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Thinking of teaching english in HK

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  1. #1

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    Thinking of teaching english in HK

    Hey

    I was wondering whether anyone who has experienced or is currently teaching in HK could give me any advice regarding the following.

    I am a british born chinese who has just finished a marketing degree in the UK and was thinking of maybe going to HK to teach english. I hold a HK ID card and can speak Hakka and Cantonese, although not completely fluent in Cantonse. There are a few questions on my mind which i have listed below - i hope some of guys maybe able to assist me with.

    1. how easy is it to obtain a english teaching job?
    2. what kind of wage may i be looking to achieve?
    3. do i need any teaching experience?
    4. are there any recommended companies (agents) i can use?

    I would like to thank you for your reply in advance!!

    Thanks


  2. #2

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    Hey lilone1,
    Since you have an HK ID card it shouldn't be difficult to find a job, but without any teaching experience it will definitely be difficult to find a good paying job. I would definitely recommend getting a TESOL certificate or other of the same value before looking for a job because it will make your job hunt much easier and you can instantly ask for more money, but even then with having no experience you will be looking at language centres where the pay is between 10 000 hkd to 18 000 hkd to start. There are literally hundreds of language centres in Hong Kong and this is good timing because they all need extra teachers for the summer, however some of them can be shady so be careful before signing contracts. To sum up it will be easy to get a job, but pay will be low if you have no experience, so try to beef up your resume with whatever experience you have, and it would be smart to get some sort of english teaching certification like the TESOL. All the best,

    lilone1 likes this.

  3. #3

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    when i first came here i got 18k with a language centre. This was 30 hrs a week, but let me warn you... This involved a LOT of travelling all over hk. The lesson materials are provided but littered with mistakes.. I often resorted to bringing my own stuff. There was no training at all in my centre.. I was thrown in the deep end teaching in a really bad secondary school... a DRAMA lesson.

    This is just one example, i am sure other centres are different, but just a warning. You need to be willing to jump in and teach.

    On the plus side, expectations are low in these centres.. You are not often observed by experienced teachers so from that point of view it's a low pressure environment to teach (but this also means you get less good advice from good teachers). On an hourly paid part time job, you should start at at least 200hkd an hour, usually 250 in my centre.. So that's reasonable, but there's no guarantee of working hours. Private lessons are also relatively easy to come by if you dont mind home visits.

    As NA said, a tesol is a good idea. Not just for your cv, but because it will be a daunting job with no teaching experience and the good ones are taught well. (i got a celta, a 1 month full time coursel which u can do in uk, and loads of other cities but not hk.. I did it in beijing. It was great fun but hard work)

    after you tough it out in a languae centre you can move up to being a NET in a school. I just signed a contract in a primary school and while i dont want to advertise my pay in public, it's a lot better than 18k a month anyway. You can also go through the EDB govt scheme and get a really nice pay packet especially if u have british citizenship meaning u get a 14k bonus on accpunt of relocating. That's my next step!

    Finally, i hate to finish on a sour note, but some language centres can show an unfair preference for white teachers, just because the foreign image sells lessons. I disagree with this as much as anyone but it's certainly something i've noticed. But of course anyone with an ounce of dignity should be fair, and so this only removes the worse centres from the radar!

    Good luck!
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    Last edited by justjoe86; 21-07-2010 at 08:55 PM.
    lilone1 and Char Siu King like this.

  4. #4

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    Thanks N.A and justjoe86 for your advice!!

    I may go ahead and do the TESOL course to increase my chances of getting a job. Its such a shame i don't speak cantonse fluently or know mandarin, it would make finding a job so much easier.


    I will be in HK for a fews weeks so may see whats available.

    Thanks guys once again!!


  5. #5

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    justjoe86, thanks for the information, especially those of language centers.

    I was born in Hong Kong and currently are living in the US. My husband is a native American and he is an English teacher here. Do you think he may have a better chance to get a decent teaching job? He has a MA in English, taught in two Universities and one community college in the US, total five years experience now.

    He got a TESOL cert many years ago and he would not have problems to get a more updated one.

    I know age shouldn't be the factors in hiring by law, but I know Chinese culture very well. Would those language centers care about ages? Can you tell me more of the class schedule of language centers? Are the teachers focus more in preparing English exam or just conversation/writing/listening English?

    Thanks!


  6. #6

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    I think your husband probably has an very good chance of getting one of the better English teaching jobs in town - he is much better qualified than a lot of the young'uns that go for jobs in the two bit centres.
    Different centres have very different emphases - some are basically exam cram schools, others concentrate on business English, conversation, or whatever.


  7. #7

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    yeah i agree. He should have no trouble at all. He's better qualified than me anyway!

    In my experience the centres like the cambridge exams like starters, movers, flyers, ket, pet etc. Not sure about courses for adults since i've mainly taught kids. Also phonics, which can be a pain to teach. D..d..d..dog.

