Hello all! My name is Katerina and I spent more than 6 weeks travelling and teaching in China in summer of 2016. I was in Humen, a town in Dongguan city in Guangdong province, southern China. I had a wonderful time and I enjoyed my trip.

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Humen, view from the Temple in Keyuan Garden

• What helped you settle in China?
I had arrived in China two weeks before the summer school started since I wanted to travel (I visited Beijing, Tianjin, the Great Wall, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hong Kong and Macau) so without a doubt, the advice Teach English In China gave me helped me most. They provided me not only with advice about teaching but also and most importantly with general advice about travelling and visiting China. Apart from that, when I arrived at the school, I met there two teaching assistants who helped me with the language and explained me a lot of things about the school.

• How did you approach your first class?
In my first class I introduced myself, my hobbies, my favourite song and I used a PowerPoint presentation to show to the children a map of Europe, England and Greece, the country I am from. Then, we played a game («Guess who?» ) so the children could introduce themselves and start talking. Each child wrote 1-2 things about themselves on a piece of paper without writing their name. Then we put all the pieces of paper in a bag and we started picking them out at random. The aim was to work out who wrote what. That was quite interactive and all the students wanted to play the game, showing great interest in their classmates.

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Opening ceremony


• What do you enjoy most about teaching in China?
Teaching in China is, without a doubt, an unforgettable experience. I enjoyed a lot of things. First of all, I met there interesting people and I developed strong relationships with them. Children were amazing, and I had the chance to take a real taste of how Chinese people live since we participated in a lot of outdoor activities and day trips.

• What’s been the most challenging aspect about teaching in China?
The culture is quite different, they were not well organised and most of the people do not speak English. That was the biggest difficulty because we couldn’t easily communicate. Apart from that, be ready for last minute changes because that is something typically Chinese.

• Is teaching in China what you expected it would be? What parts of the experience have surprised you?
Teaching and travelling in China is quite different from the western way of thinking and life. That was the main reason why I wanted to apply and go there. So, first of all I was quite surprised because the school wasn’t well organised and we didn’t always know what to expect every day. On the other hand though, the school treated us very nicely and the way we were welcomed by both teachers and the children was outstanding. We stayed in a five star hotel and day tips during the weekends were paid. Finally I was surprised with the number of the children in the class because I had to teach 38 children.


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Day trip to a farm

• How has teaching English in China changed you?
Teaching English in China had an impact on me and it is an unforgettable experience of my life. I had the chance not only to teach in China but also to live as a local and travel there. I broadened my horizons, I took a real taste of how Chinese people and children live, what the weather is like and I tried real Chinese food. More importantly, I was lucky enough to share this experience with other wonderful young people, we worked and travelled together and I am sure that we will meet again in the future. Finally, I became quite confident with the fact that people stare at you all the time and I learned how to bargain since Chinese people wanted to charge us more for everything!