From a personal perspective, coming to China to teach English may have been one of the best decisions Janet and I have ever made but it was not made lightly.After spending nearly 35 years in the business world, Janet and I had the chance to finally return to the classroom where we had originally started.We both have education degrees form the United States and returning to the classroom sounded like a good place to spend our last years working.

I have traveled internationally since 1981 and had become enamored with the orient.Janet and I have vacationed in Southeast Asia so when the decision was made to return to teaching, it was decided to look in the Far East.Making this rather momentous decision took serious investigation and thought.Once the decision was made however, the only place that offered all of what they were looking for was China.

The criteria we used for this decision included: the demand for learning English, availability of well run schools, availability of materials, curriculum and the possibility of some participation in other business opportunities.As a part of the decision to come to China to teach, I visited China in July 2001 and on the strength of that visit, Janet and I made the final decision.

We arrived in Changchun late in the evening on August 31, 2001.I had accepted a position as General Manager and teacher at a private English school here.Janet was to be in charge of Curriculum Development and teach.Fortunately, that experience turned out to be a disaster and after only three months I resigned.Janet resigned one month later.

Based on information collected during our initial investigation, our disastrous experience at the private school and additional information and experience gained as a result of that incident, we decided to establish Perfect English to help Chinese students learn clear accurate and understandable English and to meet the high standards we had originally hoped to find.Armed with only our educational and business backgrounds we established Perfect English.So much for an early retirement!

There is almost no way of accurately assessing the interest for a high quality, focused English education in China today.Certainly, here in Changchun the demand for quality conversational English instruction certainly exceeds the supply of schools able to provide it.

Mandates from the government concerning teaching more and more academic classes in English to better prepare students for business; science and technology, literature and art and other disciplines certainly indicate a magnitude not heretofore seen.English is being taught in military schools, is available on the internet and is even being taught in some private schools for the specific purpose of just passing the entrance exams to ensure better placement in Chinese colleges and universities.

Westerners are constantly stopped on the street and asked if they will tutor complete strangers, English Corners (kind of loose groups of people who meet to practice their conversational English) are springing up in schools, parks, nightclubs and virtually anywhere that it is convenient for people to meet!The conclusion is simple; English has become important and the result is that Chinese want to learn English.

We also believe that this interest will continue to grow as people begin to recognize the opportunities offered by China’s membership in the WTO, the 6th Annual Winter Asian Games to be held in Changchun in early 2007, the Olympic games in Beijing in 2008 and finally the World Expo in Shanghai!

Now you know our reasons for coming to China.I would suggest that you examine your reasons because once you have made the decision it is one that you will have to live with for at least one year.But again, I think coming to China was a terrific decision.Let me suggest some things you might want to consider:

• Are you willing to make a commitment to teach for at least a year?
• Go on the Internet and look up Changchun (or visit ABOUT CHANGCHUN on this website), find out where we are and learn a little about Jilin Province.It is really a wonderful part of China but make sure you check for yourself.
• Look at all the pages in this website, evaluate our commitment to the quality of education we provide and ask yourself if you have what it takes to teach for Perfect English.
• Also look at the assistance we provide through workshops, North American teaching materials, physical environment, multimedia systems, etc.
• Living in Changchun is, by North American standards, cheap.A lunch for four at a local restaurant costs about $6.00.A fair western meal for two in a Five Star hotel can be as high as $50.00.
• An average taxi fare is between $0.63 to $1.25
• It gets cold in the winter but feather (down) coats are readily available, very warm and very inexpensive.
• You will have an opportunity to travel to parts of the world that few others have the opportunity to see.
• China is a long way from North America.We tell you this to make you consider if teaching here is what you really want to do.But if you decide that you want to teach here, we can’t think of a better school to teach for than Perfect English!But also keep in mind that if you do come to teach here, we expect teaching to be your FIRST priority.Learning about Chinese culture, traveling throughout the country and all of the other good reasons must be secondary to the education you will provide to our students.

I hope this information will be helpful and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

Jack Murray