 Hello. Hi. Welcome to another live session. My name is Linda from ITTT. And as you can see today, we're going to talk about China's ban on private ESL tutoring, everything you need to know, what we know so far. There's still a lot of ambiguity, but I've done a lot of research. I talked to a lot of people. So hopefully I'll be able to tell you something you might not know yet and give a little bit of clarity into this topic. But disclaimer, things change all the time. And there's still, like I said, a lot of ambiguity around this whole topic. A lot of even experts aren't sure yet how everything is going to be implemented, how it's going to look like in the future. So just want to say that upfront and ITTT, this is also not something that we have control over or we are particularly like involved with or have, you know, any sort of you know what I'm saying. So this is all based on my own research and what other people from China who are in the ESL industry have told me about this. So I just want to say that upfront. Thanks so much for tuning in. Oh, somebody says Facebook sound is not working. Can you hear me? Is everything all right? Is the sound working on your end? Can you hear me? Can you see me clearly? I hope you can. Let me know if you can't and then maybe I'm going to try and figure it out, but we'll just go with it right now. Cool. So before we jump in, do let me know where are you guys right now? Where are you watching from? I would really love to know. And I am in South Korea. I'm about an hour and a half south of Seoul. It is 1030 a.m. Friday morning. I'm super excited to be here today again and super excited to talk about this topic, even though it is a little bit, you know, ambiguous and wishy washy at the moment. Even though it's been a couple of months since this has been out, it's not super fresh, fresh, but I wanted to wait and see, you know, this band was introduced in the summer and it's October now. So it's been a couple of weeks and months since then. And we have seen a little bit of the developments. That's why I wanted to wait until I talk about it, but do let me know. Guys, where are you? Hi, we have Byron from Ecuador. Hi there. Then Gwen is back. It's been a while, Gwen. Yeah. So glad to see you again. Juliana is here as well. Hey there. Great. Okay. Adam, everything is clear now. I'm glad. Good. We have someone from India and also Zaka from India. We have Carlos from Punta del Este in Uruguay. Awesome. And EG from Dubai. Cool. Very nice. A pretty international group here everywhere around the world. That's awesome. Thank you so much for tuning in. Also Ara from Mexico. Awesome. Cool. Very nice. So I guess you're all here because you're super curious about what's happening in China. Gwen is tuning in in Malaysia. Great. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah. And as always, I like to say, please don't forget to like and subscribe. You're already here on our Facebook page on YouTube. Don't forget to like and subscribe because we share a lot of content every day, not just our live sessions, but we do go live twice a week. So I also recommend you tune in to that and subscribe and like our page so that you get notified whenever we do go live and you know in advance what we're going to talk about so that you can then, you know, turn on that notification so that you're reminded when we go live and you can participate. We also have a lot of people watching the replays, but obviously if you watch the replay, you can't ask live questions, right? So I highly recommend you tuning in live so that you can also add your own thoughts and ideas to the mix. Also, as always, we have a 30% off opportunity during our live sessions, only during our live sessions. Very special. You can scan the QR code in this upper right hand corner. If that does not work for you, no problem. We have a link that you can also use which looks like this. It ends in Facebook live minus Linda. Looks like this. You should see it in the comment box now. You can click on that. And then if you apply through this link, you get 30% off any TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT. Also, if you're listening to this as a podcast episode, this link will be in the description, in the podcast episode description. We do have a podcast. As I always say, we turn our live episodes or live sessions into podcast episodes like that. So if that's something that you're interested in, you can check out our podcast. It's called the TEFL and TESOL podcast by ITTT. It's on all major podcast platforms, iTunes, Google podcasts, Spotify, you name it. We're on there. You can check that out. Good. So that's the intro spiel I think. That's about it. And you already told me where you are. So we got that down. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We got that. Good. Okay. Perfect. Then I think we're ready to jump in. There will be a Q&A section at the end as always if you've watched before, you know how it works, but also at any time during this live session, feel free to add your comments. You know, if you are maybe teaching in China, you taught English in China, you are in China right now, or you know anything else that you want to add, add it and also just ask away at any time, feel free. And then at the end, during the Q&A, you can ask any other questions that you might have that maybe don't fit with today's topic. That's usually how I do it and it works. And I always say, don't be shy. There are no stupid questions. I like to have a conversation. I like to engage with my viewers. I don't want it to be just me talking. I want to have a conversation with you guys. All right. Okay. Cool. Then let's jump right in. I always make myself a little bit smaller. I'm still here. I hope you can still see me so that you can see the slides. I have a lot of information prepared come in your way today. As I said in the beginning, disclaimer, we are not in any way affiliated with this ban. We are just reporting