teaching in china

Teaching english at middle schools in China

Chinese secondary schools have two semesters a year.The first school term begins in September.There are about 4 and a half month in each semester.While the second semester starts about in February and finishes by the end of June.There’s a total of 6 years in secondary school, including junior high school stage of 3 years and another 3 years of senior high school.Students’ age is from 12 to 18 years old or so.

Teaching in secondary schools was characterized by more teaching hours but less time for their own.Usually each class lasts for 45 minutes and every teacher needs to teach about 20 hours a week.The number of students in each class is more or less 40-50.It may be a challenge to teach such a big class for those international teachers who is used to teaching small classes.

In general,the pay for foreign teachers is not very high in public secondary schools,about 5000 or so.While some private schools will pay more,the monthly salary is about 6000-10000.Most schools will offer free accommodation and subsidies for international air tickets.If the international teachers are not satisfied with free accommodation,they will be allowed to rent an apartment near the school,and bear the rent.Usually every school has a canteen,if international teachers are not accustomed to eat at the school canteens,they can cook meals in their apartment.