My current living and work situation in China required a big change from my previous circumstances as an engineering student and then IT support staff in London. In pursuit of a life together with my Chinese internet girlfriend of 4 years, I felt that some experience of living in China was expected. In order to achieve that aim, I felt that to guarantee a job and have the ability to pay for daily living I must train to become an English teacher before I left. Teaching English would also be a good way to attain the requisite residency visas for China without many problems. So when I left university, I spent six months earning money. I passed a TEFL training course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in a London based training school. I travelled to China, and got a good English teaching job at Dalian University of Foreign Languages.
Going into a new environment such as doing a TEFL course, travelling to China, or developing a relationship leads one to unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations. I had to deal with what was in front of me in a calm way, allowing me to admit any mistakes that I made and smooth over any differences that they caused, otherwise I couldn’t have easily accepted such big changes.
A result of these changes, and making mistakes, meant that I learnt what areas needed to be focused on. I resolved to ask more detail orientated questions and to do more research in order to more fully understand a particular situation and any pertinent cultural differences. The lesson of being more appropriately prepared has already helped me avoid some problem situations and also lead me to being a more responsible teacher.
In the future, in order to be more targeted in my preparation, I would seek advice from people who had done similar things, and although circumstances might not have been the same, benefiting from other people’s experiences would help me limit any mistakes and improve my own success.
An example of how this would have solved a problem was when I had to deal with a tearful student who had called me to change her final mark. After making some frantic calls to university administrative superiors, it became apparent that the marking standard I had been using was stricter than the expectations of the university and the students. I also didn’t know that after the results had been entered onto the computer system they were impossible to change. I of course explained the situation calmly to the student and apologised saying that she should take it up with the university.
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