    Schedule will include a lot of evening and weekend work usually, since most classes are outside of school hours, even if your centre sends you to a school.
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  8. #8

    I'm not English teacher, but there is such article below. Based on my observation, not prejudice, most Chinese in China (HK,Taiwan, Macau, mainland) have misunderstood that someone's language ability is supposed to be related to one's skin color. I agree with somebody's opinion here in a similar thread, the Chinese may think it must be similar to Kung Fu, if you wanna learn Kung Fu, then you must learn it from a real Chinese man (asian man from mainland). If you wanna learn English, then from Gweilo (white man). It tends to be similar in Korea, Japan, HK, Taiwan, Macau , but Singapore is an exception, as they tend to be proud with Singlish. Anyway, let this not turn you down, you never know if you never try !

    Teaching English in China for Non-White, Non-Native Speakers

    Teaching English in China for Non-White, Non-Native Speakers

    Written by Dr. Greg Wednesday, 27 January 2010 16:57

    Editor's Choice

    This article describes the enormous difficulties faced by non-native speakers and non-white teachers in China.



    I regularly receive e-mails from non-white and non-native speakers inquiring about what the real opportunities are for teaching English in China and decided the time was long overdue to revisit this concern in a far more open, transparent, and revealing way that I suspect will apply to most prospective foreign English teachers in this situation.

    The bottom-line is that non-white and/or non-native speakers can find jobs teaching oral English in China with a great deal of persistence and especially if they are already in China, but it is unlikely they will be competitive for the most desirable teaching jobs or ever be regarded and treated with parity, especially (but not exclusively) at private English language schools. So although it is possible for non-native speakers to find work as oral English teachers in China, I have to wonder why such a teacher would want to. Despite the well-intentioned "cheer leading" efforts of a few, the truth is China does not adhere to non-discriminatory hiring practices: height, age, attractiveness, overall appearance, and especially skin tone are typically and explicitly considered for any job that requires working with the public (and this applies just as much to the Chinese as it does to foreigners, maybe more so). This should be clear to anyone who has been asked to send a photo of themselves along with their résumé, a practice that is entirely illegal in just about all of our respective Western countries. The photo is obviously being required in order to determine if the prospective teacher “looks the part.”

    About two years ago, I received an inquiry from a Chinese-American woman who very much wanted to teach English in China as a way of getting in touch with her roots. I more or less told her what I just wrote above. She persisted and recently sent me a follow-up e-mail informing me that she finally made it to China: She is currently working in a third-tier vocational school for bottom wages. I should quickly add she has a master’s degree and, at that time, had five years of English (English composition) teaching experience as an adjunct lecturer at a prestigious New York university.

    Then there is my wife. Sonia is a Filipina with a bachelor’s degree in elementary school education and several years of related teaching experience. Her English language skills are, relatively speaking, superlative. It would be fair to say that her listening skills are native-like in that I can speak freely and naturally to her in a way that I never could with any former Chinese girlfriend, even those with far better than average language skills. In addition, she is easily able to understand any movie or Western television program that we watch together, including Criminal Minds, House, Law and Order: SVU and an old classic comedy show from the 1950s called The Honeymooners, which uses a great deal of northeastern American slang and sails way over the heads of most non-Americans, let alone non-native speakers. Her speaking skills are very good, although occasionally she uses prepositions incorrectly (and this is one of the hardest aspects of English for non-native speakers to grasp). For example, she’ll say “he was angry to the boss,” instead of with. But, aside from this and a few well-documented cultural differences in English as an official second language in the Philippines1, her pronunciation is very good and always clear. It would be fair to say that her spoken English is a lot better than that of most Chinese English teachers. Her writing skills, although problematic at times, are actually better than those of a few posters on anonymous China EFL teacher forums who are presumably native speakers.

    So, based on her qualifications and English language skills, you might think that it has been easy for her to find work as an oral English teacher in China—and you would be dead wrong.

    That is not to say she hasn’t found work, she has, but in every case it was made clear to me (and her too, unfortunately) that she was given the position solely as a courtesy to me. In one case, she was paid 10% less than a native, white speaker would have be paid and, in the second and current case, the school owner negotiated a deal with her in which I needed to have some nominal involvement (with my prior consent obviously). It’s funny: That didn’t bother her at all (she claims to have grown accustomed to it), but it ate me up alive because I know how good she is.

    Another case in point: I am very familiar with a teacher from Kazakhstan who has a bachelor’s degree in education, had many years of distinguished international teaching experience prior to relocating to China, and is probably whiter than I am (especially after I’ve been in the sun for awhile). Did he find work as an oral English teacher in China? Yes, actually he did, after a great deal of persistence and knocking on many doors with hat in hand. Was he ever treated with parity? Absolutely not. It was made eminently clear to him the entire time he was under the employ of this one private school that his continued employment was an act of generosity and concession (because he had a wife and two kids). I actually watched him in action once and found him to be an outstanding and extremely gifted teacher. There is no doubt in my mind that if he had been a native speaker, he’d still be at that school and probably working in the capacity of the head teacher. And, with all due respect to the owner of that school, he was only representing the sentiment repeatedly expressed to him by the parents of the students. Last I heard, he and his family had to return to Kazakhstan. After so many years of differential treatment, he finally caught a resentment, decided to leave, and was ultimately unable to find work anywhere else in China even with more than five years of very successful experience under his belt.

