Confucius Institute Masters of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of other Languages

[xuefang]

All our courses (besides two) are together with Chinese students. We have 20 foreigners and 40+ Chinese students in one class.

The difficulty of courses is of course different for everyone, I seemed to do quite okey. Before this I did a BA at the same uni in Chinese language with foreigners, including teaching courses so I had some basics down already. I also had HSK6 before starting MA.

I've written about courses to my blog, so I won't copy it here, you can find them here: http://sarajaaksola.com/category/sun-yat-sen-university/

[Matthewkell]

How much luck have people had in finding jobs teaching Chinese? What's out there?

[Matthewkell]

OK, so thinking ahead to what to do after graduation, I figured I would probably be in a fairly good position, if I perform well on my Master's and write a solid thesis on the right topic, to get a scholarship to do a phd at a Chinese University, possibly in Comparative Education. How would this gel with the commitment to 5 years of Chinese teaching? It's not quite Chinese teaching but you could argue that it's still in line with the goal of the Confucius Institute Scholarship, to train up talent for the promotion of Chinese language learning internationally. Does anyone have any clue if the Confucius Institute would/could prevent me getting a Chinese government phd scholarship?

[jobm]

Hello, guys~ Which university has the best master's program for this degree?

[方茹婷]

Hello Everyone,

After reading the thread, I still have quite a lot of questions, as this 1 year + MTCSOL is still really blurry (at least for me), and I don't want to "jump into" something which is not sure, especially because I can't afford that from a financial point of view and I have a really limited amount of money for this.

So firstly, I think the one-year scholarship is understandable, we are going to learn the language. Okay. Now the bigger problem is the MTCSOL which, as I have concluded, is still mysterious for many people. The reason I want to apply for this scholarship is because I REALLY want to study this and then teach here in my home country (i.e. Hungary), but it's not sure whether I'll get a job later. The CI where I study doesn't really give me any answer regarding this and I don't need untrustworthy promises. I'm quite confident in myself, I'd go because I want to study, so basically that's not a problem. What I fear is that both Hanban and my CI won't keep their promises. How can I ensure that I'm going to get a job after graduating?

Secondly, about the holidays. Is it only the summer holiday? Do I really have to go back to my home country every summer? Because if we consider the 3 years, then it's quite a lot of money to come back home and then go back again when the semester starts, I'm not sure if I can afford this (especially because Hungary and China are not really neighbours....). Or maybe is there a possibility that they are going to support travelling expenses?

As for the internship, do I have to come back to my home country and if yes, when? And then do I have to go back to China? It's again a lot of money...
 

Also, the monthly allowance. Do they really give it to the students, I mean the exact amount of money they promise each month? In 2016, it was 2500 yuan/month and then the master's is 3000 yuan/month. Do you guys think it is enough for one month? If yes, what is it enough for? (I was thinking about putting aside a small amount each month to be able to go back home and then go back to China again in the summer holidays...is it possible?)

Is there anything I need to look out for before applying for this scholarship? I've already experienced how they say something in the last minutes and change everything, it's like a tradition, so I guess I'm going to be okay with it, I usually prepare myself for everything beforehand, that's why I'm asking a lot of questions now as well.

I'd be more than happy and grateful if someone answered all my questions asap, I'm quite confused and uncertain now about what I really should do.
Anyways, I'm going to graduate this semester at my local university, I'm going to have an English&American Studies degree, so I guess that's also an advantage, as I want to deal with languages in the near future (translator and interpreter).
Thank you very much in advance! 

[Sharon_Too]

@方茹婷 We're kind of in the same boat here. My local CI is recommending me but hasn't confirmed if they could provide a work agreement or help me find one. As for information about MTCSOL, just use check universities offering it and you'll see the syllabi for international students.

@jobm, it would be safe to say that BLCU, Peking Uni, Beijing Normal Uni, East China Normal Uni, Xiamen Uni, Sun Yat Sen Uni are all excellent places for MTCSOL.

