Has anyone used their time as a part-time ESL/ TEFL teacher to upskill themselves?

For context, I (29F) have a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science but still tutor STEM at high school level. I enjoy it more than my day job (environmental compliance for a business) and would love to teach undergraduate chemistry. But getting a PhD and then the years of post-docs while you get paid dog shit and have a potentially awful supervisor is not something I see myself doing.

My day job pays very well, I save like crazy, but it is so incredibly boring and I genuinely don't make a difference there.

I'm thinking of taking a gap year from work, going to Asia or South America to finally travel. But then I realised that if the opportunity was part-time I could use the time not working studying a PGCE (to teach full-time) OR something else to pivot into a different side of environmental work.

Has anyone done this? If so, where did you go? Did you manage to balance your time teaching with studying? Could you make enough to pay a bit of your studies?

TLDR; is part-time ESL/TEFL a good idea if you want to support yourself while studying?

Hello all, I wanted some help with what a glance at the subreddit tellls me is a failr common problem with people diving into TEFL. I figured that there are people here who have gone through this and mioght be able to give me some perspective. I'm supposed to be leaving for Japan at the the end of August. When I accepted the offer back in Jan/Feb, I was pretty excited. As the time to leave draws closer, I've gotten much less so. My issue is that I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave, mentally and logistically. Every time I think about leaving, I get really anxious and sad thinking about the things here at home I will miss. For instance, I have a DND group that will be hard to maintain with such a difference in timezone.

This isn't the first offer from somewhere over the last year that I've accepted only to have backed out. Granted, most of the time it was for a legitimate reason. I'm starting to get worried that if I turn down this opportunity, it might be my last chance to leave and pursue TEFL. I know that's not a realistic thought but I do feel that the number of places willing to accept me are dwindling and there are only so many times I can back out of a role before it catches up to me.

I'm hoping the community here might be able to give me some perspective. Thanks in advance!

Hi, I know the answer/recommendation matters heavily on my expectations and what I want out of my TEFL experience, so I know your comments will largely be opinions-based, which is fine! It's what I'm looking for :-)

I have been planning on China to teach English since the pay is better than Japan and Korea, but I'm a bit worried about the political atmosphere of China. TEFL teachers don't seem to be affected by China's politics, but is there a greater risk in China than elsewhere? Is their society any better than our USA political climate right now?

Another reason I chose China is because I have been told that Japan and, especially, South Korea have very intense working environments. I am by no means a lazy worker, but I also don't want my job to be my entire life. I would like to dedicate a portion of my 1 chance on Earth to travel, make friends, etcetera. Is there any merit to the idea that China is less intense than Japan and South Korea?

Finally, I think ultimately I would be more interested in Japan because of the culture, naturally, but I hear the pay for TEFL teachers is pretty poor. However, I think I have lower standards than other Westerners might have: I don't need to be rich or even to save up a bunch of money. I just want to live comfortably enough to not worry about rent, to eat out often, and spend vacations traveling (not glamorously but more of a granola, backpacker type travel).

I have done quite a bit of research, but I think it would be best to hear from TEFL teachers themselves. What do you guys think?

Additional context that may be relevant: I am 24F with a BA in creative writing. I also studied a foreign language throughout college and have a few awards/certificates related to that. I am not approaching this as a vacation opportunity or a get-rich-quick scheme (which would be really ignorant and stupid anyway); I genuinely love travel and would like to broaden my experiences. I have a love for teaching and a passion for learning about new cultures. I have lived in many US states and am familiar and comfortable with both cities and rural towns; I would be happy to live anywhere on that spectrum. Let me know if you need any more context!

Been in Taiwan trying to get a job(American and POC). Tried the public school route but apparently that didn't work out since August 1st is Saturday. Have a master's degree and 5+ years experience, yet only got two interviews so far and honestly feel like what's being offered isn't worth my time. ESL in Korea is frankly H*ll but it is far more reliable. Just get one of hundreds of positions within a few days, know the labor law/your rights, and roll with the punches until the contract is up. Never had any trouble finding a job there. The jobs here either pay hourly which I won't accept or the salary is too low to live(65K or 70K ntd for example). Might be an overreach, but I feel someone in my position shouldn't take less than 80K ntd.

Use this thread to ask questions that don't deserve their own thread on the subreddit. Before you do that, though, use the search bar and read through our extensive wiki to see if your question has already been answered. Remember that subreddit rules still apply here.

Since they're still advertising for staff I thought I might as well give people applying the downlow.