on this ban. It's information I found from speaking with ESL recruiters, people who are in China, teachers in China, but also from a lot of news articles reporting on this issue. Okay. So things change all the time. And like I said, there's still so much ambiguity around this whole topic. So we might not have all the answers that you're looking for. I also have a lot of more questions about this that I don't have answers for and we were not provided any answers yet. So today what I'm going to tell you is just everything that we know so far about the situation. Okay. All right. So let's start. And I just want to introduce myself real quick before we jump in. I think we have a lot of new people here watching today. So my name is Linda. I'm a traveler writer and content creator under the name Linda goes east. You can also find me at Linda goes east.com and on Instagram at Linda goes east. I love sharing a lot of my photos on Instagram. So if you're interested in that, I'm from Germany and America, but I am based in South Korea for the past. I've been based there for the past six and a half years. And before that I also lived in China actually. And I also taught English in China. I lived in China for I lived in China first in 2012. And then I went back again 2014. And I taught there, but a lot has changed since then as well. And also obviously this new band, it's all fresh. So just keep that in mind. And then also I am a TEFL and TSOL marketing professional for ITTT, which stands for international TEFL and TSOL training. And you can find ITTT at TEFL course.net and on Instagram at international TEFL training. And we are a leading TEFL and TSOL course provider worldwide. And I know that many of you watching are already at TEFL ITTT TEFL certified or TSOL certified or from a different provider. So that's awesome. That's your first step towards teaching English abroad. So good. And so why is this band interesting? Because China used to be the biggest ESL market there is, right? China is so big. Their English education industry is very, very big as well. We're going to talk about it in just a minute. But that's why this is such an important thing for us in the ESL industry. Because now things are looking very different. Things changed literally like overnight from one day to another. A lot of especially online teachers have lost jobs from one day to another. I've read many articles from people, especially people in North America teaching, they were teaching English to Chinese students. And from one day to another, it just stopped. So a huge part of their income just ceased from one day to another. So it was a huge shock for many people. Many people have lost an important income avenue. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. But first, let's see what's the fuss all about. So what is this ban exactly? It's just always referred to as the China ESL ban or the foreign teacher ban, the online teaching ban. But what does it actually say? What does it actually what's what's it actually called? And who does it actually affect, right? So that's what we're going to talk about first. So let's see. The policy is officially called opinions on further reducing the burden of homework and extracurricular training for students. This is the translated name of this policy that was introduced by the Chinese government in late July of this year. And it affects students from grades one through nine, advanced tutoring on core subjects, such as Chinese, English and math, late at night on weekends and during school breaks. And it also prohibits hiring foreign foreigners based outside the country. So those are the most important things about this policy, right? So as you can see, it does not only include English, it also includes other subjects. So this does not only affect foreign ESL teachers, but it also affects a lot of local Chinese teachers who work in after school institutes or schools, programs, things like that. So they are also facing a lot of problems. I've read articles where now all of these teachers who used to work at these private institutes after school institutes are now looking for jobs in public schools. And there is this one position for, can't remember, it was math or what subject it was, it was not English, but it was like math or science or something. And they have applicants, they all hold PhD degrees. And they cannot find a job. So it's a very bad situation, not only for English teachers, but for a lot of other teachers in China as well, local teachers as well, because of this. So this is what it looks like. This is what it's called officially. And let's see how this will affect ESL online teaching, because that's what we have heard the most of first. So first, what you need to know about China's ESL market, what I already mentioned in the beginning, it's huge. So there are 400 million people learning English in China today, booming. And also the ESL industry in China is worth $120 billion. It's a huge industry. And it also gets a lot of foreign investment coming from companies or investors from all over the world. And this also has an effect and is connected to this ban. