With the rapid development of our university, we welcome foreign teachers and experts to teach English, Spanish or other subjects at our university. The basic qualifications are as follows or see Regulations of Southwest University of Science and Technology on Foreign Teachers Employment and Administration or visite the website (http://www.chinatefl.com/sichuan/teach/sc_xinan.htm) for details:
1). Native English/Spanish speaker,
2). Bachelor and above,
3). Healthy,
4). For details, please contact:

Ms.Tian Tian
International Cooperation & Exchange Department
Southwest University of Science and Technology
Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, P.R.China, 621010
Tel: +86-816-6089129
Fax: +86-816-6089126
Email: fao@swust.edu.cn

ESL teachers' reasons for teaching at SWUST 

Why you should teach ESL at SWUST in Mianyang, Sichuan:

You’ll be living on the edge of Mianyang, an unusually pleasant city, with some of the cleanest air and cleanest streets in China, not to mention good stores and restaurants (heavy industry is remarkable by its absence here).

You can have your free apartment be on the delightful “old campus” (mature trees! flowers! birdsong! butterflies! peace and quiet!).

You’ll get to eat some of the best (and cheapest) cooking on the planet, Sichuanese food—spicy, varied, and delicious!

You’ll get to live in Sichuan, which is much less westernized than eastern China or Beijing and much less frenetic, and which has a lot of traditional Han Chinese (and minority) culture to offer.

You’ll be near some of the most beautiful national parks and preserves and natural areas in China, including the eastern edge of the spectacular Tibetan Plateau (starts just 100 miles to the west) and Gongga Shan (aka Minya Konka), the highest mountain in the world not on the Himalayan Front.

You'll be just two hours away by bus or train from Chengdu, an international travel hub with a population of 7 million or so, but you won't have to breathe its heavily polluted air full-time.

You’ll get outstanding day-to-day support from the people at the International Cooperation and Exchange Department—no small matter when one is facing the cultural and linguistic barriers that China presents to the foreign teacher!

You’ll be teaching at a university, with a variety of courses to prepare, instead of just oral English to teach over, and over, and over again.

You’ll spend only14-16 actual hours per week in the classroom, instead of 20-25 and up (as in a private language school).

You’ll be part of a close-knit group of foreign teachers (usually 4 to 6) who share common offices, with a reading room of about 1K donated books, magazines and DVDs run by student volunteers, where holiday events and regular literature and film club meetings are held.

If social justice is a concern for you, you'll be glad to know that 30% of your students come from poor (peasant) families.

Also, you'll find that your students are consistently polite and respectful and eager to help you deal with things like banking, shopping, getting intercity bus tickets, etc."

Your life-style, while certainly not as opulent as in the West, will be comfortable and superior to what many other Chinese universities offer. You will have complete freedom of movement to and from your apartment without the walled ‘compound’ feeling present in so many other schools. At the same time, great care is given to the security and health of all the teachers (not that this is a problem on campus), a factor which may be of concern to the single female applicant.

You’ll be able to save most of your salary, because the cost of living is so low in Mianyang—use the RMB you pile up to travel round China and the rest of Eastern, Southeastern, and Southern Asia!

You will be able to talk directly with the current crop of foreign teachers who would be delighted to explain the many advantages of working at SWUST. While considering your application, simply ask for their email or telephone number.

(And, if it’s what you want, there’s a sizable community of other foreign ESL teachers and of expatriates in Mianyang, and a hang-out downtown where you can meet them.) 

Such a deal!

SWUST ESL Teachers Patrick Diehl, Victoria Woodard, Eugene McKenna and Tevis Thompson

November 2007