Teach English in China + Visa Assistance with CIEE

CIEE Teach Abroad in China does a great job in helping you feel as prepared as possible for your placement through offering a Pre-Departure Course before even leaving your home country and then an orientation before the school year begins. Orientation was organized into 2 parts: First, we went over topics ranging from learning/teaching styles to logistics of working/living in China. Then, we worked in pairs and co-taught in an English summer camp. Many moments were tiring and stressful but overall, it's still a helpful experience because you learn a lot and the summer camp experience gives you an example of what your teaching experience could be like during your contract. Within the first month, I slowly started integrating myself more with the school and initiating conversation with Chinese teachers. Now, I play in the teacher's badminton club, I'm invited to weekend hiking/sightseeing trips with other teachers, I join for-fun competitions between teaching departments, and more. Whenever I have asked the primary school Chinese teachers for help, they have always tried to help with ideas, classroom management suggestions, and even sharing their coursebook to help me generate ideas for my class. Overall, your experience will be what you make of it, but to help ensure a positive experience, I highly recommend you learn at least basic Mandarin (even a little goes a long way) and try to be open-minded and understand there will be cultural differences.

It is very likely that I will recommend CIEE Teach Abroad to a friend or colleague (depending on how adventurous the friend or colleague is) because applying and finding a place to teach English abroad is a big and complicated process, and this program made that process much less complicated and much more manageable. In addition, now that I'm in the country and teaching, I feel that CIEE is there to take care of me should I have any issues with my school or contract - in fact, they have already been of great help in this area. This is a reputable program and I feel well taken care of.

Amazon gift certificate? But really, all of CIEE's staff, especially in Shanghai, have been incredibly helpful throughout this experience. I got pretty sick at one point in my time here, and both CIEE and my school worked to get me to Shanghai and better. Earlier on, they also accommodated my late arrival to orientation, but I feel this is something that could've been avoided with a clearer and tighter pre-departure process, specifically with regard to precisely when we should buy a plane ticket. But I'll talk about that later in the survey if I can. By and large, no complaints whatsoever.