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. But yeah, so it's a ban on private ESL tutoring, but also other subjects as I mentioned. But basically companies that profit from teaching school curriculum subjects, including English, and private tutoring companies will be unable to hire foreign teachers from overseas. So that's how it is affecting at the moment. Now let's have a look at why is China limiting private tutoring? What is their argument for doing that? There's two, maybe a third one, but these are the two main reasons why China, the Chinese government, has implemented these, this ban and this new policy. So one is safeguarding for children's mental health. If you have any experience with China teaching Chinese students or, this is actually not only China, but also it happens in Korea a lot as well and in Japan. But Chinese culture and education are incredibly competitive. When I was there, I mean I taught young children and many of them were going to school and private schools from a very young age and then they would go to all of these after school programs. They would do English camps and English class. They would have a tutor. They would also learn how to play the violin and the piano and all of those things. So it's very competitive because everyone wants to make sure that their child has the best opportunities of getting into the best university and then the best job at the best company and so on. So this is why it's so competitive for these young students and the government says with a severe reduction in ESL lessons or in after school lessons, children have more opportunities to relax and behave like children. So they want to let their children be children and reduce their stress on their young children in China. And on the other side it's also an incentive to help families. It's a huge financial burden to pay for all of these extracurricular lessons and the private tutors. It costs a lot of money and also this tuition, the tuition along with the high cost of living in big cities where everybody wants to live. Everybody wants to live in the big city. People are moving away from the countryside to live in the big cities because there you have access to good education. But the cost of living is so much higher. So it's a huge financial burden. And so a lot of families are reluctant to have more children. And there's actually a lot of people now in China that don't want any children because they're so expensive. And this is not only obviously China, it's a huge global phenomenon. But this is why they're also introducing this. And so they think that in restricting private tuition, they will also fight a declining birth rate. And China is struggling with this a lot at the moment, a declining birth rate. So this is what the government has said as an argument why they introduced this ban. And it's good that they care about the kids mental health and that they're trying to limit this. But obviously it's not so great for all the teachers who work in this industry. So that's what's happening at the moment. Yeah. And Juliana says, yes, actually, children do not have any free time. Yes. Yeah, it's very sad, especially when I was there, like I said, when I taught at this private, I taught at a private English language institute in China. And yeah, all of those kids, they would come to this institute and then they would already have like their ballet bag where they would go after this English class and then they would go to piano class and then it would go home and they would have all this homework they would do until after midnight. And they're only six years old. So it's, it's very crazy and very competitive and definitely so this is a good thing, right? Then we also have Liturk here who says, Hi Linda, this is an interesting topic. Thank you for sharing this to us. So many ESL tutors are affected. Yes. Absolutely. And if anyone here watching is affected, do let me know. And maybe you can also share how this affected you and how you've been dealing with it. That would be very interesting as well. Good. So then let's move on. Let's see what is up next. Yeah. So this is what we're going to talk about now. How will this affect online ESL tutors or how has this already affected online tutors? And there's three ways how fives ways actually three. And then we're going to talk about two more, how this already affected tutors or how this will affect tutors. So as I mentioned, oh, no, I didn't mention that yet. So there's also a curfew on online classes. So the Chinese government already has a nine PM curfew now on online classes. So nine PM China time. And depending on where you teach online, a lot of North American teachers, they teach these children in the evenings, often until late at night. And this is one of the most busy times for teaching. And this will be completely cut. So no more classes after nine PM, they are all falling away. So this is a huge problem for a lot of teachers. Then also with this comes the salary and the effect on even more of the schedule. So not only after nine PM, but also how it affected the schedule and salary of ESL teachers. So many teachers have already lost students because of this. And it is also expected that online classes will be unavailable during weekends, holidays and school breaks. So and especially on weekends. And sometimes China has like two week long holidays, which used to be very, very busy times and great times for ESL tutors. This is all going to fall away now. Then also the age group of students. So we talked about that this ban involves children students from first to ninth grade. All of these restrictions. But online teaching for preschool children has been banned completely. So no more teaching students younger than first grade at all. So that's also something, a big thing to keep in mind. And then we also have the type of contract. So a lot of teachers are obviously employed as employees with official employee contracts. But now many ESL, Chinese ESL companies, they have to switch their teachers working for them as independent contractors. And with that obviously comes a lot less job security, a lot less of the bonuses that you would normally get. So it's not a good situation. And then also for the companies, if a company is offering private tutoring, it will now have to register as a nonprofit organization. And so this will obviously reduce the costs of the classes, but also have an effect on the business models of many of these ESL companies. And this means that even if foreign teachers are able to teach the salaries will be affected a lot. So those are the five biggest things how this will affect or has affected online ESL tutors already. So a lot of changes here, a lot of stuff happening. It's yeah, and just from one day to another, it's just crazy