A That's weekly series where we ask a Beijing-based somebody to tell us 5 Things specific to their life. CEO of Beijingteach.com Eric Winder came to Beijing in 2012 and taught English through a recruiting agency for about a year – until he realized he could do a better job helping foreigners secure a position in China. The New Yorker started Beijingteach, and has now brought more that 250 foreigners to the city, organizing apartments, jobs and visas for his clients. Only about 13 of these people just haven’t worked out. The pensive recruiter tells us how to get fired from kindergarten…
1) "Belligerent alcoholics who will get drunk and show up to school drunk and, you know, just scare people almost just because of who the Hell they are..."
People being belligerent alcoholics who will get drunk and show up to school drunk and, you know, just scare people almost just because of who the Hell they are. Like, literally crazy people who are not suited to work with kids or work with any job period, and then they get here and they’re really scary people who get fired from the school, and then they kind of disappear.
I mean, I’ll never have contact with them again. They’re never to be heard from by us or anyone over here. They just get fired and then find their own way, somehow, doing something.
2) "People who have very little personality, who can’t hold much of a conversation..."
If someone has never traveled before at all, that’s a red flag. That’s not meaning it won’t work, it just gives us some causes for concern when they come over. Younger people, they’re just less mature, have less life experience. They’re not stable in terms of what they’re doing with their lives. People who have very little personality, who can’t hold much of a conversation, who give you a pause with their personality. They’re all just kind of red flags.
I just had two girls decide to go to Shenyang who don’t speak Chinese and have never been to China before. It’s going to be a very different experience. Beijing is a real international city, and it offers everything that China offers, as a whole.
3) "These kinds of people are not suited for any kind of employment because they’re not stable people..."
If they’re just not showing up to school, they’re not doing their job, then they’re let go. I don’t think these people are not just suited to work with kids, these kinds of people are not suited for any kind of employment because they’re not stable people. Obviously the threshold for doing well at a school in China is not the highest threshold to meet.
4) "If you view things as a negative, rather than a neutral or a positive, that will detract from the overall experience..."
If you nitpick, complain, be like, ‘What the Hell is that?’ If you view things as a negative, rather than a neutral or a positive, that will detract from the overall experience of living here and teaching here. You just gotta take it all in.
Being able to actually live day-to-day in China, it can be a culture shock. It’s just very different with the housing or the way the system works. You just need to be very, very patient, and be a positive person and have a positive personality.
5) "If you want a great teaching job, you shouldn’t go to China as a career move, it’s not where the money is..."
Dealing with the Chinese staff with no English, or working with a principal who’s never worked with any foreigners before. If you have Chinese bosses and employees, the way we think about productivity, organization, constructive criticism, I think it’s just very different between countries. Communication, cultural barriers, dealing with the differences between how we think about things. I think that can be difficult too.
But these are all interesting things that just make the whole experience. If you want a great teaching job, you shouldn’t go to China as a career move, it’s not where the money is. People go here just because it’s Beijing. People go here for the adventure.
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