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Beijing at a Glance

Teaching English in Beijing

Teaching English and learning Chinese is important - not only for business!

Teaching English

At the moment, there are over 70 establishments of higher education in Beijing, the most important of which are the highly competitive Tsinghua University and the renowned Peking University. The latter alone attracts about 4,000 international students a year. The growing demand for higher education as well as China’s rising status as a global economic power lead to ever more Chinese students wanting to improve their foreign language skills. This is the perfect opportunity for many foreigners to spend a couple of years teaching English as a foreign language in China.

However, the competition for such teaching positions in Beijing is huge. Normally, the SAFEA regulations for granting you foreign expert status for a TEFL job require you to be a native speaker with a bachelor’s degree as well as two years of work experience. For TEFL positions in some small provincial schools, the local administration might even waive one or two of these requirements in individual cases in order to fill their vacancies. In Beijing, though, the TEFL job market works quite differently.

TEFL Options

Of course, teaching English at a Chinese university or through a joint Chinese-Western program sounds like the ideal job for an aspiring EFL teacher. Due to the high standards in academia, however, such vacancies mainly go to candidates with advanced degrees or careers in TEFL.

Being assistant to the Chinese English teacher at a public school in Beijing, on the other hand, may be more suitable for globe-trotting graduates and well-to-do, footloose expats close to their retirement years. Actually, a TEFL job at a public school may be vastly preferable to teaching at one of Beijing’s private institutions, where – to put it bluntly – there will always be some “dumb rich kids” among the students disrupting the classroom environment: the bane of private schools around the world.

Tips for EFL Teachers in Beijing

Many EFL teachers are also hired by one of Beijing’s many private language schools. They cover a vast segment of the market, but some of them regularly turn out to exploit or scam their employees. To avoid these bad eggs, you should approach your choice of employer with caution.

• Only agree to come to China on a Z visa, no matter what anyone might tell you.
• Demand references from your potential employer and follow up on them.
• Don’t work for any Beijing-based school that doesn’t stick to SAFEA’s minimum requirements.
• Avoid recruitment agencies, especially if their job offer sounds too good to be true. It usually is. ChinaJob.com is the only recruiter that is officially recommend by SAFEA.
• Negotiate your employment conditions. A good contract for a TEFL job in Beijing should include return airfare, accommodation, and paid holidays.
• Demand to see a picture of the teachers’ accommodation first.

With these basic guidelines in mind, you should already be able to recognize most potentially shady deals and truly enjoy teaching English in Beijing.