Program Reviews

I went through Immerqi when I interned in Beijing for 5 months in 2016. They found me a great internship where I felt apart of the team and contributed real work, not busy work that most internships unfortunately hand out. The location of my apartment to my internship and out of work activities was fantastic and made it very easy to explore Beijing. They were always available at any hour of the day when needed and the Immerqi team helps make sure you are settled in. Housing was a little rough as I had to move midway through the 5 months and had a bug infestation at the second apartment, but other than that I have no complaints about my time spent there using Immerqi. I always look back on my time spent there and am excited for my next trip back!

For future participants, make sure that you have information prepared before heading to Beijing, like your phone and getting a Chinese bank account if you are staying there long term. Look up websites to help you find places to go and see so you are already aware of things going on before you get there. At your internship, be apart of your team. Go to lunch with them, hang out outside of work, practice your Chinese with them and let them practice their English with you. To truly understand life in China, you need to befriend Chinese nationals. My coworkers were amazed that I wanted to eat lunch with them when I first started and because of that I was invited to a lot of events that my other foreign friends never got the chance to go to. Be adaptable and open minded, you never know what experiences or invites you will get because of it.

Through ImmerQi, I was able to intern in Shanghai and learn about the worldwide players in the nuclear market, specifically the players in the Chinese nuclear market. The American-run company based in Shanghai that I interned with was in a unique position to provide on-the-ground China support to US clients. It works notably with the US Commercial Service for China’s bi-annual nuclear industry conference which I was able to attend. Seeing the business side of consulting, working for a small company, learning Mandarin, and living in China were all experiences I was able to have.

Making a difference in the students lives and they giving me something to laugh about everyday has been rewarding. Experiencing China on my own terms (ie. taking bus / train rides, shopping at the Markets, touring during the exit weekends, etc.) Priceless! After 9 months of Internship, I strongly believe that taking up this opportunity to teach English as a Foreign Language in China rates amongst the best decisions that I have made thus far.

Students in each Year Group Class at the School have to prepare at least 2/3 two-minute demonstrations per Semester to perform at one of or all of the English Talent Shows. The atmosphere is normally joyous as both students and Teachers part-take of this event. One of the main aims of this show is to help students learn English namely through Music, Poetry, Drama, Public Speaking, etc. The performances also help build students' confidence and competence in using English publicly.

At the Talent Shows, the teachers have to lead by example: demonstrate their 'can-do attitude' by putting up a performance, too. Before the 1st show we dedicated half an hour of our lunch break to practicing and choreographing our act for big day. At the show the Foreign Teachers (that’s the term we go by at the School) put up a stellar performance of “I wanna be like you” from the movie, Jungle Book. We were not so lucky in subsequent shows, though, the flu claimed two of our colleagues, who had solo parts in the musical. Our act fell apart and sadly, we had to cancel. Shameless to say, we were rescued by two students from Y4 & Y5 respectively who gladly filled-in the spot with solo performances! In all honesty, we would have been outclassed if pitied against them!

I had the best time teaching English in China for a semester and would highly recommend anyone fancying themselves a would-be teacher / adventurer / gap-year / travel enthusiast look into going with a professional agency that will be able to make this happen for them.
In TEFL you might make great friends from different backgrounds, you might even have intense amounts of fun with your new peers. This is about teaching, though, so keep that in mind. You might be working quite hard some days. I learnt to teach and find my confidence in the Chinese classroom in front of (arguably) the most wonderful four- to fourteen-year-old students. Their enthusiasm was the real highlight for me. I once had a competitive activity (read: game) go so completely off the rails that some of the students were demonstrating "swimming" on the floor while others were "diving" onto said floor. I've had students launch eraser projectiles all over the classroom in an attempted game of ruler-badminton. Another time the Halloween dress-up game (in a cultural lesson) was so fun we completely overshot our time and I was hurried to a "bonus" class for more of the same by the students' demand. That was in a public school and although I think the next door teachers were annoyed with our noise, they were probably enjoying the spectacle too.
I sometimes miss TEFLing so much and wish I wasn't sitting in an office doing my "primary" thing now. I might do another semester in future.