to think. Now let's talk a little bit about the affected Chinese companies. And as you can see, lots of ambiguity. So still even months after, there's still lots of ambiguity. And some companies are looking for loopholes. And so I read that it may be possible that some companies are also exempt from the new Chinese regulations, especially if they aren't teaching curriculum based subjects. So what I read a lot that if they are only teaching, for example, speaking, then this would not be fall under the new policy. But a lot of these have textbooks and full like English lessons with grammar and all those things. So this would be affected. And here are three companies that have already been affected hard. Go Go Kit is one of them, and they have completely halted and suspended teaching Chinese students from August 5th. So they're not doing anything anymore. Also Zebra English here. They have completely halted their recruitment and they will not continue developing their business due to the recent policies. They will also not do anything anymore. And then we also have Palfish, which is a big one. And they have had to cut teacher pay. And they also reduced their staff. So very bad for a lot of these companies. But there are three positive examples of companies that are inspiring hope in this situation. And that is data ABC, that is VIP kid, and also magic ears. So what they're doing is therefore in teachers will be able to deliver lessons to Chinese students who have already paid for the lessons. So that seems to be okay. Okay, if they already paid for the lessons, then they are able to teach until they expire. And that's why many parents, they actually already pay for lesson packages months in advance. And in some cases, even a year, I read in one article that one parent, one mom, she after she heard about the ban and everything she actually paid for 500 lessons up front. So that her daughter would be able to take those lessons, even after this ban. And that was like $12,000 worth of lessons. And that's one year's worth of her salary from her town. So it's incredible. Well, how also the parents are worried and suffer and really try to do everything to ensure that their kids can continue their lessons. It's really crazy. So this way, the students will still have the opportunity to finish their paid lessons. And teachers will also be able to deliver these lessons for the time being. So this is kind of this ambiguity, this gray zone that we're in at the moment. And who knows how long this will go, because I imagine 500 lessons, that's going to be maybe another year or two until they run out. I'm not sure if that that will be granted, that will be okay. I've also read that a lot of parents are now, oh, because one school actually shut down, it was a private institute in some, I can't remember which city, but they completely stopped due to the span. And a lot of parents are actually now suing these companies, these schools, these institutes, because they already prepaid for their lessons, but the schools already shut down. So that's a big problem now, a lot of lawsuits going on between parents who already paid for lessons, but the schools shut down. So it's a bit of a mess in many different areas. Then yeah, we also have VIP kid here, who's a big, big online platform, and they are actually exploring a lot of different business avenues, which they say could minimize the impact caused by the new Chinese regulations, and they are expanding their international market outside of China and are recruiting new teachers. Because remember, this only affects teaching Chinese students, right? So if a platform has Chinese students, but they also have Korean students, Japanese students, French students, whoever, they are not affected, right? It's only Chinese children, right? Children, that's also important for later. But so there is hope, it's not all lost for sure, right? But as you can see, it's a very complicated situation, and even some of the schools, they don't really know what's going on. So they're trying to find ways to continue to develop in different avenues. It's a very interesting time at the moment, for sure. Has anyone worked for Dada, ABC, VIP kid, or Magic Ears? I would be curious. Or also, these three, so Gogo Kid, Palfish, Zebra English, has anyone watching worked for any of those before, or is working for them, and how is the situation? I'm very curious. I am also teaching online, but I teach on a non Chinese platform. So I haven't really felt anything. And I teach mostly adults, so it doesn't really affect that anyway. But yeah, it affects a lot of people, for sure. I read an article about this one girl, she's a digital nomad, and she worked for, I can't remember which platform it was, but a Chinese platform. And she was in Peru at the time, you know, and working, she works, that's her job, working online for this platform, while traveling the world. And from one day to another, while she was in Peru at the time, she just got a message that, yeah, this is this is all over now, you can't teach anymore, we're shutting down basically. So she lost all of that from one day to another, this lifestyle that she created. And this is actually something I talked about a few weeks ago in one other live session about how you can become a digital nomad, teaching English online. So she did that she was living a dream, but from one day to another, it just all fell apart. So as you can see, my tip is don't only work for one platform, you want to have a plethora, we're different, a group of platforms that you work for, right? Not just one, so that could end up very badly. I'm also going to share some tips what teachers can do now to kind of get away from this to not get affected. But yeah, let's continue here. Oh, yeah, that's coming up right now. Okay, so advice for online teachers. So what can online teachers do now? What can you do if you are affected? Or if you're worried that this will affect you in the