teaching in China – Finding Eden

How to Make Your Kindergartners Your Friends

My personal philosophy with kids is to try to be their friend. Whether they’re your kids, or your students, your friend’s kids, or some neighbor kid that you have to interact with on any sort of regular basis- it’ll make your life so much easier if they like you.

Becoming friends- Kids just want to be treated fairly- they don’t want to be treated like babies. Like any friendship, you should make jokes, be goofy, tell them stories, get excited to show them things- it’ll make them more invested in the things you have to say, and it’ll make it easier to get them interested when you need them to sit down and listen to the lesson. If they’re up for it, you can even tease them, or make up stupid nicknames for them. Something that shows you’re invested in them.

As an English teacher for kindergartners your job is to speak as much English as you can; to them, at them, around them… Just talk and talk and talk. Talking to them about stuff you care about not only fulfills a job requirement, but it makes them see you as a person and an equal not just an adult who has to watch them. Have a unit on animals? Ask them about their favorites, and tell them how much you love baby hippos, show them pictures, and be excited. I bet next time you ask them about animals they’ll tell you they love baby hippos too because your excitement rubbed off on them! They want to be just like you.

Play- REALLY play with them. Don’t just watch them play. Show them you like the same things as them. You’re around kids. There’s no room for embarrassment. Roll around on the floor, pick them up, toss them around, run around, make silly faces. The extra energy is worth it when they start begging you to play with them.

Rules- If you have administration that is okay with it, try setting your own rules too. You should have the same rules as the school sets, but if something is reasonable, or not that big of a deal, then let it go. Make sure your kid knows they did something wrong, but that you understand the circumstances and that you are going to let it go because you respect them as a person more than you respect the idea of blindly enforcing arbitrary rules. They’ll come to you when something goes wrong and they won’t be afraid of you. (This clearly only works with kids that are already pretty good though. If you have a group of crazy kids, you can’t come in and just be a no rules kind of teacher.)

Crying- If one of your kids is upset, talk it through. Your schedule is less important than their emotional health. Little kids have little problems and it will make them feel like they can rely on you if you take their problems seriously instead of just trying to get them to stop crying as fast as you can.

Honestly just get to know your kids. Different ages, different cultures, different people, you’ll get to know what each individual needs and wants from you. You’ll always have some that don’t like you, but I think it’s worth the effort to try to be their friends. It’s a lot of work at first, but it pays you back tenfold.

Where to Teach English Abroad: Russia vs. China

Pros and Cons

This is just based off of my experiences, but I think for the most part they are fairly similar to most people’s experiences. Paperwork for both is equally TERRIBLE.

Pro-China: great pay, low expectations, low cost of living, easy to get the job

Pro-Russia: organized, official, good communication & expectations, more western culture

Anti-China: poor communication, often unofficial, unstructured, unpredictable

Anti-Russia: snobby, critical, lower pay, high rent

The Good and Bad of China

I’m definitely glad I did the China experience. That being said, I’m still glad I limited it to only 6 months.

China is tricky- you can’t predict what kind of job you’ll land (the school, the location, the manager, the people, the PAY) but in general, it is fairly easy to land a job. If you have a bachelor’s degree, are a native English speaker, and have a TEFL degree, you’ll have no problem. If you look around enough you can find a REALLY well paying job, and there are TONS of schools that are always looking. If you’re going for money alone, China is your place- highest pay coupled with the lowest cost of living. Don’t settle for those low paying ones though.

It’s kind of a show up and start system. you don’t get a lot of training at most places, which would be bad, except they also have matching low expectations for teachers. If you want to learn how to teach without limitations, restrictions, or really any structure at all, this would be ideal. It stressed me out though- I love teaching, but I need some kind of structure to follow beyond “teach shapes for 4 weeks straight.”

Living in China is tough: questionable hygiene, very different food, and very different culture. Its very common for your managers to not tell you expectations for events or meetings and then expect you to learn a complicated dance in one afternoon. By far the most difficult thing to get accustomed to though was that literally no one speaks English. In most European countries you can throw a rock and you’ll find someone who can speak English, not quite so in China. Working with people you can’t talk to gets pretty lonely. I constantly felt like I didn’t know what was going on, because, well, I didn’t.

The Good and Bad of Russia

I would say overall Russia has been better than China for me. From the beginning, expectations were made clear. The interview process was THOROUGH. They wanted experience, teaching videos, and a mock lesson- it felt a lot more like a real job from the very beginning. I had support and advice for the whole process of my initial paperwork.

Russian is super hard and I think it helps Russians be really good at languages. Of all the people I’ve met who speak English as a second language, the Russians have the best mastery of it. It makes a big difference at work to be able to talk to my coworkers, and I think the fact that Russia has a more Western culture than China made a big difference for me too.

The flipside of all of the nice things about Russia though is that they expect a lot more. The highest paying jobs in Moscow are patroned by the ultra-rich, and they want to be in control of every word you speak to their children. And unlike China, the parents speak enough English to actually know what’s going on. Culturally, Russians tend to be a little bit brusque with their criticism and it comes off as harsh, especially to Americans. That’s difficult to get used to, but if you like following really specific rules and love structure, it could be great for you.

Rent in Russia is also more expensive. Not crazy expensive, not like Switzerland or Austria or anything, but Moscow and St. Petersburg’s costs of living are significantly higher than anywhere in China. Even the highest paying English teaching gig in Moscow pays a lot less than you could be making in China, and that’s not ideal when paired with higher rent costs.

Should I teach in China or Russia?

They both have good and bad. I like living in Russia more, but its definitely a harder workload with less money than China. But at least the kids are cute in both countries!