| Teaching English has appeared to be among the most | | | | English has never been easier. According to Chinese |
| favorable jobs for English speakers worldwide who | | | | largest SNS among college students, Renren claims to |
| wants to work and live in China. The salary is high, | | | | have 120 million users, mostly college undergraduates |
| work pressure is relatively low, most people are | | | | and fresh graduates. Another leading SNS, Kaixin001, |
| friendly, the food is delicious, and the list goes on. | | | | claims to have 75 million users, mostly white-collar |
| Unfortunately, with an ever increasing amount of | | | | workers from first tier cities in China. And let's not |
| people seeking ESL jobs in China, this market is | | | | forget about the giant in this industry, Qzone, which |
| starting to get crowded. The fact is, it's no longer as | | | | claims to have 388 million users, mostly teenagers. In |
| easy as before to get a well-paid and nice ESL job | | | | fact, Qzone's parent company, QQ network, has one |
| for people. | | | | billion registered accounts and 500 million monthly |
| However, with the quick emerge of Chinese social | | | | active users. |
| media and especially SNS (social networking site) in | | | | Instead of going on and on about boring numbers, the |
| recent years, new opportunities might start to favor | | | | point of quoting the statistics is that just by building an |
| ESL teachers who prefer lucrative, flexible private | | | | audience on any of the mentioned Chinese SNS, any |
| tutoring over a full-time teaching job. | | | | ESL teacher can manage to find more ESL students |
| Let me explain this by first quoting some numbers | | | | than he or she honestly needs, due to the fast spread |
| regarding the incredible power of Chinese social media. | | | | of information on SNS as well as its relationship and |
| There are 400 million Internet users in China and 92% | | | | trust based nature. |
| of these netizens use social media. What's more, each | | | | In conclusion, the emerge of Chinese social media |
| Chinese social media user owns an average of 2.78 | | | | (partly thanks to Chinese government's censorship |
| social media accounts and half of the Chinese netizen | | | | against western SNS like Facebook) has provided a |
| blog. By combining these figures altogether, we might | | | | bright future for Chinese ESL teachers as well as |
| be able to get a vague yet BIG picture of Chinese | | | | people seeking ESL job in China. While it's becoming |
| social media. | | | | more difficult than ever to get a nice job anywhere, |
| For ESL teachers, reaching massive amount of | | | | Chinese social media might end up ensuring some |
| Chinese people who might be interested in learning | | | | golden opportunities for ESL teachers in China. |