Web International English

I worked as an English teacher at Web International School in Jiangyin City, China for three months during a summer. Most contracts with Web require teachers to sign on for at least a year, but since I came on during the summer when there is an onslaught of young students suddenly attending and because I had a personal connection to the owner of the school, I was able to negotiate a shorter stint.

The school is meant for private adult English education, but the summer months saw many younger students attending. I ended up teaching many of them, since the other teachers didn't "sign on" to "teach kids". I was more than happy to do it.

Each lesson plan was already set, from "Icebreaker" level (learning the ABC's) to "Advanced Business English". As a teacher at Web, you teach all of them. Typically, I taught 5 one-hour lessons a day, and otherwise held office hours for the other three hours.

The lesson plans were a bit outdated and could definitely use a lot of revamping. The students were a mixed bunch--some clearly loved learning the language, while many were there because their parents made them. Typical of any student anywhere, really. As it was summer, we held a field trip once per month, and at least one foreign teacher was required to attend. I chaperoned the a trip to the bamboo forest in YiXing, which would've been absolutely wonderful, had it not been for the oppressive heat.

Each student was required to meet with a local Chinese tutor, who helped them prepare for their lesson with the foreign English teacher. The students were also required to complete a test on the computer for each lesson in order to progress to the next class. The Chinese tutors were paid a very paltry salary for working 6 days a week--that was the one major reality of working in China as a foreigner that I was never able to fully come to terms with. Foreign teachers were paid nearly seven times that amount per month and provided with living quarters.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed working at Web. The support was not fantastic and I know some of the foreign teachers squabbled at bits of their contracts, but for three months and my first foray into teaching English, it was an experience I would never trade. Web has locations all over China. I lived in Jiangyin City, which, while it is rapidly developing like all of China, had not yet been exposed to many young white foreign girls before. It was definitely an enormous culture shock.