Fake English Teachers In China
Supplementary Education Market Is Like Wild west in China, Here Is Why You Should Be Careful
A Chinese friend of mine calls for a favor after school. Me being a good shepherd came to help. What I didn’t know was that this favor got me involved some crazy events to follow.
My Chinese lived in the States briefly when he was young. Now he works at some German company. He got a wife and a child. Wife puts the kid in some Pre-School (kindergarten) to study English. One day, he had to pick his child from the pre-school. Sitting in the waiting room, he realizes the teacher has a funny accent. Not American for sure, but nothing similar to British or Australian English. So he asks the School manager where the teacher was from. The manager said he was from the States. My friend doubts what the manager lady said, and calls me over for a check up.
I didn’t know it was for this intervention. If had, I would not come to help. On the phone, he sounded serious; so I came to help. Little did I know, I was IN for inspection of this English teachers class.
The pretentious English teacher had a very poor in English. He had a heavy eastern European accent. While struggling to have a few words with the Teacher, I soon discovered that he has never been in the States. Addition to a poor English, he was a poor liar. So, I summed up and said to my friend that the teacher was not American by any chance. Knowing he paid good money for bad service, my friend started to have an argument with the manager. The manager kept saying the teacher was an American.
Soon the situation got out of control, when the teacher started to get angry with my friend and I. Which is right, I had no business being there. So, I was about to leave this ugly and uncomfortable scene, but my friend calls his friend in Chinese Homeland Security (They call it Exit and Entry Police or something). They arrived shockingly fast, and all of us including the school manager had to go to the local authority office.
Long story short, the American teacher who was in reality Russian student from local University, got fined for 10 thousand RMB due for multiple offence of visa violation. The pre-school got their license suspended, also was charged fine. My friend and I had to be there to witness lot of Russian-English cursing, temper tantrum. I made friends in Chinese Homeland Security Office, promising to help find more cases like this. In which I will most definitely not pursue ever again.
A moral of this story is not to violate your Visa Status. If you are teaching English under false pretense, at least don’t lie about your political status. That could make you easy target. Personally I know many people teaching English and they are horrible speakers or writers. Some have terrible accent, some are not from a native English speaking countries, and some just do it because they look foreign.
For Chinese parents, please know that not everything foreign is good for your child! Most foreign nationals in China have a very sad life history. I have to put it very delicately without offending anyone. You don’t want some high school dropout with criminal history to teach English to your kids about everyday life. I am not saying they are all bunch of low-life losers who could not make it in their country. Maybe they are good people, so talk to your child's English teachers, check if they really who they say they are.
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The moral would be to check the school and the teachers before parting with you money, If you are not happy with what you see go elsewhere, there are plenty of other schools out there.
We should go out together one evening, even if I was dancing next to you they would still be goingAriunbold: When I go dance people be like
When My western friend dances they be like
When I say I speak little bit English they be like [em: ...
When I go dance people be like
When My western friend dances they be like
When I say I speak little bit English they be like
When they see speaking with no accent they be
Then I say, can I teach?
They be like
Then I go
and
Really? that much difference in color tone? Light brown is better than the Brown mocha? Brown Mocha is better than Milk Chocolate colorwhat happens to Coffee color brothers? no work?
Hehe I know, that wasn't a serious job proposal ^^ But you can still consider :p
There are non native speakers teaching on different visas, just enrolling in a Chinese class and paying for it gets you a student visa.
Haha i was only joking. I do get your point entirely, it's just funny how bored the dancers look here, professional or not, they all look like they are about to jump into the local river after work
As for me, yes I can dance salsa...won't go down well in a club though...me boogying away on my own (which I cannot do in all seriousness, totally different ball game) with no muscles to show off and a receding hairline haha. I am sure the Clubgoers will be well impressed :p
But yes, I made a similar comment in another post recently about my gf, even though she is Russian, I think she understands more complex English grammar than I do. She is my go to person when someone asks me what the subjunctive mood is. I think the law doesn't help however, as non native speakers technically cannot have a teaching visa in China even if they are far superior teachers to the native speakers.
This shouldn't mean that "Chinese people shouldn't take jobs as dancers" though. I'm sure there are lots of good ones as well, they're just.... unemployed? I also saw girls who were just WALKING as if they're on a fashion show, but their outfits were too simple and their minds were somewhere else. In the end, everybody is... bored. Except for some enthusiastic Chinese recording or photographing the half dressed laowais.
You said you used to teach salsa, I'm SURE half of your skills would be enough to be a dancer here! And with male dancers sometimes it's only muscles, no choreography. A gym trainer and a dancer are... so different.
It's about the attitude, you just want to employ foreigners regardless of their skills who happen to be in China, or you want to employ professionals or semi-professionals who happen to be foreigners...
That's why I'm writing this here. One of the places I worked as a teacher wanted to choose between me and an American girl, we both did demo classes. The American girl was a native speaker but spoke way too fast, expected children to understand what she was saying and was overall less involved in what she was doing. So me, who started learning English at the age of 10 got the job instead.
And I had some self conscious Chinese teachers with masters degrees... My highschool dropout RJ who speaks no English can teach a lot better than them, I'm 99% sure.
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