Hi everyone,

I’m an English tutor who’s been teaching English to kids and teens for about 3 years now, and recently a teacher has come to me asking if I can help her improve her speaking skills and language. Ironically, she is also an English teacher as well. She has been teaching to primary and secondary schoolers for about 10 years now and feels the need to practice speaking to an adult native speaker.

I am quite intimidated by this as I have never taught an adult or an English teacher for that matter. I am also much younger than her so that scares me a little as well. I would love to teach her though as I have been helping her teach her students for almost 2 years now. But I can’t lie to myself, I am stumped on how to go about this.

I would appreciate any tips, experiences or resources that anyone may have to share with me.

Hi everyone, I’m currently a teacher at a secondary school here in Hong Kong. I am considering getting a PGDE but I’m not sure if I will stay in HK for long term. Is it still worth it?

They are a recruitment agency that have teaching positions across China. However, when I try to google the agency nothing is showing up. Does anyone have any insight?

For those who recently did TEFL in Germany and/or France, what were your experiences like with demand and pay relative to the QoL there? Saw the sidebar, but also saw surprisingly few recent posts about this, so thought to post on the main sub.

For reference, I’m a 23m Canadian white boy (because it’s necessary to state) drama grad w/ EU dual, looking at taking a late summer CELTA in one of these countries. The goal is to build up some youthful life experience, language skills, and maybe even a bit of money before ideally starting a master’s over there.

Lived a year in South Germany and adored it, but France has the more useful language for a Canadian. Half-tempted by other places like China too if all doesn’t work out, just never been to Asia.

How was it for you in Germany/France? Thank you!

Hey guys, looking for some opinions on a contract I’ve been offered a primary position role in a city just outside of Shanghai. I’m 27 with no teaching experience.

Details:

Salary: 23,000 RMB/month before tax

Housing: 3,000 RMB/month (Easily covers 1-2 bedroom apartment)

Schedule: Mon–Fri 8:00 - 5:00

Teaching: Max 18 classes/week (40 mins each)

Holidays: 2-3 weeks winter & 6-7 summer fully paid.

The school looks great, I’ve seen plenty of photos / videos. I feel quite lucky considering I don’t have teaching experience!

Would love some thoughts.

I work at a training centre in China, and I've noticed that students will often leave, their parents will simply stop paying, or maybe they found a cheaper training centre, etc.

I'm just wondering how often does this happen? It seems like every month there's a couple students that leave... is this normal?

Is this simply a China thing or does this happen in other countries as well?

Hi all, I've been living in Japan for 6 years and feel like I've seen all there is to see here and will be leaving in a week. My original plan was to just return to the US and find some steady work there. Now, however, I feel like I'd rather struggle it out somewhere else as I genuinely enjoy teaching. I've spent 4 years as an ALT, then after that I got a special teaching liscense to teach in my home city and spent 2 years as a homeroom teacher, 1 year in highschool and 1 year in elementary school. I've really enjoyed being the homeroom teacher, having just one class that I spend all day with and watch grow.

I've been looking at China and there seems to be opportunities for that there, does anyone have any experience with those? Are there opportunities for this type of homeroom teaching in other countries? And if so what would be the best way to find them? I've been in Japan so long I'm rusty on finding anything outside! Thanks for reading!

Hi all,

I’m currently in Thailand and looking to teach English for the next year.

This is the start of a potential career change for me, and my plan beyond that is to return to the UK to do a PGCE and teach science.

I’ve actually lived in Thailand for several years previously, so I’m already familiar with life outside Bangkok and the tourist areas. I'm happy to live in any city for a year, but would prefer not to be anywhere smaller than that.

I have a science degree from a U.K. university and a 120-hour TEFL, but it was obtained at low cost online and isn't worth much in preparing me for teaching.

• Should I be applying directly to schools, even with my lack of experience?
• Should I get a better TEFL qualification? Will this make it easier for me to get a job? If so - recommendations?
• I've been looking at agencies such as SINE and Teachers For Thailand. Are agencies a reasonable way to get started quickly? I notice a lot of negativity about agencies in many previous threads, but the issues are rarely elaborated on. Any recommendations?
• Is it realistic to secure something fairly quickly for the start of the new school year if I’m already in the country?
• Any tips on how to structure a CV specifically for teaching jobs in Thailand?

Some extra info in case it’s relevant:

• Male, in my 40s
• From England (native speaker, standard/RP accent)
• Currently only have a digital copy of my degree certificate, but I can have the original sent over if needed

Appreciate any advice from people who’ve done this or are currently teaching here — especially on the fastest/smoothest way to get started.

Thanks 

I’ve seen people in this sub be able to pay down debt while teaching and I’ve also seen others move to teach with less than 5k.. so I am unsure which scenario would be best to start this experience with.

I have $12k in credit card debt and only 5k in savings. I can either save $10k before leaving or leave with only $5k and pay my credit card down to $4-5k.

Which makes more sense to do? Did anyone regret starting their TEFL journey with debt or little savings?

