Now, let’s be frank for a moment, shall we?
CTLC sucks.
There, I said it, now let me say it again.
CTLC sucks.
I usually do a post around August or September telling you this, for I figure a lot of you new CTLC teachers will be searching around the internet. Well, not this year.
The Chinese government changed their teaching rules, so you have to have 2 years of teaching experience to teach ESL in China. That means you can’t go fresh from college to the CTLC program, like I did in 2008.
I had no teaching experience, and I thought that CTLC did a bad job of providing it. Granted, the training was cut short that year because of the Olympics, but I still thought they could have done a better job.
Anyways, I say that they suck because the pay is lousy for what you have to do. I mean, 50 kids in a class? How are you supposed to have any kind of behavior management that will allow learning?
You’re not. The whole idea is to get a foreigner in those classrooms so the principals of those schools can brag to their rich businessmen friends.
Well, maybe there’s more to it than that, but honestly, a lot of the times that’s what it is.
You can learn a bit about the new Chinese teaching rules for foreigners on the CTLC website. They do a lot better job hiding what they’ll pay you, which isn’t much. I know it’s a lot more than the 5,000 RMB we got a month in 2008. I think it’s closer to 9,000 now, but still, you can get 12,000 to 15,000 RMB at an ESL training center.
If you’re in the CTLC program now, think about other options. I did in 2010 and doubled my income in a month, and cut my stress by half as well. I’m not saying training centers are better, but I will say they’re better managed than CTLC.
Anyways, good luck with the program this year, and happy teaching in Shenzhen!