I'm moving to China on February. I have a TESOL Certificate that let's me teach wherever I am qualified to work without a college degree. My very close friend is Chinese & she tells me she can find me a good job teaching in Guangzhou city near Hong Kong where she lives.. However, she also tells me its possible for me to make a fake copy of a Bachelors Degree & show it to my Chinese employers for better Pay/Benefits if id like, without having any worries.. Now the idea of that makes me really uneasy, but she tells me that some schools actually make fake diplomas for you so you can appear better qualified. Basically, shes assuring me that some places operate that way there & that i shouldn't be concerned if I were to go down that easy path. Personally, I want to be as legitimate as I can be.. But then again, I am just teaching little children basic English at public schools.. If anyone has any thoughts about this or has any experience working overseas with a TESOL & or Fake/Real Degree, then I would like to hear a second opinion. Thank you for your time - Stargazer USA
Anonymous2012-09-16T07:23:11Z
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To get things straight, to teach legally in China you are required to have a degree. The TEFL (or TESOL) Certificate is a major help in getting work, however, and many schools ask for them.
So having a TEFL certificate does not entitle you to work legally there.
Having said this, there are a lot of teachers working in China without a degree. They work on a tourist visa and then shoot over to Hong Kong, Macau or another neighbouring country to get it stamped every few months and then return to China to teach some more.
Having a fake degree is asking for trouble. Aside from the legal issues the quality is usually so appalling that you are paying for little more than a photocopy. Buyer beware!
Do remember, however, that there are some countries where you can work legally without a degree. The link below talks about these.
Bad idea. There are a lot of things that used to go on in China, but the government is cracking down on them. You don't want to be caught in one of those crack downs.
Personally, it irritates me that people think they can teach English just because they speak it, without any read education or training. Do you know anything about teaching children? Do you have any idea how you're going to manage a class of 50 young children? It really matters to these kids whether they learn English or not- it's not like the little foreign language classes in U.S. primary schools, where no one really cares whether the kids learn anything or not. My advice is that you get yourself a legitimate degree, and learn some more about teaching and other cultures.
There are maybe a few hundred foreign teachers with TESOL certificates working in China out of the 30,000 that work here. Since neither TESOL nor TEFL nor CELTA certificates are not required to teach in China, there are not more than 500.