Board 8 > Casually curious about teaching English abroad.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.internationalteflacademy.com/

I've been bouncing around on here -- I've heard people occasionally ask me if I wanted to join them in doing this over the years and we never did, but now the thought's returned. May as well ask.

Like...what are things to consider just to see how real the interest is?

I've got a degree and have taught various workshops and trainings. I loooooved living in NYC three years so I like the idea of a culture shock again, but I've never left America before.

I've seen this work described as fun, easy, and safe without a need to know another language...and depending on the country, you can save some reasonable money. Is this accurate? Because it souunds too good to be true.

I took their quiz twice...

https://www.internationalteflacademy.com/where-should-you-teach-abroad-quiz

...once with my main picks, once with some second-choice picks. Both times, they recommended I go to Seoul, South Korea...which I never considered before. I went into this with an interest in Karachi, Pakistan. I also would be cool with a Spanish-speaking country so I could learn that better and bring back to America another day.

Apparently China's a good market I can dive into and get my flights paid for...? Never thought about living their before.

Anyway, rambling now -- just looking into new ideas for a day-job while still pursuing theatre at night.
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I have no experience with this, but I do know a couple who both taught in south korea for about 1.5 years. If you have any very specific questions I can ask and get back to you.

My sister taught English in Seoul for about five and a half years (fall 2011 to spring 2017)
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korea is a great place to teach and have fun

there's a very closely knit expat community too

just don't fall into the trap of doing it for a year.... for 7 years in a row

because once that ends, you realize you haven't really made progress in your real life
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You should talk to 5tarscream dude. He's teaching in Japan I think. I bet he would have a bunch of insight for you.

@5tarscream
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They recommended South Korea to me. Is this some kind of sending people to South Korea scam?!
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my dad taught in korea many years ago
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Weakupedia posted...

just don't fall into the trap of doing it for a year.... for 7 years in a row

because once that ends, you realize you haven't really made progress in your real life

So this worries me about not making progress in one's life. Does it not save enough money? Is it considered more of an entry-level position? Does it not look good on resumes? Is it a situation where I'm not likely to learn much about the language around me?
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HaRRicH posted...

Weakupedia posted...

just don't fall into the trap of doing it for a year.... for 7 years in a row

because once that ends, you realize you haven't really made progress in your real life

So this worries me about not making progress in one's life. Does it not save enough money? Is it considered more of an entry-level position? Does it not look good on resumes? Is it a situation where I'm not likely to learn much about the language around me?

i think you can actually save decent money

the problem is more that it's such a comfortable and easy lifestyle that people get trapped into staying longer than anticipated and then end up not leaving at all
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So...it's a "job's too sweet" kinda deal?

It IS an issue in the sense that I'll be so far away from existing friends and family, but easy comfortable money is a great three-word combo.
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if you have long term life goals, they will essentially be put on hold. and you run the risk of "eh I'll do this another year while i figure it out" for a decent chunk of your young professional life.

if it sounds like I'm exaggerating, I'm not. I've hung out with the community in the past, and they almost ALL said the same thing. "i came here after college because i didn't know what to do, and i just kinda stayed for 5-10 years!"

im sure you can continue to live like that if you don't mind it, but there's very much a hard ceiling on salary and growth. and if you come back to the states to try to enter an actual career, it will be tough.

i think you're in a slightly different position since you write, but it's still a consideration that i think everyone who decides to teach English abroad should be aware of.
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I lived in Korea as a student for three years and met a bunch of English teachers.

None of them knew any Korean. Even the ones that have been living there for 5+ years and married a Korean and has kids. A few that didn't get married just ended up moving back to the States and got a job in a completely different role. Overall, I would say it's a good experience to be in Korea as an English teacher, but you should be careful about staying too long if you're treating it as a break from the norm.
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that's a good point too.

if you're going to the country (korea or wherever) to experience the culture and learn the native language, be careful not to get totally sucked into the ex-pat community.

the ex-pats i met spoke virtually no korean despite living there longer than me, and acted basically as if they were on a super long spring break vacation.

it's easy to fall into the community because you just don't know anything about the brand new country you are in, but if you aren't careful you might as well be living in america.
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Semi is in Korea right now doing this iirc .

And I think XIII was doing it Qatar? Or was he there for something else?
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Starscream is doing this in china but I forget how his user name is spelled so I csmt tag him
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@5tarscream Oh nm i remembered
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A childhood neighbor of mine after graduating college taught English in South Korea for a year or two then moved home to find work in the states. He wound up missing Korea and the job so much that he moved back and has been there ever since.
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@Applekidrose is doing this in Japan as I recall.
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SantaRPidgey posted...

@5tarscream Oh nm i remembered

What am I? Chopped liver lol.

I literally tagged him in post #5. Although I thought he was in Japan and not China.

I don't know if he uses his other account anymore but I'll tag that too I guess.

@graemefinley
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JonThePenguin posted...

@Applekidrose is doing this in Japan as I recall.

Hmm, maybe that's who I confused 5tar with. Either way I bet they both could have some decent advice for whomever is looking for it.
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I have no idea how I missed that, my bad
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I've seen a few friends on Facebook post about doing this and I always wondered about how you communicated with the people you were teaching without speaking the language. I guess they already have a decent grasp of the basics?

Until I saw my friends doing it, I always assumed you had to be multi-lingual.

Weakupedia posted...

i think you can actually save decent money

the problem is more that it's such a comfortable and easy lifestyle that people get trapped into staying longer than anticipated and then end up not leaving at all

This is a very real problem

I wanted out inside 3 years, but now I've done 3 I'm staying at least two more and might stay until the world cup.

