Gotoco

After having travelled for several months before making my way to Yangshuo with Goto, it was delightful to be with the community, and to have an opportunity to become so close with my students. The landscape is unreal; the opportunity for exploration uninhibited, and the authenticity of the cultural immersion undeniable. I learned so much about myself, and my future while making lifelong friends. This experience is absolutely recommended!

After my first year of studying medicine at University, I decided to experience something completely out of my comfort zone and go and teach English at a summer school in the rural town of Yangshuo, China. Though I had some previous teaching experience, I was very keen to push my abilities to the limit whilst immersing myself in a completely different culture. The summer school (Oral English College) was based in a modern town complex where myself and my friends from university were provided with full accommodation and board for the duration of our stay. We were provided with some guidance by the co-ordinator as to what the lessons should consist of, but we were very much given relatively free reign to explore what worked for us and our students. The ability of the children varied and as such each class provided different challenges. We would go from being heavily reliant upon our native Chinese teaching assistants for translation of even the simplest of English words to being able to explore relatively complex sentence structure with others. Though occasionally difficult to maintain the attention of the class of 10-16 year olds for entire mornings, a healthy mixture of fun games and serious teaching meant that both us and the students tended to have great fun during lessons whilst also being very productive! The afternoons often consisted of fun activities that we would organise and host e.g. fashion shows where the kids made their own clothes to exhibit, fruit decorating competitions, karaoke and much more. We were also given ample time off to explore the beautiful town of Yangshuo so that we felt as if we were on holiday as well as teaching! After our time teaching was up, we sadly said goodbye to everyone at the Oral English College and went off travelling towards Shanghai and Beijing- which was a stunning experience for us all. It was a remarkable summer and an experience that I shall never forget. If done properly, I couldn't recommend it more!

I had am amazing experience teaching English in Yangshuo and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone else considering doing it. Although it is a massive responsibility, it is extremely rewarding and the guys running the programme were brilliant - they were always there to help you out when needed. Everything is provided for you (accommodation, food, teaching resources) and living in this part of China for a short while is brilliant, it truly is a beautiful part of the world.