ImmerQi Internship

My boyfriend and I have been on the internship with ImmerQi since February and with only 3 weeks left of our teaching programme I can say with honesty and sincerity that this has been the best experience of my life.

Placed in South China in a little (by Chinese standards!) city called Jinjiang, teaching high school students, I was apprehensive at first, but we quickly got settled! The school, Jiyan High School, is a lovely environment to work in. Though the amenities and resources available are basic, the staff and students are super friendly, and I can't think of anywhere more suitable to begin on a teaching career. We received a lot of help from the Chinese English teachers to get settled in and they gave us advice on teaching when we needed it. We've been given a textbook to loosely follow, devising speaking activities for our classes and being able to deviate slightly from the textbook to incorporate things of interest to the students. This means our lessons are fun and always different! The students are the reason I love it here though - so friendly, enthusiastic and eager to learn, and also to teach us about their local area and culture! We've been involved in school performances (be prepared to look a fool on stage!!), English Corner Club, and we've been taken out for meals and shown around local areas I'd never have thought of going to by myself. Such a great opportunity to see and experience new things!

Of course there are always difficulties, though these are few and far between. The language barrier is an issue everyone will experience at some point or another, but the Chinese English teachers here are very eager to try and help in any way they can, and we get by quite easily on minimal broken Mandarin and mostly hand gestures!

As for ImmerQi itself, I can't credit them enough. Whenever we've had a problem or a question, be it with teaching, post-internship options, or just life in China in general, we have been able to email our Programme Coordinator, Duncan Russell, and he responds quickly, always with good, helpful, friendly advice. Plus he treated us to a Pizza Hut!

I would definitely recommend this programme to anybody looking for a new adventure or to get into teaching - it's been an amazing opportunity and experience for me and my boyfriend and we have immensely enjoyed it!