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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: do i need a degree to teach english in china
Im planing to go china and work their but i want to know that is it must that i will be having degree to be a teacher in school or to work one place
11 years 47 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - Qingdao
It will depend on where you teach. Minimum will be a TESOL certificate, but some localities will not give you the Foreign Expert Certificate unless you have a college degree. It could be in Ball Room Dancing for all they care, but no college degree, no FEC.
Yes, you NEED to have a degree to teach in this country.. no degree - not legal!
And, given your wirting skills above, why would you want to.. your English is worse than some of my worst students here!
Shining_brow:
ooh... no-one commented on my 'wirting' skills :p (which I've chosen not to edit out.. :D)
You should need one.
But if your planning to teach without one, and a school is willing to take you, then good luck with your illegal future together!
An experienced English teacher in China has told me many times:
Sometimes the teachers arrive with impressive English degrees from decent Universities and are the WORST English teachers she has ever hired.
Sometimes, they take a chance on a teacher with no special training in English. Or may have 'life experience' but no degree. In some cases these were her very very best English teachers. She even described a young man with zero University (in any subject) who they still remember as one of the best English teachers they ever had.
bill8899:
That's all butterflies and rainbows until the school decides not to pay your airfare and last month's pay because you're working illegally on an unenforceable contract.
jknox00:
It wasn't butterflies and rainbows but more the 'rubber meets the road' working reality of their situation but I was thinking of your comments and it did concern me. We have a young friend who is 2 years into his teaching degree. Of course, this includes 2 years of English (as part of it) but he has no actual complete degree in English. He has been invited to teach English and that really makes me wonder if he could run into technical problems and hassles. Technically speaking - he doesn't actually have paperwork as an 'anything' yet.
bill8899:
Fair enough. But an illegal teacher can be deported and may be financially abused by their employer. Working without a degree implies illegal status and in that event they should keep their eyes open and make sure they have enough money to leave quickly. Now that I think about it, is anything 'butterflies and rainbows?' And can we eat butterflies?
jknox00, you mean one of the best monkey's. Let's face it, ESL in China is a dog and pony show, for the most part not real teaching at all. So as I stated before, it's not rocket science it's a monkey show, no degree no problem, of course in the end, if you are legit, the job opportunities are much larger, and it's more difficult to try and screw you out of a contract
jknox00:
I'm only going by the school director (we had a few good discussions) but her opinion was that some of the teachers (incl. some with no actual degree) were excellent. Meaning - not monkeys. You are right, these people won't get screwed out of a contract because (as she explained) they were getting VERY GOOD response from parents. Parents with money.
But as for monkeys - yes, she did mention some (even those with supposedly impressive University paperwork) were terrible. You could say monkeys.
Now, I suppose that is true for anything. I might imagine lots of people would have a very difficult time, fail and go wrong just from the 'culture shock' alone.
Interestingly, a friend of ours studying teaching. He just started doing 'practicum' and despite receiving excellent 'one-on-one' marks and excelling in his courses - he BOMBED in classrooms. He just stumbled and failed all over the place. And that was in his own local culture! Imagine he was thrown into 60 kids in a foreign culture?
Using the provided example above of your superior writing skills, I would say, "no, you don't need a degree at all!" Granted, most applicants had to slave away, spending four years of their life at an institute of higher learning, but they possessed inferior language skills from the start. You are more capable than they are.
While everyone else was messing around with those fussy capital letters, you solved the whole problem by just using lower case. Simple, and efficient. And why bother to use articles? Just move right into the noun. You don't want to go to China, you want to make it an encouragement, and "go China (go!). As in "Rah, team, rah!' And why worry about location preference when a simple possessive will do the trick! And that is just with the first eight words! As my Chinese students say, "and so on."
Yes, people will be waiting with baited breath to hire you. Just buy a one-way ticket, step off the plane, and announce to anyone within earshot, "here I am!"
Then, step back! Employers will be fighting one another to see who can give you a contract the fastest, asking you to "name your price" for the privilege of signing you at their top level University. Hey, hey! Isn't life grand!!
bill8899:
TBH, I'm more than a little worried about his plan to go to China and work their but.
You need a Degree and please don't come here without one it makes the rest of us hard working graduates look bad. For one thing it is illegal to work here in an institution for education without a degree. Also if you have the time go take the TESOL certificate program online I got mine done withing 3 weeks and it's affordable too. Most companies will put you at the front of the line with those two things. Jobs are easier to come by when you have the accolades to support your goals.
To most of the comments above ...It IS NOT ILLEGAL to work teaching english in CHINA.
I happen to know this for a FACT so to you people trying to put others off you should not.
and futhermore if you obtain a z visa in your country of origin you will have no problems what so ever.
im sorry you have a bad english teacher in qingdao and you have taken a part time job as a wumao, but in shandong they dont check degrees from teachers and a scanned copy is fine without transcripts, perhaps you can do a background check on the tourist that is teaching you there without a degree and get him or her fired so you can quit your part time job.
Yes. And a TEFL certificate. It used to be that people without credentials could come to China and skate by on F visas, but in a week or so, China will initiate a visa policy that will really throw a wrench in the future of those people's visas--I suppose they will "teach English" in Indonesia or the Philippines now.
I don't have a degree, I have worked here for 3 years and have an FEC.
you dont really need it, but what you need is a white immaculate skin...thats how chinese parents r willing to pay a foreign loser more than a chinese phd
You would be one of many, Rin, if you have the FEC it means you either have a fake degree or your school has made one for you, no offense, I do not believe you need to hold a degree to teach oral English if you are a Native or Near Native English Speaker, writing and grammar on the other hand, probably so, then again, I work with lawyers, grammar is terrible, so is mine, best not to teach something that you are not good at. Point is, if you come here to teach without a degree, it is easier to cheat you or mistreat you, black mailed, held by the balls if you do not conform, does this happen to all, no, it can be somewhat of a game, roll the dice, is all I can say.