In the six years that I have been teaching English in China, I have found that there are four kinds of foreign teachers: the may fly, the quitter, the rebel and the puppet. Each one is slightly different, but all are intrinsically linked together. Which one are you?

1) The puppet
Let’s start with the latter – the puppet – a.k.a “the pusher”. The puppet initially has high ideals, and those ideals mainly consist of “making it in China,” by moving up in the hierarchy of the organization he works for. He wants power rather than money, and he wants to apply that power to be respected in the community he operates in and to do what is right for his potential or future inferiors. Unfortunately for the puppet, respect is something that he just does not seem to get, even if he deserves it – not by his Chinese superiors, who only keep him as a marionette to restrain any foreign rebellion and not by his own nationals.

2) The rebel
Over time, puppets will most likely turn into rebels. What is a rebel? A rebel is, in a sense, a professional. He has had his share of negative experiences. He still might want to make education right, but he is frustrated on two fronts: The first front is the intellectually rigid Chinese student, who through his high school education is made incapable of grasping whatever the foreign ESL teacher is trying to make him understand. The second front is the school management. No matter what they say, Chinese ESL schools want to make profit above anything. Just as profit comes before safety, prevention of pollution and corruption in the Chinese economy, bucks go before a better education in the ESL world. Despite the fact that Chinese ESL education could be inexpensive and efficient, it is in fact generally costly, time-wasting and fruitless. When puppets and rebels realize that, they are on their way to become the next type of teacher: the quitter. 

3) The quitter
Quitters still have their job as ESL teachers, but will not take their profession very seriously. They once might have, but now they see that their role is more that of an English facilitator, or communicator, rather than teacher. They actually might feel comfortable in this new role, and throw overboard any obsolete attempts to improve education (which usually is a synonym for preventing client-parents from not refunding their money), and allows them to be withdrawn. The extra time they have now created by not focusing on a serious career in education, gives them the opportunity to look for other interests and thus concentrate on a more purposeful future until they are about to do what is best for them: to quit.

4) The may fly
That leaves us with the largest group: the may flies. The may fly is often the young teacher who is in China to enjoy freedom and to have fun. Work is not important; he’s just does it to finance his living. May flies can also be those who sign up with an ESL school because they urgently need a visa, or who are just travelling around picking up some extra spending money here and there. May flies usually do not stay with the same employer for more than one year.

From here on, I will leave you with your thoughts. You may decide if there is some truth in my categorization, or if you are one of them described above. I know I certainly am.

Roger Bosch has been an ESL-teacher/custodian-for-foreign-teachers in Chongqing for six years, although he regards himself more as oral-English facilitator, or at worst a socioculturalist. In 2008 he received the Chongqing Foreign Experts Friendship Award, and has been cited in many local magazines and newspapers. Read more articles on www.rogerbosch.wordpress.com
 

Related links
The Two Types of Foreigners in China
Expat Stereotyping: 7 Different Types of Foreigners in China
‘E’ is for ‘Elephant in the Room’: The Stigma of English Teaching in China

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: 4 foreign teachers China foreign teacher types China Four types of teachers China