The 4-week TESOL Certificate course is really intensive and requires a lot of work, but once you finish and get your posting it is definitely all worthwhile! I'm living in Jinzhou which is a city about 5 hours North-East of Beijing. It's fairly small in Chinese terms being just under a million! As it's a bit out of the way here, there are very few Westerners. My Chinese is still limited to a few words but as nobody speaks English it's making me use the language on a daily basis - hopefully by the end of the year I'll be fluent!!!!!
The TESOL teaching has been going quite well - I had a nice gentle start when I first arrived as it wasn't peak season - and I'm now teaching about 25 hours a week. Still a bit up and down at the moment - you know when you've done a bad lesson and equally when one has gone really well. Weekends are really busy - 6 x 2 hour lessons, but Monday and Tuesday are my days off. I'm also lucky to have a very good DOS - a guy called Jonnie who took the TESOL Certificate course in Brighton about two and a half years ago.
China is so unlike anywhere where I've travelled - in some ways it is so similar to the West and in others so completely different you can't help but have an amazing experience. Everyday brings something new - whether it be brilliant or disgusting!! EF will give you all the support you need for the TESOL Certificate course and helping you once you are in China so there's no excuses not to come over and experience China.
Matt Hopkins, EF Jinzhou China |