    Is it reasonable of me to attempt to generalize based on four or five isolated experiences I happen to be intimately familiar with, in addition to the dozens of personal e-mails I have received? Who knows? It's hard to say for sure without some prior systematic attempt at having drawn a truly randomized sample from all non-native, non-white English teachers in China (as if that were possible). These may in fact be highly representative cases: I strongly suspect that they are.

    I can also tell you how terribly uncomfortable it became for me one May, a few years back, when I foolishly decided to spend the entire National Holiday vacation out on the beach and returned to work a lot darker than I ever had been. I was the brunt of some very offensive “African jokes” for several days and was told in no uncertain terms by my boss that if I didn’t stay out of the sun, I would lose my job, i.e., my contract would not be renewed. It was made eminently clear to me that in the context of teaching oral English in China, the precise tone of my skin was far more important in determining my future success at this university than my doctorate, 25 years of prior university teaching experience and, last but not least, two prior years of sterling teaching evaluations from the students. And, by the way, in case the additional point was missed, this not only says something about racism in China but just as much about the role, value, and function of foreign oral English teachers in China: white native speaker or not, even at key provincial universities.

    My best advice is that if you are a highly qualified English teacher who also happens to be a non-native speaker and/or not white, do not waste your time even thinking about teaching oral English in China—unless you have some strong personal reason for doing so, like the Chinese-American woman I mentioned above.

    Despite the well-intentioned attempts of some at sugarcoating this and notwithstanding those who grossly understate or even ignore the deep psychological and damaging impact that it has on its victims, racism as expressed in grossly differential treatment of non-white and non-native speakers is alive and well in China. That is not to suggest that it doesn’t exist in other countries, including America: Unfortunately, it does. The essential difference, however, is that racism is neither legally nor openly tolerated as a matter of social policy in America as it is in China. I’d like to believe that the November 2008 presidential election results proved at least that much. At the very least, I’ve never before been ordered by a former dean to “keep out of the sun.”

    Related to the issue of racism, the situation is also a financial reality in China based on why we are hired to begin with. I have a good friend, someone whom I both trust and respect for his integrity, who also happens to manage an English language school in China. He has bemoaned to me on more than one occasion about how it kills him to have to turn away applications from overly qualified, non-native and non-white speakers because the parents would never tolerate it. In fact, the parents of my wife's students last year complained repeatedly about how they shouldn't have to pay full tuition for a Filipino teacher as she is not a "real" foreigner. She claims that this doesn't bother her and that she is used to it, but I know better. I could see the anguish in her eyes when her former boss told me (with her in ear shot) that her employment was personal "gift" to me in consideration for all the help I had provided.

    If you are a non-native and/or non-white prospective foreign teacher and, despite the reality of the situation as I have just explained it, you still think teaching English in China is the best thing for you at this time (and I understand that this is a possibility), you should follow the following advice:

    1. Avoid private language schools altogether unless they are specifically looking for teachers to work in their business or corporate departments training adults.
    2. Limit your job search to 2nd and 3rd tier two- and three-year vocational schools and colleges in international cities or 2nd and 3rd tier four-year universities situated in remote or undesirable locations. Another weaker but viable possibility is public elementary schools, especially in remote locations and particularly if you have experience with this age group.
    3. Grow a thick-skin and, by all means, try your very best not to personalize any of it—because, in reality, it's not personal at all.

    Best of luck to you.
    Last edited by DCdecarlo; 23-07-2010 at 03:28 AM.

  9. #9

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    I agree with DCdecarlo completely, this is what two of my friends are facing when they seek teaching jobs.

    The first few questions parents in hk usually asked when they visit language centre are:

    1. are my kids taught by gweilo (white ppl)? (not being racist)
    2. will my kids be taught with British English or American English? (can anyone explain to me why this matter??)

    As for my friends situation, most parent refuse to join any course my friend is teaching coz she is a CBC (Canadian born Chinese)...

    so u should really think twice about teaching English in HK...

    GOOD LUCK!~ =)

    Last edited by wcluk; 23-07-2010 at 09:57 AM.

  10. #10

    It´s about networking. There are plenty of English teaching jobs for native English speakers of Chinese race. I´m sure HK is racist in many ways as pointed out in above posts and in many other posts in the past, but I personally know a few people of Chinese race, overseas educated, who make decent money teaching English or have been offered English teaching jobs as people know they are native in English. Point is, it may be more difficult as a non-white person (based on posts on this forum. I don´t know personally, I´m white), but it is by no means impossible.


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