Young couples interested in teaching English

[benjamin_heathe]

We wanted to tell people about our experience in China, because our experience coming to China is a little un-usual.

I am from Salt Lake City, and my wife is from Atlanta. One year ago we had a house, 2 cars, and great jobs, but something just didn’t feel right. We liked traveling, and I lived in Canada for two years, but at that time we thought that we needed to take regularity out of our lives. When I say regularity I mean a house payment, car payments, and 9-5 jobs. SO, we sold the cars, our house, boxed everything up and came to China.

The process of finding the right place was difficult at times, but we had friends in China helping us with the transition. They would tell us if what the placement companies said was true or not. This took a lot of time, but eventually we found the right school. We ended up in Tianjin, China which is close to Beijing.

We really love teaching. It is a great experience, but we personally enjoy the freedom that comes with the hours and holidays.

During the first holiday we traveled to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and many cities throughout mid-China. We took a train from Beijng to Shanghai and slept in bunks with a bunch of Chinese people. This rocked, because they were so curious about who we were and where we were from. We were able to see a lot of the country and learn a lot about the customs.

The second trip we took was down through Southeast Asia. We went to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. We slept in huts with the village tribes and trekked into Myanmar. We had never seen such poverty, but at the same time you will meet the most amazing people ever. We rode elephants, drove in buses with potholes from mines, and went swimming in remote lakes with beautiful waterfalls. My wife even has pictures with the local militias in Myanmar and their machine guns.

The third trip was to Harbin. This is in Northern China and is probably the coldest place I have ever been to. We went to this city of lights and climbed up castles of different colored ice lights called bing deng(Look up the Harbin Ice Festival on the net). It was so cold my eye lashes froze together and my camera stopped working!

The next trip we are taking to a small mountain village town in China to see one of our friends wedding ceremonies. The village is so remote they only speak a local dialect. Once again we will just throw our clothes in our Northface backpacks (we bought in Beijing for 25 bucks) hop on train for more traveling.

We have enjoyed everything so much that we are staying for a second year. There is a great need for English teachers and we thought we would post our experience on some ESL boards to encourage people to come to Tianjin.

We would love to be-friend anyone to wants any information on coming to Tianjin, China. We would also like to encourage young LDS couples to come teach here before they have kids. I am 24 and Heather my wife is 20. We are Mormon and for those who are also LDS there is a lot of Expatriate LDS members from other countries here to help you get accustomed to local life. The only reason I mention it, is because when we came to China having friends here to help us out was very important to get through the transition. If you are single and want to come we have several dorm-mates from Australia and America who could also give you good information.

So, if you need to contact a school we may have some ideas, just let us know.

Benjamin and Heather

Benjamin_Heather@yahoo.com

[roddy]

I'm curious, has your stay in China involved any missionary work, either officially or unofficially? I've never actually met any missionaries here (perhaps lucky for both parties), but I'm always curious as to what kind of reaction they meet with.

[benjamin_heathe]

Actually, no we weren told that it is strictly forbidden to talk to Chinese people about that when we first came. Our PSB(police officer) asked us aboutour religion. He asked if we were Christian, and we replied in the affirmative. He asked us not to discuss religion with any Chinese nationals at this time, so we have respected the wishes of the government.

However, in China foreigners are free to mingle and discuss religion with each other, so we often have great conversations with other Christians, Jews, and friends that do not have any faith.

Anyway hope that answers your question...

[benjamin_heathe]

Actually, my wife and I volunteer with some Chinese youth groups, mentoring them and teaching them Englsih etc. Even though we do not discuss religion, we always try and treat them kindly, so maybe that is a way of sharing with others without dis-obeying any rules.

[roddy]

Fair enough, thanks for the response.

[mlomker]

Thanks for the interesting post. Some English teachers are touchy about missionaries because faith is a common reason to go to 3rd world countries...and they leave an unbalanced representation of what mainstream Westerners are like.

I'm glad that you've had a good experience! You seem very young to have already had a house and other things--many people aren't far out of college at 20/24. I'm 34 and in a similar position--I intend to pay off my unsecured debts and then my house/car and head to China. A questionable move at this point in my life but I feel as you do--there is something missing and a larger world out there to explore.

[benjamin_heathe]

Your right, I think religion is a touchy subject, but the reason I put that in is so that when others in our same situation read the post, they could have someone to contact if they are interested in coming here. We warn people fully that right now "preaching" in the traditional sense is not allowed in any way, so if that is the desire it is the wrong time to come. But, we didn't come to China for that reason at all (religion), we just wanted a change of scenery and teaching English was the best mode of transportation for us to come here.

I would hope that any person, regardless of their political views, religion, or life situation would come to China with an open mind. I know that when we first arrived here, we had certain ideas about life and how we wanted to live our lives. In such a short time we have made drastic changes to our life plan. I truly think that we have more of a desire to help others, not just because of religion but because I think it is the right things to do. There are a lot of foreigners who come to China from other countries. We have met people from all races (we just assisted in helping 40 Africans, most of which were Muslim come to our city for a computer training course), religions, political ideologies, and ways of life here in China. I think the vast majority of these foreigners do not come here for the 5 or 6 hundred U.S dollars a months, but for a great experience and to learn from a nation with a lot of good hearted people. Truthfully, I think we have changed more than I could have ever helped our students and Chinese friends change.

Well, this is a forum, so what do you think?

[mlomker]

I think the vast majority of these foreigners do not come here for the 5 or 6 hundred U.S dollars a months, but for a great experience and to learn from a nation with a lot of good hearted people. Truthfully, I think we have changed more than I could have ever helped our students and Chinese friends change.

lol. That is certainly true. I'll be leaving a professional-paying career to come there. It's not about money, although it is interesting how money-focused China has made its citizens.

I've spoken to college students that have spent their lives studying twelve hours per day and seven days per week to get an education to make 'money'. I don't think any of them have considered what they'll do if they ever arrive there. Perhaps I have been blessed or perhaps I have been cursed with a fair bit of success early in my life, but it has only taught me that the rat race and money isn't a worthy goal. The problem is that you have to actually have some success in life before you can come to that realization...I fear that most people will be looking for another dollar on their deathbeds and that is so sad.

I think the primary value in travel is the mind-broadening effect. I know this is wistful, but if we could send everyone half-way across the world at least once in their lives I think a great deal of intolerance (even war) could be eliminated. I agree with you--the language learning or the teaching is just a sideline...it's the journey that matters.

This is coming from a guy that once scoffed at travel because it cost too much money...

[sunpixy]

May I ask which college/university/school are you teaching in in Tianjin?