r/TEFL

I'll start soon at 13K RMB after tax, a round trip flight paid for once a year back to the US, 20 hours of teaching per week, housing given, chinese public holidays, medical insurance, as well as days off with typical university holidays with full pay during them.

This is only my first job, and so aside from the salary, I feel afraid that it'll be hard to beat this lifestyle it offers even if I move to kindergarten or if I get a teaching license and try going the international school route. I'd love to stay with this school and get a salary bump overtime or work my way up the ladder, but I know that's not exactly how it goes usually.

hello! working in shenzhen, china as a kindy teacher, one of my students is graduating and i’ve heard through another teacher that this students parents want to reach out to me to tutor her once she’s graduated. i haven’t accepted the parents friend request yet, so he hasn’t formally asked me but im hired by an agency of which it states in my contract that any part time work outside of my post is forbidden. i need to actually review the details before i consider this further and see if it’s a ‘fine’ they serve me with or end my contract with them all together.

i know there’s a lot of intimidation tactics in my contract with them, i guess i just want to know if anyone has found themselves in a similar position if they were found out to be working outside of their contract what happened? im considering tutoring this student for free because i really like her, and wouldn’t mind the additional experience but i think my agency would still think im being paid and punish me, they aren’t the nicest haha.

thank you in advance!

Hi,

I'm 62, born in the US, currently working as a registered nurse, with a bachelor's degree in nursing. Thinking about slowing down, have decent savings, could take social security any time. My strong preference would be to teach in Europe. I studied Spanish and German in college, but that was thirty years ago, so I'm not functional in any language except English.

The idea of supplementing my income teaching is very appealing. It wouldn't be a big deal to get a TEFL certificate. My strong preference would be to teach somewhere in Europe. I'm not really seeing any clear path to that without getting a teaching certificate. Am I missing something?

thank you:)

I recently got a job offer from Houhai English for an ESL training center role that starts in August in Beijing. I’m being told I need to accept or decline by tomorrow. The role has a two month probation period that pays 16,000 rmb per month and the following 10 months are 18,000 rmb per month before taxes and that includes housing. It’s 5 work days a week, 60 hours total per month. You’re required to work weekends with two days off during the week. You get 12 days of paid leave and 5 sick days.

Does anyone have experience with Houhai and know if it’s a good idea to take this offer? Is the probation period difficult or easy to get through? I’m concerned about my job being secure. Also is the job overall good for work life balance or do you have a lot of prep work on your days off.

The alternative would be I could continue living in the U.S. working my job where I do make 6 figures a year. I could then get a teaching certificate in my spare time in my degree subject which is Biology. From there I could get an international school teaching job in China with better pay and benefits. However, it could take a few years to get the teaching license and experience needed to get hired. I would like to go now to China as I’m 28 and looking to settle down somewhere soon and start a family, so I don’t really want to wait unless it’s really worth it.

If I do go now complete a year at houhai, how would my job prospects going forward look? I only have a Tefl certification, bachelors degree, and no teaching experience other than the 1 year at houhai I would get. How good would the pay and benefits be at a kindergarten or public school? If it’s worth it and I can get good pay in the near future I’ll go now but it’s truly not worth it then I may wait to get more qualifications.

I am currently in the process of interviewing for Houhai, and I am finding mixed opinions online, where many of the negative experiences seem to be older than the more positive discussions I've seen. I wanted to hear from anyone who may have experience with Houhai and what I should expect and any red flags before I take any jobs. For reference I am a 22 year old graduate from the UK.

I’ve been teaching ESL and such for almost five years. I’ve focused on adults since that’s where opportunities have landed for me, but have avoided teens and younger because I had a really bad experience teaching junior high in a different field. But I want to take on as many opportunities as possible. Did anyone go from disliking teaching to teens and kids to enjoying it? What tips do you have for teaching these groups?

I‘ve considered TEFL but don’t have my heart set on a country, perhaps first traveling for a year to see where and what I like. I’ve been to some of these countries but not all, and within some I know only certain regions.

Would it be viable to get my docs sorted (American, 4yr degree, no formal teaching experience but have tutored creatively writing and English) and just have them with me while I’m traveling?

I realize transitioning to a work visa often or usually requires leaving the country first but what I want to avoid is the American paperwork abroad. Quick visa runs, no problem.

Vietnam Taiwan Thailand maybe Korea Japan.

Vegetarian, which is why I’m lukewarm on Korea Japan.

