Archive for the ‘Teaching English in China’ Category

“We learned English: Beijing English. Foreigners don’t understand it - and neither do we.” (more…)

“We wanted to get into the way of life here,” said 24-year-old Natan Doyon, who moved from Britain last year with his girlfriend to teach English to Chinese children. He says his pupils were so upset when he told them he couldn’t renew his visa that they begged, “Don’t go. We’ll help you hide.”

He and his girlfriend now plan to try Vietnam.

So many English teachers are being forced to leave that many of the private language schools, the rage lately for children of the upwardly mobile, are closing down for the summer. With only three native English speakers left on its staff, Shane is cutting its summer camp in half and might curtail its fall program. Shane, which is owned by a British chain, advertises that it provides native English speakers.

“If we can’t fulfill that promise, we have nothing to sell,” Wan said. “We’re losing a lot of money.”

See the full story here.

And if TEFL news is your thing (how could it not be?), may I suggest you check out:

http://www.esldaily.org/

http://www.tesall.com

From today’s The Independent*

‘“Culturally, China is so different from the UK or any other western country,” says Sarah Wilson, training consultant at Cactus Tefl, which offers tired and pointless comments about TEFL to any newspaper that they publish their adverts in’ (more…)

“Although no one knows the number of English training organizations across the country, my source said 80 new organizations enter this industry each month, while 60 of them close monthly.” (more…)

You’ll need to click on this one quick, because BBC radio programmes are usually only available for a week, but a really nice little programme on “Teacher Flower“, an early 1980s Chinese English language television programme.

Reminds me a lot of a fabulous (and fabulously light) book I am reading at the mo’, Foreign Babes in Beijing.