Sue Badsworth is a freelance writer. She is raised by teachers and growing up had experiences of moving to exotic locations as her parents took up overseas teaching assignments in including America, Chile and Japan. Learning to Deal with Culture Shock When experiencing a new country and a new culture there is a sense of [...]

Covering Continuous Classes I have been teaching now for about three months and I can only assume everything is going swimmingly. I received my quarterly bonus, haven’t been fired and I have yet to make any of my students cry. Although one student did refuse to enter class for roughly forty five minutes when I [...]

Summer When I thought about Summer in China, two things sprung to mind. The hot weather, and Summer School. I can honestly say whilst I thought of these two aspects of Summer in China, nothing could actually prepare me for the reality of it. Summer School I had heard so many rumours about Summer School [...]

The Test I think it is quite important to constantly test yourself mentally and physically.  When you test yourself, you really feel alive.  Sometimes it is essential to get out and explore while teaching abroad.  You need to take a break from the office and workplace and explore yourself and the world around you.  If [...]

Getting to Grips with Being a Foreigner China has been on the up and coming world stage now for a couple of decades and has experienced huge economic and domestic growth. Cities have sprung up overnight and the modernity of these have been overhauled quickly. Even so, I really did not expect the situation I [...]

Rumor has it Rumour had it that getting your haircut in China was this huge ordeal, only to be undertaken by those in the most desperate and dire of circumstances. People had horror stories of going to the hairdresser and coming back with a bob instead of the luscious long locks that had asked for. [...]

Classroom Games Every lesson needs to include something fun for the children to do. No one wants to sit through an hour and a half of a language lesson, without being slightly amused or captivated. Games are the best way to captivate the children, and make each lesson more enjoyable, and memorable! My top Games [...]

Feeding Me In When I entered the world of TEFL/TESOL/ESL teaching I had heard various stories of what to expect once I finally made the leap in to the unknown and although the internet can be a great wealth of knowledge there is also a lot of objective fear mongering. Naturally I tried to be [...]

Mixing Leisure with Work I touched down in Fuzhou Airport at roughly 3am and was relieved to have finally made it. It had been a very long trip from Prague, Czech Republic, to my final destination and I felt slightly disorientated. Thankfully one of the Academic Co-ordinators, Tom, had stayed up most of the night [...]

The Longest Journey Starts with One Step Having been in Fuzhou three weeks and becoming more settled with daily life I felt ready to branch out and see some of the sights China has to offer. So I enquired from a couple of friends where the best place to go would be… to get my [...]

As tempting as it may be to just throw your laptop, flip flops and Chinese phrase book into a bag and hop on a plane it’s probably wiser to make sure that your proverbial ducks are all lined up and you’ve thought things through before accepting a teaching job in China. Teaching in China can [...]

Having been born and educated in England, most schools taught us French or German, possibly Spanish as our second language. I never even considered trying to learn Chinese. China was so far away, and at the age of 11 I didn’t even dream of going and working in China. 13 years later, and living in [...]

Amanda Sinclair I’m Amanda Sinclair, a 24 year old born and raised in England. Since finishing my law degree I decided to take a break and teach English in China. I have never taught or travelled to Asia before, and even after reading about China and what to expect, I still felt woefully unprepared. Here [...]

Amanda Sinclair I’m Amanda Sinclair, a 24 year old born and raised in England. Since finishing my law degree I decided to take a break and teach English in China. I have never taught or travelled to Asia before, and even after reading about China and what to expect, I still felt woefully unprepared. Here [...]

If I can’t speak Chinese and they can’t speak English, then….. It has one of those statements for me, you know, the ones we classify under “If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one, I’d be…”.  The thing is, at one time I was guilty of asking this question myself: I [...]

Jim Althans packed up and flew to China to teach English in 2004. He has taught at kindergartens in remote villages, vice presidents in shiny offices and everything in between, enjoying every minute of it. He now works at Gold Star TEFL Recruitment helping teachers find their next job in China. English teacher interview tips [...]

If you are considering teaching English in China you certainly won’t be lacking choice when it comes to the types of teaching jobs out there. As China continues to grow the demand for learning English is only getting more popular and there is a huge variety of options to choose from in terms of student [...]

For those who don’t fancy teaching in China for a full 12 months the summer time offers a great little bite sized version and allows you to dip your toe into ‘teaching English in China’ without getting too wet. While language schools mostly offer 12 month contracts, over the summer they run shorter courses while [...]

Indeed an important question to consider – should I teach English to adults or young learners? Both are completely different jobs, requiring very different teaching skills, lesson planning and even personalities. While in some teaching jobs in China you will be teaching both young learners and adults, a lot of language schools specialize in either [...]