Open to other suggestions. I really just want a visa to live abroad. I don’t necessarily wanna work too much but I’m open to it, and don’t care about saving a bunch of money. Living paycheck to paycheck would be fine. I’m a bit older so I have a healthy career behind me.

Hi everyone, I'd really appreciate some advice from ESL teachers who are teaching long-term in Taipei. I've lived and taught in Taipei for 7 years, but am still a few years off applying for APRC because of a combination of shitty factors. I'm finding it hard to improve my career prospects, especially without APRC.

I'm grateful that my workplace can sponsor my ARC and that I don't have to teach big classes or little children, but a lot of other factors are ... not great. My salary is fairly low, and the hours are unstable. I'm pretty sure I don't get the legal minimum amount of hours for an ARC-holder. I often work 6 days a week, but only for like 2 hours or less per day. I feel like I'm burning out, but also like I'm barely even teaching.

I live frugally, I have a few roommates and fortunately my rent is pretty cheap, but it’s still really hard to save much money with my current salary.

I've stuck it out in this job for a year because I need the visa and I wanted to gain experience teaching adults, but I've hit a wall recently and I just want to get a different job.

One option would be getting a second job, because then I wouldn't have to worry about finding another place that could sponsor my ARC. I'm trying to rearrange my schedule, but a lot of my one-on-one students prefer to have class at specific times, and I'm scared of losing students and increasing my financial stress even more. This weekend I have to send a rejection email to a well-paid part-time job that wants to hire me, because they can't offer ARC and the schedule clashes way too much with the busiest times at my ARC job.

I know teachers in Taipei who earn decent money at some of the big chain cram schools, but teaching very big classes and/or working with little kids just isn't for me.

I'd like to find a full-time job in Taipei teaching older kids, teens and/or adults. I'd love to work in a workplace that cares a lot about teaching in ways that really target the students' linguistic needs and goals. I need a job that can sponsor my visa and ideally pay me a little more. (I have my Trinity CertTESOL, and a master's degree (not in education)).

Before I accepted my current role, I did a bunch of interviews at several well-known language institutes that wanted to hire a teacher with the kind of resume and skills that I have, but didn't want to offer ARC for the role.

I'm at a point where I'm starting to feel like I have no future here. I'm starting to wonder if I should change careers or just move back to my home country, but I don't even know what job I'd do, and I genuinely enjoy teaching and have worked hard on building my skills.

I know it’s extremely difficult to make stable money through private tutoring. I also know it’s easy to find financial stability and get ARC through the kids cram school chains (e.g. HESS, Joy etc.)

Do you know anyone who has found ARC sponsorship and financial stability through other kinds of language institutes (e.g. test prep centres, British Council, university language centres etc.)? If you know someone who's managed it, how did they do it? Do you have any other practical suggestions that have worked for you?

Sorry this is so long. I'd really appreciate any advice you can share.

(Edited for clarity)

For all UK citizens who have applied for a chinese work permit, which criminal record check is required? An ACRO or DBS check?

I had a demo lesson and an interview at a language center the other day, and they seemed keen on me. The lady showed me around the center, which I thought was nice and thoughtful, but she low-key cornered me and asked me about my rates. (I genuinely felt, based on intuition and the vibe, it was a tactic to get me to gauge my expectations hence how wise it is to hire me...) I told her I was expecting around US 40 dollars (for a class of like 10 students), which I've been informed by my trainers is the standard rate for a CELTA holder....

She was really shocked, and told me the teachers were all paid roughly US 25 dollars... I felt kinda embarrassed for asking for such a high pay, though I know very well 40 is a reasonable pay, and that I've been paid that at other centers too....

I’m 29F from uk, currently working as research assistant it’s not a great job and I’m often stressed here because of lack of staff and high workload.

I wanted to teach abroad for a year or so to gain some teaching experience as well as living abroad for a bit ..

I wouldn’t say I’m in a good career now and I’d be seeking a career change anyway

Is this a bad move ?

Everyone is saying the economy is bad and if you have a job then to stay ..

I’m in Guangdong the heat has destroyed their attention spans my brain is fried I can’t think of anything new. They’re ready for summer, teachers ready for summer, they don’t need to learn anything new what fun games/activities are people doing I can use to make it slightly less chaotic my last week?

I’m in China, I will happily drop a few kuai on toys if it means keeping the majority of their attention for more than 5 minutes

Edit: thanks for all the responses so far, they’re really helpful!