From my own experience studying in China for 5 years, we get residence permit to be renewed yearly, during which we are free to stay in China during holidays or go abroad without requiring a new visa to re-enter. CI scholarship doesn't include travel expenses but MOFCOM does. Actually there's a lot of threads about CI and MTCSOL, you can search it on this forum. I also recently posted one and gathered answers from others there (still waiting for my posts to be validated, the restriction for new users really slows things up, that's also why I'm writing)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/52989-preparing-for-mtcsol-after-a-beng/

I wonder what's your Chinese level, because if you're planning to choose MTCSOL with local Chinese students, it'll will require more than HSK6. Some universities also have entrance exams which hopefully will be easier than those for locals.

[方茹婷]

@Sharon_Too

Thank you for your reply. I'll try to find something, but it seems now that I'll go for the one-year and then later try the MTCSOL. I'm not sure whether I can improve to level 6 in one year, as MTCSOL requires level 6. I guess it's possible with hard work.

Anyways, as for the public holidays, I saw that there are quite a lot of time between two semesters (winter holiday). Can the students stay in the dorms during that long time?

[Sharon_Too]

Yeah you can better prepare yourself in the one year, HSK 6 would be ok but the higher the better Maybe other universities have special regulations, but ours always let us stay for the whole holiday without extra charge (we pay our rent yearly). I don't think they'd push students out though, otherwise so many would have to go find another place to stay or go travel.

[方茹婷]

@Sharon_Too

I see...that would be nice if they didn't send us out during holidays because that'd be quite uncomfortable to always pack your stuff and go to a hotel or I don't know...  
I hope I can do the HSK 6 in one year, so I can apply for the Master's later. 
Anyways, thank you for your kind answers, I wish you good luck with your studies! ^^

[Hyangmi17]

Hey Everyone, 

 

I got my MTCSOL degree at Dalian University of Foreign Languages in 2014, and has been working as a non-native Chinese language teacher ever since. Our requirement for admission was HSK 5 and HSKK 中级, and the school had us pass HSK 6 and HSKK 高级 sometimes by the second semester, some foreign students didn't pass, but it was no big deal, everyone managed by the time of graduating. 

Since they needed the rooms for the short term language course attendees in January and July, DUFL made us move out for the winter and summer holidays, but they had a big, closed underground storage area for our stuff where all our books and clothes got nice and mouldy during the winter. Not fun.

Anyways, everyone went home for the summer, and stayed, because the third semester was 实习 or internship at your home country. The teachers at DUFL told us that the Chinese students of the same Master's degree have to do the practice teaching in China (wherever they want) and the foreign students should go home and do it in their respective native language environment. If you'd be really, really hopeless in finding any educational facility (the local Con Institute, any elementary or secondary school, any language school or university, even something like a "Chinese Club"), then they might help and put you somewhere in China. Our classmates had no problems, some people just stamped their papers at their previous university, some of us actually did the practice teaching. I asked about 3 of my former uni teachers and one of them told me to ask a local Chinese elementary school, and they were really happy to let me teach the kids for one semester. I don't really remember, but required minimum teaching hours at DUFL were about 30 (which you can do in a week), I had fun so I stayed for four months.  We had our residence permits extended before the end of the second semester so we would be able to re-enter the country in the following January.

Upon arriving back for the last semester, we had to register again to prove that we would continue and finish our studies and then got the September-February worth of stipend in cash for some reason (that was the biggest wad of 100 yuan bills I have ever seen in one pace ), and had to start writing our theses. Having no classes to attend, I strongly recommend everyone to look for a hobby - China can be a really boring place if you're stuck on a university campus on the outskirts and the one thing you have to do is to sit in front of your computer for five months. Anyways, we finished writing, had a terminal exam which was basically talking about your topic in front of a committee, and everyone got their diploma. 

One thing about graduating - the paper you get at the end is ONLY IN CHINESE, I was beggig then try to bribe them to print an English version, but they just wouldn't. The only thing I managed after three weeks of banging on different office doors is to get an official DUFL seal on the English translation of my Transcript (that I made myself.....) then gave it to my classmates to translate it into Japanese, Russian, Mongolian, etc. and had those stamped as well. 