5:30pm and it's time to leave work - a great day of teaching my minions, listening to them speak english after delivering a class is the most rewarding feeling, but the amazement doesn't end there... We are here to teach and travel right? So I run home to grab my bag and head to the train station - three other friends with me (we are practically family by now). We board the 2.5 hour bullet train from Beijing to Tai'an and come face to face with our challenge - Mount Tai (Mount Tai is known as the eastern mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China, a place of worship for approx 3000 years and measuring 5,069 ft tall) We begun our ascent at midnight, pitch black, only the stars and our torches lighting the way - 7 thousand steps up hill to go. The journey is something that I can only try to articulate - masses of stars, some shooting stars and some planets, looking ahead, a stream of lights that simulate an illuminated waterfall, looking behind, so many different people making their way up. Each step lead to a different discovery of ancient Chinese artefact, it was all so magnificent - giant marble arches named 'gateways to heaven', 'the bridge of clouds', stones with ancient chinese engraving, little base camps selling street food, water and trinkets. Around 3 and half thousand steps up there was a little man, long grey beard with a shop selling the most unique items. 6 and half hours later and we make it to the top ! 7 thousand steps done and the feeling of accomplishment is incredible. So many different spots to search, however we waited on 'Life abandoning cliff' hoards of people dotted all around waiting... Waiting for what? Of course the sun to rise ! Peeking like a little lady bird slowly rising, everyone begins to clap - the view was spectacular and the appreciation for how high up in the world you were at that very moment is unbelievable. I mentioned earlier that I went with three other friends that were practically family, may I explain? I had never met these people prior to my internship, two are from Ireland and one is from Australia, we were teaching at the same school and I can honestly say, by sharing so many experiences with them, we are truly friends for life! I feel like I didn't just gain the experience of a different culture and an alternative work ethic, I was also discovering more and more things about myself, truly understanding who I was as an individual. I had met people from all over the world! Denmark, Malta, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Scotland, America ! We became so close and enjoyed many, many weird and wonderful experiences together - things like hiking the great wall, eating scorpions and tarantulas, learning to make dumplings, bargaining in mandarin, translating strange words to students. Reaching out of your comfort zone, being forced to learn a new language, not being able to rely on everything that has been made convenient for us in Western World?! Sounds scary and sounds like a major risk, but it was all worth it - I wouldn't take it back for anything, and I don't think I know anyone who would :)

I can't think of a particular history because my two months of experience were extremely full of discoveries and surprising. Starting from the Eastern culture that is totally different from Western. For me it was like living in a sort of a new world! It was amazing, i've met lots of people from all over the world, i found an incredibly mix of cultures that I loved. For example, It was interesting to see how do chinese behave and approach with a foreigner, it was funny when they asked you for a picture and suddenly you feel like a diva (once I was with my pyjamas in my worst conditions and taking a picture was embarassing), when a taxi driver didn't let me get on the taxi cause i was not chinese and he was afraid of not understanding me, when i spent lots of time inventing a gesture language but it was not enough; it was interesting trying all the chinese food (and even if when i was in SH i was thinking: "i'm done with this food" now i am starting feeling nostalgic about it), learning a bit of chinese was cool. I loved every single day of my experience.
I can say that i've grown both on personal and professional level,
I would do this experience thousands of time.

There are a thousand different things that people say is important when living abroad but to me it comes down to just one, which is to establish a strong core group of friends. I was lucky enough to find my niche in the crowd almost upon my arrival to China. It is important to think of these people you are meeting as your second family with them constantly keeping you preoccupied with daily tasks to the extent that you almost forget that you are thousands of miles (or kilometers) from your friends and family. One of the biggest things I thought I would miss when traveling would be the holiday season. Whether that means a big Unites States Thanksgiving dinner or opening presents Christmas Day (and Hannukah). Fortunately my group of friends helped me celebrate the holidays by having me over to eat a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner with them that almost felt like I was home with my parents. I cooked the green bean casserole while my friends brought over the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and other holiday foods that allowed us to feast for days after. At the time I just thought of it as a meal with some friends to pass the time but looking back I see now a group of friends who, much like me, knew how far they were from their family but felt loved and cared for by the people around them in a way that, for that moment, was the only family you needed.

