Wet behind the ears...gray above.

Good day - this is my first post so I hope I'm not violating any rules right out of the gate.  I've decided, for various reasons, to pursue teaching English in Asia.  I'm 50 years old with a Master's degree in Accounting and a Bachelor's in Economics and have been working in business for about 27 years.  I've taught about six semesters on a part time basis and have always really enjoyed it so I'm taking this step.

I've been perusing this forum and others and it seems that my next move is to get certification and then start looking for work while applying for the proper visa.  My questions are:

- Are the standard certification schools I get while googling bound to be reputible or should I be soliciting recommendations from this forum?
- Do I then just decide which part of China I wish to teach in and start contacting universities and private teaching schools?  If so, where are good sites to look?
- Should I attend some Chinese language classes before going or am I just as well off picking up what I need after I arrive?

Hope I haven't offended anyone with an inappropriate or grossly naive question.

Welcome, A-Train!
We have a serious soft spot for the grossly naive here, so no worries.

bound to be reputible

Oh, my, these are dangerous words when relating to China or the EFL industry overall...
Don't assume anything or anyone here to be reputable! Your best bet is to ask around...which is part of why we're here.
For certifications, don't bother with online programs or others that don't come with face time. But a better approach might be...do you really need to bother with a TEFL certification at all? My immediate impression here is that you DO NOT.
Most schools in China don't require such a cert, nor does a cert typically bring one higher pay. You're well-educated and you already have classroom teaching experience...I recommend that you skip getting a cert altogether. You just don't need it.

It's good to go in with some ideas about where you want to live and teach, but it's also good to keep an open mind. A lot of nice cities in China aren't exactly household names in other countries. However, definitely DO thoroughly research any cities you may be considering, including asking us on here. A lot of Chinese towns have impressive websites that don't show you the unregulated smoke-belching cadmium smelting works that makes up most of downtown...

For finding jobs...I recommend avoiding the big international job-listing sites such as Dave's ESL Cafe, and focusing more on local/regional websites. The jobs listed there are often of higher quality! You'll find links to job-bearing websites in several areas of our Links pages; it'll be a great place to start.

You don't really need to speak Chinese to come here and teach. Things like counting and social courtesies are always nice, but your classes will either contain students with enough English to follow you or will have an assistant that will translate for you as needed. And trying to get around and get things done with little or no command of the language is much of the fun and adventure of being here!
Don't sweat this...if you have the time and inclination to take a basic Mandarin class before coming, it certainly won't hurt...but don't let a lack of language skills slow you down. Believe me- you'll learn some necessities very quickly, and you'll find plenty of opportunities to acquire the language while you're here. Chinese is one of the harder tongues to acquire as a foreign language, and it takes quite a long time to really get to a significant fluency in it.

Welcome, A-Train. You're in for quite an adventure, and we are here to help you.

Welcome aboard A-train! When I hit China seven years ago, the only Chinese word I knew was "Tsingtao". Now I can order the local beer in all of the Provinces that matter. The important stuff is easy, it's conversation in Chinese that has me tossed!
As the Man said, you've got enough quals to get you a job in China. Business English is something that a lot of FTs won't touch because they don't understand it, but to a lot of Chinese it's strangely important. So come ahead as you are.

Welcome A-Train

These guys thrive on grossly naive, but always come up with the right answers..... if you've got a question ask cos one of these lovely people will know the answer

Hi A-Train, and welcome.  Only echoing what the others said.  This (the Saloon) is the place to ask your questions. 

Not that this has any relevance to your questions whatsoever, but I'm 50 too.  When I came to China 5 years ago, I knew less Chinese than George with his beer-ordering abilities.  You'll learn once you get here, so no need to spend time sitting on your heels while you learn back home.  (Just as an aside - sitting on your heels is something you should master. The ability to squat is important in this country.) My husband and I did spend a couple hundred dollars and took an on-line TEFL cert course.  Some places require that piece of paper.  However, with your Masters, teaching experience and business background - you will be hot-stuff on the market.  What's your time-frame for coming to China?  Some schools, mine for instance, need teachers NOW as the new semester is beginning.

Hi, my Uni hires only people with a Master's degree.  Also, you would be teaching academic courses not EFL.  Pay is quite high compared to other Universities as it is a branch campus of an American Uni.  I believe our campus is an exception to the horror stories about joint venture operations that Raoul can tell you. 

You could actually teach Accounting here - if you wanted to.  Not sure about this term but probably next term for sure.

