FAQs

The minimum commitment is one school year plus orientation time.  So plan on 10 plus months. Roughly, mid August to the end of June.   We would prefer to have a teacher commit for more than one year at a time.   

All TA teachers are housed in the foreign faculty/staff housing on the campus of the university where they teach.  Though they are on campus, it may require a fair bit of walking to campus classrooms.   It is not uncommon for a teacher to walk 15-20 minutes to their classes.  

Unless the apartments are single dwelling units, you will be housed with another TA teacher of the same gender.  Single dwelling units are usually one or two bedrooms, with a kitchen, bathroom and small living room.  Units with more than one teacher are larger and often include more than one common area for hosting.   

TA will provide you with some basic English teaching training, and will provide materials if not supplied by the University.  In addition there will be more training on working in another culture, culture fatigue, team building. This will occur during the mandatory weeks of training in July.  New teachers should plan on a full week of face to face training in July and one week with the returning team (Two weeks  total). 

Primarily you will be asked to teach basic Oral English.  In some instances you may teach English to a group within a particular major.  In those cases there is some opportunity to teach English that is specific to that major.  Some teachers will be assigned to teach English to children specifically.  These teachers should be educated/trained in education methods  for young people.   Children's teachers will be required to teach at least one college level class in order to be eligible for a visa. 

The contracts that we negotiate with a each school limits your teaching load to about 14 credits.  This is less than the Chinese professors teach. TA feels that a smaller class load will allow teachers to teach well and provides some more space for building relationships.  

You are required to come up with the amount to cover initial overhead costs.  The exact cost can vary by year, but you will need to raise approximately $5,000.  This covers health insurance, orientation, visa costs, air fare, mid-year retreat expenses, and some group gatherings.  This is to be paid to TA before departure.  We require you to raise this money through family, friends, your local church, etc.  We want there to be a team of people who is sending you supporting you, praying for you, encouraging you.  TA representatives are willing to speak to your local church so that they understand the work of TA and how they can support you while you are there.    

You will receive a monthly stipend while you are in China.  The university will pay roughly $500-600 a month(9-10 months) in addition to providing housing. This is often more if you have a masters degree.  Our teachers have found this to be an adequate amount to  live on.  Some have even been able to make payments on student loans.  However it is unlikely to be enough to cover large bills back  home.  In addition the school will reimburse your airfare back to you at the end of the school year-which is often around $1600-1800.  

Each year we send between 2-12 folks who would comprise a team.  These teachers will not be at the same school but will all be in the Wuhan area.  We always send teachers with other teachers, so you would never be assigned a school all by yourself.  In most cases first year teachers are matched with more experienced teachers at each school.  This team gathers every 4-6 weeks to check in, do some fun things together and evaluate how the year is going.   Over the Lunar New Year break, the team retreats together for 4-5 days.  Lately these retreats have happened in Hong Kong.  

We do accept married couple/families.   In most cases we would expect both adults to teach or to share one full time teaching assignment when there are children. TA is open to considering an accompanying non-teaching spouse. Having only one spouse teach is a possibility, but we feel it is vital (from experience)  that the other spouse have a significant set of responsibilities/work. TA considers non-teaching spouses to be crucial and active part of the TA team.  They would need to attend all training and team events.  They would be assigned some basic responsibilities with the team.   There are not good education options for school aged children so on-line and/or home schooling is likely.