ATTN: Peeps who've spent time in China

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
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Hello
Exciting news. I may be teaching at a school in China by September. ****ing September man!!

There are maybes, ifs and buts but I thought I’d ask anyway:

There are regions and presumably towns I can choose from where I’d like to teach. Anybody have a particular region which they think is beautiful/friendly etc?

Also, are there martial arts schools in most towns? What are the chances of the town I end up in having a good kung fu school?

And finally, are Kung Fu styles exclusively taught in their historical region of origin? Like, if I want to learn Wing Chun do I have to choose a Southern town?

Thanks for your time…

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hey scotty :slight_smile:

If you’re just looking for places to visit and things, why not go over to http://www.russbo.com as Doc’s put up a lot of stuff about his travels… some cool pics as well.

As to learning gong fu - don’t have a clue mate! Dunno how prevalent learning Wushu is there etc. I would say you will probably find more wing chun around the south, GuangDong, Foshan etc. maybe Rene or someone can help u there? Theres also the language barrier and things as well as i know from friends that literally NO ONE except high school kids speak ANY english…

good luck, i’m sure it will be a great experience,
david

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Cheers David. Rene has already given me some excellent advice regarding WC. When I find out the list of places I could go to I’ll post them and see if anyone knows anything.

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BTW, when I say teaching at a school I mean English, not Gongfu!

:smiley:

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i know English - but u’ll still have to be able to talk to them in mandarin to explain what things mean right? High school level is not so great… like i said GOOD LUCK! :smiley:

david

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“u’ll still have to be able to talk to them in mandarin to explain what things mean right?”

No. Its not a criteria for being eligible to teach, I think they use ‘total immersion’ methods.

Thats not to say I won’t try and learn a bit before I get out there, and try to study while I’m there. Its not like I’ll be kicking back watching Eastenders, I’ll probably get a lot done.
I would like to go somewhere warm and sunny.

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Scotty - u ever talk to WangSiZhong? He teaches English in China right now… maybe he can give u some pointers? I know he’;s not really posting anymore, but maybe u could email him or something thru KFO?

later,
david

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I didn’t know he was teaching…

Cheers David.:slight_smile:

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bon voyage

What regions and towns are available to you?

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I’m going to Beijing Gene, pretty soon and I was just wondering about the city, what u think I should visit. Stores, weapon shops (?), museums, is there a movie theatre?

I’m a grade A tourist over there so anything would be cool. Thx :smiley:

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scotty1,
teaching english in china has its ups and downs
high school is rough because the kids often don’t want to learn. classroom management is a huge issue, and knowledge of kungfu isn’t usually enough to impress students :wink:
you don’t need the language to start teaching, but once you start to pick some up, its fun to try to use it in the classroom. you’ll get some laughs but you’ll also get some helpful pointers from the students.
as for kung fu, its not as widely available as you might think. the universities i’ve been to have virtually zero wushu presence. i know people who have studied it at university, but you kind of have to look around.
a useful phrase is “(insert city name) you mei you wushu guan?”
pronounced: yo may yo woo shoo gwan
obvious cites include zhengzhou for its proximity to shaolin and chengdu for its proximity to emei shan. actually, chengdu is kinda far from emei, but i dont know the names of the nearest towns big enough to sustain english teachers.
post the list of cities and i might be able to get more specific
-wang si zhong

btw, chengdu isn’t sunny and its really cold in winter. if warm and sunny is a real criteria, might i suggest thailand? i hear they have some good muay thai :wink:

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scotty1

My girlfriend spent 7 months in China last year doing exactly what you are about to do. She loved it and found it very rewarding, but it wasn’t easy.

She said that the students were pretty good - much more disciplined and well behaved than western students.

The group she went over with were really well organised and provided a support network for you. She found that a) they seemed to have a fair bit of clout and b) it was good to have the support network particularly when people are trying to jerk you around, or when you are feeling lonely.

Also, as a westerner you will become a bit of a novelty if you go to an outlying province (She went to Jilin which is near the North Korean border - smallish city). I am assuming you are caucasian? If so prepare to be stared at, pointed at, poked, and prodded :).

As for kung fu, she didn’t really say much except that some of her friends that had gone to larger cities like Shanghai had no trouble finding teachers. Like anywhere, you are less likely to find a wide selection of schools to pick from in the smaller towns and cities.

If you want to know more, email me on jdoejnr@yahoo.com.au and I can try and get more info from her for you :).

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Everyone is so helpful!

OK, thanks everyone for the responses so far. I can’t wait to change my location to …, China.
Here’s the list of places: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Daiqing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Xian, Shenyang, Shenzen, Tianjing, Chengdu, Kunming, Haerbin, Dalian, Jinan, Wuxi, Changchun, Wuhan, Chongqing, Zhenzhou, Qingdao, Lanzhou, ShiJiaZhuang, Urumqi, Jinzhou, Taiyuan, Shaoxin.

I would prefer to go somewhere Southern (sunny and nice, prefer Southern styles) then North (a bit bleak/industrial/cold).
Ideally I would like to train Wing Chun.

A lot of places on the list seem to be of the industrial/cold/bleak variety, and a few of the Southern places quite toursity. But I have to live here for 6 months at least, so I’d rather be somewhere tourist and nice.

