What are the employment prospects for majors in teaching Chinese as a foreign language? What are the employment directions?

The industry prospects can be viewed from at least two levels. One is the industry as a whole, and the other is the individuals working in the industry.

Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language - I personally prefer to call it "Chinese International Education" (a habit of graduates with a master's degree in Chinese International Education) - the development prospects of the industry are definitely broad and far-reaching. This is really not about Hanban or industrial universities trying to make a pie for students. This trend is obvious even without them drawing it. I personally have been teaching Chinese as an international language for several years. I have held teaching positions both at home and abroad. I have probably taught no less than 20 students by country. The popularity of Chinese in the world is obvious. This market is only going to get bigger. In addition, Hanban has spared no effort in promoting it over the years, and the foundation is already solid. But...

But where is this market? To whom? This is what should be emphasized and recognized.

A simple classification of overseas Chinese teaching is local Chinese teaching abroad and overseas Chinese teaching in China (I divided it myself, and it seems easy to distinguish).

Overseas local Chinese language teaching has been discovered for many years and has its own system. China and Chinese language are only the purpose or premise of this kind of teaching. To put it crudely, if one day China ceases to exist (bah bah bah, impossible), this kind of teaching can still exist. There are still people studying and studying cuneiform. However, because there is a second type of China-dominated “Chinese International Education” that exists and is growing day by day, overseas local Chinese education is bound to be related to it.

The "Chinese International Education" led by China is actually dominated by government actions. Absolutely non-commercial and non-profit education model. Everyone knows this. However, objectively speaking, the rapid promotion of this method will inevitably lead to the rapid expansion of the entire “Chinese International Education” market. However, when and to what extent this market expansion will be fed back to the commercial market level and how long it will last are always questions that bother everyone.

As far as my personal understanding of this commercial market is concerned, the domestic market has always been occupied by private enterprises, and development has been too fast-paced. For example, there are already quite a few Chinese training institutions, but the market is short. There has not been a big rise in the time period, and the existing space has almost been divided up. The model is also simple, just look at English training institutions. Not much harder than Ctrl + C then V.

Then there is the perspective of individual industry practitioners. Let’s talk about the professional learners first, such as myself. After graduation, the proportion of those who actually work in "Chinese International Education" positions, whether at home or abroad, does not exceed 10%. More people are entering teaching positions in primary and secondary schools, or simply changing careers, and there are even fewer people doing further research (only in terms of professional and master's degrees, but the academic ones are not far behind). Ultimately, I think the reason is that the domestic market is still too small, and the development of salary positions is not promising. Those who can actually go abroad to do this work, wow, that is really lucky.

(Immigrants are not counted)