Holidays in China

We understand that the majority of teachers coming to teach in China are not only looking to further their career but also want to take some time to explore China. As China is such a large country it can be difficult to have a weekend due to the distances away unless you fly which can be expensive so the holidays and time away from work is the best time to travel. One thing that you might find a little strange about China is that when you have a holiday you often don’t get a day off as such rather than a rearrangement of working days. For example this year Mid-Autumn day which is a national holiday fell on a Thursday so everybody had the day off work….however that meant that everyone had to go to work on Sunday so there were no more days off than in a normal working week. This is very common and will happen a number of times throughout the working year in China, the rearranging of days can sometimes give you four days off allowing time for a trip although previously I have had to work 9 consecutive days, so sometimes it can also be a real pain.

If you are working in a public school then no doubt you’ll be looking forward to spring festival in late January/February time where you can expect to have somewhere between 4-6 weeks off. China is such a large country so realistically a month is how long you’ll need to get a good flavour and visit the main attractions. With the new high speed rails in China getting around is actually quite fast and its less than 5 hours from Wuhan to Beijing on the train. Your other main chance to have a holiday is in the first week of October where whatever school you’re working (training or public) you’ll receive a week off. We have our largest intake of teachers each September so they will have only been working a couple of weeks when this holiday comes around. These are the main two holidays you’ll have and although there are various bank holidays and long weekends at other times in the year these are your two main opportunities for an extended holiday and travelling.

The first year I came to China I decided not to travel around China as many people opted to do and I actually took advantage of the multi-entry visa you’ll receive when teaching in China and went to Australia for 2 weeks. It was nice to have a change; as much as I love being in China a break from Chinese food for a few weeks was much needed. Over the past few years I have managed to get around various cities and national parks in China and have always found travelling around the country pretty easy. Trains are affordable and comfortable and with the high speed rail linking Beijing to Guangzhou near the Hong Kong border in south via Wuhan moving between cities is relatively trouble free. The one thing you might want to consider is that your main holidays from schools will be during national holidays which are the time of year that many Chinese people will also choose to travel. Many Chinese people use this holiday to travel back to their home towns to visit their families so trains can be very busy during these periods of the year. Buying tickets can also be a bit of a hassle as you can only buy tickets ten days before your journey. There are plenty of ticket offices for buying train tickets scattered around all cities in China so you won’t have any problems locating a place to buy tickets although you may need to queue for a while.

The national holiday begins in China for a week starting tomorrow but I will be avoiding the rush of travelling and the trains and relaxing at home. I hope everyone enjoys their travels.

 

 

Training schools and public schools

One thing we often get asked by our applicants is the differences between the two main types of jobs available to foreign teachers that want to work in China, those being training schools and public schools.

If you are to join our program to come out in September 2014 its likely you will be placed in a public school, either a primary school, middle school or university as they always employ their foreign staff at the start of the academic year with the contracts expiring at the end of the school year in the following June. However if you opt to arrive in China at any other time of the year you will probably be working in a training school. Training schools are language schools of which there are centres aimed at both adults and children. Training schools are privately owned companies so obviously the day to day running works slightly differently to that of public schools. Teachers working at training schools will have the majority of their classes on week day evenings and over the weekend as the lesson times cannot clash with those of public schools. It’s likely the students you’ll be teaching will be from relatively wealthy families as their family have decided to pay fees to give them extra tuition out of school.

Training schools usually offer higher wages than public schools with similar class teaching hours although training schools often incorporate office hours meaning your entire working week is likely to be a little longer in a training school.

Classes are usually a lot more relaxed in training schools as its unlikely you’ll have a class of more than 12 students at one time whereas in public primary schools 40 is the average number of students per class. However in training schools there can be more involvement from the students’ parents who will sometimes be invited to observe the class which is something that is rare in public schools so there can be different pressures.

If you work in a public school then you will receive longer holiday especially around Chinese New Year where you can expect around a month off, at training schools over the course of a 12 month contract teachers will only have around 3 to 4 weeks holiday but will have more freedom to choose when they want their holidays and won’t just be restricted to the public holidays.

Overall there are quite a few differences between public and training school jobs in China with both having pros and cons. Depending on who you speak to you might get different opinions, positiove and negative about working in both. I believe that different people are suited to one or the other so the best thing to do is ask as many questions as you can during your interview when you apply to the program to make sure you are placed in the most suitable job for you.