I can give you more info later if you are interested. 

I don't think you need a TEFL certification either. I would try out teaching for a year first, then decide whether or not you think it is worth your while to get that certification. I never did get one, and I've been teaching here for about 6 years now. With your qualifications you should be able to do fine without. My school, a high school, hires foreign teachers for subjects like economics and calculus if you're qualified. We currently have an older American gentleman teaching economics and it seems to be working out quite well for him. While it is too early to say now, perhaps next semester we'll be needing new teachers.

Dragonsaver - Please do give me more information about your university, it sounds very interesting.  My requirements are few: warm weather, (I've been living in this Frigidare Freezer called "Wisconson" for far too long), access to Jamesons Whiskey and a decent selection of movies.  Whatever info you have handy would be a great start.

A-Train

Well, I'd second the endorsement of Dragonsaver's school. She seems happy there...and if DS is happy, then I'm happy too.

But...warm weather won't be on the menu there. It's in the far Northeast and gets some pretty hard winters...
Otherwise, though, Dalian is a great town and an excellent place to live!

"The Local Dialect";

I thought one had to have a PhD. to teach something like Economics as well as local language skills.  And what would an Economics course in a China high school look like anyway?  Again, please send me whatever information and web sites on your school that you think might be instructive.  Thanks in advance for you help.  "Older, American, Gentleman"?  Will two out of three make muster?

A-Train

"It's in the far Northeast and gets some pretty hard winters"

I knew it was too good to be true. 

But the summers are great there, as are a lot of other things...Dalian is a nice place to live!
If you ever spend some time Making Your Own Gravy in some South China cities, Wisconsin starts sounding pretty good...

"The Local Dialect";

I thought one had to have a PhD. to teach something like Economics as well as local language skills.  And what would an Economics course in a China high school look like anyway?  Again, please send me whatever information and web sites on your school that you think might be instructive.  Thanks in advance for you help.  "Older, American, Gentleman"?  Will two out of three make muster?

A-Train

A PhD isn't needed to teach high school, not even in the States, in fact a BA and a teaching certificate is enough. I do believe that our economics teacher is a former lawyer, so he has a higher degree, but I'm positive a Master's would suffice, and our school does not require teachers to be certified. The course is taught in English, and there is a Chinese teacher available who helps him translate. As far as I know, it is a pretty basic, "intro to econ" course like you'd have in a regular high school in the States. Our school has an international program with AP courses (courses given for American college credit through the College Board) and the majority of our students plan to go to university in America, so taking these courses in English is useful for them. At the beginning of the year they wanted foreign teachers for courses like physics, chemistry, biology, but they couldn't find anyone qualified to teach those courses so they got Chinese teachers. Currently there are 3 of us foreign teachers working there, the econ teacher, myself (I teach AP English and SAT prep), and another South African fellow who teaches writing.

I don't think my school has an English language website, but if you drop a line through my blog (the link is in my sig) I can give you some contact info.

My school is in Beijing, by the way. We have some pretty cold winters, but extremely hot summers.

At my University, all courses are taught in English.  The students are supposed to have 110 in English on the College Entrance Exam.  However, some need better listening and speaking proficiency.

The winters aren't really cold here.  Yes I am Canadian but the weather here is similar to Toronto, except much much much less snow.  I think this winter we have had a total accumulation of snow of maybe 2 inches.  That is all snow all winter.  Hardly worth buying boots for.

The classrooms are heated and we can teach in a T-shirt in the middle of winter.  My apartment averages +24C all winter.  Ask Eric about his down-south apartment's heat.  Which is why he went back home to Denmark.  Eric found Harbin warmer than his apartment.

We have two or three Walmarts.  Several Starbucks, several awesome western restaurants.  Almost every kind of alcohol can be purchased at Metro or Mycal or other large department stores/grocery stores.

There is an awesome Indian restaurant and we are going to check out Cheeky's friend's Russian restaurant tonight.

I will second all of DS's comments about DL. If you're from Wisconsin, it will be like a day trip south. Maybe not as far as St Louis, but maybe Indiana. Not a very exciting city (culturally a bit of a wasteland, IMHO), but a rather comfortable, pleasant place to live and raise a family. A small city but with a certain degree of international polish; western goods are available (for a price), foreigners are not stared at so much as in other small cities (at least that's been my experience), there are some nice western-style bars and resturants now, and the people are, on the whole, very friendly here. Oh, and if you're single, dongbei women can be wonderful. I know, I married one of them.