 

Before coming home they told us if we ever get stuck in looking for a teaching job, we should contact Hanban, because they can help the MTCSOL graduates in finding schools to teach Chinese. If we chose to be delegated by Hanban, our salary would come from them and not the institute we'd we working in. In 2014, they told us this would be 800 USD (I have no idea based on what), but since they couldn't answer for how many teaching ours a week, I wasn't sure if this was such a great deal. Having 3 Chinese classes on Mondays and getting 800 USD a month for it is nice, but teaching 40+ hours a week for the same amount is a lot less interesting. I'm not sure if there is still such an option, I've never confirmed with anyone. Besides, out of my 16 foreign classmates, I'm the only one actually teaching Chinese, most of them just wanted a Master's degree in whatever, obtainable in just 2 years. 

 

About the 5-year "follow-up": No one has ever came looking for me whether I'm teaching or not, not from Hanban and not from DUFL. About a year and a half after graduating I might have gotten an e-mail from our Confucius Institute about "hi-ex-scholarship-student-please-fill-out-this-questionnaire", but I'm sure I've completely ignored it and no one has ever came banging on my door. Some of my classmates stayed in China working at travel agencies, as freelance translators, some of them went back home and continued their PhD studies (in some completely different field), or started their own start-up companies, and some of them started families and are busy being moms right now. Not many of us are doing anything with Chinese, let alone teaching it and no one is in jail so far.  So if you're concerned about signing the "5-year contract", don't be. It doesn't mean ANYTHING at all.  

 

I can't say anything about those countries with lots of Chinese people teaching Chinese while speaking the local language (English, German, French and maybe Spanish), but in a small European country like Hungary (where I'm working) I didn't have any problems looking for a job teaching Chinese.

The elementary school wanted me back first for a one-year contract then indefinitely, I just didn't want to, because teaching kids aged 6-10 is HARD. Especially 30 of them in a closed space.  I went to two language schools (the ones for adults, classes before or after working hours and on the weekends), both of them hired me on the spot. I'm also private tutoring, sometimes translating, somehow everyone seems to think that you have to at least try to learn Chinese, because it is some sort of key to success, or a different dimension, or I don't know. Anyways, with this many people booking classes all the time, I'm never out of work. 

I've also tried to teach Chinese at a University for a year, but as in many other countries, it is also mandatory in Hungary to have a PhD degree (or be in a PhD program) to get to teach classes at a University, and I found the PhD program to be a time investment too humongous only to get another degree so I left. I'm just saying this because with an MTCSOL degree (and some further studies) an academic career is also a great option! I just like teaching classes better than researching, that's all. 

 

Sorry for the very long post, I just thought to share my experience since graduating this program.

 

Ps.: Having attended three different Chinese universities for various amounts of time, I honestly don't think there's any big difference, you should chose a city in which you'd like to spend two years and there will be nice and so-so teachers everywhere. 

[Hyangmi17]

Ps.: Some employers are strict about getting an state-attested translation of your Chinese diploma, and that seal is very expensive, some employers think it "looks cool", and have no problem accepting a degree they can't read. 

[Sharon_Too]

@Hyangmi17 Thanks a million. You have no idea how precious your information was for me to have a better insight in the MTCSOL CIS. It's a lot to digest as well .

Do you think I need to sit for HSK6 and HSKK Advanced again even if I already passed?

Each university has its own layout for certificates. Fortunately for me, the bachelor certificate that I got from my university was already both in Chinese and English, but I think I still need to notarize it to apply for CIS.

I haven't decided yet if I'll do my internship in China or elsewhere yet, but I'll see if I can get one in teaching academic chinese at university level in China. Like you, I like teaching more than research but seems like a PhD (or really awesome work experience) is mandatory to get in universities and again foreign Chinese teachers are rare to find. Some say being overseas Chinese might make it easier.

I wonder how do you choose your thesis subject or is it assigned by your supervisor? When do you confirm it? Did you get to choose your supervisor? 

I've heard others also saying that many of those CIS students are not into teaching, never mind being passionate about learning Chinese. That's really sad and the govt is wasting their yuan on these people. Now that you're saying they don't even make sure these graduates teach Chinese, it confirms that they don't really care...

Having these people in class doesn't create an ideal classmate/future collegue environment either, but I'm still hoping to share my passion with others and find better ways to teach, motivate and inspire students...