future, what can you do now? So, and I shared this before. So some of you might already have this, but I wanted to share this again. I have this list of 20 non-Chinese online teaching companies that you can work for that are not affected in this mess at all. And I'm going to share the link with you. Okay, I know that some of you have already have this, but maybe some of you might not have it yet, or maybe forgot about it. So you just click here, it's a Google Doc, you click on that. And then you'll be, you can see the document. And I'm just going to share my screen so I can show you better. But yeah, okay. Okay, yeah, so this is what it looks like. And I see a lot of you have clicked on it now. I see you there. So what I want you to do is click over here on file and click on make a copy. And then you make a copy for yourself and you can edit that your own copy. Okay, so do that file, make a copy. If that doesn't work for you, let me know. But as you can see, these are all companies that are not Chinese. So they're not affected by this ban at all. And you see like information like the hourly rate here. If there, you know, some of the requirements, if the lessons are provided, or do you need to plan the lessons yourself? What about the students age? Are there any minimum hours you need to teach? Do they require a TEFL certificate or not? Do they accept non native speakers? Do you need to have previous experience? Are there any additional requirements? And here is the application link so you can just click on that and it will lead you straight through to that website. So there's a lot of options. Yeah. And here when it says where they're here where there's a star behind it, it's a online marketplace. So it's not a platform, but it's a marketplace where you just set up your profile and the lessons you offer. And you can set your own rates. Yeah. And this is as of August 2021, right after the ban came into place. So these are 20 platforms you can choose from that are non Chinese and are not affected by this ban. Okay. So again, you can go over here to file and make a copy here. And then you can save it in your own drive and you can edit it can make notes, etc. Okay. All right. Okay, then I'm going to go back to my PowerPoint. So this is one thing that you can do. You can work for a different company. Just switch the company. You're not married to a Chinese ESL company. You can just switch. So and like I said, I recommend not only working for one. If this is your sole income, don't only work for one company, maybe two or three or four or however many you can manage. Right. Another thing you can do is you can just switch over to teaching adults. As I mentioned, this ban only affects teaching children from first to ninth grade. Right. So there's a lot of platforms that target or only have adult students and they are not affected. And those are, for example, I tutor group, italki, Cambly and cafe talk cafe talk is where I teach on it's mostly adults. And it's a Japanese platform, but they also have a lot of Korean students and Chinese students. So kind of East Asia, but mainly Japanese, but it's a lot of fun on there. And yeah, this does not affect is not affected by the new regulations. And also what what a plus here is that adult students are very driven. They are very motivated compared to children. And they most of the time also have a basic knowledge of English. So it might actually be a little bit easier to teach adults compared to children. Just one idea. I wanted to mention here. What else do we have? Yes, you can move on to independent teaching. So you can set up your own website or your own teaching profile. You can set your own prices. You don't have to give up any fees to the platform. Most of these platforms, they take a cut from your pay. So that won't affect you. You can also teach your own lessons. You can teach whatever you want, whatever kind of class you want, you can completely design your own stuff, which is really great. And you have an act, you have access to an international market, not only Chinese students, you can teach English to anyone. However, if you teach independently, it needs some advertising efforts. So you need to kind of market yourself, maybe on social media. And I actually gave some tips in the previous life about that, how you can do that. So go check that out in our playlist. And there also are some set up costs involved, like setting up your website that usually costs a little bit of money or setting up your teaching space with props and things like that. But if you already taught for a platform, then maybe you already have some of these props and some of the setup. So you can just use that as well. Then I think we have, yes, this is also what I wanted to mention. So all of this before was about teaching online. So I get the question, I asked myself too, so what about teachers working in China? We only talked about this ban from the point of view of ESL teachers, like working outside of China, but teaching Chinese students through these platforms. But what about working in China? Is this still an option or not? How does this ban affect teachers coming to China? Because it used to be the ESL wonderland. There would be so many vacant positions, more than teachers to fill. So how does this ban affect this situation? Couldn't find too much information on that, but also enough to kind of give you the gist of it. So there's a lot of new things that foreign teachers working in China have to go through. And I also believe that now it's going to be more public schools where foreign teachers are going to be working at or international schools. Not so much your typical private institute anymore, where you work maybe where I worked. It was like you worked Wednesday to Sunday and you had Monday to stay off now with this new ban where you can't teach these things on the weekend. This might also change a lot. So I think we're going to see a lot more public school positions or just a whole restructuring of these private institutions. