I am thinking of going to Beijing in China to teach English at the start of September. I come from England and have heard it's pretty easy to get work over there, i have a TEFL qualification and teaching experience. Is anyone else thinking of doing something similar and are you going with an organised company or on your own?

I've been teaching in china almost two years now, three different schools. First I came through a program, the "Appalachians Abroad" program through Marshall University (do a quick searchdon't need to be a student there to participate). The programs give you the support you may need in case of any problems, and there may be some problems, due to cultural differences, bad school administration, etc. You can also do a search for anything that relates to bad experiences, school reviews in china. there are many forums and websites devoted to these things.

It is easy to find a job through online ads, and you can set this up before you go. Check out www.abroadchina.org, I got my last two jobs through this site. It is reliable and straightforward. If you are certified and have experience, you will have bargaining power. The chinese will usually low-ball on salary and try to ask you to teach the maximum number of hours. 16 hours at 3500-5000RMB is normal for university is the norm, some have gotten less. Younger age levels you will teach more hours but should expect a much higher salary.

beware of TEFL sites that may be frauds, and always ask for past/current foreign teacher's email addresses, to make sure you have chosen the right school. China is a fascinating country, good luck.

possibly...

I am in Taiwan and there are lots of foreign English teacher here, usually there are from Canada or England, American usually end up in office works as technical writer.

Anyway, schools that do hire foreign language teacher are private school, from grade school to senior high school, as the goverment had change the education system and curriculum, English is now teach starting grade 1.

Others that require foreign language teacher are cram school or language school or language center.

My understanding is the situation is the same for China, 6 months ago when I was in Shanghai, I saw on the local TV station where grade school kids are competing in English, they are much much more fluent that their Taiwan counterpart, and they are not limited to a few vocabulary.

You can start looking for school that have branches, or you can look for a few friend who have been in China for a while to start your own.

i'm not going