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to write such a detailed, multifaceted post. I wish you good luck and 'add oil' 

PS just started teaching Chinese in Mauritius yesterday, I'm loving it and getting more experience until hopefully they grant me CIS. 

[Hyangmi17]

@Sharon_Too 

No problem.

About your further questions:

 

1. HSK6 and HSKK - one of my classmates had already passed the HSK6 before enrolling (she already finished another MA in China), and they had her take the exam as well, and also in the second semester, so while most of us have two HSK6 and HSKK Advanced certificates, she actually has three.  So I guess unless you have some very elaborate reason why you wouldn't want to take the exams again, they will make you sit through it again. 

 

2. Internship in China - only one of the "foreign" classmates had his internship in China, quotation marks because he IS Chinese, just obtained his Canadian citizenship about 3 years prior to enrolling. I think he just didn't want to leave his Chinese girlfriend and go to Canada. So I'm not sure if they'll let you (as a foreigner) teach university-level Chinese if you haven't got a PhD degree yet. Generally speaking (and based on my experience), foreign students in China would rather choose a language teacher of Chinese nationality over a foreigner no matter how good of a teacher they are, But I guess if you're really enthusiastic about it, and your teachers permit it, anything can happen.

 

3. Thesis and supervisor - you choose your supervisor and your topic in the second semester. The topics aren't limited, you just have to ask the right teacher, for instance I chose my linguistics teacher, because my thesis was about grammar, but if you're doing intercultural/social research, then go to your teacher responsible for culture classes. Your supervisor will help you narrow down your research and generally follow you through the writing process - AGAIN, nice teachers and so-so teachers everywhere, so ask your upperclassmen whom do they recommend. Super strict teachers may seem daunting, but by the time of graduating I started to have second thoughts about choosing my favourite teacher, who was busy with her own PhD AND expecting her first child at the same time. Not many chances for consultations.   

You should probably chose a topic not too obscure and wide (like I first did with "Aspect Particles in Modern Mandarin Chinese" waaaay too big of a topic), or something that doesn't look like a joke (like my classmate: "Comparing Animals in Chinese Chengyu and Russian Expressions" uhh... what?), but again, your supervisor will help you chose a title and edit an approximate table of contents. You will have a presentation called 开提报告 by the end of the second semester introducing your topic to your classmates and faculty teachers. 

 

4. The 50-30-20 rule and classroom morale - I hope I don't sound too conceited, but I was never really concerned about this rule. First of all, one of the scholarship awardees never showed up from the beginning, and I also had a classmate who came to register for the first semester, then went back home for "medical examinations" (she told us she got pregnant between getting the scholarship and arriving in China but temporarily didn't want to let the school know). She would have been back by the end of September, but the CIS council somehow found out and terminated her scholarship at once, BECAUSE she was pregnant. We kept e-mailing for a while, she was devastated and feeling really hurt and unjust about this. Coming from a place where it's perfectly okay to attend university while pregnant I found this decision really harsh, I don't know if it's because they didn't want her to have her baby in China, or to bring it to China, but she got kicked out nevertheless. So my advice for the ladies: don't get pregnant during the period of this scholarship, they are the least forgiving bunch I've ever met. Anyways, with the pregnant student and another one leaving for different reasons, we already had the 20% who wouldn't be coming back for the second year. I know this sound super-racist and seriously not politically correct, but since I'm European (and let's say it out loud: WHITE), they made me participate in every. single. university. huodong you could think of. This pretty much "booked" my place for the second year, because they needed someone who speaks fairly good Chinese and looks very distinctive on the pictures of the Christmas Party Gala. I'm sorry for saying this but it's true, being a Westerner in China comes with a whole lot of different strings, sometimes they put you in a position very unfair to the students of other regions.  Luckily in the end, since the total number of foreign students was too low, everybody got the full scholarship for the second year as well. 

 

And there will always be students whom you may never really figure out just WHY are they in China if they won't study or do anything, but being this passionate about teaching is a power in itself, so even if I'm just some random person from the Internet I'm honestly rooting for you to get the scholarship and make the very best out of it!  

Cheers and good luck! 

 

[艾墨本]

@Hyangmi17 Thank you for all this information. Woah. Just awesome. And @Sharon_Too with all the right follow-up questions. 