This company had little to no regard for your safety and your experience in China, simply put they're only interested that you make them a profit.

Firstly the organization and administration of this company was so unprofessional it's hard to believe they are still running.

They don't tell you where you are being placed until literally 2-3 days before your departure from Beijing which just really highlights the level of incompetency this company has.

The area I was placed in was actually an hour away from where they told me I was going, the town was a huge industrial factory style town with little to no outlets for social time or cultural immersion which is the exact opposite to how they try to sell this course. The town was rife with crime and very unsafe to walk around.

I later found out through the school I worked for that my actual salary was 10,000 yuan but that they were only paying me 2,500 and sending the rest to ImmerQi. ImmerQi tries to makes you believe that this money is enough to live on comfortably in China, this is a flat out lie.

I could go on and on and tell you all about my abysmal experience with this company but my advice to anyone thinking of pursuing down the route of teaching in China is to do it, but not with this company. Especially if you're a native english speaker with a university degree, people who fall into this category can make up to 20,000 yuan a month if you investigate schools and recruitment companies properly. I wish I had.

Dear all,

My internship at The Good Agency Asia consisted of marketing and event management. As a consequence, I took part in lots of events in Shanghai. I went to a pool party with my boss and the members of a financial company we worked for. We were in a house with a swimming pool and a barbecue and there we drank tequila, we ate hamburgers and we sang karaoke. Then I took part in two press conferences about two NGOs my company worked for: I had to be elegant, with a black dress, I took pictures, I helped my boss in the organization of the location and I met and spoke with a lot of important Shanghai's people. Another event I organized and I took part in consisted in the promotion of an NGO for which my collegue and me had to collect funds. The promotion was divided in two Saturdays: the first Saturday we worked 14 hours because we were at the so-called "Spotlight rythm and trend festival" which lasted untill 2am; the second Saturday we were at Mayita, a Mexican Restaurant on a rooftop in Shanghai, where we had fun, we drank beer and we met new people. Finally, we organized a private dinner to promote a brand company. This event was in our office: there was a barman, sushi, a photographer with a Polaroid and a deejay. In addition, for this company I worked as a model, so a photographer took pictures of me while wearing their bags.

These are few stories about my months in Shanghai, but they are enough to understand that I worked a lot and I had fun at the same time.

Laura

I absolutely loved my experience here in Beijing! I worked in a investment/merchant bank and I had the possibility to "touch with my hands" the chinese business World. I made reports used by my boss in official negotiations, I attended meetings with senior investment bankers, I became familiar with financial models and I understood what really means to create a joint venture.
Beijing is a pretty cool city (in my opinion, it's better than Shanghai!): it offers every kind of service and, if you want, you can find easily western shops and restaurant. Life there is so good and so cheap, everything is affordable. I knew a lot of people from every side of the world there! It's simply amazing to have a such great group of people during the intership program.
The service offered by ImmerQi was simply perfect: very good accomodation, excellent help to impact a new culture and a very good organization about my internship. ImmerQi staff gave us the possibility to attend many events, from networking events (through one of ImmerQi chinese contacts, I was invited to travel to Tianjin to visit a local car factory together with Swiss and German offials) to cultural trips (like Great Wall and Summer Palace) and sportive days (I really enjoyed "rockclimbing day"!). ImmerQi people were always nice with me and a lot of time we went out together for a dinner or simply a drink after work: they were (and are) more friends than managers!
In the end, I suggest to everyone to join this program and these wonderful people! It will be an experiece you could not forget!