 

 

We very much look forward to receiving your application soon. G2C

(False) Praise

Recent numbers show that there are currently around 600,000 foreigners living in the whole of China, whilst in Wuhan the number is around 30,000. Whilst outwardly this may seem like a large number, when you consider that there are over 10,000,000 people living in Wuhan that means that for every 300 Chinese people there is one foreigner (and it feels like less). This figure should be further qualified by remembering that ‘foreigner’ merely means non-Chinese. The term ‘Foreigners’ then does not necessarily connote a naturally cohesive group, the nationalities in Wuhan alone consist of British, American, Canadian, Australian, Czech, Russian, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Congolese, Somalian, Ghanaian.. (I could go on).

This is not to say that there aren’t areas around the city with high concentrations of foreigners, nor that finding a group of foreign friends isn’t both easy and for many inevitable. What I am trying to highlight is how it looks from the other side; for Chinese people who don’t work at training schools or popular foreign bars, seeing any foreign people is a fairly rare occurrence. The result of all this is that for most foreigners, being stared at, and indeed pointed at becomes something of an everyday reality. While this can be frustrating, much of the time and (particularly) on nights out it is the opposite. For many foreign teachers, walking into their school for the first time is accompanied by hushed whispers and wide eyes – I can only assume this is something akin to how celebrities feel. The children quickly treat you like a pop star every time you walk into class, mobbing you at every opportunity. Nights out can be even more ridiculous, getting invited to tables (by both men and women) and plied with alcohol is more common than not, in fact on several occasions myself and some of my foreign friends have been given a free bottle of whiskey by the establishment in return for sitting in a centrally-located table and being visible.

The other side of it has less to do with being a foreigner though, and more to do with Chinese manners. Speak one word of Chinese and you will soon be hailed as a linguistic superstar, by the mere fact of not being horribly deformed you will be told frequently how handsome you are whilst the mastery of basic tasks elicit widespread praise of your all-conquering genius. It is clear of course that this a way of people showing their politeness and for thoroughly unspectacular looking people like myself, when someone tells you how handsome you are it’s a fair bet that it isn’t entirely genuine. Yet the problem with being here for a year (or more) is that after a while some of it starts to seep in. All of a sudden you begin to feel that the way you seamlessly move from teaching the alphabet to numbers in your kindergarten class IS a sign of your vast intellect, that maybe a steadily receding hairline and shapeless body IS the hallmark of rugged handsomeness and that because you know the Chinese for how to order a bowl of noodles Fortune 500 companies will be queuing up to hire you and make use of your peerless Chinese skills.

It is only upon returning home that you look around and realise that people are much taller than you remembered, that gyms must have taken off in a big way since you were last at home and hey, why is no-one commenting on your piercing foresight for managing to arrange a taxi to pick you up from the airport?

At that point the occasional stares in the street feel like less of an inconvenience and the lure of being a cherished rarity grows. A second year in China all of a sudden begins to look like a far more attractive prospect…

 

 

Keeping up with information from home

Living halfway around the world, a lot of people are worried not just about keeping in touch with friends and family, but also keeping abreast of news and developments from home. In reality though, it is not particularly difficult nor is it something many people experience problems with.

News – keeping up to date on news from home is important to many people, and as such many people will find themselves becoming way too familiar with the BBC website. Whilst the BBC website is quite good with keeping up to date, for comment pieces both the Guardian and the New Yorker have some interesting articles. In terms of newspapers, buying foreign newspapers in China is difficult at the best of times, though there are some English language Chinese papers such as The China Daily (it isn’t great though). Other than that there is a CCTV news channel that is in English which has both Chinese and world news.

Sport – CCTV5 is the Chinese sports channel, though whoever is in charge of programming needs to take a long hard look at himself. Despite having the rights for the French Open Final for example, they opted to play coverage of a friendly volleyball game between China and Turkey (the final was eventually aired once the volleyball game had finished). CCTV5 has quite good coverage of the NBA, shows the Bundesliga, will play SOME tennis matches (usually Grand Slams) as well as badminton and table tennis amongst others. Getting a VPN is definitely a good option for those intent on watching sport from Britain as it will allow you access to BBC Iplayer which has MOTD and the Football League Show.

TV/Film – There are one or two Chinese channels that show the occasional foreign film or show, but for the most part it is a no-go. Cinemas will usually be showing a couple of different foreign films at any time which tend to be blockbusters (art house fare gets pretty short shrift..). For those who prefer not to download things, Netflix can be a good option, though again you will need a VPN to use it.

Music – Visit baidu.com or music.google.cn and you will find that you can download songs through those platforms. I have no idea if this is illegal or whether China just does not care one bit about the copyright laws regarding music but one way or another –enjoy.

Whether it is news, sport, music or film there are a myriad of ways in which you can keep up to date. Whilst inevitably you will miss out on some things (what the hell is twerking?) for the most part it is not that hard to stay in the loop.