I've had a lot of jobs growing up but I've never had a job I enjoyed as much as teaching! I came to China four years ago and I love my life over here. I teach English most of the time as it's in demand but I try to fit in some guitar classes if I can as music is a passion of mine.
It's pretty funny being a teacher in China as it's really different to life in England. People are usually referred to as their job title so I usually get called 'Bobby teacher' even by people who aren't my students.
Most people complain that education is very boring in China as usually the class consist of the teacher talking whilst the students sit, listen and try and take notes even from an early age. So I try and make my classes as fun as possible using games and fun activities to teach.
I teach all ages from kindergarten to adults but 80% of the kids are usually from grade 1 to grade 4 as parents want their kids to get a good head start and learn from a foreigner so they can do well in their school exams.
School exams are the most important thing for most Chinese people as the population in China is huge so there's a lot of competition to succeed. Most people agree that there is way to much pressure for children but I think people worry that if they don't keep up their child will fall behind.
Every child that I've ever met over here does a mix of several after school classes. As soon as they've finished school they're off to English, Math, Chinese, Music, Dance or Art centers. Everyday after school and all through the weekends.
My boss was telling me that the school exams cover things that the schools don't teach, so if you don't find some after school centers somewhere in your city then the chances of you passing your school exams are pretty slim. Which doesn't really seem very fair for the poor kids. People are always talking about money over here and you start to understand why after awhile, it's not because people are greedy, it's just parents worrying about their children's futures, almost all training centers are expensive but a must for the public. Along with schools and training centers, you always need to have some money tucked away in case of a family member getting sick or something bad happening as a trip to the doctors can cost you a small fortune.
When I first arrived in China I started working at school but quickly moved in to working in training centers as class sizes in school can be as many as 80 children per class! But training centers usually stick to around 10 kids in a class, which makes it much more personal and interactive where you can really help the children grow and see their improvements.
Word can spread pretty fast in China as I found when I started teaching guitar independently. I started off by just teaching a few kids as I play guitar in my English lessons to teach some English songs, a few parents really wanted my to teach their kids guitar so I agreed to open one small class. After word got out that a foreigner was teaching guitar I started getting approached by schools asking me to teach guitar in their schools. I agreed to do one but their were 36 students per class so it was pretty difficult! Imagine 36 kids all sitting there with guitars tapping and strumming away.... it was hard to control :D
Buying all the guitars for the kids...... from Taobao of course =]
If anybody is thinking about coming over to China to teach I would definitely recommend it! It's a bit of a culture shock at first but once you get used to it you will start to have an awesome time!
