How I got the job?

My friend G and Cousin L were asking me the other day:

• "How did you find this job?"

I found the job through a job agency "Carney, Sandoe & Associates" http://www.carneysandoe.com/. It's a agency based in Boston. But they place the teachers everywhere in the U.S. Free of charge for candidates. The agency charged the schools who are looking for teachers.

You can also use "Cal/West Educators Placement". It's another agency based in the L.A. area. They place teachers mainly in California and west coast. But they do charge the applicants $ 35 for application fees (one time, life long).

Both agencies are pretty capable of finding suitable positions for you. The first thing you have to do is to fill out all the application forms on line. If you're qualified (the basic is a B.A. degree), they will contact you for a phone (or in person) interview, then send you all the info you need to know for your job searching.

• "What's the process of getting a job in a U.S. private school?"

For my example, I started my job searching from last October. After I've done my phone interview with Carney Sandoe, they sent me 3-5 F/T or P/T Mandarin Chinese teaching openings in different schools last December. I did the follow up e-mails (or mails, depends on what the school prefers), and started my interviews and teaching demos process with different schools in February and March. I did my last interview and teaching demo with my current school in the end of April. A week later, they offered me a job that will be starting in August.

So, you get the picture. The whole process took me about 6-10 months to land a job. But, you're going to change or find a job at any private school, you can just start from January or February. That will give you enough time to do so.

• "If I want to teach Mandarin Chinese in the States, what qualifications do I need?"

You do need a California teaching credential, and a B.A. to prove that you are qualified to be a CFL teacher in the States.

Please see the links for more details:
--Teaching in public school system in California: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/teach.html
--駐洛杉磯台北經濟文化辦事處文化組 http://www.tw.org/cbest/faq.htm
--Teaching in private school system in California: http://www.calwesteducators.com/

But, for my case, I don't have a California teaching credential. Some privates school do request the teachers have credentials, some don't. I was lucky that my school didn't request one, I guess they emphasize more on teaching experiences and skills.

• When you look for a part-time or full-time job as a Chinese teacher, how do you convince others that you are able to teach Chinese not only because you're from Taiwan but your native language is Chinese?

Sigh... This is a very good question, and it will be a long story to tell... Very sadly, there are still many prejudices against "Taiwanese" Chinese in this field. Anyway, please check my old blog entry: http://ctinlalaland.blogspot.com/2008/02/beverly-hill-lingual-institute.html. You will understand what I meant.

However, I think the most important thing is, you must have pretty good knowledge of the Chinese language itself if you want to be a capable Chinese teacher (of course along with other criteria, such as: effective pedagogy tailored to students' needs, tremendous patience & humor, and cultural sensitivity).

I started to learn a lot of things regarding "Chinese" on my own after I begun tutoring English speakers. Many things we have never learned from our Chinese teachers at school when we grew up, many things we never understood why and how... I found the answers on my own by reading a lot of related materials. I guess the reason why no teachers would ever tell you the answers because it was considered "rebellious" to even think about challenging teachers by asking "tricky" questions (another Confucius influence!).

Carrying the "Taiwanese" Chinese accent seems to me a very minor thing from the linguistic perspective. If you ask any native English speakers, how many of them will dare to admit that their spoken English is the proper "American" English and their accents are "standard"?