Teach, travel, and change the lives of children in China! Spend a year abroad teaching English with the AYC program. Priority applications close March 31st, native mastery of English required. Click here to apply.
Please read Andrew Ebanks’s submission to this photo essay contest where he uses a fun acronym, “QLAPPp” to catalog his experience in China. Vote if you find it amusing!“The beauty of the QLAPPp is that it’s something that, once you learn it, it stays with you forever.”Welcome to the first ever AYC program Video and Photo-Essay competition, open exclusively to AYC 2013-2014 participants. We are looking for videos and photo-essays that demonstrate what it feels like to uproot from a western life, and completely be emerged in a new culture and lifestyle. The video or photo-essay should demonstrate the story of coming to China as a foreigner or a teacher, and/ or something meaningful you have learned in your time in China. The video should be between 3-5 minutes, while the photo-essay should be between 500-1000 words with at least 5 photos. Prizes: The first place prize for both competitions is a free trip to Hong Kong, including free roundtrip airfare, 5 day hotel stay and a free ticket to Hong Kong Disney! There will be 3 second place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free trip to Yunnan including free round trip airfare, and a free 5 day hotel stay in Yunnan. There will be 5 third place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free 500 kuai high speed railway ticket. Prize packages include 3 star hotels, 2nd class train tickets, and economy class plane tickets. Please read the Terms and Conditions area to find out contest details and guidelines. Feel free to submit any questions that you may have about the contest to the official teachers AYC page, or email them to ayc.ni@ameson.org. Submissions are open until March 1st at midnight, and voting will open on March 3rd. Any entries submitted after that will not be entered into the competition. We can’t wait to start receiving your content! Good luck to everyone! Best, AYC 2013-2014 team
Be sure to check out Andrew Ebanks’ contest entry!
The first ever AYC awards were given out last week and seven special participants were chosen for their teaching skills, unquenchable thirst for China knowledge, and ability to make American culture comprehensible for their students. Congratulations to these winners of the Outstanding Cultural Ambassador award for 2013-2014!
Samantha Coughran (Ningbo)
Gillian Chu (Shanghai)
Daniel Ward (Changzhou)
Ryan Cobb (Guangzhou)
Caitlin Evans (Wenzhou)
Stephaine Lawrence (Nanjing)
Brian Luckett (Guangzhou)
Rahul Rastogi (Shenzhen)
Trey McMillon (Yangzhou)
Noemi Melecia(Yuncheng)
PS - The awards were handed out at a major meeting with the FEB about next year’s AYC program. Due to the teaching success of this year’s AYC participants, several provinces across China have already committed to providing hundreds of hassle-free work visas for next year. Yay! Heilongjiang province alone asked us for 200! Yay again!! You can read more by clicking on the photo.
Dear America,
I can remember vividly the words my music teacher told me. Ms Ng, a Chinese American woman, one day in my fifth grade class said to me, “Jessica, do you want to be a teacher? I think I can see you becoming a teacher.” That memory came spiraling back hard as ever as I looked over…
Check out another entry from our photo-essay contest!
Welcome to the first ever AYC program Video and Photo-Essay competition, open exclusively to AYC 2013-2014 participants. We are looking for videos and photo-essays that demonstrate what it feels like to uproot from a western life, and completely be emerged in a new culture and lifestyle. The video or photo-essay should demonstrate the story of coming to China as a foreigner or a teacher, and/ or something meaningful you have learned in your time in China. The video should be between 3-5 minutes, while the photo-essay should be between 500-1000 words with at least 5 photos. Prizes: The first place prize for both competitions is a free trip to Hong Kong, including free roundtrip airfare, 5 day hotel stay and a free ticket to Hong Kong Disney! There will be 3 second place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free trip to Yunnan including free round trip airfare, and a free 5 day hotel stay in Yunnan. There will be 5 third place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free 500 kuai high speed railway ticket. Prize packages include 3 star hotels, 2nd class train tickets, and economy class plane tickets. Please read the Terms and Conditions area to find out contest details and guidelines. Feel free to submit any questions that you may have about the contest to the official teachers AYC page, or email them to ayc.ni@ameson.org. Submissions are open until March 1st at midnight, and voting will open on March 3rd. Any entries submitted after that will not be entered into the competition. We can’t wait to start receiving your content! Good luck to everyone! Best, AYC 2013-2014 teamVOTE FOR ME!!!! HELP ME, HELP ME!!!!!
