At my age can I teach english in China?

[rodneyporteous]

Sorry If this question has been covered but if it has I haven't found a great answer.    Short story is as follows.  My son is soon to be off to college and I know have the ability to open my world up a bit.  I am interested in China, I enjoy other cultures and have travelled a fair bit.     Now here's the rub.  I am 50 with no teaching experience.  Corporate world, got it.   Owning a business, got it.   So the question is,  can a 50ish man with no teaching experience find employment as a teacher in China?   If my age can be overcome what things should I focus on in order to make myself more attractive to employers?   Thank you for any info/help provided.

[ChTTay]

Your age won't really be an issue if you're looking at teaching English. Some students or their parents (if they're young learners) might even prefer an older teacher. 

 

One thing you do need is a degree though. If you've got one then in terms of making yourself more employable, I would look into doing a CELTA. If you have the money available and want to do a good job teaching this will give you a solid foundation from which to build off. There are courses all over the world and probably locally too. It's accredited by Cambridge and is globally recognised for teaching English. If you had this course with any degree (for visa purposes) you'd find yourself quite employable. 

 

It's also important to decide what kind of teaching you want to do. If you've got a business background maybe adults would be suitable. Once you've got some experience of teaching general English you could try get some work teaching Business English. Look at somewhere like Wall Street English as an example. 

 

Recently there have been some changes so you might find some jobs advertise you need 2 year experience in actual teaching. However, in practice this isn't often that enforced. Depends on the school. 

[GeneKL]

I have seen many untrained teachers get paid for fumbling around and wasting students time and fees.  You probably have a wealth of business skills to impart but should at least look at some Youtubes about English teaching and living in China.  Next try to visit an EFL/ESL classroom or take a course in survival Chinese. Minimum is finally to take a short (few weeks) training course in any kind of teaching techniques especially classroom management. Chinese now want and can afford more than backpackers. You might endanger your own life working for those that hire backpackers.

[david387]

That is good to know. I am thinking to spend some time in China in a few years, and it would be great to know that I might be able to find work as an English teacher. I am still in my forties, and am somewhere around HSK 3 level and rising fast!