So far the main choices seem to be Shanghai, Kungming and Hangzhou. I have to submit 3 choices in rank order.

So, what do you think?

Joe Doe, did your gf go with the EF English First organization?
Apparently they’re the Worlds largest private run educational organisation, and I’ll be teaching in one of their centres, so no worries about Chinese “contracts”, and I’ll have a good support network. :slight_smile:

Actually Wang, I heard the Muay Thai in Thailand is pretty crappy:D

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wow, that’s weird… i posted and it didn’t show up:confused:
i’ll try again:

Hey mate, glad things are going well for ya :slight_smile: Guangzhou and Fuzhou sound good, bur Harbin will be very different (far north east). Harbin has some d@mn fine gals though (at least the ones i’ve met over here), so i guess u just have to get the balance right :smiley:

On the Muay Thai front, i guess it’s just like learning gong fu/wu shu. The skill will be different depending on if you are a native learning in their environment, or a ‘foreigner’ learning from a coach there… best be careful about your £££’s that’s all i can say :slight_smile: I have heard some horror stories about people going to china to train.

david

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Hi David, thanks:)
Yeah Harbin has extremly cold winters, like average -25 degrees, so I don’t really want to go there.
You’re right about Guangzhou and Fuzhou, they do sound nice.
My list of places so far is Shanghai (because I’ve never lived in a big city), Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Kunming and Hangzhou, and that’s just off the top of my head. But of course everyone is going to want to go there, so I think I should probably have a list of places I don’t want to go rather than ones that I do. :frowning:

I was joking about the Muay Thai BTW!!

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the following comments refer to actual experience or that of close friends:

Shanghai–so modern/futuristic you’ll expect to see flying cars at any moment (almost a direct quote from a friend)

Guangzhou–bone up on your cantonese. this is the new name for canton. gotta be access to tons of training…

Xian–home of the terra cotta warriors. super touristy.

Chengdu–good little city. access to mcdonalds/pizza hut/kfc/shopping/etc. close enough to my old hometown (dujiangyan) that you could go find my old teacher. bus takes about an hour (15 yuan) so you wouldnt go everyday. there’s a wushu middle school somewhere nearby.

Kunming–i’m told its beautiful. i’ve been there twice but wasn’t interested in touring about. known for its stone forest.

oops, i accidentally deleted a few cities. changchun is north east and cold. and yeah, industrially.

Zhenzhou–isn’t this the obvious choice? super close to shaolin.

Qingdao–believe its a port city. used to be a german colony. home of the famous qingdao beer.

i have friends who have been to the other places, but it wouldn’t have been recent enough to give an accurate representation (china changes completely about every five years).

wang si zhong

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Cheers Wang (may I call you Wang?:slight_smile: )

Zhenzhou is the obvious choice for training, BUT, wouldn’t it all be Shaolin style? Plus, with it being so close to Shaolin do you think it would be fair to say that the schools would be kind of geared towards tourists? At least in a city perhaps not so renowned for its Kungfu the school might be a bit more, erm, genuine?

In addition to that, a nice place to live is paramount, training comes second. I will live in a nice area and take the best training available locally rather than live in a hole because it’s close to a good school. Primarily because I am going with my gf, and although she wants to train I don’t think she’d want to sacrifice an opportunity to live in a beautiful Chinese town to do it!
So I do have to compromise on that. Which is fair enough.

Just a couple of things:
"there’s a wushu middle school somewhere nearby. "
Are we talking, you know, wushu?

“bone up on your cantonese. this is the new name for canton”
:confused: the school offers free Mandarin lessons, would this be pretty useless in Guangzhou?

Thanks for your time, everyone.

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in S China (from what i know from my chinese friends), they speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. Mandarin is the national language after all… but many people still speak cantonese…

david

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forgot to say before: most of the schools around shaolin, dengfeng etc. are all PRC wushu and some northern shaolin, so not much chance of finding wing chun there…

for schools around dengfeng go to www.russbo.com for the write ups :slight_smile:

c ya,
david

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Beijing is a great hub

If you can figure out the trains, you can get anywhere. It’s a good starting point, but I personally, I can’t breathe there. Really bad air quality. But the eats in Bejing, man, you can eat like an emperor for next to nothing.

As for museums, of course, you must hit the sights like the forbidden city, great wall, etc. There used to be a weapons display in the forbidden city, but the last time I went, I couldn’t find it. There also used to be a cool display at the sports museum, but that too was under reconstruction that last time i was there, so I couldn’t tell you if it still stands.

As for travel precautions, I’d say they are pretty much the same as any foreign country. Know where your embassy is, protect your valuables, and be smart. I’ve never taught abroad, but I have heard a wide range of experiences, both great and lousy. One major precaution you must be sensitive of is guanxi - connections. Everything is done in china through connections. Good lessons, train tickets, you name it, it’s all about who your connection is. If you go there with no guanxi, it’ll make you pretty vulnerable, so find some other people who might have guanxi in Beijing and get some recommendations. Once you penentrate that, China really opens up to you. Bejingers are the rudest people in a crowd because the city is so dense, you have to get rude. But as individuals, they are really warm and sweet, once you meet them personally. bon voyage!