Chinese for teaching English in China

1. 1

   Being taken for a student

   Older people often think a young foreigner studies at the local university, and ask which one. A short answer about what you do is enough.

2. 2

   Children saying hello

   Children may greet you in English, ask if you are Chinese, or want a photo with you. They mean it kindly. You can say no.

3. 3

   Questions in the park

   Older people in parks ask direct questions: your name, if you speak Chinese, if you are married. In China, this is normal small talk, not rude.

4. 4

   Errands after work

   You buy fruit at a market, where it is sold by weight. You pay at a convenience store, and buy an umbrella when it rains. The school does not do these for you.

5. 5

   When something goes wrong

   In your first months, you may need a pharmacy for a stomach ache, or the police station for a lost phone.

The game covers one week, not a school term. But you meet the same kinds of people a new teacher meets.

• The convenience store

  You help an older woman reach a high shelf. She thinks you are a student and asks which university. You tell her you are not a student. Later, when it pours, you buy an umbrella at the counter.

• The metro platform

  A child says “Hello! 你ní好hǎo!”, asks if you are Chinese, and asks for a photo together. You can say yes or no.

• The park

  You spend a morning walking around a park. People dance, play chess, write characters on the ground with water and walk dogs. At the matchmaking corner, parents look for partners for their grown-up children. They ask if you are married.

• The fruit shop, the pharmacy, the police station

  You buy fruit by the jin, explain a stomach ache to a pharmacist, and report a lost phone at a local police station by saying its colour.

• Register your address

  If you do not stay in a hotel, you must register your address with the local police within 24 hours of arriving, and again after you move. Hotels do this for guests. Schools usually help new teachers. Since September 2026, you can also register online, in the National Immigration Administration’s NIA 12367 app or website.

• Save your addresses in Chinese

  Save your home and school addresses in Chinese characters on your phone. Drivers, couriers and the police ask for them.

• Learn the jin

  Markets price fruit and vegetables per 斤jīn (jin). One jin is 500 grams, so the price on the sign is for half a kilo.

• Ask your colleagues

  Chinese colleagues can help with phone contracts, deliveries and doctors. A few phrases of your own mean you ask them less often.

• Chinese for moving to China For expats and their partners: shops, markets, the pharmacy, a lost phone and the neighbours.
• Chinese for studying abroad in China For exchange and degree students: the everyday conversations outside class, from ordering milk tea to making friends.
• Chinese for a business trip to China The ride from the airport, hotel check-in, paying, small talk with drivers and toasts at dinner.
• When you know Chinese from an app but freeze when you speak For learners who recognise the words on a screen but cannot think of them when someone asks a question.