Volunteer English Teaching in China

Volunteer English teaching in China focuses on teaching conversational English to Chinese students. IFRE presently works with Chinese public schools; most of them are located in rural parts and serve the kids of farmers and lower class people. Non-native English speakers can also join this project

Skills/Qualifications

No qualification is needed to join the volunteer teaching project in China . However, volunteers should have enough knowledge of English to effectively teach it's basics to Chinese students. Non-native speakers can also join this project if they speak, read, and write English. No salary or benefits will be offered to volunteer English teachers in the China project.

Volunteers Responsibilities

In China , there is growing demand for an English education. With the economic growth, the importance of English education is also growing. Many of the schools in China have established an 'English corner.' This is a place specially designed for teaching and learning English. These schools are very eager to get native English teachers. Unfortunately, only private, expensive schools in city areas attract native English teachers. Most of the resource poor schools remain in quest for quality teachers for their English classes and especially for native English speakers.

Therefore, as a volunteer English teacher in China , you will teach English at these resource poor and rural schools. It would be possible to arrange free room and food but these schools do not offer extra salary like private schools.

Room/Food/Supervision

We offer a “home base” in Xi’an, China. Our home base is located in a beautiful area of Xi’an city. This area /community is very safe, clean and accessible to local transport. Residing within this community are many business families, high ranked government officials and people with a high social status. It’s near to the supermarket and the shopping mall and you can easily walk to the local bus station if you choose to go into town. The nearby internet café, restaurant, police station and supermarket are just 1-3 km away. Our home base accommodations offer volunteers a wonderful place to rest and relax after a day’s work or weekend travel. This is the ideal setting for individuals looking for a “home away from home” and the perfect arrangement for sharing your daily experiences with fellow volunteers, or local staff.

Dependent on the season and flow of volunteers, you may be placed with a local host family or with the family of our in-country coordinator. Our host family homes provide similar amenities as our home base, but you will also have your own room. Staying with a host family offers a valuable chance to learn more about Chinese people and their culture. When selecting home base or host families, we were primarily focused on the safety and comfort of our volunteers. In all China volunteer projects, breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided throughout the duration of the project. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine (Chinese food). Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat. We also work extremely hard to maintain our facilities in a positive condition.

Most of our volunteer projects in china are within 5-30 minutes away our home base in local bus. China has very strong and reliable system of local bus so you will be traveling to/from in local bus each day. Volunteers at our Panda Conservation project will stay at a modest economy hotel, close to the Conservation Center. We have a strong partnership with this hotel and they treat our international volunteers with kind respect and offer a very safe environment. Internet is available at this hotel. Breakfast - lunch - dinner is provided at a nearby restaurant, which offers very delicious Chinese food. In China, our in-country staff provides highly effective field support. Whether you stay in our home base or with a host family, our coordinators visit you regularly (even day or within 2-7 days) to ensure a successful and happy volunteer experience.