Teaching English In Asia

This subject has been done to death I guess but I've never seen a poll asking if you would consider it. Besides which, it's never really been discussed at this forum.

English teaching... enjoys a crappy reputation in places like Thailand but enjoys far greater respect in places like Hong Kong and indeed, pays much better. I don't know much about the English teaching market around Asia and I've never really considered it as an option but would certainly consider trying it for a few years in the future, just for the experience.

What are your experiences and in what countries. Is there anywhere high on your list of 'must teach English there' countries? Where's the last place you'd consider wasting your skills. Do you even have any skills and are one of those duffers who managed to blag a job at some unsuspecting private school without any qualifications?

Would you consider teaching as a career? Do you wish you'd never bothered? Would you rather drag yourself back home with your last penny and dreadlocked hair than consider teaching to survive? Does a shirt and tie 9 to 5 gig in Hong Kong or Japan sound nice?

Not only would I consider it, a fairly large part of my career as a teacher was here in asia, in mainland China, Macau, and Thailand, mostly at the university level, though here in Thailand I also taught in private language schools. And yes, I have professional qualifications, in the form of a secondary teaching certyificate, and a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English. I also taught in the U.S., first half-time as a teaching fellow while working on my master's degree, then later as an instructor at a different university. Taking all my university experience together, though it covered 16 years, because I did extensive overtime teaching, in terms of U.S. academic years, I taught the equivalent of 27 years.

I have to say Thailand burned me out. I got virtually no support, and the pay is abysmal. When asked to recommend teaching here one way or the other, I usually say it's okay as a means to survive, but if the person has other work options here and is determined to stay here, then he/she should look into those other options and take up teaching only as a last resort.

Hongkong, Macau, Singapore, and Japan are the best places for teaching in Asia by far, though one needs to examine living costs in the context of the salary offered. Often, the salaries are quite acceptable, but sometimes you can find yourself struggling to survive if you haven't done your homework. I thought I had done my homework before I came to Thailand, as I talked with people at the U.S. and Thai consulates in Hongkong. At both those I was assured I could live better on the less than US$12,000 a Thai university offered me than I could on the US$45.000 (tax-free)/subsidized housing/excellent retirement program/excellent medical and life insurance I had at the University of Macau. Wrong. My lifestyle couldn't be anywhere near as good on the salary here as it was in Macau.

I love the actual teaching, helping young people come to realize areas they previously didn't know. But I sure don't like the bureaucratic bullsh*t that all too often accompanies it. ESPECIALLY here.

After I completed my MBA, I worked for a Singapore-based consultancy, mostly in the middle east. I later decided to pursue my dream of studying Chinese and moved to Taiwan. After arriving in Taiwan I decided I didn't want to burn through my savings by not working, and also didn't want to get a desk job as it would limit time available for studying.

I turned to English teaching, and I've enjoyed the hell out of it!

Perhaps the fact that I'm teaching at the university level has something to do with it - fewer hours, decent pay, a lot of respect (relative to what I'd get as either just a student or a teacher at a cram school), and overall a rewarding experience.

So, if you want to take a break from your normal career path, and doing so won't derail your entire life plan, English teaching may prove to be a welcome, albeit temporary, change.

DAN

I was a teacher for a few years in Africa, not an English teacher, more on the engineering side and I actually enjoyed it.

It was on a World Bank project, so the money was not bad and it was a good training for me in the sense that you learn how to convey a 'message', which is useful in any job.

But what I liked most was the free time, not too many hours and plenty of holidays...

I think pay is what is important here. I would be happy to teach English, or any subject, if the pay was right.

I really enjoyed teaching English in Japan for 11 years. I would have to say that, even though I was a high school english teacher before I went there, I learned a whole lot more about my own language in that time than in my 25 years of life before it. I reckon it's from working with people at different ability levels, with whom you just can't take anything about the language for granted, forcing you to focus on tiny little details and nuances that we never, ever pay attention to in our native-speaking environment.

...which is excellent if you're any kind of a linguaphile, of course, but for a young person out of college looking to pay off loans and live the soft-core oriental adventure, urban Japan is the place to do it.

biisuto, on May 17 2006, 02:21 AM, said:

Hmmm... interesting. Are the Japanese 'hot to trot', as the Americans put it?

