Teaching English in China and Learning Mandarin at Same Time

[myann23]

This post is for those people who have taught English and learned Mandarin at the same time when in China. I'll be going to Beijing during the summer and this is exactly what I'll be doing - with the added time constraint of having an internship at a foreign firm for two days a week, and I'll be scheduling my English teaching and Mandarin learning around that.

My future boss at the company I'm interning at basically told me that getting a full-time offer will depend on getting fluent, or at least proficient in Mandarin, so I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to do that so I'm definitely motivated.

That being said, how did you structure your time the first few years in China while you were learning Mandarin and teaching English during the same period? How many hours of teaching did you do per day/week and learning Mandarin per day/week? I think now, I'm in the more natural-learning method camp of listening to a lot of input and using a transcript. Then after that I'll reinforce what I learned by learning the stuff explicitly with textbooks, drills, etc.

I would love to just focus on my part-time internship, and then use the rest of my time for studying Mandarin, but I need to cover my expenses in China somehow so that's why I'm teaching English. My biggest worry is burning out and not having enough free time to unwind, make friends.

Thanks for any advice.

Mike

[redmini]

since you're in beijing for only the summer, and your priority is learning mandarin, i would try to allocate less of your hours to teaching english and devote more of your time to making local friends and hanging out with them. force yourself to listen to the conversations they have with one another, no matter how fast they speak, ask questions about words you dont understand and you'll pick up the language far quicker than you realise.

although teaching english provides obvious monetary benefits, you're better off finding ways to immerse yourself in the local environment. when i first arrived in beijing, as a foreigner i had the natural inclination to want to mix only with my western peers, but discovered that my mandarin level was limited to classroom textbook stuff. and even then, my oral skills were shocking. it wasnt until i stepped outside the comfort zone, made friends with a few locals, that my mandarin really improved. well, at least it was what worked for me

regarding your worry about burning out, i burnt out from too many hours per week of teaching english. i was enrolled in a blcu course for mandarin (20 hrs/wk) and taught for 9 hours a week. i eventually reduced my teaching hours down to 4 hrs a week. more than enough.

[wushijiao]

Hi Mike,

I would suggest that you try to teach as little as possible while in Beijing, considering your goals. Teaching can be a mentally taxing experience. Two hours of teaching sounds easy. Especially if you have done any sort of physical labor, teaching, by comparison, would seem easy. However, there is something really draining about being the constant center of attention all the time. Between lesson planning, transportation, the actual teaching, and reflecting and discussing how it went, you might find that 10 hours per week (on paper) might be more like 20 or so.

I’ve been teaching English on and off for about five years, and I have met dozens and dozens of people who have tried to learn Mandarin and teach at the same time. The majority never get off the ground (the “silent majority”, Putonghua-wise), but quite a few become proficient in getting around and having simple conversations. None, that I have met at least, have become fluent to the degree at which they could do business in Mandarin.

Of course, I don’t want to bash teaching, because it can certainly be a rewarding experience that will allow you to make a decent wage doing something that is relatively meaningful, compared to selling X number of cogs, in my opinion. I’m just saying that it may not be an ideal choice for someone looking to study Putonghua. If you do take the plunge, I’d recommend trying to book your classes into a block (ie. 5-9pm) so that you can cut down on the time used in transportation and the like. Or you might also consider saving some extra money before you head out on your trip.

Good luck!

[gato]

I'll be going to Beijing during the summer

I've heard (and it makes) that summer Mandarin classes attract a greater percentage non-serious students who are just looking to have a good time. It might be more efficient to hire a private tutor to meet a few times a week (or enrolling in a private school like Global Village) instead of going with one of the big university programs, considering all the other demands on your time.

[roddy]

Have you taught before? If not you're going to find that it takes a lot more out of you, and you'll need more time to prepare than otherwise. Look for teaching work where you can bunch your hours together as much as possible - ideally you want something where you intern 2 days, teach 1 day and then are free - and perhaps most importantly where you can repeat your classes. Doing 5 hours with one class take a lot less preparation and mental effort than doing 1 hour with five identical classes. Also make sure you get a school where there are actually textbooks and resources available so you aren't scrabbling around trying to make classes out of thin air.

That said, the alternative is to get a job at a really shoddy school. Then you can just go in and have 'free chat' sessions or something and nobody will care. That might actually work out easier, and probably no less well paid

[myann23]

Ahh...sorry I kinda wrote it the wrong way. I'll go to Beijing this summer and stay indefinitely, so I'll be there for much longer than during the summer. If I was going only for the summer then yeah, there probably wouldn't be much of a point teaching English since I'd be there for only a short amount of time, relatively speaking.

[<<恒心>>]

myann--

I guess it depends on where you will be teaching, what your contract specifies, etc., but it does help that you'll be there for more than just the summer. My two cents, based on my traching experience at 中央财经大学:

First thing, find out how many classes you will be teaching-- and start planning around that. (I had 13 in all, with 40+ students each... you do the math!) Second, be aware that you will have many demands on your time-- if you look like a foreigner, you will be sought out for English lessons anyway. Third, and maybe most important: realize that teaching langauge and language learning are all about people. Put differently, it's all about people skills and relationships... and 关系 for that matter. You need students to teach, and you're a student yourself, so you need teachers. Language education is the ultimate 'people business-- never forget that.

On the one hand, really comitting yourself to your teaching for a summer will probably burn you out and you'll have little time or energy to hit the books. But on the other hand, if you do a good job, you'll make a good impression, and you'll find doors opening for you since you're such a stand-up person. Crummy foreign English 'teachers' are a dime a dozen. You'll stand out, and for good reasons, right? Having such good connections will really come in handy later when it's your turn to study.

Put everything you have into your teaching, but escape from campus daily after work and above all *make friends* with people at the grocery store, internet cafe-- wherever you like-- and become a regular. (Older people who have no real interest in learning English are great, but the best are the crusty old types who want to teach foreigners what China is 'really all about' etc.) Just get out there and make friends. Pick your place and go there every day, without fail.

Build relationships with these people and learn from them. Hang out with them whenever you're off work and never stop asking questions. Learn how to shoot the bull with them. These people are your real teachers-- give them your time, attention, and respect, and you'll get that and more in return.

Your time is precious, so don't get pushed into teaching clases on the side for cash, etc. Your time off is your time to hang with your buddies and learn how they talk, and what they're interested in talking about, etc. Make the most of it. Once you're done teaching, you can leave with your pride intact, with good references, good contacts, and doubtless you can go back there if you ever need to. Never a bad thing to have something to fall back on, right? When you're done, you'll have learned enough Chinese from your friends that you'll know what the right next step for you is.

Good luck!