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about this now. So these private institutes are now required to offer training workshops to their foreign teachers about domestic Chinese laws and ethics. So this is, for example, and also the teaching activities during class and the course content must be in line with China's educational principles and should not undermine the country's sovereignty, security, honor, reputation, and public interest. That's what it says officially. So if you want to work in China now as a teacher, you need to go through this workshop provided by your school that basically teaches you how you should teach in line with China's, yeah, China's policies and things like that. So it's going to be very different. And also all of these international schools, institutes, they now have to, there's a lot more stricter control on their course books and teaching materials. So there will not be allowed anymore to use any foreign textbooks. They need to use textbooks that are in line with what the Chinese government says. So this is also a big change on that front. Then there will also be a lot more consequences for legal and disciplinary violations for teachers. So the repunishment or removal of expat teachers from their jobs if they committed crimes or were found to have used drugs, mistreated students or undertaken religious education among other violations. So there's going to be a lot more stricter regulations on, yeah, all their foreign teachers in China, a lot more strict. And also here a lot more surveillance. So the new guidelines, they also require the establishment of a national information platform where education institutions would be able to or they need to register and report and search for information about foreign teachers. So I think we're going to see that a lot more of every foreign teacher is going to be in this database and, yeah, information is going to be collected about them in this database basically. There is more. It's not the end of it yet. There will also be, they were talking about establishing a credit system where law abiding employees will be rewarded with convenient entry and exit procedures, for example, while penalizing those who break the law. So, yeah, if you're a good expat, you get points. If you're a bad expat, you will get a punishment. Very interesting, right? There's also more requirements that all foreign teachers, they must have no criminal record, infectious diseases or history of mental illness, sexual harassment and drug use, which this is common in a lot of other countries already, especially South Korea. You need to do drug tests here. You need to provide a clean background check. So this is very similar. Nothing really new. And I think this is also good. Then this was like this before already, all foreign teachers, they need to have at least a bachelor's degree, a minimum of two years of teaching experience and relevant language teaching qualifications. So a TEFL certificate or a TESOL certificate. And then this is that what I already talked about that education institutions, they need to provide at least 20 training sessions for foreign staff on Chinese laws and teaching ethics before they take up employment. But there are no details yet about these training sessions if they're provided by the government or also how long they are. It just says 20 training sessions, but nobody really knows about this yet more in detail. But this is what it looks like for foreigners working in China. So there's going to be a lot more, a lot more requirements, a lot more surveillance, a lot more heavy punishments, heavier punishments, if you break the law or work illegally. And this is a big difference from when I was there, when I was working in China in 2012, 2014, it was a lot more loose. There weren't that many laws regarding this. And a lot of people were working illegally. A lot of people were just working on tourist visas. A lot of people did not have a TEFL certificate, they were faking TEFLs, or so that those people who actually worked illegally at a school, they would sometimes there would be checks, but usually the schools then would bribe those officials who checked the school or I think sometimes even the officials would let them know in advance they were coming so that they could send the foreign teachers home and things like that. So the Chinese government is really trying to kind of put a stop to all of that, because this industry is becoming so big now, or has become so big now that they just don't want it, they just want it to work properly and not have any illegal things going on. So that's one side. So yeah, and yes, this is the end. This is what I wanted to share with you today. And also I wanted to ask a question. So regarding, let me just go back to just this. Regarding all of this, now you've listened to this, to these things that are happening. Do you think teaching in China is still a good option after this ban or teaching for Chinese ESL companies, and also teaching in China in person? Do you think now after listening to all of this, do you think teaching in China is still a good option? I really, I'm really curious about your opinions and what you think. If you were interested in teaching in China before, but now after hearing all of this, do you think it's still a good option to go and teach in China? Hey, Brett. Ciao. Brett says, there is a lot to think about. Yes, there is a lot to think about. I feel the same way. There's a lot to think about. Gwen says, thank you so much. This was incredibly informative. Oh, I'm glad. So do you think teaching in China is still a good option or not? Morgan says, I think not really. Juliana says, I always do not think that this is a good option. Yeah. Brett says, still interested though. Yes. I mean, China, I think is still going to be a big ESL market after everything, but you definitely need to compromise if you really want