Teaching English in China: Traveler, Teacher, TV Star
Author - Photography - © Shakti Hurst
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I never dreamed I would teach English in China. I often say to friends that if someone had told me a few years ago that I would live and work in China I would have told them they were crazy. Ending up on TV in China was definitely unimaginable. However after living, traveling and teaching in China nothing much seems impossible these days.
Teaching has not been a chosen career but rather something that I just ended up doing. Initially I completed a TESOL course to support myself to travel and pursue my passion for photography. My experience has been that Teaching English is a journey in itself leading to challenging, rewarding and surprising experiences.
I chose China for my first position as I had heard it was a good place for an ESL teacher to gain experience. After doing some research on the internet and applying for numerous positions I accepted a position through an agency. The position was for an ESL teacher at a government primary school located five hours from Shanghai.
There were certainly many surprises and challenges with this position. As I was the first ESL teacher at the school and not many foreigners living in the town my arrival and presence led to a great deal of attention and curiosity from the staff of the school, students and the local community.
My first challenge came on my first night when I was greeted with a welcoming dinner at the school principal’s home. The principal had gathered his family, friends and head teachers from the school. His wife had prepared a banquet and I was the guest of honour. It was the first time some of the family and teachers had met a foreigner “low wai” as Chinese people called foreigners. Everyone present watched my every move and all were very hesitant to try and communicate as they were shy to speak English. After I was introduced to everyone I was seated at a large table and encouraged to select from a huge array of dishes. I took a look at the plates and tried to hide my anxiety as I realized there were only meat dishes and I had been a vegetarian for many years. I knew enough about Chinese culture to realize that to refuse food at this point would mean a huge “loss of face” for the Principal. All eyes were on me as I tentatively tried small amounts trying not to think about what sort of animal or animal parts I was eating. Later when I learnt more about the culture I realized I had probably eaten pigs ear, ducks tongue and other delicacies offered to guests at these sorts of banquets.
Another challenge came when I went to the local supermarket to buy some things I needed for my apartment. As I walked in the door staff and customers surprised to see a foreigner in the store stopped and stared. I would later become accustomed to the constant staring but this was very strange. I wandered the aisles examining the goods on the shelves to try and ascertain the contents without English labeling. As I selected items intrigued staff looked in my basket often picking up the selected items and replacing it with another. Any attempt to ask for help or communicate resulted in shaking heads and giggles.
After the settling into the community and school challenges next was the biggest challenge, teaching. I discovered that I had at least fifty students in each class. I taught twenty classes a week that meant over one thousand students, definitely a challenge. I felt overwhelmed and anxious about delivering my lesson plans to such large classes. I wondered how I could possibly keep the interest of my students. Keeping my students interest proved to be the least of my worries. It was such a novelty for my students to have a native English teacher that they were incredibly attentive and responsive.
Most of the time I felt that the lessons went well although the students overexcitement sometimes led to chaos and I needed to learn ways of settling down the class again. My lessons with music and songs were often quite different and more active to the classes taught by the Chinese teachers. Often the Chinese teachers would observe from the back of the classroom amazed at my teaching methods. When they saw me standing on my own desk and demonstrating all the movements to the “Hokey Pokey Song” they ran to get the video camera.
Although exhausted by my classes I always uplifted by the smile on my students faces and started to understand the rewards of teaching. It was my first experience working with children and I felt honored to be part of these children’s lives.
My next teaching position was with a private language school. I had decided living in a large city in China would be a better option for me as living in a small town had felt too isolated. I had decided to move to Nanjing where there were many foreigners and opportunities for ESL teachers. I enjoyed the company of the other teachers and suddenly became part of a great social group. My students were mostly adults, a few teenagers and university students. Most of my classes were Business English which felt quite daunting. I had to quickly adjust to a new style of teaching. Students had lessons on computers first and then hopefully came to class prepared. I supported them to practice there oral skills and improve there pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
I enjoyed the smallness of the classes often three or four students. As I developed a good rapport with my long term students teaching became more interesting for me as I got to learn more about Chinese people and culture. I discovered my skills gained from my previous career as a counselor and therapist were now invaluable. I realized communication skills were the key to teaching. Many adult students were extremely shy speaking English especially to foreigners. The main thing most Chinese students needed from an ESL teacher was sensitivity and support to help them develop confidence.
My next biggest challenge in teaching English came when I was offered a position with a new language school. It was part of my role to develop the curriculum. Also a big part of my role was supporting the marketing team. Private language schools in China are big business and there is a lot of competition between schools. I supported the marketing department by conducting public classes and English corners to attract new students. I knew a new school would have lots of setting up difficulties but had negotiated good hours and pay and was interested in being part of a school from the beginning. There were definitely lots of “learning experiences” and as the main foreign teacher I felt a lot of pressure to deliver. After awhile I realized I was the marketing tool and was often the final selling point. After the sales staff had shown the school to a potential student they would bring the customers to meet the “foreign teacher” As students were investing a lot of money in the course it was important that they liked the teacher. Fortunately for me and the school most students thought I seemed “nice” and felt comfortable. However to attract even more students quickly the school decided they needed a more aggressive advertising campaign. I became the main focus for the campaign. Suddenly my photos were on the front page of several newspapers. Then the next idea of the schools owners was a TV show “Shakti teaches English”. A child star was quickly recruited to be my student and a series of lessons developed for a program. I felt more like an actor than a teacher as my days were now filled with endless shooting sessions in front of lights and cameras.
My expat friends thought it was hilarious I was going to be on TV and warned me I may become a star in China. Other teachers told me stories about how after agreeing to being photographed they had ended up seeing their photos on sides of buses. I couldn’t quite imagine being famous but shortly after began to realize that I was being recognized. I often visited Starbucks when I needed a coffee in a western atmosphere. It now became common for staff and customers who could speak English to approach me and say that they had seen me on TV or on the screens on the subway. An ad incorporating the filmed teaching segments and lots of shots of me was now playing constantly on the subway. The real surprise came when one day I was with my American friend and flatmate and we were going by taxi through the centre of the city. Many of the high buildings in Chinese cities have large TV screens many two or three stories high showing advertising. As I glanced out of the window at one of the screens I was shocked to see myself featuring on a very large screen. I started screaming and pointing to show my friend and then we were both laughing. It continued to be a bit of a joke for the rest of my time in Nanjing and when I was leaving China my friend joked that at least she would be able to see me when she missed me.
I still miss all these funny experiences that foreigners tend to have in China. I also miss many of my Chinese students who were so friendly and made me feel so “special”. I certainly had days teaching in China when I really wished I was somewhere else but now realize that teaching in China was a great learning experience for me. There is a saying “you teach best what you need to learn” I wondered how that would apply in China. I tried to teach my students that it was ok to make mistakes. I helped them to develop confidence in themselves and encouraged them to “have fun”. I guess this also applies to teaching and life generally for me and I think the biggest lesson was perhaps to enjoy the experience and the journey.
