Last Friday we had a reunion of Aitece teachers who returned from China in recent years. Between them they had put in seventy-two years of teaching English there!
As they shared their experiences the most common reflections were, ‘a wonderful time’, ‘most rewarding period of my life’, ‘amazing students’ and ‘it was so positive’.
It was also ‘send-off’ time for two new volunteers and the story of their struggle to get all the necessary documentation together in time was sobering.
In recent years many foreigners have gone to China to teach with doubtful qualifications so now everything has to be documented, notarised and certified. Congratulations to the two who had to rush to complete the process before a deadline. After that, for them life in China will be no problem.
Hopefully the Chinese government will realise that the new regulations will deprive them of many great experience teachers who won’t want go to all that bother but in the meantime we will try to meet the demands.
The good news is that there are still fantastic opportunities to spend a year or more in China working with young people, the less good news is that you will need to apply in plenty of time to get the documentation done.
Congratulations again to the twelve teachers who have spent so many happy and productive years in China and on the good relationships they have built up on a personal level between Irish and Chinese.