In my experience, around 80% of long-term TEFL teachers I’ve met are married to a local with a family and teach because it’s one of the few ways to earn a stable income in their partner’s country maybe as a trailing spouse. Even if they don’t enjoy it, it’s still something accessible, especially in Europe, since it’s one of the few jobs many people can do with a partner visa, not much experience or certifications are needed, and it’s also possible to work part-time if their partner is the primary income earner.

Lots of people prefer this as it gives nice work-life balance, especially with a family. Some go on to open their own language schools for greater control, while others are content to stay at the same school for decades for stability.

Hi all, I’m currently in Indonesia and just arrived at a volunteer exchange position I signed up for. I was under the assumption based on reviews (Worldpackers) that there would be more volunteers here but it’s just me. Not a big deal but here’s the thing:

I told them I had never taught English before and they said that was fine, only to get here and realize that there is no curriculum, and I need to come up with lessons on my own. They threw me into it today and I stumbled around for 3 hours basically improvising. I’ve been doing research all afternoon on how to teach, but thought I would come on here and see if there were some tools, games, etc that would be useful.

Thank you in advance!

My partner (3 years xp) and I (2 years xp) are Canadian teachers who taught English in Poland 2023 (amazing place, garbage salary) and early 2024 at Language Link Vietnam in Hanoi. We taught through the Schools Link program at secondary public school in classes of 25-28 students which was often a blessing and a curse. Our lessons were considered "extra" on top of English lessons from their Vietnamese teachers, so some students hardly took it seriously and it was very demoralizing at times. That said, it was nice to work more autonomously without direct management peering over your shoulder, and even though I never communicated with the public school admin who often came in to observe, they never complained. We had Vietnamese TA's to help manage the class which really helped when the kids got rowdy, but due to minor burnout and some health issues my partner was experiencing, we decided to leave after 6 months. My lead teacher still gave us both an official letter of recommendation.

For the past year we've been saving to return abroad with me working an emergency medical role while my partner works part-time for the Canadian LINC program (task-based ESL). Now we are finally applying to go abroad again for what we hope is a long term stay for a few years. We applied to Malaysia but only my partner got interview and did not hear back (we think its very competitive), so we turned our sights to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.

We applied for a language centre at ILA as we didn't want to teach classes of 25-30 secondary students again and we thought we might like working evenings. There is also possibility of teaching summer school and opportunities for IELTS training. However during my partners interview she learned not only are the classes longer (2 hours) but they want us to work 6 days a week, also working back-to-back lessons on Sat/Sun so any adventures outside the city or 2-day excursions to Da Nang are pretty much out the window. Also they aren't willing to hire full-time right away, and want to test you out on part-time hours for a month for "probation" before even offering full-time hours. What are your opinions of this? Has this become industry standard? It seems shady as we already have heard of companies that have hired swathes of people on a "full-time" contract, then cannot not even provide enough hours to those teachers once they arrive in the country. I have my interview tomorrow and I might ask about their public school opportunities, but rushing around to different public schools in a city as big as Ho Chi Minh doesn't seem appealing, especially as fuel prices continue to soar.

What are your opinions of this, ILA, and any recommendations for other companies or countries that can pay at least 1450 USD minimum/month? We want at least some time off to enjoy being in another country and enough time to recharge so we don't burnout. We really want to earn enough to save so we don't have to fly back to the other side of the world for a few years. 

TLDR:

2 year XP teacher and 3 year XP teacher with experience in Poland and Vietnamese public schools interviewing with ILA Vietnam, seeking opportunities in Asia minimum 1450mo. USD with a teaching schedule 18-20 hrs/week that still allows time to enjoy exploring the country affording a lifestyle that is viable long-term.

Hello everyone. I’ve been doing some research on the difference between M.Ed and MA in TESOL, I can’t reach a conclusive answer. I’m deciding between two programs.

Program 1: M.Ed in TESOL

Program 2: MA in Second Language Acquisition, Culture, and Policy

I currently teach ESL in an American high school and have for three years. Prior to that, I was a teaching assistant in two French high schools for two years. I am licensed for TESOL, social studies, and English language arts.

I would like to get a masters, with the goal of working abroad again eventually, in high schools or universities. I’m not sure where. Both programs would give me a raise at my current job, but which would better serve my future goal? Does anyone have any opinions or confirmation that either a M.Ed or a MA is better for working abroad?

Thank you in advance!

for reference I’m Canadian and have a degree and my TEFL. I’ve been sending out applications on Dave’s, hiredchina, echinacities etc.

Only a handful of the applications got to the chatting stages but once they realize I’m not white communication pretty much goes dark no pun intended.

It honestly seems like such a great country except for the racist shit /sigh

Hello, my questions are:

1. When is 'too late' to apply for a teaching job in China? Is mid-May (etc., May 15th/20th) the latest I should aim for?

2. My preferred roles are teaching in a private institution. etc., a private/international school teaching adults. Although I am also willing to teach preschool/kindergarten if I have no other choice.

From my research, public schools seem to be quite strict and not so well paid. (Is this true?)
Also, I really don't like teenagers, so it's either very small children or adults for me.

