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[Calach Pfeffer]

Eeep!

Okay, the other side of the coin, in case it's not too late...

I do think a year in actually any place teaching in China by itself doesn't get a person much.  Well, as a first year in China, it gets you into China, and you discover a lot of things the hard way.  By itself it's a relatively formless experience.  It depends a lot on who the person is, what they get from it.  Compared to a structured program of learning, it's... well, it's a year.  It is worth it if you want to learn to teach something, or at least practice teaching something according to your own standard.  It is worth it if you want to have a year of highs and lows.  There is definitely something to be said for going to a place very unlike the one you live in and seeing what happens (to you) there.

Actually, I wonder if others would agree to this: it is worth it for finding out (the hard way) who Chinese people are.  As a people they're different in different places, and of course individuals in their each and every own right.  But outside of the bigger cities, maybe one sees (writ small in the town they visit) the nature of this grand, great nation, and what it mostly is compared to the bigger cities.

Or not.  I dunno.  It's a big country.  

It's a state of mind.



Ah, I don't know.  There's many different ways to become involved in China.  A year teaching tends to lead to great stories, and then probably to some more years teaching.  "Start as you mean to continue" is probably a reasonable rule of thumb.


EDITED TO ADD: congratulations on your choice, it's probably a good one.  If you discover you love China so much after the three months that you really want to teach English here (*eye roll*), the future awaits.

[The Local Dialect]

The important thing is that you're happy and content with your choice CTR. There's no real right or wrong here. Studying abroad is a great experience, entirely different from teaching. I don't see why you couldn't come and do a semester of teaching and then do the summer program during your time off too. Both experiences are valid and will teach you about life in China in different ways. Don't give up on teaching entirely if it is something you really want to do, even if you decide to put it off a few years.

Look into the prerequisites for some of the Qinghua programs. IUP through Qinghua is rather difficult to get into but it has a great reputation and two of my friends who are working on PhDs in China related areas (actually both are in anthropology now that I think of it, and one is at Cornell) have gone through it and have nothing but great things to say. It is hard though, I think it is the kind of program that totally kicks your ass.

Good luck, and do stick around. A lot of us have studied in China in addition to teaching so there's that as well.

[Con ate dog]

For my opinion, I'd just cut a paste Calach's post, then twiddle the details.  A small town is THE way to acquire complete immersion into the Chinese culture.  I'll never leave the clean comfort of Suzhou again, but that year in that bohunk mining town was the ultimate apprenticeship in The Big Silly.

I also learned how to teach there, which was largely a function of my principal, who simply couldn't stand bad teaching, and could practice what she preached: her lessons, largely in Chinese, consisted of constant talk and response.  She was chattering away for a good three-quarters of the time, which sounds like a dull lecture, but her 9 year-olds were GLUED to her every word.

It's easy for us to be jaded at the prospect of foregoing the modern cities for a squalid, dull backwater, but for me and for many would-be newcomers, it's the best way to go.

[CaTigeReptile]

Well now I've run into what I knew would be the big problem after the (Chinese) holidays: Breaking my promise to the school. There are a few things:

1) They only sent me a 6-month working permit, but they were supposed to give me a year-long one (obviously)

Could this have given me "problems getting the visa?"

2) My Aunt just had surgery to remove tumors on her spine.
It's true, but sounds like a lie.

I'm a bad liar and even worse at breaking promises. Will the school be okay? Will they find someone else? What do I do?!

[The Local Dialect]

A six month work permit wouldn't have been an issue in getting the visa. You would have gotten a Z visa, which would have gotten you into the country, at which time you'd have had to change it to a residence permit once you were here. You'd probably only have gotten a six month residence permit at that point but they did it that way presumably because you'd have been arriving at the 2nd half of the school year.

CTR, the school will have to deal, obviously, since you definitely aren't coming. Just tell them you had a family emergency. Don't make up problems getting the visa that may confuse them when they try applying for future teachers. This sort of thing happens. It does suck for the school, but nothing you say is really going to make a difference so just tell them a plausible lie about personal/family issues.

In general, if you intend to teach here in the future, don't sign contracts with schools unless you're 100% sure you want to teach there. Have all the conversations you need to have with people whose opinions you value before you sign, before you get to the point that they're applying for paperwork for you because (and I'm not trying to be harsh here, so don't take it the wrong way) otherwise you're wasting the school's time and resources and leaving them in a bad spot for the coming semester.

[teacheraus]

Main thing to me - Now you have made the decision is simply to tell them NOW what you have decided. The truth is that you are putting them in a difficult situation (however good your reason might have been rather than changing your mind) and the sooner they know they have a prolem the more help it will be to them. To me a this stage the actual reason you chose to give them is less important than telling them. I am with LD in thinking that the visa excuse is a bad one . It is also a timely reminder for all of us that the time to make the decision about accepting or not accepting a job is before the school starts to go to the time and expense of applying for the paperwork they need to send us to apply for the visa.

[BrandeX]

Working in a "third rate province in a third rate city at a third rate University" would mean that if I choose to do anything else in China, like get an internship at an environmental technology firm or something, would be impossible. That I wouldn't be able to make any connections at this school or in this city; that it would actually look worse on my resume to work there than it would if I didn't work anywhere at all.

It seems to me she initially gave this advice because she IS Chinese. For us foreigners we live/work "outside" their cultural system and really don't have to worry about this sort of thing too much. Back in your home country, no one would probably know place "A" from "B" unless it was a famous city name, even if you pointed it out on a map.
The only problem I could think of that could happen "off the bat" is if for some reason they never asked for your pic during the hiring process, and when you showed up you weren't white (or at least non-asian) and they made up some excuse to fire you the first week. Otherwise it would be fine, but probably, as mentioned, really boring in a remote area.