The Good & The Bad of Being a Foreign Teacher

Lately I've been thinking about how much I enjoy being a foreign English teacher in a foreign country.  Of course there are many challenges that come along with this title, but I find those challenges exhilarating, most of the time anyway.  There are some moments where it shows me that I am meant to be a teacher and there are other moments where I doubt myself (at least the teacher part).  Last semester I had a lot of doubts, but with the new term I believe I found my footing and realized my love for the kids was what made teaching so exciting for me. So now I will tell you the good and the bad things about being a foreign teacher.

Lets start with the Good:

Money:
You live like a Queen or King!

Kids Love You:
Mostly you will find that children are very excited to have a foreigner come teach them once a week.  Their

faces light up when you walk in the room, initially just because you are a foreigner and look quite different, but then it changes into, "She's my foreigner!" which makes you smile every time.

Parents Love You:
Pleasing the parents of the children is just as important as pleasing the children (usually through games).  If you don't do what the parents want then the parents will complain.  If you don't look foreign sometimes they also complain (it's China, don't question their logic).  Luckily for me all my parents seem to like me, one because I am foreign and look foreign, and two because I remember most of their children's names and I interact with them outside of the classroom as well (meaning I poke them in the ribs when I see them on the street, put my hand on their head, or just wave hello!).

Chinese Schools Love You:

I have worked at many different schools and all of them have wanted me to work their full time.  I try not to let these comments get to my head because I know it's just so they can show me off to the parents and charge them more.  Yet the comments still make you feel good.  Recently, I have been going to this middle school and the kids are wonderful.  These kids are just regular pre-teens and teenagers who have never spoken to a foreigner before, so when I walk in the kids go crazy.  Crazy excited, I mean.  Even their Chinese English teacher is very kind and whips out his/her camera to take photos of you interacting with the children. Most of the kids, after the initial excitement wares off they realize, "Oh shit, it's a real foreigner and we get to talk to her. What do I say? What if I say it wrong?"  So, in order to break the ice I tell them my name, which is Kat.  I explain that it's not Kate, but sounds just like Cat, the animal.  Then I do their cat action which is mimicking whiskers on your face.  They all laugh, thankfully.

You Can Be Funny and Goofy (Without Looking Stupid)
If I was teaching in the US and I walked into a middle school full of teens, I would try to be cool and

collected, you know?  But in China I am a goofball.  Most of my closest friends know how out-going and funny I can really be.  In China, as a foreign teacher, you are like an animal in a zoo; the more you get the visitors to laugh the more bananas you get (of course I don't get paid more, I wish!).  You may not get paid more, but it makes you popular and it makes the Chinese students laugh and have fun; breaks the ice in another way.  I have literally danced, like did robot moves, in a class full of teens (by the way they loved it).  As I look back on moments like those I roll my eyes, while my smile comes quickly because I remember all the kids who laughed.


You Get Lots of Free Stuff:

I can't begin to tell you how awesome free stuff is, even in the US free stuff was why I went to a lot of events where I ended up gaining a lot of knowledge about things I had no interest in (Oh college!). Here in China, I get free stuff or cheaper stuff just from being a foreigner, but also because I am a foreign teacher.  Most of my kids gave me presents for my birthday, which doesn't happen to a lot of foreigners apparently (I also told them it was my birthday the week before, just a little *hint hint nudge nudge*).  I expect nothing when I go places and I receive.  I have gotten many things as a "Thank You" from the children I teach or from the school administrators who are grateful that I came and interacted with their students.  I love free stuff!

Now some of the Bad:

Popularity Sometimes Bites
Being too popular can sometimes be not fun at all.  Being popular means everyone wants you.  I am a foreigner, who looks super foreign and is from America, those three combinations makes me like a shiny new toy.  I like having my breaks during the week and in the beginning of the semester I had a lot of breaks during my weekends as well (one point I even took a nap in between teaching times, oh the good days!).  Yet because of some minor set backs (meaning parents complaining and a teacher leaving) I had to pick up a lot of the slack.  My breaks got shorter and I found myself doing some things I'd never done before (like Open House).  Because of Open House classes more students started signing up, which to Aston means "Oh lets open another class in the middle of the semester, eight weeks behind everyone else's classes!" Guess who got one of those classes? Me, of course, because I was requested.  Don't get me wrong I love the students and my CT Peter is awesome, plus it's a small class (only 7 kids) so they get a lot of one-on-one time.  My Saturday is like Dooms Day.


Staring
Even as a teacher you get stared at a lot.  Parents are more curious than their children, so their stares when you walk to their child's class is like a lazer beam (Yes, the parents sit outside the classroom and wait for their child's class to be over, overprotective much? Sometimes it's their grandparents).

Personal Space

When you are a foreigner you get no personal space.  For example, when you are sitting in the office a father will come in and stand right behind you and watch what you are doing (for this instance I was grading).  Most of the Chinese have really bad halitosis, so you nearly faint when they breath on you (don't even get me started on the crowded buses and breath!).  It's not just the parents, but the kids as well.  Most of the kids they want to touch you and hug you, but for me it's ingrained to not touch children in any way or I will get shot or sued.  Here, you won't.  Why? Because the parents want their children to be close to the foreigner.  It's weird.  So, I have gotten over most of my fears and I have hugged children and picked them up and tickled them and hit them with my book (not really hard, in all honesty the kids enjoy being klunked in the head by any object, especially if it squeaks).  But sometimes, the kids swarm you.  I hate swarming by anything, so when the kids attack me for candy or stickers I get agitated.  Sure they look all cute an innocent as they come at you, but they will take you down for a sticker.  I like my personal space very much, so when a group of teenage girls come at me, to ask about Justin Bieber not about English, my immediate response is to back up.  I still get surrounded and then they want to be hugged (They were literally 14 year old girls).