Teaching English Overseas

Where would you like to teach?

 

I have two friends that taught in Japan for 3 years each. Both enjoyed their time. If you have specific questions I can ask them.

 

Yeah, a BS in history should suffice. One of my friend's degree was in art.

As far as what is entailed will be up to you. If you go to South America it will most likely be random classes like that in Good Morning Vietnam, because you'd probably be teaching at a for-profit language school.

In Brazil the pay at these for-profit schools will be enough to pay rent, but not much else. The most money being made there is in building up a clientele and giving private classes to businessmen etc.

Some places you go to will setup living arrangements for you before you arrive, while others let you fend for yourself. But even the latter will generally help you find a place.

Sorry for the randomness, but I hope it helps some.

FYI, if Brazil does interest you pm me and I might be able to lay out your options.

 

I don't have experience, but I've heard the money is to be made in Korea.

 

Are you talking about teaching to adults, or teaching in a school?

 

I'm not going to pretend to know what I'm talking about (painful as that may be), but I'm wondering: how much money is there to be made, for an American, teaching English in India?

Not trying to pick on Astabooty or anything, just curious -- though it seems to me that there are plenty of English speakers in India already.

 

I know in Latin America, a premium is placed on teachers from the U.S., even though there are plenty of native teachers who can teach English. They'll get paid about three times as much.

 

You are aware of the fact that English is one of the official languages in India and by far the one most spoken?

 

Most large cities have "American Schools" that cater to children of foreign nationals, as well as natives who want their children to be bilingual. They often recruit from the U.S. and provide housing. Pick a city and google for English-language schools. Or contact the U.S. Embassy in a country for list of schools.

I taught a couple of classes at Escuela Americana in El Salvador, although this was something they recruited me for after I was already living and working there for awhile.

 

And that is what I was thinking of as an option in Brazil. I know there is an American school in Salvador, and I would bet money that they also have them in Rio, Sao Paulo, and possibly in some of the more southern cities too.

Something like this would pay much better than a language school. But they might actually want you to teach History instead of English.

 

Hey astaabooty, almost everything everyone said is right. On the local scene I know with your BA you can probably get a job over in Japan as long as you meet certain requirements. I don't have the specifics but just check out the consulate of Japan, here in Miami. Haven't heard anything bad about it and maybe in the future will apply. Hope this helps.


Heres the site: http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/jet/index.html

 

I heard that,too.Also in Taiwan.The key seems to be to find rich family(they spend a lot on kids' education)who's looking for private tutor.

 

As far as I know,there are two options for those looking for a teaching gig in Japanrivate school and goverment program.

Private language school seems to pay better but you are stuck with one school throughout your contract which usually runs at least a year.They'll probably ask you which age group you want to teach and which are you want to be assigned to but don't trust them too much.I have a friend who asked to be assigned to an urban area and ended up in a small town.They seem to hire all year round and I'm sure you can find a recruit centre in your state.

With government program,you'll be teaching kids of up to high school.They'll assign you to a certain district and you'll do a tour of different schools.Japanese kids,or Japanese in general,are not supposed to stand up and express themselves so it can be frustrating to get them to speak in the classroom.But this program enables you to meet much more people than if you teach for private language school as you cover a wide area.They probably require you to have a certificate in teaching English as a foreign language which seems fairly easy to get.I think they hire in North America only once or twice a year.If your university has a class on teaching English,they should have an information about the program.

Both programs provide accomodation and probably pick you up at the airport as you arrive.

One thing you can do is actually visit Japan and see where you want to live and teach in.This way you can avoid getting stuck in an area you'll want to get out of in a couple of months.Once you find a prospective employer,all you have to do is get out of the country to obtain the papers and come back.

This is pretty much all I know about teaching English in Japan.

 

There are dozens of websites that can give you advice on teaching English abroad. Here are two that I know are legit.

http://www.eslcafe.com/
http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp

Re teaching at an international school, I don't know. Sounds like Gringo Tex has some experience here. I've taught abroad and now work as an editor for an ESL publisher and have travelled to East Asia and Latin America on business. I know that there are a lot of other people here who have also taught. Just a couple of pieces of advice:
1.) It's worth getting a TEFL certificate before you go. Most good schools require it.
2.) There have been a lot of stories of teachers getting ripped off or misused by private language schools in other countries. Be careful.

Please feel free to PM me if you want more info.

 

If he'd ever called Dell customer support, he'd know this by now.

 

I just got back from teaching English in Ecuador for a year. I loved it. It was the best year of my life, and I really doubt any other year yet to come in my life will be as exciting or as informative. I went with a volunteer program called Worldteach: www.worldteach.org.

I highly recommend this program. The program fee might make you balk at first--- but bear in mind that the program fee is spent by the program on YOU. It takes care of costs that you would otherwise have to pay yourself. Airfare is generally included, for one. Anyone, feel free to PM me to ask more about the program.

WorldTeach sends volunteers to many developing countries, like Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica, Guyana, China, Thailand, Namibia, Poland and the Marshall Islands.

BUT, if you wanna MAKE some real money, well, from what I hear, Japan and Korea are where you should go.

 

Here's the lowdown as far as teaching in Asia is concerned:

The difficulty is finding the right balance between having a great experience abroad and making money - the two extremes being Thailand and Korea respectively. Thailand is a blast, but the pay sucks and you'll save very little money. At the other end of the spectrum, there's a ton of money to be made in Korea as an ESL teacher, but life here can be very difficult for foreigners due to huge cultural differences and an extremely xenophobic population.

China varies - Taiwan is slightly lower on money than Korea and slightly higher on overall experience, while the mainland is lots of fun but the pay's not great.

Japan is as close to a best of both worlds option as you can get, but the job opportunities there are limited. The days of hordes of Japanese flocking to learn English are long over, and while the well's not completely dry, it's significantly harder to find a decent job in Japan than it was 10 years ago. Nevertheless, the opportunities do exist, and I'd say they're worth looking into. Japan also has the added advantage of being possibly the only country where nobody will try to rip you off.

I've had a good experience overall, and I would recommend it, but you will need a pretty finely tuned bullshit detector in order to do well. Some schools - especially in Korea and China - will try to screw you, plain and simple. Remember to read every contract carefully and keep in mind that if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.