I'd say if you want to save money go in with a plan, establish a budget, stick to it as best you can and then get out

That said - and I'm not strictly doing TEFL so it isn't the same - I've had a pretty good time and the lifestyle, at least in my experience, is genuinely pretty good, and, yes, very easy.
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ShatteredElysium posted...

I've seen a few friends on Facebook post about doing this and I always wondered about how you communicated with the people you were teaching without speaking the language. I guess they already have a decent grasp of the basics?

Until I saw my friends doing it, I always assumed you had to be multi-lingual.

A lot of Asian countries don't want you to know the native language because you end up using that to explain things and then the students aren't "immersed" in the language. I have a friend of mine teaching English in South Korea that speaks Korean that would get in trouble sometimes for doing that, so some places just prefer you not to know it.

Most people you teach already know the basics so as long as you speak simply and slowly it should be fine. Gestures and images go a long way too. When I took Korean language classes after the first level the teachers didn't know English anymore so you'd learn Korean in Korean, which forces you to learn much faster.
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Thanks for all the help and comments...got some more questions:

I see several places help with housing and airfare, which is excellent. Also though, what about health insurance? I see some countries I'm less qualified for like Qatar do health insurance whereas it's not mentioned in other countries, so is the idea in those scenarios to save up and get a credit card?

Hoe about day-to-day transportation? If there's a subway system I can work like NYC, I'm content, but I didn't know about places that may not have that system in place.

@KCF0107 mentioned his sister lived in Seoul for years. What did she like and not like about the place? Was weather or crime ever a concern? Seoul's sounding more and more appealing by the way TEFL sells it, but also I never thought much about it and North Korea looms next door so that's scary under current politics. I'm curious what makes the place worth going there.

@XIII_rocks posted...

I'm not strictly doing TEFL so it isn't the same

What other options are there to TEFL? Is TEFL the standard way to approach this?
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I just teach in a British curriculum school. All the kids speak English (to varying degrees) so it's like teaching in a British school but with lower ability
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I just want to offer as a different example that the people I know who did this went into it with the same kind of reasoning, like "idk, just seemed cool" and after 1.5 years they were very ready to come back. I'm sure what's been said here about the expat community is all true but it doesn't always have to be a big looming threat to your career/growth.

Though now that I think about it, the fact they went as a couple who lived together may have made it easier to not get sucked in.

If you teach in Korea, are they guaranteeing you'd be in Seoul? I was under the impression they just kind of send you wherever.

Seoul has a pretty amazing subway, but it's not 24/7 like NYC. It shuts down from around midnight to 5 AM. The bus system is also pretty damn good, and taxis are generally fairly cheap.

Crime is not a concern in Seoul for the most part. As far as weather goes, air quality is the main issue-- look up yellow dust. This is mostly an issue in the spring time, though.
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VintageGin posted...

If you teach in Korea, are they guaranteeing you'd be in Seoul

Misread this as "south" and was like "I bloody hope so"
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Sincere thanks to turbo for reminding me this isn't some 100% guarantee of great joy or longterm destination.

I understood the major cities were where they aimed to send people since those are the ones advertised and possibly benefitting the most from learning English, but I suppose there's no reason why they can't send you to smaller towns.

Yellow dust seems weird!
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Well, there's other cities they could send you in Korea that are still big, like Daegu or Busan. Daegu would probably not be a very interesting place to be.
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Busan is pretty cool. There's also a good chance that you end up in Ilsan, i think. It's directly north of Seoul and has subway lines and buses connecting them.
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I can make sure to ask her about these things, but I can answer some of them. A few of my sister's friends in college were already in South Korea doing the same job or went there, so she was able to keep up a social life there. She had a hard time making connections with South Koreans her age. She made a few friends while there though.

She taught mostly younger kids, but she also taught some teens. She hated teaching the older kids because they just weren't engaged, but she loved teaching the younger ones. She also got along well with the majority of her students' parents, whom she met with plenty over the course of a school year. She's now working on getting an education degree and hoping to work as an elementary school teacher. She had an issue with her boss though. Her boss was pretty abrasive, and that spilled over to her personal life because her boss is who handled her living arrangements. Her boss got into heated arguments with my sister's landlords, and she ended up having to be moved like three times during her stay there.

I never heard her complain about the weather or that she ever feared for her safety. From what my sister told me, South Koreans feel that the Korean War never ended. One could think that would mean they are always on edge about potential altercations with their neighbors to the south, but it's actually the opposite. Whenever North Korea is in the headlines, it's just same ol' North Korea to them, and they get on with their day.
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Well if you're doing it in Indonesia we should totally hang out and I can hook you up with local theatre people.
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I'm here. I've been busy. Yeah I'm teaching in China at the moment just coming to the end of the second year. I also know a guy that was teaching in Korea so can ask him if you have any specific questions. The only thing i know about teaching in Korea is that they are very nationalistic and very openly racist, so basically just like most Western countries.
I work in Wuhan and pay is ok. I just negotiated my new contract and as Head of English teaching 8-5 Kindergarten 5 days a week. 4 30 minute lessons plus small group activities I'm earning roughly 8 times the average wage for Wuhan with apartment provided and 3 meals on work days. It's easy to save money if you want but just consider that being rich in China isn't the same as being rich at home. The cost of living is so low that a wage that seems super high here doesn't amount to much when you transfer it home.
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