I have an interview in the morning. It's kind of a foregone conclusion that I've got the job. I just have to show my face and then I start. It's just part time and will help me pay a few bills while I'm going to school.
I understand what Kurt says about 'teaching in Thailand burnout'. There isn't much administrative support and to top it all off, other Farangs look at you as a loser or a third teir expat which is nonsense because many of them are second or third rate 'businessmen' who peddle bogus condos, work in boiler rooms, time share or even pyramid schemes and they often earn less than good teachers. I taught for many years and will now do it part time, but I do want to move on to something differnet, related to translation or language interpreting. As long as your students appreciate what you do for them, it doesn't matter what others think about it.

This post has been edited by mbkudu: 17 May 2006 - 05:54 PM

Open up your own English school. Well, not school, but help center or something. Maybe that's a good idea for English teachers?

Japan is for sure a place for consideration teaching English - however many teachers are not teachers, and cannot show up with any qualification.

Good language teachers are wanted in Japan.
I myself was never interested in that job, however - I am a technician...

Most people I know here coming from Europe, are NOT teaching English, but another language - this is MUCH better paid, and there is not much competition.
It is useful, if you have some additional knowledge, which you might merge into your language teaching.

I know Europeans, who are teaching

Italian (he is good also in music, like opera)
German (same person, who is from Sweden, also training for business)
Russian (some people need this - related to fishery and shipping - I was surprised)
French (for restaurants, food importers)
Swedish (no idea for what, but there are some students)
Serbian/Bulgarian (for some regular training in a political research institute, teaching also Russian - remarkable stable job)
Latin (for Catholic religion and history)

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One point I noticed here in Japan:

If you need a visa and you are teaching English, immigration is very mistrusting - too many fakes...

Show up with a different language, a small employment contract - you get your labour permit.

From my experiences in Thailand, teaching English is often a thankless job. In private bilingual schools: the admin generally consists of professional nitpickers, 25 - 50% of your coworkers are sketchy slackers just filling space to fund a lifestyle, the hours are long with insufficient pay, and so on.

However, the parents are often very grateful and I found them to be a rewarding part of the job as they are the ones that often accept you into their lives and community, thus permitting a truer cultural experience. Thai students are for the most part efficient, hardworking and intelligent students who desperately need to be challenged and steered off the rote learning track that the Thai educational system guides them towards.

This post has been edited by igotworms: 18 May 2006 - 01:26 AM

Being a teacher with full credentials back home on subjects like maths, economics, biology, geography etc. is fine and these teachers are in demand.
But in Thailand you find too many so called 'native' speakers teaching English who in fact come from all around Europe and might not even have a TEFL- or other certificates.
Personally, I know the one or other who fall on some hardship and switched to teaching.
Well, not all are bad but in the interest of the students I would prefer a fully licensed teacher with proper educational background.

Is Vietnam the new Spain?

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/viewf...2134424,00.html

I own an English school in China. Being a teacher here is respectable. The pay can be good if you are qualified and/or smart enough to manage the Chinese contacts. I won't always teach but I'll hold on to the school because it generates good money.

Teaching isn't for everyone and not everyone teaching should be.

I wouldn't do it ... (1) the remuneration doesn't meet my lifestyle expectations and (2) I'm not patient enough.

Jack's final comment was spot on I reckon

CC

jackslittlefancies, on 2007-07-27 09:28:12, said:

I'd be interested in knowing more about your school, if it's not too forward to say so. I'm a teacher at heart, and haven't taught a lick since June, 200, and have been thinking about returning to the field. Though I did encounter frustrations in China -- where does one not? -- I loved it, overall. Though I'm a Caucasian Texan, I always feel in some strange way I can't explain even to myself as being "at home," in some sense, when I alight on Chinese soil.

Ba and Ma in Ennglish-Literature. Have taught lit., all four language skills, and Business Communications, all at university level.

Mekhong Kurt

MekhongKurt, on 2007-07-27 20:08:30, said:

That is a very long time..

Geez, MekongKurt is Mathulasem

The name of the school is Jack's English Playground. I teach about 19 hours a week. I teach toddlers up to high schoolers on the weekends and business classes a couple of days through the week. Universities can't come close to what you can make if you privatize your efforts. That and the workload is considerably easier, less mundane and void of chain of command problems.

A few years back, I had a kind of kindergarden school at my place in Bkk.
Teaching them French and a few other things before they went to primary school.
Very profitable, I have to say.
Better than teaching English to university students.
Niche market.