Need Help

Hi everyone, i have been working in Beijing for the past 4 months teaching english, basicly i started at this company which ended up not wanting me anymore because i had a new zealand accent because one parent complained..
Now i have just started working for another company but one other parent is complaining that her 3 year old is unable to repeat the 10 words i taught after one class!
I know teaching english to a kid isnt like rocket science, but i am using lots of fun activities and songs to reinforce the words been taught and its not working.. And when the parents are not happy my boss is not happy and when both of them are not happy i am afraid i might lose the job :(

Does anyone here have any tips on what i should do?

Hello Nicholas. My name is Don. I'm from Canada. I teach at a college at Yibin, Sichuan. Sounds to me you've been doing the job you've been trained to do. I have some experience with teaching kids. But the issue you have encountered doesn't really have to do with the job you are doing. One suggestion is that you do not try to get the kids to do everything 100%. Children at that age do not complain. It is the adults. I do not know how long you've been in China or how much you know about Chinese culture and the education system here. Usually a company will move you to another school because there is a huge demand for k-teachers. According to the Chinese government there is also a shortage of K-teachers. Besides all the songs and activities that you think are fun, are you making sure the kids participate in saying and spelling the words. Remember they are children. I am not sure what you can do about the complaints by the parents. Usually they have no idea what you are saying or how much you are teaching. Are you in a private school?

Hello Donald thank you for the comment, I have been working in Beijing for the past 4 months this is my first time in china so everything is alot different to little New zealand. I understand that this is more of a culture thing and its not anything to do with the children. I had a fellow teacher observe my class last night and he thought it was very good and the children were learning the words so he was a little puzzled about this problem as well. Though i have come up with a home work sheet with pictures of what was covered durring the lesson so the parents can ask what is this to there 3 year old kids and they should get it because it is alot easier to remeber a word when there is a picture of it rather than remebering the word without anything.
The school i am teaching at is an international school with 9 branches in beijing so they are quite sucessful.
How long have you been teaching for?

Hello Nicholas; you can call me Don if you like. Sorry about taking so long to reply.

This is my third semester teaching in China. I am teaching Business English this semester. My first Semester was teaching Oral English and Listening. My students are 19 to 21. How did it go with your complaining adults? I have been in China for 27 months over the past 4 years. My wife is from Beihai, Guangxi. So I live in both China and Canada.

ok cool, the complaining parents were a little bit more happy since i have done this new home work sheet for the kids. Though my boss told me the other day that she thinks its best if i start learning the american accent.. so i am just going to take every day at a time since i am not american i feel as though i am really expendable with this line of work.

ok cool, the complaining parents were a little bit more happy since i have done this new home work sheet for the kids. Though my boss told me the other day that she thinks its best if i start learning the american accent.. so i am just going to take every day at a time since i am not american i feel as though i am really expendable with this line of work.

Ha HA, An American accent? Which one? The Texan drawl, or the Yonkers one, or Maybe the Southern Bell accent.? Even Canadians have an accent. People from B.C. (a province in Canada ) sometimes have a rough time understanding someone from NewfoundLand (another province 5,000 km away). Then there's the guy from Quebec who sounds Parisian. Maybe you should find out which part of your accent is making things difficult and try to make that part less noticable. About expendable; everyone is (including Americans). So don't worry about it. Why did you choose to teach kids? I find that it is hard to keep the attention of children over a period of time. Discipline seems to be another problem.

Yeah im not sure, i think its just because american and canadian accents are so widely used here.
I havent done any other teaching besides teaching children so i might give something else a go once i get better at teaching. But yeah teaching children can be hard, but managable, I like teaching them mainly because i can go into the class room and have fun, play games, not take things too seriously and it is very rewarding when the say what the have learned back to you the next day. A year ago i was running my own buisness it was very stressful and i had to put in alot of hours, comparing this kind of work to this is like a dream come true besides the complaining parents.

Do you plan on extending your contract, or will you go find work with another company. I've notice most of the job postings are for teaching pre-school, kindergarten, and primary kids. I find teaching young adults in areas away from coastal China to be interesting. They are interested because there is little opportunity to use their English skills. Also foreigners are scarcer than in cosmopolitan cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The pay is less and the emenities may not be what they are in the larger coastal cities. The problems that are encountered are different than with children.