• Duration: 4 ½ weeks 
  • Orientation: 4-days
  • Village-stays: 4-week sessions

• 2010 Program Dates 
  • Orientation begins: July 7^th
  • Program ends: August 8^th

• Orientation Location: Jiangxi
• Number of volunteers: 18-20
• Language Requirement: None.  Some Mandarin recommended.
• Village Setting: Rural
• Living Conditions:  Basic (no plumbing)
• Students’ Level of English Proficiency:  All levels

For questions not answered on this website, contact the 2010 Program Director, Jacky Fung at china@learningenterprises.org.

As a volunteer with LE China (Jiangxi), you will spend the first four days of the program in Guangzhou with approximately 20 other volunteers. Guangzhou is an extremely modernized city, complete with thriving commercial districts, boutiques, and theatres, where you’ll be able to ease into the experience of being thousands of miles from home. During orientation, you’ll have the opportunity to meet your fellow volunteers, and as a group, we’ll exchange cultural tips and teaching strategies. After the orientation, groups of five will travel to one of four villages in Jiangxi province. You will spend the remainder of the trip in your village with four other LE volunteers. You will also be paired with a Chinese teaching partner from Nanjing University with whom you will team-teach. These teaching partners will also be an invaluable resource to help you translate, manage your classroom, and provide perspective on learning English as a second language. All volunteers will meet for a midpoint trip two weeks into the program. There is no formal conclusion to the program, and after the program you can meet up with other volunteers, travel, or return home.

You will be placed with a host family in a village in Anhui, a province a few hours west of Shanghai. Your host parents and a teaching partner from Nanjing University will help you explore your new surroundings during your stay there. While your host family will probably not speak English, your Chinese partner, and sometimes older students, will help translate for you, familiarize you with dinner table etiquette and ease you into your host environment. It is important to understand, however, that your Chinese partner is not simply there as a translator, and you are strongly encouraged to communicate with your host family on your own, regardless of your level of Mandarin.

In general, the villages in Anhui are very rural, and while some houses do have air conditioning, showers and indoor plumbing are rare. In one village, volunteers bathe in a nearby river. In most cases, however, the villages are only an hour or two away from a larger city, equipped with Internet cafes and sometimes western-style restaurants.

In your host homes, you may have to share a room with a host sibling. There will most likely be younger children and grandparents living in the house, and in many cases the parents work in the city during the week and only return home on the weekends. Furthermore, meat is not the staple food it is in the west, and most meals tend to have many more vegetables. If there is meat, it is most often pork or chicken. There are many vegetarian options, but vegans will have a very difficult time, although host families will try to accommodate. Our host families are very eager to have us in their homes, and in many cases, will ask you to spend extra time teaching English to their children as well. Host families in China are the only host families taking part in Learning Enterprises who receive a small stipend for hosting volunteers. Nonetheless, you are still, in essence, their personal guest and should act as such.

The villages themselves will be relatively small and you should have no problem walking or making simple transportation arrangements to get to the place where you teach. Should you wish to see more of your host country, ask your host community. They might be able to take you to a nearby river, a mountain spring or a larger town. During the weekends, groups of volunteers often go to nearby cities to shop for groceries or find food more familiar to the western palate. There is also plenty of free time to spend in your host village, getting to know your host parents and grandparents, playing games with your host siblings and students, and taking in the scenery around the community.

Your will most likely teach at a local school or community center, and your students will be very eager to begin on the first day. Expect to share between 100 - 150 students with the other four volunteers; students are usually divided into classes by skill level. Most of your students will be between 6 and 18 years old and range from beginners to advanced in their knowledge of English. Most of those students, however, will be used to the textbook-based English learning that is standard in China, so we encourage interactive lessons that focus on oral communication as much as possible. Tap into your creativity and you’ll find great ways to engage your students, from English-only games of Capture the Flag to class sing-alongs.

Basic teaching resources like chalk and a chalkboard are available in most villages. Art supplies, however, are difficult to obtain. You can buy them during orientation or during the mid-point break. Or, if you don’t mind carrying a little extra weight with you, you can always buy classroom supplies at home and bring them with you. It is also encouraged that you bring small pictures or souvenirs from the U.S. or other parts of the world to share with your students, as often this is what they are most curious about.