 

Makes me want to go for the MTCSOL even more.

[Angelina]

On 14.2.2017 at 4:29 AM, Hyangmi17 said:

You should probably chose a topic not too obscure and wide (like I first did with "Aspect Particles in Modern Mandarin Chinese" waaaay too big of a topic) 

 

Aspect is great, this is what I am doing. However, it is better to narrow it down instead of talking about aspect in general. (Unless you are Bernard Comrie)

What was your final thesis about then, if you did not write about aspect? Can you share your thesis with us? I am at a linguistics program, but it is always good to hear from MTCSOL students who wrote on grammar. 

[xuefang]

It's been a long time since I've been here in the forums, but thougt it's about time! I want to recommend studying MTCSOL and pursuing the career of a Chinese teacher. At first I was worried if I'm able to find work and I'm staying in Guangzhou for good (for now?), but that hasn't been the case at all. 

 

Hyangmi17 mentioned that her classmates have went to open start-ups and thats the case with me as well. I started doing private tutoring my first yeat of MTCSOL, graduated last year and now started my own teaching business and teaching Chinese full time. 

 

If anyone has more questions about the degree or the career, I'll try to be around more to answer any questions. 

[Hyangmi17]

@Angelina

Hi! I was planning to write about aspect particles more from a practical "teaching-it" point of view rather than from a purely lingustic approach, but choosing three 动态助词 (了、着 and 过) was too much, so after some consideration (and very serious time management issues) my supervisor and I decided to only focus on 过 and leave out the other two.

There are no such components in my native language as aspect particles, so making my students understand just how do they work in Chinese is different and difficult. Basically my final version was about what kind of problems should you expect  if you were to introduce 过 in a lower-intermediate Chinese class for Hungarian people and through what steps can you help your students get a better grasp on using it. 

Since I abandoned my first script and started writing again almost from scratch, by the end the time left almost wasn't enough. Personally, I wasn't satisfied with my own thesis, it felt really rushed. That's why I advised everyone to listen to their supervisors and pick a topic that's managable - It shouldn't be too simple, because hey, it's a Master's degree, but if you shoot for something that would better suit a book or a PhD thesis, than you're gonna have a bad time.  Even if you finish your research (which is an oxymoron, you never finish research) and start writing while doing your internship, you still only have about 8 months. And it goes by way quicker than you'd expect. 

Good luck with your studies! 

 

/sorry for being off-topic

[Angelina]

13 hours ago, Hyangmi17 said:

Personally, I wasn't satisfied with my own thesis, it felt really rushed.

 

Yeah, this is what I don't want to do.

You are not the only international student in China who did that, it is the norm. I hope new applicants will pay attention to this part, not only future MTCSOL students, anyone thinking about graduate school in China: pay attention to writing! 

 

 

13 hours ago, Hyangmi17 said:

Basically my final version was about what kind of problems should you expect  if you were to introduce 过 in a lower-intermediate Chinese class for Hungarian people and through what steps can you help your students get a better grasp on using it. 

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Not Nicky]

@xuefang cool to read your update! Did you do your MTCSOL in Guangzhou? Which school? Would it also be a good one to do a Chinese course in? I'm also relatively settled, working and living in GZ but am considering getting out and heading somewhere else for a year of study. 

Also, what's the market like for foreign teachers of Chinese here? Sounds like an interesting gig!

[xuefang]

@Not Nicky Yes, I did my MTCSOL (and BA before that) at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou. I spent around 5 years at the university and in overall was very satisfied with my degree programs. After all, it's the best university in Guangzhou and around the 10th best in China. The MTCSOL had about 40 Chinese and 20 foreign students when I studied. For basic languge courses I think it's a good bet as well.

 

I can only say from my exprience, that I've been positibely surprised that there is a big market for a foreign Chinese teacher like me. Of course this is still something really knew and I don't really know that many others doing the same. There is of course John Pasden in Shanghai and I know some international schools have foreigners teaching Chinese, but still it's a new market for us. Mostly it's about setting up your own business. I tried working with a training center but didn't agree the way they did business and felts I wasn't learning that much from it. So decided to go alone and start my own teaching company.