Emma Lomax spent a year living and teaching in Foshan, Guangdong on our State School Teaching Programme 2016-17. Here she speaks about her experience and what’s made her decide to stay another year.

What made you decide that you wanted to Teach English in China?

I have always been interested in Asia and its culture and I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to visit. During my final year of university, I decided to teach English abroad and I stumbled across opportunities for teaching in China. The decision came down to teaching in China or Italy and I wanted to go for the more adventurous choice!

What age group do you teach and what are the pros and cons of teaching this age group?

I teach a range of Grades with students aged between 7 and 13. Initially, I requested to teach older students, because I thought I would prefer teaching them. Though surprisingly, I discovered that I prefer teaching Grades 2 and 3 than Grades 7 and 8. I found that my primary classes show a lot of passion for learning English and are more excited in class. My older students tend to often be distracted and tired because they are much busier and more over-worked. That said, I wouldn’t give up any of my classes and I’ve really enjoyed teaching primary and middle school classes.

How does living in China compare to the likes of visiting somewhere on holiday?

Visiting China for a holiday would be a lot like the start of my time here: confusing and chaotic. Though, living and teaching in China has over time has made my experience here entirely different. I’ve gone from finding daily life stressful to being able to communicate with local people, to being able to work the Didi app for taxis and generally figuring out helpful hacks for living in China. I think that living here you are constantly learning so much about how to get by. New teachers arrived at my school in February, 6 months after me, and I felt like I had endless amounts of helpful information to share with the new teachers that I had learnt along the way.

What kind of things have you been able to do in China that you wouldn’t have been able to do at home?

For starters, I would never have been able to see some of the amazing things that I have. China has so much beautiful scenery and so many places worth seeing. I remember in my second month here, I went to visit a park in Guangdong that was mentioned on the province’s last page in its Lonely Planet section, with just a few lines of information about it. I’d still say that park was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to in my life but compared to the rest of China it’s only worth a sentence or two in the Lonely Planet guide.

Living here I have also discovered the real Chinese food! Not the Westernised version that we eat at home from our local take-away. On top of this, I never would have imagined myself learning to speak Mandarin. I have a friend who teaches me for free every week and I really enjoy learning the language. I think most importantly though back at home we don’t have WeChat pay which is just the best thing ever.

 

       

What have you gained from teaching in China and how do you think this will help you in the future?

I have (very slowly) gained a love for China and the life here. The more I learn about the country and the more of the language I learn the longer I am eager to stay here. Living and teaching in China you have to learn to be patient and tolerant of things. For example, people pushing in front of you, waiting a long amount of time for things and accepting that you won’t always be able to get or do what you want due to communication difficulties. This experience has also shown me how much I love being a teacher and enjoy teaching Chinese kids! What I expected to be a one-year adventure is now turning into two. Who knows how much longer it could stretch…