to go there. Are you open to dealing with these new things? And if you're open, if you're okay with compromising and dealing with all of those new things, you're probably going to be okay. You're going to have a great time, but if you're not on board with these additional things now, then probably China is not for you anymore. Right. Gwen says, I missed part of your life due to my Wi-Fi. Did you happen to cover how this impacts language schools? Yeah. Yes. So probably these language schools, what I was saying is that those language schools that were for-profit organizations, they now need to register as non-profit under this new ban. And that means the salaries for teachers will be significantly lower than what they are now. And probably the working hours will be very different and they need to provide all of these additional trainings now for foreign teachers. So maybe that will also deter a lot of institutions from hiring foreigners. But again, having a foreign teacher in your school is very important for a lot of these English institutions because that's what Chinese parents want. They want their children to be taught by native speakers or English foreigners basically. So it's very hard to say because it's still so fresh even though it's been a couple of months now, but I think we can really not predict this, how it's going to turn out. And I might do another follow-up life session about this topic in a couple of months from now, if there are any new developments. Because also about this ban and these many new regulations, what I was reading that in August, I think they were announcing all of this with the training, the credit system, and all those new things. And they were asking for the opinion of the public what they were thinking before they actually put this into reality. So I don't know where they are in the process. If this has already been implemented, but that's what they want. And I'm pretty sure that if that's what they want, they will probably implement these things. Exactly. Manuel says, yes, if you want to follow the rules, exactly. So I think, you know, there's, I've read so many articles of teachers who lived in China. There was this one girl, I think she'd been in China for 10 years. She taught at the school. But now after this ban, she, and also because of COVID, she just left, went back home, but she was devastated because she loved living there. But now it's just not, she doesn't want to stay. She's going back home because of this new policy. It's really sad. Yep. Juliana says, I'd love to teach in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Yeah. So those are also places, let me just go over to the Q&A now. Those are all places, you know, that are still very stable. Even though I'm very curious to see because South Korea, I know because I live here is also very similar in terms of the competitiveness for children here. So I'm, a lot of people were speculating that maybe Korea will follow suit with similar things that China is doing, but I personally don't see it yet. I don't think that that's going to happen in my opinion, but nobody expected that that was going to happen in China either. So you, you just can't know. And I think we just need to observe, keep watching the situation, and then go from there. Carlos says, I'm not interested in teaching in China, but for those interested, I think it is still a good opportunity. Why not? Yeah, I agree. Especially, you know, this is always what I say. People are sometimes too worried about going abroad to teach. But I mean, if you don't like it, you can always leave and come back home, right? So you can try it out. And if it's for you, it's great. And if it's not, you can just go back home or you can go somewhere else. Like you don't need to stay in this place, right? So, and one year, if you sign a contract for one year, that goes by really fast one year. So Gwen says, I predict once Chinese families settle in with a new way of getting English classes, the industry will be back to booming in no time. I would keep an eye on it for a couple of months more at least. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm thinking. But I've also read a lot of articles about now, because this ban, there is a huge ESL black market. Because the thing is this, with all of these Chinese platforms, they connect the teacher with the student. But the, for example, the student and the student's family, they only know those teachers by the first name. So for example, teacher Linda, in my case, teacher Linda, they don't know any other information, they can't contact this teacher directly. And now, because most of these teachers maybe don't work for this platform anymore, they really want to get in touch with the teacher and just do the keep continuing with their English classes, like via Zoom or Skype, but they cannot get in touch with that student, with the teacher. Maybe because they don't, they only know the first name, but also because you need to think about this, there's no Facebook, there's no Twitter, there's no YouTube in China. And what else? There's no Google in China. All of this is blocked because of the Great Firewall. And so they're really isolated, and there's no way even for getting in touch with those teachers in America. That's a big problem. So those parents are so eager, because one teacher, she was saying this happened from one day to another, and she had no opportunity to say goodbye to her students. And she had a great relationship with her students. And she was really sad because she couldn't even say goodbye to her students. And for those kids, a lot of those kids, they really enjoy learning English with their teachers in North America or wherever. And they want to continue doing that. But because of all of these things, they can't even get in touch with each other. So a lot of these articles were saying they interviewed these teachers and they were saying, oh, if for any, you know, if you can read this teacher