Hiya, I'm looking for advice and ideas. I have a shy 8 year old student, intermediate level. She is not super talkative, and when she does talk, I'm not able to get her to produce anything but one note/tone. She doesn't use word stress, sentence stress, or inflect questions, exclamations, etc.

I teach her for 35 minutes every weekday, so I'm able to try something different a little bit at a time at the start of each lesson. I've tried using a piano keyboard (low to high being left to right), singing, humming, repeating things, shadowing, etc. But every single sound she makes, every vowel and syllable, is the same note.

I know she likes music and plays the piano so I'm just not sure what is going on. I just wrote an email to her mom today seeing if she had any ideas as well.

Thoughts?

I plan to take early retirement at 55 years, and move to Vietnam. I won’t need a job for salary as I have enough money to retire. However, I’d like to teach when there. I have a BEd hons in primary / junior education (graduated a UK university in 1996) and I taught at a UK school for 2 years, before changing careers. 6 years ago I did a TEFL Cert 5. I’m learning Vietnamese but likely will never be fluent. I know a bit.

I’m white English, native English speaker.

I’ve been to Vietnam 20+ times having dated a woman there for 6 years, now over. I have friends (local and expats) in Vietnam.

I’d like to teach in Vietnam when retired to be part of a community and ideally would like to teach at a public primary / junior school. Also, with no retirement visa in Vietnam the work visa would be of great benefit.

I don’t want to work 40 hours a week. Ideally 20 hours a week max, even less if I could but still get a work visa.

I like HCMC and Nha Trang.

At 55 will my mature age be a negative?
I can’t see a max age for teachers. Is there one?
Is there a max age for work visas?
I have no child teaching experience for 28 years but my current job I train adults.

I planning a major career change and I need your help. Can you poke holes in my plan and tell me why it is a bad idea? Or, is it a solid plan?

End goal:

• Teach English at a University in an Asian country, such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc...
• I want motivated students. It feels good to teach people who want to learn.

Currently:

• I am a native English speaker
• I have an online degree from Hull University in the UK
• My work experience is in IT

My plan:

1. Get an online TEFL or TESOL certificate
2. Get work with JET, EPIK, or dispatch company
3. While abroad, get an online masters in TESOL in my off hours
4. Try to find work in a University

I'm curious to know this. The school I'm hired to work at wants me to make around 8 unique lesson plans each week and that sounds like a lot of work.

Dead serious question, lowkey Asian countries hate bald mfers. I have my TEFL cert and I am actually a high school teacher in Australia (I have a 3 year bachelor of design and a masters in teaching secondary). I am looking to have a break from teaching in Australia, and I’ve always wanted to live in another country so I feel this is a good way to do it (I am 30). I am white.

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently in Cambodia and I will visit my mother in England in a short while.

I plan on going to Vietnam after, do I have to be in Vietnam or do people usually apply for work online from outside the country?

The earliest I can start will be around August or September.

Also, can you get a job all year round or are there set hiring dates?

I apologize if this is covered in the Wiki or previous posts, but my specific question is: which country/countries provide the best visa options for Americans? I am an ESL teacher in the public school system (Boston), and what I'd like is to go somewhere every summer, the same place, to teach during the summer school breaks. I understand that I am unlikely to find an employer who would sponsor me for only the summer, so what I am imagining is that I would first teach somewhere for a year, establish a relationship with the school, and then go back during the summers. While this might be hard to find, if we assume I can find it, which countries would even allow this legally? Are work visas typically just one 6 month, 1 year, 2 year (fixed temporary term) deals, or can they be renewed in the way I am describing? Or do any countries offer very long term work visas? Are work visas generally entirely contingent upon an offer from an individual employer? Thank you for any insights

Hi teachers, looking for some advice on whether or not to accept the offer I've just received from them. 15 000 + 667 CNY p/m, in Shenzen. No housing allowance.
They help with visa, finding housing, and the basics of getting you setup in China.

I've read probably every thread on this sub about them, which always have negative reviews at the top and the occasional "It was fine for me, everyone else is wrong" type of comments.

If you've had any experience with them, or can give me a realistic take on their pros and cons, that would be massively helpful. The main thing drawing me to them right now is it's a guaranteed offer, and despite the fact the reviews are overall more negative than positive, I can go in to it knowing what to expect.

Biggest con for me right now is the salary - from what I've read it's quite low, especially in Shenzen. I don't have any experience in teaching (only a TEFL cert), but I think that would be pretty tight to live on and save. For context, I'm a 24 y/o South African with no dependents.

Is this worth taking the risk on and just grinding out a year, or should I rather keep looking?