Welcome to the first ever AYC program Video and Photo-Essay competition, open exclusively to AYC 2013-2014 participants. We are looking for videos and photo-essays that demonstrate what it feels like to uproot from a western life, and completely be emerged in a new culture and lifestyle. The video or photo-essay should demonstrate the story of coming to China as a foreigner or a teacher, and/ or something meaningful you have learned in your time in China. The video should be between 3-5 minutes, while the photo-essay should be between 500-1000 words with at least 5 photos. Prizes: The first place prize for both competitions is a free trip to Hong Kong, including free roundtrip airfare, 5 day hotel stay and a free ticket to Hong Kong Disney! There will be 3 second place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free trip to Yunnan including free round trip airfare, and a free 5 day hotel stay in Yunnan. There will be 5 third place winners for both competitions, and the prize is a free 500 kuai high speed railway ticket. Prize packages include 3 star hotels, 2nd class train tickets, and economy class plane tickets. Please read the Terms and Conditions area to find out contest details and guidelines. Feel free to submit any questions that you may have about the contest to the official teachers AYC page, or email them to ayc.ni@ameson.org. Submissions are open until March 1st at midnight, and voting will open on March 3rd. Any entries submitted after that will not be entered into the competition. We can’t wait to start receiving your content! Good luck to everyone! Best, AYC 2013-2014 teamAbout a month ago, I wrote a photo essay comparing living in China to popping out of the womb (and it even rhymes!) for a competition through Ameson. If I get enough votes, I could win a trip to Yunnan, which would soothe my aching mountain girl heart. If you have a minute, please check it out and vote. Thank you!
Check out Lindsay’s post for the AYC photo-essay contest!
Let me tell you something about bus crowding in China…. it’s absolutely ridiculous. Now, I’ll start off by saying that Haishu, Ningbo is a lot smaller than larger metropolitan areas like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. And we do not have a subway station. So the bus is the way to go. Usually, I…
Tip #2 for living in China: forget everything that you know about personal space on the bus. This current AYC'er thoroughly explains the crowded bus epidemic during rush hour time. Ladies and Gentleman, this is an example of what the bus is like everyday during Rush Hour. Heed her words, and know sometimes you may have to nudge an old lady to get out.
This year AYC participants visited almost 20 countries and 5 continents during their Spring Festival vacation. Spring Festival is a celebration of the Chinese New Year where students and teachers get anywhere from 2 weeks - 2 months vacation time to celebrate the New Year, and the participants this year used that time for travel!
A few pictures from Tiger Leaping Gorge. Such a beautiful hike!!
Incredible photos from Lindsey’s vacation with her Mom in Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Be sure to check out the inaugural issue of the Voice, Amesons print newspaper which is published once per semester. Featuring diverse stories about AYC participants all over China such as AYC'ers giving back, classroom projects and much more. The Newspaper also features endorsement letters from Congressmen!
Ameson, the organization I came to China through, put out a call for photo essays commenting on the experience of coming to China as a foreigner. Here is the silly little essay I came up with!
Check out AYC'er Lindsey Pointer’s amazing photo-essay entry!
Some New Year decorations and the Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai
Gorgeous pictures from our AYC participant John, placed in Ningbo, of New Years decorations at the Yu Yuan Gardens from his visit to Shanghai.
Photo of the Day: Savory Sides in China
A busy vendor stacks side dishes for hungry customers at an outdoor street market in Shanghai, China on December 1, 2013. (Tahiat Mahboob/Flickr)
Want to see your images in our ‘Photo of the Day’ posts? Find out how.
Tip #1 for living in China: get used to street food. It will be some of the best food that you have while in China. Don’t let your American halal horror story, inhibit your Chinese street dining!
Welcome to the official blog of Ameson Year in China. Here there will be information about the AYC 2014 program, as well as peering in on the experiences of current AYCers. This photo demonstrates common occurrences in China in the best way. Here we see about 100 AYC participants posing for a group portrait, and a completely unrelated Chinese woman and her baby rushing to join the photo. This best explains T.I.C #thisisChina, where you are foreign, new and very different than the almost 90% Han Chinese-populated country. This woman, as will many, wants to learn more about you and about your culture. Know that people may seem invasive, annoying, and even downright disrespectful according to American standards, but…this is China. So be willing to learn just as much, or more, than you are teaching. Feel free to ask any questions in the Ask box, about the program, and be sure to check out the 2013 participants’ blogs! It’s great insight into the good, the bad and the somewhat strange occurrences of being in China with AYC.