Ten difficulties encountered in the recruitment and management of foreign teachers

外教招聘与管理过程中遇到的十大困难

外教的作用还不仅仅局限在学校，其对学校周边的社区生活，城市形象，民风民俗等方面都有着或多或少的影响。据国家外专局统计，目前在国内生活和工作的外教已经有40余万人。事实上，由于各种原因，实际在国内工作的外教人数可能远远高于这个数字。这么庞大的一个人群，充分发挥他们的积极作用，对我国社会主义现代化建设将产生积极而深远的影响。

但是，在现实生活中，具体到每一个使用外教的学校，我们都知道外教对学校的教学质量和教学理念有着积极的作用，但外教的招聘和管理是一件非常辛苦而复杂的工作，存在着许多难以克服的困难，导致学校虽然开设外教课，效果却难以令人满意的尴尬局面。

现在，我就将外教招聘与管理过程中可能遇到的困难和辛酸罗列如下：

1，母语外教数量少，价格高，对工作地点挑剔，任性，难以管理。很多地方尤其是中小城市很难招到符合要求的母语外教。学校领导都要求招聘英美加澳新的外教，结果在全球的招聘外教的网站上发了无数广告，不是没人回应，就是来一批非洲的兄弟姐妹或巴铁的朋友。偶尔遇到个母语国家的，不是学历不合格就是年龄太大，要不就是形象太差。即便这样，要求还很多，满足他的各种要求，费劲巴拉的讨好半天，还是舍我而去，白白浪费一大把表情。没办法，谁让肉少狼多，母语的不愁找到个工作呀。

2，合同期短。外教合同通常只能签一年，学生和老师刚与外教熟悉，教学各方面配合默契，上了正轨，外教合同到期了，学校又要开始招聘新的外教。因此，学校每年都要为招聘外教发愁，外教虽多，符合我们学校又愿意来我们学校却是那么的少。就跟谈恋爱一样，外事招聘人员往往陷入“我爱的人不爱我，爱我的人我又不喜欢”的悖论之中，经常因为不能按时招到合适的外教而影响正常的教学秩序。

3，突发性事件太多。因为文化差异，外教的信用并不像我们想象的那么好，很多学校都遇见过外教因一些小事学期中途突然离职，甚至不告而别，一时又很难找到合适的替补外教，原先计划的外教课只好空着或安排其它课程，造成严重的教学事故。

4，外教资质问题：来华任教的外教鱼龙混杂，很多外教来华之前没有任何教学经验，根本不知道怎么教学，还得中国老师手把手的教他们怎么上课。还有些年轻的老外连生活自理能力都做不到，把自己的生活搞得一团糟。学校花了中教几倍的工资请来的外教结果只是个花架子，中看不中用。

5，教学体系不连贯：虽然很多学校请延请外教上英语课，但是多数学校没有适合外教教学使用的教材，有的使用学校中教使用的教材，有的让外教自己找材料上课，有的随便到新华书店买一套教材让外教上课，五花八门，不一而足。所以外教的教学也百花齐放，良莠不齐，授课效果不好。

6，外教发音：我们通常认为外教发音纯正，是标准的美音或者英音，结果外教请到学校一看根本不是那回事，外教发音千差万别，并不是我们想象的外教发音就像电视里面的播音员一样，很多外教的方言非常重，即使他们来自英国美国等母语国家，我们依然很难听懂他们的很多内容。

7，外教人品：林子大了什么样的鸟都有，外教队伍也是一样。个别外教的人品问题影响了外教队伍的整体形象，造成比较恶劣的社会影响，又在中国崛起的特殊时期经过媒体的曝光和放大，让外教的人品问题成为了整个社会关注的问题。一些外教怀着各种目的进入中国，做出一些不符合教师形象和有伤风化事情，容易引起学校周边社会的不满和差评。

8，外教背景调查困难：因为跨越国界，制度和要求不一样，学校因自身能力有限，不能对外教的背景做详尽的调查，导致一些国外的犯罪分子甚至国际通缉的大毒枭竟然能混入外教队伍，给学校造成不必要的困扰。

9，外教违约成本低：虽然给外教签订的用工合同都规定有违约条款，但外教违约离职，严重影响教学秩序，学校并没有什么办法追究外教的违约责任。尤其是学期中间外教突然离职，学校往往不能及时找到替补教师，被迫停课或改换其他课程，而外教却几乎没有任何损失。

10，外教成本高。目前一般的市场行情是外教的工资是中教老师4-5倍，学校通常还要为外教提供免费的食宿，办理工作签证，每年提供一次往返的国际机票费用，还有其他一些隐性费用，比如外教招聘费用，中介费用，外教助教费用，外教旅游费用，外教体检费用等等。

当然，尽管外教招聘与管理困难重重，但因为英语学习是每个学生和家长的刚需，国内的学校对外教尤其是优质外教的需求越来越多，未来势必有更多优质的外教进入中国。同时，作为使用外教的主体，每个学校的外教招聘和管理依然继续着曾经的痛苦与无奈，只要英语学习的重要性不降低，外教的市场就在那里摆着呢。现在一二线城市使用外教上课，还有更多的三四线甚至五六线城市随着经济能力的逐步提升，对外教的需求还会越来越旺盛。关于外教招聘与管理的更多精彩大戏还将在神州大地的不同角落陆续上演。

The role of foreign teachers is not limited to schools, and it has more or less influence on the community life, city image, folk customs and other aspects around the school. According to statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, there are currently more than 400,000 foreign teachers living and working in the country. In fact, for various reasons, the number of foreign teachers actually working in the country may be much higher than this figure. Such a large group of people, giving full play to their positive role, will have a positive and far-reaching impact on China’s socialist modernization drive.