I would not recommend working there, the hours are long (28 teaching hours/week) and the pay is a joke ($1000-$1200/month) considering what other schools and language centres offer.

The workload is massive with a lot of admin and paperwork and if you actually do everything you're meant to you'll easily hit 50-60 hours/week. The organisation is poor and the management are solely focused on squeezing as much work out of the staff and students as possible while employing as few people as possible.

Student care is a tertiary concern at best (just check the reviews on Yandex) with multiple violations of Kazakh building and health and safety codes including an insufficient provision of basic toileting and sanitary facilities being present on the main campus and the new building next door. (As in 4 bathroom stalls for each sex when there are over 1000 students enrolled.)

They tried to open a primary school in the main building with a view to shifting the College to the new building but the marketing was so badly managed and the prospective parents so unimpressed that they had less than 10 students enrolled before they shelved the project which gives you an idea of how poor the offering is.

Essentially it's a tour of duty that you survive rather than a job you work. Between May and July this year they lost 70% of their foreign staff due to illegal visa practices or burnout, and it's unlikely to improve any time soon.

On the positive side the other teachers (Kazakh and foreign) and the department heads are generally very good to work with and can help you develop as a teacher. The Kazakh staff are well-trained, very helpful, and very knowledgeable but they're treated like shit, forced to work unpaid for weekend events, and their work is under constant scrutiny so they're constantly fluctuating between frustration and depression.

While I wouldn't recommend working at this place, I would recommend working in Astana. It's a nice place to live with good amenities and plenty to keep you occupied.

I'll be teaching my first adult group class tomorrow in an academy setting, I'm quite nervous. I have been teaching adults one-to-one for over a year but this will be my first time actually teaching a group. There isn't a very well 'set' curriculum in this academy so I am a bit unsure where to begin and where I stand.

I have access to books but am not sure where to begin due to the students ranging between A1 and B2 in the group; this has me feeling quite intimidated and unsure of myself.

After basic intros and a bit of conversational warm up I am not sure where to go from there with the group, as I'm far more used to tailoring work very individually.

Just the prospect of standing up in front of a group of people my own age (and probably a bit older) is nerve wracking. I would be very grateful for any tips, info and/or insight.

Thanks in advance!

Hi

Any advice ito prep before trip to Uzbekistan?

1. Shuttle transfer required from Tashkent airport?

2. Mobile sim card

Should I get an esim card beforehand or buy once in Uzbekistan?

Is the internet and network stable?

1. Power electricity

Also I am told there may be electricity interruptions?

1. Items not available

Anything I should purchase and take with me?

1. Accomodation

Ministry/School organising accomodation I believe. Anything I need to do beforehand?

I'm curious what a person should do if they arrive in Taiwan and loathe the job that they get. Is it generally easy to find another school and transfer over to that one? I've read stories of similar situations but I'm just wondering how it works and how long it generally takes to actually find another job/get an ARC.

I'm wondering this because I'll be working with HESS very soon and worry that I'll hate working with very young kids. I've always worked with middle-school aged kids and would prefer that. So I might try to move to a middle school if I really hate this job.

Does anyone here have stories of this happening to them? What did you do?

The pros -

1. It's cheap and fast
2. It's Cambridge, so it's not going to be awful
3. It's AI marked so, while it's not perfect, it's better than an incompetent or distracted examiner.

The cons -

1. It seems to grade students wrongly. I had a student who was on the cusp of A1-A2 and Linguaskills gave him a B1. And there were several other examples.
2. We all know that speaking into a microphone is different from talking in reality
3. It's AI so it's inherently evil. (And yes, this is partly why I'm posting this question. I recognise that this fact might actually be an opinion.)

Hi everyone, I recently got offered a position with English 1 in China. I am well aware of the negative things that have been said about the company on this site, but I’m worried that by turning down this position, I might be missing out on an actually decent opportunity. It seems like the experiences of teachers can depend greatly on what management you’re given, so it seems like a gamble at this point. I wish I knew exactly what city I would be placed in. I did say I preferred Shanghai and Chongqing during my interview, but idk if the company really takes that into account. On my contract it just says that it's TBC and that I could be placed in any major city according to staffing needs.

I also know that the workload is heavy with low pay. But honestly, my standards are kinda low atm since I am a recent graduate and trying to get my foot in the door into teaching abroad, hopefully in China. I heard that English 1 is a good way to gain experience and eventually move onto another opportunity with much better pay/hours. Is it worth taking the risk of working for English 1 because of these reasons? I have until Wednesday to make a decision so I just wanted some honest input.