so and so is out there waiting for you. So please get in touch, but they can't even do that. It's it's kind of crazy. That's why China is so interesting. And that's why I also was so interested in China, because it's very it's a very different country and system and everything, because they have all their own things, right? They don't use Facebook, Instagram, all those things, they have their own Facebook, and it's just Chinese people. And then also WeChat is like the WhatsApp for China. So they were doing like WeChat classes. Oh, and also, if even if they had these black market ESL English lessons, there's even no way for the parents to pay the teacher because PayPal, Venmo, all of those things don't exist in China. You can't have a Venmo account in China. So it's it doesn't even you couldn't even pay your teacher, because everything goes through Chinese systems. So it's very, very difficult. And also at the same time for foreigners to register like for WeChat, it's also very difficult, especially if you're not in China, I don't think you can even register, I'm not sure, but also WeChat pay. So it's just really like the great firewall is also making a stop to all of this and blocking that. So it's a big problem. Here we have Imi who says Hi, so for non native speakers, isn't is it possible anymore? What about Japan in this case? Yeah, I mean, I think for non native speakers, it is still possible. But I just think for China, we should probably wait and see what happens in the next few months to be sure. Japan, yes, is great for non native speakers, especially the Jet program, which also accepts non native speakers into their programs. So that's really great. So I recommend maybe looking into Japan. Yeah. Yeah, in Quenz is that is so sad, that is really sad. Okay, and then I just want to mention this 30% off one more time, in case somebody missed that. But we have a 30% off discount during our live session, you can scan the QR code to get the discount. Or I just shared this discounted link once again here. So you can apply through that and get your Teflor TESOL certificate 30% off. And that's also an interesting thing about teaching in China. So when I was there in 2012, 2014, a Tefl certificate was not a requirement to teach English in China. It wasn't, it was introduced a couple of years later. So now it is a requirement. If you don't have a Teflor or TESOL, you can't teach English in China. So those are things that are changing all the time. And that's why I always say, it's just good to have the certificate in your portfolio for things to change. Also for Korea, in Korea, a Teflor is not a requirement. But what if, you know, one day they decide, okay, now let's make it a requirement because it gets too competitive. So it's, you know, better to have it. Okay, Glenn says I have a meeting now, but I'm so glad to have had the time to catch catch you today, Linda. Great live. You always leave us with so much to think about. Oh, thank you. That's so sweet. Have a great meeting. It was good seeing you again. It's been a while. Bye. Awesome. Yeah, so this was it today. It was very interesting. And like I said, it's very just ambiguous. Lots of things to think about. Lots of things to think about. And we just like I said, we just need to observe, keep watching the situation. I'm going to keep following it, obviously, keep talking to recruiters there, teachers there to see how this develops. But this is what it looks like at the moment. So yeah. If there are any other questions, do let me know. We have a little bit more time for Q&A. Yes, Amy says that just terrible news for me. Japan is still not fully opened to foreign applications. Yeah. It's a, you know, difficult time right now, for sure, difficult time. Morgan says, thanks for this opportunity to know more about China. Cheers. Yeah, thank you for joining and for sticking through this live session today. Thank you so much. We do go live twice a week. Me usually this time on Friday, and then my colleague Lisa, who is a non-native English speaker from Russia, she goes live usually on Tuesdays. And she also taught English in China actually. But now she's back in Russia and she teaches mostly online. So if you are a non-native English speaker interested in either teaching abroad or teaching online specifically, you should also check her out. She shares a lot of amazing content and it's actually her that got me into teaching online. After one of her lives, when she talked about the different platforms to work for, I found a great platform that really suited my needs and preferences. And I signed up and I've been teaching for them now for six months. And I just reached 200 classes that I taught 200, a big milestone, because I don't do this full time. I do it just a couple of hours a week. But it's been so much fun. So I highly recommend checking that out. All right. I think if there are no more questions, I'm going to say goodbye soon. I hope you enjoy today's live session. I hope you learned something. And we're just going to, like I said, we're just going to observe and further investigate and see what's going on. Thank you, Brett. Brett says it's great to keep up to date. Thank you, Linda. Sure. Thank you so much for being here every week. It's great. Juliana, thank you so much. It's informative and great video. I'm glad. I'm glad you find it informative. Cool. Okay. Well, now it's the one hour mark. We've been live for one hour. This is usually around the time where we say goodbye. So thank you guys so much for watching. I'll be here again next week. Same time, same place. Please do like and subscribe if you haven't yet. Do check out that 30% off discount. It's in the comments. If you're listening to this as a podcast, it is in the podcast description as well. Have a lovely weekend. Thank you so much for watching today. And I hope to see you again next week. And stay happy, stay healthy. And then I'm going to say bye-bye. Thank you guys. Bye-bye.