However, in real life, specific to every school that uses foreign teachers, we all know that foreign teachers have a positive effect on the school’s teaching quality and teaching philosophy, but the recruitment and management of foreign teachers is a very hard and complicated job. There are many insurmountable difficulties, which lead to the embarrassing situation that although the school offers foreign teaching courses, the effect is difficult to satisfy.

Now, I will list the difficulties and bitterness that may be encountered in the recruitment and management of foreign teachers as follows:

1. The number of foreign language teachers in the mother tongue is small, the price is high, the work place is picky, willful, and difficult to manage. In many places, especially small and medium-sized cities, it is difficult to recruit qualified foreign language teachers. School leaders have asked to recruit foreign teachers from Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia. As a result, numerous advertisements have been posted on the global recruitment of foreign teachers’ websites. Either no one responded or they came to a group of African siblings or Pakistani friends. Occasionally I encountered a mother-tongue country that was either unqualified or too old, or the image was too bad. Even so, there are still many requirements to meet his various requirements. After struggling for a long time, he still left me, and wasted a lot of expressions. No way, who can make less meat and more wolf, and worry about finding a job in the native language.

2. The contract period is short. A foreign teacher contract can usually only be signed for one year. Students and teachers have just become familiar with foreign teachers. They have cooperated in all aspects of teaching and got on track. The foreign teacher contract has expired and the school has to start recruiting new foreign teachers. Therefore, the school has to worry about recruiting foreign teachers every year. Although there are many foreign teachers, there are so few that meet our school and are willing to come to our school. Just like falling in love, foreign affairs recruiters often fall into the paradox of “I love those who don’t love me, and those who love me I don’t like”, often affecting the normal teaching order because they can’t recruit suitable foreign teachers on time. .

3. There are too many emergencies. Because of cultural differences, the credit of foreign teachers is not as good as we think. Many schools have encountered foreign teachers who suddenly left their jobs during the semester and did not even say goodbye. It was difficult to find a suitable substitute for a foreign teacher. The originally planned foreign teacher Classes had to be left empty or other classes were arranged, causing serious teaching accidents.

4. Foreign teacher qualifications: Foreign teachers who come to China to teach are mixed. Many foreign teachers do not have any teaching experience before coming to China. They do not know how to teach. They also have to teach Chinese teachers how to teach. Some young foreigners can’t even take care of themselves and make a mess of their lives. The school spent several times the salary of the middle school teacher, and the foreign teacher that was invited was only a trifle, which was useless.

5. The teaching system is incoherent: Although many schools invite foreign teachers to take English classes, most schools do not have teaching materials suitable for foreign teachers, some use teaching materials used by middle school teachers, some use foreign teachers to find materials for their own classes, and some casually Go to Xinhua Bookstore and buy a set of teaching materials for foreign teachers to take classes. Therefore, the teaching of foreign teachers is also full of flowers, good and bad, and the teaching effect is not good.

6, foreign teachers pronunciation: we usually think that foreign teachers pronounce pure, is the standard American or English sounds, as a result, foreign teachers invited to school to see that is not the case, foreign teachers pronunciation is very different, it is not that we imagine foreign teachers pronounce like television broadcasts Like foreigners, many dialects of foreign teachers are very heavy. Even if they come from mother tongue countries such as Britain and the United States, we still have a hard time understanding many of them.

7, the character of foreign teachers: Lin Zi grows up with any kind of bird, the foreign teacher team is the same. The personality problems of individual foreign teachers have affected the overall image of the foreign teacher team and caused relatively bad social influences. In the special period of China’s rise, they have been exposed and enlarged by the media, making the problem of foreign teacher’s personality a concern of the whole society. Some foreign teachers come to China with various purposes and do things that do not conform to the image of teachers and are detrimental, which may easily cause dissatisfaction and bad reviews around the school.

8. Difficulty of foreign teacher background investigation: Because cross-border borders, different systems and requirements, and schools have limited capabilities, they cannot conduct a thorough investigation of the foreign teacher’s background. As a result, some foreign criminals and even internationally wanted drug lords can mix in foreign teachers The team caused unnecessary trouble to the school.

9. Low cost for foreign teachers to break the contract: Although the employment contracts signed for foreign teachers have provisions for breach of contract, foreign teachers leave their jobs and seriously affect the order of teaching. There is no way for schools to hold foreign teachers responsible for breach of contract. Especially the sudden departure of foreign teachers in the middle of the semester, schools often cannot find substitute teachers in time and are forced to suspend or change other courses, but the foreign teachers have almost no loss.

10, the cost of foreign teachers is high. At present, the general market situation is that the salary of foreign teachers is 4-5 times that of middle school teachers. Schools usually also provide free board and lodging for foreign teachers, apply for work visas, provide round-trip international air tickets once a year, and other hidden costs. For example, foreign teacher recruitment fees, agency fees, foreign teacher teaching assistant fees, foreign teacher travel expenses, foreign teacher medical examination costs, etc.

Of course, despite the difficulties in recruiting and managing foreign teachers, because English learning is the immediate need of every student and parent, domestic schools are increasingly demanding foreign teachers, especially high-quality foreign teachers. In the future, more high-quality foreign teachers are bound to enter China. At the same time, as the main body of using foreign teachers, the recruitment and management of foreign teachers in each school continues to be painful and helpless. As long as the importance of English learning is not reduced, the market for foreign teachers is there. Now that first- and second-tier cities use foreign teachers for classes, there are more third-, fourth-, and even fifth- and sixth-tier cities. With the gradual improvement of economic capabilities, the demand for foreign education will continue to grow. More exciting dramas about foreign teacher recruitment and management will be staged in different corners of the land of China.