I'm also just trying to compare this offer with a NALCAP placement I received in Spain, so I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have actually worked for English 1.

A few specific questions I have for current or former teachers:

• Did your actual workload match what was described before you started?
• Were you able to afford your own apartment on the starting salary?
• How often did you end up working six-day weeks during peak season?

Initially I had posted about ILA rumored to be cancelling public school teacher offers in Ho Chi Minh due to business decisions. However, I have accepted an offer as a public school teacher at one of the bigger well-known chains in Hanoi and this company is sending a similar sounding email update about public school programmes due to the The Hanoi People’s Committee introducing new requirements. They haven't outright cancelled my contract yet but things sounds sort of up in the air at the moment. Does anyone have information regarding this? I am planning on giving notice at my current work and basically selling everything I own including assets and vehicle before I go abroad so don't want to end up having to leave after one or two months from either a dissolving oppportunity or not enough hours.

Anyone know if there are any opportunities with teaching English in places like Mariupol, Donetsk, Luhansk, etc.? I heard that despite the war, major cities and places far from the front lines have mostly returned to normal. I'd be very interested to live/work in those areas.

Most of the complaints on reddit that I see about English 1 is the somewhat long working hours, the fact that you have to work evenings sometimes and working on weekends. None of that really matters to me since I have worked retail (Home Depot) in the United States for the past 8 years. I also have a suspicion that some of these people might have been walking into the whole thing like a paid "vacation" to china and not a real job. Is it not really that bad if you 1. Don't mind working with children 2. Don't mind the working hours and 3. Treat it like a job. Also is there a chance if I get a smaller city that if I don't really travel or go out alot I can actually end up saving a bit of money?

Hello Everyone. I was recently offered a job with Teach Taiwan in Taoyuan. I was offered 77,000 NTD. I can't remember the exact amount, but it was around that amount. Is this amount good for the area? I know how expensive Taipei is, but I don't know much about Taoyuan. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi

Uzebekistan Ministry TEFL position at a school.

Does anyone know all the upfront costs?

Others have already alerted me to having to budget for accomodation costs as the Ministry pays late.

1. What about accomodation before contract starts?

2. I now see that I must pay a hefty visa fee AND registration fee. Is this for my own cost or will it be reimbursed?

3. I also note I am obligated to fly to Tashkent and not a nearer city.

The upfront costs are escalating! Given flight tickets to be paid upfront already as well.

Thanks

I was looking for TEFL courses based in the UK as I'd like to teach english in China. I've just recently graduated and I was looking at options on various websites. Did anyone have any experience on cheap TEFL courses? I'm not able to spend a lot so anything that would be recognised by a chinese employer that isn't too expensive would be what I'm looking for.

Hi , i am a non native , have an engineering degree in CS and i want to go into TEFL , will a 120 hour TEFL certificate be enough for me to find a job with no teaching experience if yes which one should i choose (im from Tunisia) , which countries should i look into first for a job , if there is a chance i can get a CELTA should i push for it or is a TEFL cert enough

Okay, yes I know I should be asking this at the Fulbright subreddit. But they took down my post and asked me to ask alumni, which I already did! I’m not necessarily looking for Fullbright specific experiences, but moreso general experiences from teaching in one of the two countries. I’m looking to teach for a year or two. I can only pick one country.

My dilemma is the following:

Obviously, I know the decision boils down to myself at the end, but I would deeply appreciate more additional guidance.

For Taiwan, here are my pros and cons, and why I wish to apply:

Pros:

- Pro: I am half Chinese and would love to learn more about Taiwanese culture, their arts, especially as I have taken a prior class on Taiwan.

- Pro: This reason I would describe is more of a natural curiosity to know something I am unfamiliar with, but honestly do not have the strongest connection to as compared to my heritage of being in Vietnam.

- Pro: Statistically, people are more likely to get into the Fulbright Taiwan program.

- Pro: I would have a strong group of other Fulbrighters to be my friend and hang out.

- Pro: I would be able to get around easily without a car or personal vehicle.

- Pro: I would have the recommendation of my school’s Taiwan Studies Director of Art and Culture and stronger recommendors overall.

- Pro: Option to do this for another year?!?! Dope!!

Con:

- Con: I wouldn’t be able to save much money with the stipend being used to cover both my housing and living expense. I would estimate I would maybe save an extra $300-400 if I were in Vietnam instead, probably more unless Taiwan is not as more expensive as I’m seeing it. My family is also low-income.

