Quick Facts

Duration: 5 weeks
2012 Dates: July 4th-August 6th

* Orientation: Fly into Shanghai, orientation in Nanjing, July 4th- 6th
* Midpoint Break: July 20th-22nd
* Able to leave country: August 6th

Number of Volunteers: 18-25
Language Requirement: None–Some Chinese encouraged
Village Setting: Rural-Jiangxi province
Living Conditions: Very basic-squat toilet, no air conditioning, running water not likely

For questions not answered on this website, Contact Nicole

Program Structure

As a volunteer with LE China, you will spend the first few days of the program at Nanjing University with approximately 20 other American volunteers, as well as your Chinese teaching partners. At Nanjing, you will get the chance to experience modern China and ease into the experience from being thousands of miles from home. During orientation, you will get the opportunity to meet with your fellow volunteers, and as a group, we will exchange cultural tips and teaching strategies. After the orientation, you will travel in groups to your respective villages in Jiangxi province. You will spend the remainder of the trip in your village with 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 be an invaluable resource to help you translate, mange your classroom, and provide a perspective on learning English as a second language. All volunteers will meet for a midpoint trip two weeks into the program. After the conclusion of the program, you can meet up with other volunteers, travel, or return home.

Your Host Community

You will be placed with a host family in your village. Your host parents and 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 students, will help translate for you, and ease you into your host environment. It is important to understand, however, that your Chinese partner is not simply there as a translator. You are strongly encouraged to communicate with our host family on your own, regardless of your level of Mandarin.

Villages in China are very rural, and while some houses may be more modern than others, air conditioning, showers, and indoor plumbing are rare. In most cases, though, the villages are only an hour or two away form a larger city, equipped with Internet access, hotels, restaurants, and department stores.

In your host homes, you may have to share a room with a host sibling or colleagues. 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 a staple food as 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, such as getting to know your host parents and grandparents, playing games with your host siblings and students, and taking in the scenery around the community.

Teaching

You will most likely teach at a local school or community center, and your students will be very eager to being on the first day. Expect to share between 100-150 students with the other 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, though, are difficult to obtain, so you are welcome to buy them during orientation or during the midpoint break. The other option, if you don’t mind carrying a little extra weight with you, is buying classroom supplies, and even small prizes for your students at home, and bringing them with you. It is also encouraged that you bring pictures or small 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.

Additional Information

Please check out LE China’s YouTube Channel for video updates, information from alumni and more!

China_Addendum PY 2012, a field guide to life in-country.

China Projected Expenses PY 2012. Please note that all expenses are estimates and can vary depending on personal spending habits.

See a video of a village from LE China 2011
Hear some accounts from previous volunteers
A previous year’s LE China video
*Please keep in mind the Program Dates and Information for this video are for LE China 2011 and are incorrect!