There are between six and ten thousand expatriate English teachers currently working in Hong Kong, mostly from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and North America. Proficiency in the English language has retained its importance in Hong Kong, despite the increased resources and provision for Putonghua/Mandarin teaching since the handover in 1997.

Trends In English Teaching In Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government’s linguistic ambition is to have the populace literate in English and Chinese, and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Over the past few years, the government has started various initiatives to bolster the level of English in schools and the workplace, but people still gripe about the standard of English.

The fact is, though, that as a non-Chinese speaker, it’s very easy to get around, make yourself understood and do business in Hong Kong precisely because of the very serviceable standard of English in most areas of social life and business. Foreigners and international trade are such a fundamental part of Hong Kong’s history that there remains a strong social bias in favour of English, with little of the post-colonial backlash that other places have experienced.

Hong Kongers are nothing if not pragmatic – people who know English get higher salaries and enjoy better job prospects. That does not, however, automatically equate to large swathes of motivated English learners filling the classroom. Exams are what gets bums on seats. Primary school students often need the Cambridge Young Learners exams to show to their prospective secondary school. Another Cambridge exam – the IELTS (International English Language Testing System exam) is now recommended by the government as a graduate exit test of English. This in turn creates a need for IELTS examiners and preparatory IELTS course teachers.

Because English is very much in the public eye, schools, students and their parents have a lot of say in what they expect and what they want. Parents generally prefer their children to be taught by expatriate English teachers rather than local teachers. Students expect to be involved and entertained in their English class and older students expect an egalitarian, friendly teacher. They’re not studying English for love of the language; mostly they’re doing it to get the necessary credits as part of their degree and they want to protect their grade point average (GPA).

Do I Need To Be Qualified To Work As An English Teacher In Hong Kong?

The brief answer is, generally, yes. As in the rest of Asia, where demand for English teachers outstrips supply, there are still private language schools in Hong Kong that will cut corners and take on unqualified teachers, usually on lower than average pay. For full-time primary and secondary teaching positions, a degree plus PGCE, or education degree and experience of teaching English, are prerequisites. For tertiary full-time teaching, a Masters in Applied Linguistics/TESOL is preferred. For part-time teaching, a first degree, a TEFL Certificate and teaching experience are desirable. The academic year runs from September to June, so most full-time recruitment happens between February and April.

The English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) world is a small world in Hong Kong. Jobs usually travel by word of mouth and it’s worth developing a network of contacts in order to hear about teaching jobs or related work, such as radio or voice-overs, as there are no recruitment agencies for teachers. Unlike the USA, Canada, the UK or Japan, there is unfortunately no English language teacher’s association in Hong Kong.

Salary And Work Visas

Many English teachers prefer to work at tertiary institutions because the working conditions are good, and the salary is higher than in private language schools – typically, $400–500 per hour for part-time teachers. Tertiary Language Centres commonly use a mix of full- and part-time teachers.

Full-Time

Full-time tertiary English teachers are usually sponsored by their institutions, who do the paperwork for their work visas, and enjoy basic health insurance, generous periods of leave and often a gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of their contracts. Full-time salaries vary, usually between $28,000 and $50,000 a month, and currently match civil service pay scales.

Many full-time staff are hired locally these days. The difference between ‘local contracts’ and ‘overseas contracts’ is becoming less marked as institutions seek to cut costs in an effort to reach government savings targets.