Foreigners = Teachers? English tutoring is a very big industry in China. Its rapid growth is creating a new leisure class of young foreigners who are often, and lets be honest here, not really qualified for their teaching jobs. In addition to the roughly 180,000 “foreign experts” who enter China on working visas each year to work in education, there are many more who come to work on tourist or university visas. The black market teaching jobs offer good wages in a cheap country, often with short working hours and little accountability. Many parents who pay the high prices for lessons don’t speak English themselves, making it difficult to track the progress of their child or gauge the talent of his or her teachers. It seems that many locals don’t fully grasp just how easy it is to get a job with some white skin and basic English skills. Expat community in China is very diverse, with people hailing from everywhere from Ukraine to Uruguay. But what nearly everyone has in common is a part-time gig teaching English. Eric, a Norwegian who came to Kunming to study Mandarin, is no exception. When we met him he was sitting alone at one of Paul’s tables practicing Chinese calligraphy. At the next table to us, some Americans in tank tops were popping caps off their second round of beer at two in the afternoon. Eric glanced at his watch and laughed, “As a foreigner in Kunming, it seems you only do four things: smoke, drink, teach English, and occasionally learn some Chinese.” Eric had decided to take up a job teaching English on the side shortly after arriving in the city. A friend told him he could make 120 yuan an hour for the work (about $22)—a considerable sum in China, where a typical lunch costs 10 yuan. “It’s way easy,” the friend assured him. Eric showed up to a downtown high rise where Lijao Academy rents a room one day a week. The boss hired him immediately and said his first class would begin in two hours. No teaching certifications like TOEFL were necessary; payment would be made under the table because he didn’t have a work visa; and it was no problem that Eric wasn’t a native English speaker. “I don’t think my boss even knows what country I’m from,” Eric said. Most of the English teachers we spoke to said their employers have similarly scarce requirements, and that ESL certificates are rarely required. Even when they are, forgeries can be purchased for as little as $300. In 2007, The China Post reported that as many as 40 percent of the foreign teachers in Taiwan were operating under fake credentials. In China, the problem is so rampant that the China Foreign Teacher’s Union, an organization that advises foreign educators, maintains a blacklist of agents that falsify credentials. What makes this difficult to track is that many schools tend to be off the books, operating on cash payments that are hidden from regulators. Perhaps the best argument for the lack of qualifications lies in the numbers. In 2010, the Guardian estimated that 30,000 organizations were offering private English classes, up from around 15,000 in 2005. The supply of new, qualified foreign teachers is limited, and there are simply not enough of them to service the millions of new students who enter the market every year. The harsh economics are also evident in the premium salaries being awarded to foreign teachers. Eric is being paid three times what the average Chinese teacher makes. As the industry matures and more westerners move to China, the English education industry may be more heavily pressured to enforce higher standards for their instructors. But until that happens, a foreign instructor does not necessarily guarantee quality lessons. While some are undoubtedly committed and great at what they do, many see these teaching jobs as an opportunity to live an easy life abroad while working only 20 hours a week—and quite possibly screwing up some kids education while theyre at it. source: vice, echinacities
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:45:00 +0000
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