How are Chinese Students Different than American Students?
Maybe you’ve taught students in America. You might babysit on weekends. Or you hang out with your younger cousins a lot. All of these experiences are useful when preparing to teach [...]
Our First Week Teaching English at EF Tianjin
Michelle Amy Newell and Mark Percy arrived in Tianjin together and decided to share their first week’s experiences with us. Arrival Coming to work for EF Tianjin has been [...]
Using Chinese Phrases in the Classroom
When a fellow expat advised me to use Chinese words in my classes, I was hesitant. It just didn’t make sense to me. Why would I speak Chinese in my English [...]
How to Celebrate the Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is vastly different from the one Westerners fete every January 1st. First of all, the Chinese New Year is based on the original Chinese lunar [...]
4 Awesome Warm Up Activities to Start Your Classes
Are you starting your classes with a warm up? Warm ups are not ways for you to kill precious minutes at the start of class, instead, they are extremely useful tools [...]
Effective Ways to Discipline Your Chinese Students
Disciplining my students was the most challenging aspect of teaching in China. However, learning to do it well was probably the most valuable teaching tool I acquired. In my [...]
My First Steps as an ESL Teacher
My ESL career started with all my plans spinning out of control, I was heading out to the world looking for my calling and at the time I believed that to [...]
How to Survive Typhoon Days
Ah, the typhoon day. It is a quintessential part of life for teachers and students in China, especially for those of us living in the south, around Guangdong and [...]
How to Meet Fellow Expats in China
I’m the first to preach that immersing yourself in the local culture is the best way to take advantage of your time in China. However, during your time abroad, hanging out [...]
How to Write an Effective ESL Lesson Plan
I’ll admit, writing out detailed daily lesson plans isn’t for every ESL teacher. Some people think better when they are flexible about how their classes unfold. However, I encourage [...]
