外教的好处 Hiring a foreign teacher
2014-07-12 17:50:16 来源： 评论： 双击单词自动翻译
当外教的好处和坏处 Being a Foreign English Teacher
好处
工作好找：有英，美，澳，加国的护照人，特别是对于白种人来说英文老师这份工作非常容易得到。 想学英语的中国人很多，在中国的西方人还是比较少。
我问过上百个的中国成年的， “老外”这个词到底是什么意思？ 他们都回答“外国人。” 然后我问了他们“老外的外表，语言，和生活方式跟你有什么区别？” 80%的人都认为 “眼睛是蓝颜色的，语言是英文，生活方式更开放。”(所以， 俄罗斯人， 日本人，非洲人， 美国黑人都不是“老外”。)
这就是为什么如果你真的有白皮肤，蓝眼睛，高鼻子，这些外表， 你就会遇到这种概括。
工资不错：外教的工资一般比中国老师的工资高得多。不言而喻，这不公平。可是，外教的外表有卖点并不是外教的错。这世上有许多肤浅的人这是无法改变的。 08年暑假，我在龙川的两所高中学校上班，曾经我要去香港办签证但是我办不了。虽然我不是唯一英文老师，但是他们要取消每一节课，因为父母的要求是要有一个外籍老师。
有自由感：外教一般是口语老师，所以让课堂的活力强起来一般不难。另外，我们给他们的考试一般没高考，中考等那么重要，所以工作压力不大。
能让人外向点：现在的我比07年的我自信得多。我这四年跟各种各样的人相处了：从50多岁的董事长到4岁小朋友，从无聊的家庭主妇到害羞的少女。现在我的表达能力比四年前强得多。
坏处
我们都是小人物： 以前我在一所大学上班。外教里有一个是博士学位的，而也有一个什么学历也没有的，有一个是有二十多年的经验的外语老师，也有一个外教是从没当过老师的。所以，不管你的学历，工作经历如何，你的工资和地位都会一样。因为我们给学生们的考试并不重要，所以我们的雇主并不在乎我们的教学好不好，更在乎学生喜不喜欢我们。
没有未来：中国的经济会越来越发达，来中国发展的外国人会越来越多。找外教工作的竞争会越来越大，所以工资会越来越少，或者学校对外教的要求会越来越高。这个挺难预言。 所以，除非你自己开培训班，你的工作挺不安全。
没有安全感：我认识的每一位外教都遇到过签证问题。关于签证的规定总在改变，这会影响你生活的每一个方面。我这四年的生活方式有点像流浪狗，谁也不想嫁或雇佣一只流浪狗。
消极的学生：教育制度跟每一个西方国家的教育制度不一样。在我们西方人的思想，我们认为如果一个人18岁还需要被监督，那这表示他们的性格不适合上大学。在这里，学生习惯被监督，所以他们很多人的性格更消极，更害羞。 有时候，为了让课堂的活力强起来，外教得做一个单口相声家。我发现了我这个人的性格不适合这样。
It looks like I may have worked my last as a 'waijiao' that is, a foreign English teacher in China. It's the job I've done on and off since May 2007. I've worked in Adult-Education Centres, and Kindergartens, and taught class-sizes ranging from four people to fifty-five.
The below observations are not an attempt to be objective or comprehensive, but based on my experiences of working as a 'waijiao'.
Advantages
It's easy to find a job: If you have a British, American, Australian, or Canadian passport, especially if you're Caucasian, you'll find English teaching jobs here easy to get. In China, English teaching is a huge industry that continues to grow, and the supply of 'waijiaos' is still pretty small.
In spoken Chinese, the most common word for foreigner is 'laowai'. But when I asked 100 Chinese adults what exactly does the word 'laowai' mean, they all said "foreigner". Then I proceeded to ask, 'laowai's' possess what differences in appearance, language, and lifestyle. More than eighty responded, "they have blue eyes, they speak English, and their lifestyles are more open." (By this logic, By this logic, Russians, Japanese, Africans, and African-Americans are all not foreigners).
The fact that these generalizations exist is the reason why almost any white person in China can get a job as an English teacher.
The pay's not bad: The salary of the foreign teacher is usually a lot higher than that of the Chinese teachers. Needless to say, this isn't fair. But that the foreign-teacher's appearance is more marketable than their own or any body else's teaching ability is not the foreign-teachers' fault. That there are a lot of shallow people in the world is something that is not going to change. In the summer of 2008, I worked in two High Schools in a little village in Northern Guangdong. Once, I had to go to Hong Kong to apply for a visa, but my application was rejected. Although I wasn't the only English teacher available, the International Department had to cancel all of its English classes because I wasn't there, the students' parents demanded a foreign teacher.
There's freedom: The foreign teacher is usually just an oral English instructor, so it's usually fairly easy to inject some life in to the classroom. Also, we are seldom given responsibility for training students for their all-important exams, such as the High-School Entrance Exam and the College Entrance Exam, so there is little pressure, except for the pressure you give yourself.
It can bring you out of yourself: I'm a much more confident and relaxed character than I was in 2007. In these four years, I've worked and communicated with so many and such varied people: from 50-something CEOs to 4 year-old Kindergarten Students, from bored housewives to gawky teenagers. It makes one a more articulate and rounded individual.
Disadvantages
There is no status: Before, I worked in a University. Among my Colleagues, there was a PhD, and there was a man with no formal qualifications; there was a teacher with more than 20 years' experience, and there was a teacher with no experience at all. But our salaries, and our statuses were all the same. Because we were not responsible for preparing students for any exam of life-changing importance, our employers tended not to care how well or how badly we did the job, just about how happy we kept the students.
There is no future: China's economy will continue to grow, the number of foreigners who immigrate to China will continue to increase. The scrap for jobs as a foreign teacher ill become more and more competitive, so employers will some day feel empowered to lower the salaries of foreign teachers, or they will demand more of their foreign teachers. It's all difficult to predict. So, unless you open your own language school, you'll never find an English teaching job with a secure future here.
The lack of job security: Every foreign teacher I know has run into visa problems at some stage or other. The rules regarding visas are always changing, and visa-problems affect every area of your life here. These past four years, my lifestyle has been like a stray dog, and nobody wants to marry or employ a stray-dog.
Passive Students: In China, the education system and educational culture are difference to those in any of the countries listed above. In those countries, the popular school of thought is generally, if a person aged 18 or above, needs to be supervised, then they peobably shouldn't be in education at that age anyway, so we give our University Students freedom to experiment and freedom to slack off. But in China, at all levels of formal education, students are closely supervised and monitored, this produces a somewhat passive and shy student. Sometimes, in order to make the atmosphere in the classroom come alive, one has to be more of a stand-up comedian than a teacher, and I've discovered that my personality isn't really suited to this.
