Finding a Job in China

This is the first in a series of six postings about my experiences in the People's Republic of China, where I taught for a year at a university in Hunan Province and for three months at various elementary schools in Shanghai.

If you really want to experience a country, it's my firm belief that you have to live there.

In the summer of 2003, with my son still off at college, I was getting itchy feet, having returned from my Peace Corps service in Turkmenistan, where I taught English at what passed for the country's premier language institute.

The Peace Corps does some wonderful work, but preparing people to become accomplished language teachers is relatively low on their list of priorities.

So, when I returned to the U.S., I took some correspondence courses to pick up a couple of international teaching certificates and hone my educational skills.

With my teaching experience and newly earned paperwork in hand, I set out to find a university-level teaching assignment overseas.

For any of you who have searched the web through sites such as Dave's ESL Cafe, you're well aware that probably the easiest place to land a job is in the People's Republic of China. Often the requirements are any college degree, coupled with a sense of adventure and the willingness to work outside one of the major metropolitan areas.

I posted my resume' at Dave's and got dozens and dozens of responses, including some offering me a job on the spot.

Nevertheless, I took my time and, after talking with the head of foreign recruitment at Jishou University and looking at the incredible pictures of Zhangjiajie National Park, accepted a position in Hunan Province.

For those of you who aren't familiar with hunting for teaching jobs in the PRC, let me point out at this time that it's much better to deal directly with the school where you are thinking of working. There's a whole recruitment industry out there that takes a cut for snagging unwary foreigners -- not to mention the private English language schools that will work you to death if you're not careful.

In any case, I exchanged some e-mails with a Canadian woman who worked there the previous year and got a pretty good idea of what was in store for me.

This, by no means meant that everything went smoothly. Among other things, I nearly bought plane tickets to the wrong city, because I was pronouncing my destination so poorly. And, of course, just navigating the airports once you make it to the mainland is a bit of a terror for someone who could say hello and count to three in Chinese.

To top it off, the person who was supposed to pick me up at the airport once I made it to Zhangjiajie thought I was arriving on a flight the next day (even though I e-mailed them several times). So, I arrived just as the airport was closing for the night, with no help in sight and not a soul around who could speak English.

Eventually, I managed to purchase a bus ticket and made it into the city, where some helpful people pushed me off the bus in front of what apparently was an all-night travel agency. I had a piece of faxed correspondence with the university's logo on it. So, someone phoned the school, and, eventually, a driver came to pick me up.

I was deposited at a hotel and told someone would contact me the next day. The accommodations were fine -- kind of a Motel 6 with tile floors, instead of carpet, and roosters making noise outside, instead of teenagers drinking.

In the morning, I started learing Chinese and managed to order some noodle soup and tea. The adventure had begun.