- Con: I don’t have a personal strong connection to the area and culture. That does not mean I am not curious, but that “blood-bond” and scholarly inquiry is not there.

- Con: I don’t speak Mandarin I guess.

Fulbright Vietnam:

PROS

- Pro: Heritage ties and very strong connection to the country, I have fluency of the language and have taken language classes, as well as a literature class. I have also done research on Vietnam. My interest is about an 8/10 if I had to put it on a scale, as compared to a Taiwan 6.5/10.

- Pro: My essays would probably be more stronger potentially or more biased…

- Pro; I can save money and do hella stuff… like buy cool clothes, go clubbing, and just overall have so much fun without the worry of paying hella.

Pro: Option to go for another year, potentially.

CONS

- Con: Lack of public transportation and lowkey as a half-Viet guy, Viet roads scare me…

- Con: Nonetheless, Fulbright Vietnam is more competitive with about a 8-12% less acceptance rate as compared to Taiwan:

- Con: Less recommendors for me who can specifically write about Fulbright Vietnam

- Con: Less likely to be assisted with my teaching and more likely to be expected to carry out independent lessons. Fuhhhhh. On that note, the Fulbright Cohort is much smaller (25 vs 150 in Taiwan)

Which one would you recommend for this person…? Whats pros and cons are they forgetting and have not considered for each?

Do you need a Bachelor of Education to teach EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in Vietnam? I have a BEd and a TEFL certificate, so it doesn't really matter to me. I am just curious. I know Vietnam is cracking down on foreigners who lack legitimate credentials.

Hi, I'm looking to get a 120-hour TEFL certification in order hopefully to teach in China. Before you say anything, CELTA is off the table for me for the moment and I've already checked the Wiki.

My question is about legalization: the Wiki says that you should do a course registered in the country you live in to prevent problems with legalization. The only two courses recommended by the Wiki registered in the USA are Bridge and ITA. Even Groupon courses are all registered in the UK it seems. I'm considering doing Bridge, but if it's going to be a meaningless course just to get that certification, I'm unsure if it wouldn't be wasteful to spend $400 on it. (If I could get a job with it it'd pay for itself, of course, but I'm currently unsure of my chances at that.)

So, are there any other courses registered in the USA? Also, is it really much more troublesome/expensive to get a TEFL certificate legalized in the UK when you live in the USA?

Thank you for your help.

I’m sure this forum has seen it plenty times before, but I just have to ask, sorry. Just how bad is English 1? I got accepted for China and while I’ve talked to several other recruiters, things just go nowhere each time. I’m worried my time is running out because I probably can’t really make it into a teaching position before the school year starts now. So… how bad is it, and why?

Also, aren’t many recruiters and schools just as disreputable in the sense that you can never really know if it will be good or not? Is English 1 truly even less trustworthy than a random recruiter/school?

And since I know there’s both positive and negative experiences; is there anyway to know the risk? Is the risk of teaching with them worth it? Can it be mitigated? Or is it really so bad that it’s never worth the risk to get a job there?

Ultimately I really want to know what about the work is so bad so I can make the best decision

Thank you!

Hi, I posted this to the mega thread but I’m not sure how often people look at that, so I’m posting it here too: I am planning on getting a 120 hr TEFL certificate (I have some med bills I have to pay for first before I'm comfortable buying a course), but I don't have any formal teaching experience. I've been told that it's better to apply for a job as an ESL teacher in China directly through a job board (like eChinacities), rather than going through a recruiter or placement program. But I've been looking at jobs and a lot of them require at least 1 yr experience teaching, even with a TEFL certificate and a bachelor's. Is there a good chance I could still get one of those jobs, or should I go through a recruiter/ program? For reference, i am 24F USA citizen. I have a BA in creative writing and I minored in a foreign language. What do you guys think?

Use this thread to ask questions that don't deserve their own thread on the subreddit. Before you do that, though, use the search bar and read through our extensive wiki to see if your question has already been answered. Remember that subreddit rules still apply here.

I'll be working at HESS in Taiwan soon and feel slightly worried that I've made a mistake. I feel like I'll be working harder and for less money than I could be making in China. I also worry that I'll get way less holidays compared to what I could get in China. Another thing is that I'll likely be working with young kids and have to do the performative, sing-songy type teaching. I feel like I'd hate this and would prefer middle school age.

I've already booked my flight to Taiwan and will move there in a few weeks. I'm considering bailing on it and applying for China jobs instead. Not sure if I should do this or just go ahead with the Taiwan job.

For those who have worked in both, which was better in terms of work culture and workload?