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Teaching English overseas?
An Idiot Abroad
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all,
I'm graduating with a degree in English from a university in America very soon. I've always been interested in traveling, and I think I may be leaving my job soon. Other personal circumstances kind of make this the perfect time to broaden the mind and see a bit of the world. I've also always been fascinated with China (and many other Asian cultures).
I'm very curious about teaching English overseas for a year or so. I like teaching, I want to see more of the world... it seems like the perfect fit.
Except all of the research I've done on it for the past few days 1) makes me very uncertain about where to look for reputable resources and 2) well, that's pretty much it. I'm super uncertain about the whole thing.
I'd love to hear some experiences on it from people who have actually done it, or at the very least, know people who have done it. Is there a country that's best (like China or South Korea or Thailand)? How do I sniff out the scams? I've found some services that SEEM legitimate, but I guess seeming legit makes perfect sense for a scam service. Heh.
Thanks in advance. I'm sorry this is so general.
I'm graduating with a degree in English from a university in America very soon. I've always been interested in traveling, and I think I may be leaving my job soon. Other personal circumstances kind of make this the perfect time to broaden the mind and see a bit of the world. I've also always been fascinated with China (and many other Asian cultures).
I'm very curious about teaching English overseas for a year or so. I like teaching, I want to see more of the world... it seems like the perfect fit.
Except all of the research I've done on it for the past few days 1) makes me very uncertain about where to look for reputable resources and 2) well, that's pretty much it. I'm super uncertain about the whole thing.
I'd love to hear some experiences on it from people who have actually done it, or at the very least, know people who have done it. Is there a country that's best (like China or South Korea or Thailand)? How do I sniff out the scams? I've found some services that SEEM legitimate, but I guess seeming legit makes perfect sense for a scam service. Heh.
Thanks in advance. I'm sorry this is so general.
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We decided on Thailand after I initially wanted to try Japan or China. He convinced me that Thailand would be a more laid back and less stressful environment and in retrospect, I think he was completely right. We used some online program (i-to-i) that gave us a TOEFL certificate and then placed us in a school. It was comforting to have something to fall back on if things weren't going well, but we never needed them. They also picked us up from the airport, introduced us to the administration, etc. I think anytime you're reading anecdotes on the internet you'll get mixed reviews. It's just like buying a something on amazon, it can have 1,000 ratings with 5 stars and still get a few with 1 star. In Thailand at least, I don't think it's too hard for a westerner to find work as a teacher if you're physically there. There's plenty of ads you could check out if you don't like the school you end up at.
I would say the most important thing to do to enjoy your time when you're there is to have a good attitude. Give the foreign culture the benefit of the doubt, don't go in there thinking your way is the only or best way. Understand your place in the school (for most students learning English really isn't that important for their long term future... but your role is to make learning English fun and enjoyable and to encourage them to interact with foreign points of view). And while you're there take advantage of the opportunities. Go to see all the sites in the country, try out the various foods. Interact with the people. Back when I went I wasn't on Facebook and Skype wasn't a thing yet, plus our apartments only got internet about 4 months into it... so we were forced to go out and do things if we didn't want to be bored. It was great!
I'd be happy to give you any more advice I can via PM, but there's a lot of English teachers here who will probably have more relevant / better advice.
Like Cauld said, I think the most important things to realize are that your culture is not the only way of doing things (and you should take "culture" to have an extremely broad meaning here), that for your students English is just another school subject.
I've been in Japan for three years, going into my fourth. I've seen a number of people come and go, and invariably, the unhappiest ones are the ones who forget those two things.
I had a friend in college a few years ago who taught ESL in Thailand and LOVED it. He met his wife there. He talked a lot about how things were very, very different where he was, and you have to get used to 100% humidity and no air conditioning anywhere, but if you're a fairly laid-back person and able to go with the flow apparently it's the best place ever.
JET can be hard to get into but I am not sure if I would call it competitive, or if their selection process is just quite poor. Because a lot of the people that end up on the program really make you scratch your head at how they ever got a job as a teacher.
Can't help you with other countries though, your best bet is trying to hunt down people that did it in the past and picking their brains.
One of the things that he said was that they can't turn you down because you don't speak Japanese, but it does determine where they send you. If you don't speak any, they will probably place you in a big city where it won't matter. If you do, they will probably place you in a rural area because it's much harder to get around there if you don't. There are non-teaching positions within JET, but they are usually administrative and you need to have some competence with the language or you will have a really hard time.
If you have a lot of tattoos that you can't hide with clothes, Japan will be rough. My sister was turned down to teach there because there was no way to hide them and they just don't view tattoos the same way we do. It's loosening up with the younger generation I think, but not enough that places were willing to look past it.
I spoke zero Japanese at the time of my interview and they put in smack dab in the middle of rural, rice farming Japan.
I LOVE KOREA
The big thing about the placement services and the hiring agencies is they're in it for their cut. They honestly don't care if they place you somewhere great or somewhere shitty in my experience. In my opinion it's honestly better to seek out schools that you want to work for and apply that way. The public school systems in Korea (SMOE and EPIK) have significantly cut back the number of new English teacher hires they're making, but those jobs are always going to be on the up-and-up. Otherwise, if you do go through a service, feel free to post questions here, PM them to me, or ask on the aforementioned Dave's ESL Cafe about the legitimacy of potential hagwons or international schools.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Honestly I wouldn't be completely surprised. He'd been working at the school a long time in 2005, I don't think he'd worked with JET in years as it was.
After looking into all of the options, and carefully considering everything you all have said, I think I'm going to consider traveling a bit more freely. There's a travel website I've used before (I won't list it for fear of seeming like a plug) that pairs up travelers with hosts. In exchange for food and a place to stay, you're expected to do a few hours of work each day for four to five days each week. It's a great way to immerse yourself in another culture, and while it doesn't pay like teaching at an actual school would, it allows a bit more freedom. I traveled around New Zealand six years ago this way, and I completely forgot about it until now.
I have kind of a general travel question now. I would still like to spend a significant amount of time in China, but I'm thinking of saving a bit more (and leaving around December or January) and then making my way west, possibly by going up and through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway (I've always wanted to travel that way). I have some friends in Europe (Germany, Scotland, a few other places) that could host me. Then I could fly to New York, visit another friend, and then finally come back home to Vegas.
I'm a writer and photographer, so I'll need a computer with me as I travel. Work gives me a Macbook Pro, which is great and certainly has warmed me up to the Mac side of things, but I'll lose it (obviously) when I quit. So I was thinking of purchasing a Macbook Air. I mainly love the weight and battery life of it, but I'm open to other suggestions.