Teaching In China

An-D

Pretty much the title of this post. I'm graduating this coming December, and I'm very interested in going to China for a semester or two to teach English. What is the best way to go about doing this? I have two years of Mandarin classes under my belt, and would really enjoy the chance to test my abilities.

I know there are...I guess 'agencies' that can arrange what school I could teach at, living accommodations etc etc. I've gotten emails from one recently that found my resume on my school's job-search site thing, but I got kind of a bad vibe from it (didn't seem 100% legit) and it was asking for a $325 processing fee. Also, the contact info uses an @yahoo.com email. Not sure if that's normal or not. But I get a bad vibe.

So, I'm looking for advice...preferably with someone familiar with the process (directly or indirectly) on how I can go to China post-graduation and teach.

VisionOfClarity

Most of them are going to cost you money for things like TEFL certification.

Push Button / Receive Cat

probably search around the internet via google or somesuch to see if the companies are legit or not. grab some feedback from previous teachers to see if it is to your liking.

poshniallo

Check out Shane/Saxoncourt in China.

I'm not sure how great the pay and conditions are, but they aren't conmen who expect you to pay some made-up fee for the privilege of working.

Cauld

Just to tell you, in China a lot of officialish business is done with yahoo, msn, and hotmail e-mails. I know its strange and it took me a while to get used to it, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Check out www.teachabroad.com. If you know what city or region you want to teach in, find some online resources specific to those regions, like an expat forum or an english school's website. Craiglist even has some things for the biggest Chinese cities

BlochWave

Here's who my sister teaches for in China

http://www.glvchina.com/english/

Mind you that normal living conditions in China might culture shock you. Like 200 or 300 or so square foot apartments with no kitchens

Note that at least in the case where she is, they don't care if you can speak any Chinese. I guess it might help getting around, but she moved from my parent's house (where she was her whole life) to China, and adjusted just peachy with no knowledge (though obviously she picked some up and knows pretty good "survival" Chinese now)