Teach English in China?

I wouldn’t recommend it unless it is your only way into China. I guess it is the only real feasible way for a lot of young (and even old) people to come to China to work for a while, and it isn’t that bad, but…

Most of the time the teaching environment is not so great. I would especially recommend avoiding elementary schools or high schools (as a general rule). If you can find a good gig, great, but dig in for the details to make sure what you have is a good deal..

Tutoring is a good way of making money in China

Truth is, if you save up a bit of money and come over to look for a private school or tutoring you can make just as much money for far fewer hours, and enjoy it a lot more (or teach more hours for more money), but you need to hustle to make that work. It’s not just signing a contract and teaching.

I already knew a decent bit of Chinese when I got to Shenzhen, so looking back I know it wasn’t the wisest thing to come over and teach English. Pointless, really. Try to work yourself into a real job or internship, hard as that might sound… you will have a lot more opportunities ahead of you if you do.

As an example one friend of mine started to work for a business publication in Beijing, Caijing, that is renowned for its openness and exposes on companies that sometimes reveal some pretty corrupt happenings. Great path, really. Now, I know that a lot of you might not have the ability to find such jobs. I guess your only choice is to find a teaching job and come over that way.

Just my two cents on teaching in China.