are you white? then you don't need any "qualifications". you should be fine.
:roll: :roll: :roll:
If you have blond hair and blue eyes, even better!
But I can tell by your posts that you are an educated and thoughtful person. So you should be able to find a job even if your hair is brown.

Without a degree, chances are you'd still find a teaching job but you will NOT qualify for a visa/residence permit. A Batchelor's degree (in any subject) is therefore mandatory for foreign Teachers to work legally.

@BJRob do you mean obvious or oblivious :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Wow, you're batting a thousand today.

I'm sometimes mean on this forum, but right now, I'm going to be super mean, so please avert your eyes ancicam......

OP, you are the kind of foreigner that gives the rest of us upstanding foreign beijingers a bad name. You have no degree, have no idea what's going on, speak absolutely no chinese, and are mostly concerned with where to hook up with the ladies. Do you have any idea what a douche bag cliche you are? Please go back home. You can't get a working visa without a degree and if you try and work without one, chances are you'll be fined and deported--and for good reason. We expats, as well as the chinese, don't want you here. If you can't afford the plane ticket home, please pm me and i'll pay for it, for I do have a college degree, speak chinese, and would like to keep people like you from ruining it for the rest of us.

Okay, this is only my second post on here, but I've been reading this board for quite some time, and I'm getting a little sick of the snobbiness so many people show towards new teachers here. I don't have anything against foreigners coming here and "the rest of us upstanding foreign beijingers a bad name" as americanbeijing so smugly put it. There is plenty room in this city for many more foreigners, as the demand for English teachers is growing. The reality is that while working on an F visa is not ideal, I personally know many people who do this. And as far as having a degree, what does that really matter to someone who is teaching children or adults with a very low level of English? As if a B.A. or master's degree in philosophy or biology or history or engineering is really going to make you a better English teacher.

americanbeijinger:

Being an English teacher is not something to be proud of. So you're basically debating who's the bigger loser.

Typical. You think that because I'm successful and smug that it must be because I grew up privileged and I'm insecure. For your information, I've been on my own since I was 15 and then STILL managed to put myself through college. So no, mommy and daddy weren't around to hand me my college degree. Also, I seriously doubt the english teachers are going to be competing for the same management level jobs I am because of the simple fact that they can't do them, don't have the experience, don't have the language skills, and don't have those fancy mommy and daddy degrees that you seem to think is a prerequisite.

No, english teachers don't make me insecure (even though it's a ridiculously funny theory). It's their behavior and general attitude toward "the establishment" that's annoying.

And if it isn't obvious yet, I'm not an english teacher, so we won't be hanging.

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

I am a professional teacher. I teach a heck of a lot more than English. And it looks like you could use a lesson or two.

Exactly what is it that pisses you off about English teachers? Cos, frankly, the non-English teachers seem to be the biggest twats. On here at least. ok, not everyone.

you do know you have to have a degree to work here, right? So why is an English teachers degree lower than a 'professional's' degree?

So teachers are running around giving the teaching profession a bad name? elaborate. i bet the 'professionals' are ten times worse. Seriously, why get your c**t in a twist about something that's irrelevant to you?

bananas. anyone would think you were jealous.

Before this gig I was an English teacher though, and there's something interesting about the profession.

You can slack off, do a bad job and get away with it.

Or, you can take the job seriously, have some f-ing consideration for your students and TEACH them something, and sometimes management notices and when it's time to re-negotiate the contract, things work out well for you.

The only reason why English teachers have a bad name is because too many people do the former and not the latter.

I even have respect for people with no degrees IF they do their job well. I have some friends without degrees, and they are clever, hard-working people who just didn't do that well in school.

Being too sloppy to write in good English is a good sign that you ain't cut out to teach it.

well it really sounds like you have a very compelling story.

but if life is so great, and you are sooo succesfull, why are you an uber bi tch all the time? it seems to me quite likely that someone who feels compelled to broadcast just how smug they are on an online forum is clearly trying to compensate for something....

i wanted to edit and say that it is so obvious that OP is leveling here, but i suppose some people are so eager to fly off the handle and launch their next tirade that they remain blisfully unaware

Ummm.
Surely a certificate is not a must.
A lot of local English teachers (teaching in English training schools) don't have certificates either.
But I do believe being a qualified teacher is the most important.
Making the class fun, and helping and motivating the students to learn.
Anyway, if you can spend your time studying for certificates, like EFL, TESOl, you surely will get some good training that guide your teaching. That's really a plus.