Shanghai Program Review

I was in Shanghai teaching English for about six weeks. The school and accommodation were very central to the city. I worked four full days during the week, two half days and had one day off. There was also one long weekend off to allow participants some time to do some travelling on their own. So, it was quite demanding work-wise and we were in at the deep end, teaching in front of a classroom from the very start. The daily experience at the school was amazing. The school was nice, the teachers were extremely friendly and helpful, the students enthusiastic and fun. After my time teaching, I had about a week and a half before my flight so I got the chance to visit Beijing and Hong Kong for a few days each, which was amazing - independent travel after your programme ends is an absolute must, especially if you're as far away as China, Thailand, Colombia, etc.

The programme also comes with an online TEFL teacher training course, which has been very helpful and informative so far - might've been more helpful to start this earlier so I could try out some of the techniques etc in the classroom.

Gotoco's staff are also very friendly and helpful - when some of the participants were struggling towards the start, a staff member joined us in Shanghai and helped us settle in. Generally, the sense I get is that the staff are extremely competent and friendly but that the organisation is under-staffed. I understand this is a probably a consequence of their non-profit model, which is great because the trip is free for us, but what this means for participants is that independence and resilience are necessary even before you start travelling. Something to consider.

The only serious drawback of the experience was the seemingly misguided decision to work with the agency they chose in Shanghai. They were slow, gave no notice for decisions they made or meetings we had, didn't tell us about their reasoning, made a silly mistake on our visas - they seemed disorganised to say the least. I don't think this is just how people in their line of work are because of the circumstances. Gotoco's staff manage it well.