Comments on: Peace Corps China

By: kate b.

kate b. — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:48:36 +0000

I’m very interested in knowing the answer to Charles’ question regarding internet access/restriction/censorship in China. Does anyone out there know? Thanks, Kate

By: kimberly

kimberly — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:03:55 +0000

I talked with a PC recruiter this week and it sounded like the only people who get an invite to China are professional teachers with several years of teaching experience under their belts. Is this so? Does anyone know of other backgrounds that get picked for China? Thanks.

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:08:00 +0000

We have been accepted in the PC and told that we will likely be teaching English in China. Does anybody know the extent of the internet access/restriction/censorship in China? Would it be impossible to take online classes during our 2 year assignment? Thanks, C and R

By: mike

mike — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:59:19 +0000

I’m considering extending my service to China, although I’m not too qualified for TEFL. I’ve never taught english formally, and here in Cape Verde I’m Community Development. Is PC China looking for more experienced volunteers?

Also, which dialect do most PCVs learn? Mandarin?

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:53:09 +0000

I was a China PCV from 2000-2002. Yes, we are only placed at selected schools, and none of them are in rural villages. We try to go to 2 and 3 year Teachers College where the students are typically rural kids who got lucky and managed to get into a college. We do have some spots at top provincial middle schools and a couple of 4 year universities. We started a Environmental Education program in 2000, but Peace Corps decided to shut it down (yes, PC made the decision, not China). China is still pretty closed in certain ways. I was the first volunteer at my school and my students were told before my first class that I was probably there for “alterior motives” ie a spy and they shouldn’t associate with me. On the other hand, I taught basically anything I wanted with almost no oversight. There was no textbook, noone ever sat in on my classes etc.
Peace Corps China is not typical when it comes to being down at the grassroots level. On the other hand, its very real when it comes to 2nd and 3rd goals — teaching your host country about the US and teaching the US about China when you get home. I was there during the 2000 election, the EP-3 spy plane incident and 9/11. The people who knew me, who I taught, had a very different impression of 9/11 than most Chinese. I actually had a stranger on the bus ask if my family was okay, and they I said they were they said “Thank God, Thank God” which is not a Chinese expression, I think they may have been Christian. The other fact is that you never really know the type of impact you are having. I had students email me 2-3 years after I left saying what a difference I had made to them, even if they (and I) didn’t realize it at the time.
Peace Corps China is not typical from what I hear of other programs, but I don’t think it is any less Peace Corps than most of those programs either.