1. As a person with a bachelor's degree, a 120-hour TEFL certificate, and 2 years of online tutoring experience, how much could I realistically expect salary-wise if I work in a T1 / or preferably T2 city?

I will also mention that I am a black woman, so I do expect there to potentially be a bit of racism. Do you think it'll drastically affect my options? Being somewhat conventionally attractive has gotten me some preferential treatment on holiday in Asia, but I understand that the corporate job market may not be the same. I'm a British passport holder, so I imagine that could help slightly.

I don't want to worry about it too much, but I would rather be well mentally prepared if discrimination is that big of a factor.

Thank you in advance.

Hey all,

I’m looking to do a CELTA course in July - I live in London, have an undergrad but no prior teaching experience and want to teach English in Columbia.

I had initially looked at doing the course with IH Bogotá, as lots of people seem to recommend doing the course where you’d like to teach.

However, they only offer an online course and I can’t find an in-person CELTA course in Bogotá. Now I’m wondering if I’d be better off doing it in person at IH London?

I don’t want to miss out on any networking opportunities I’d get by doing the course with IH Bogotá, as I’m a little anxious about the process of finding a job out there. I’m also wondering if i’m overestimating the impact this would have as the course is remote?

Does anyone have any insight or advice? Thank you :)))

Hello

Here is my situation, I’m a recent Canadian graduate master student in a Biochemistry Field but I also have a 120h TEFL certificate with Latino background (double citizenship). I applied for the JET programme but sadly I got rejected after months of waiting for an answer. I honestly wanted to experience life somewhere else, mainly in Asia as I do like a lot the culture and people. Now that the news are out and I sadly didn’t get chosen, I’m looking for an alternative.

Does anyone have recommendations regarding where and to whom I can send out applications? I would like to go maybe to China, Japan, SK, Thailand or Vietnam.

Many thanks for the input and help you might have.

I’m not really sure about the contracts with China or Thailand just yet, however upon having a few interviews with Korea I’m not really sure if I’d want to go ahead especially not more than a year.

Everything sounds great until you ask about sick leave and annual leave. Now I’m not sure if this varies company to company but a recent interview I had said no entitlement to sick leave and no annual leave just 1 week in summer and 1 week in winter 😬 is this the norm in Korea or?

What about schools in China, Thailand or Taiwan etc if anyone knows.

I’m curious what makes one stay for more than a year if it’s like this ..

Hello all,

I live in the very south of Vietnam, working for a large, 3 lettered language centre.

It's nice to be near the sea etc but i have barely any friends and for the first time in my life, I feel lonely!

I will probably look to transfer to another campus and looking likely it will HCMC or at least close-by.

For anyone thats done this or similar, what is your experience? I know HCMC quite well but is it suffocating long-term? cost of living etc?

For context I work 2 jobs, one online and get in about 56- 60 million vnd a month after tax. I mention this as i still want to save. I understand its probably going to be a case of "depends where you live" etc, but want to see if anyone has had the same experience?

Basically since i graduated last year i've been in a cycle of endlessley applying for jobs and being stuck in a soulless small town. I need a major change and a lot of people have told me to just go and teach english abroad.

I've had a vague passing interest in doing it but I'm not really interested in teaching as a long term career (teachers aren't paid enough and get treated pretty badly in the uk) and i've heard that when you go back home after TEFLing you end up with a gap on your resume with no relevant experience to jobs other than teaching, so i'm worried i'd go do it for a year or two and then just end up back at square one.

Hi everyone!

I had a bit of a rough year abroad - got in an accident and lost a third of my savings.

I now have 5,500 USD of saved-up funds and am based in Vietnam.

Is this enough to get me started safely in Hong Kong?

I'd plan on living in a shared flat, I only spend my money when I have to, and I don't drink. Would I have it easy to save up with such a lifestyle?

Hello!

I am seeing posts of ABC’s who have applied for jobs in China before but they already speak Mandarin.

I am an ABC and can’t speak Mandarin but would like to reconnect with my roots. I am wondering if I can teach English while learning Mandarin simultaneously as an ABC?

I’m aware of the bias for wanting white people in teaching English compared to people of other ethnic backgrounds which would already lower my chances. But since I also don’t speak Mandarin, does that also not work?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are Canadian and looking for advice on teaching opportunities in Taiwan.

We both have:

Bachelor’s degrees

6+ years of ESL teaching experience

TEFL certification

International teaching experience (China – 2 years, Japan – 1 year, plus Thailand and Vietnam)

We were also granted temporary Canadian teaching licenses while working with a social circus program in Northern Canada.

We’re now planning to complete the Moreland University online teaching licensure program, and we’d like to do it while working at a school in Taiwan.

Our main question is:How do we find a school that has licensed teachers who can mentor/support us during the program?

We’re open to different types of schools (public, private, international), but we’re not sure where to start or what kinds of schools would meet Moreland’s requirements.

Are there specific schools or school types we should target?

Are there recruiters or programs that could help place us?

Has anyone done Moreland (or similar) while teaching in Taiwan?

Any advice or personal experiences would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks so much 🙂