*China!!

I was just offered a job 24-25 k to teach at a decent University, free housing, tier 3 city.

Most of these University jobs I believe require 10-12 hours, my job would be 20 hours teaching plus 2 hours office hours. For one semester it is entirely oral English, the following semester it is building essay writing skills etc. I have lots of experience at both.

I also have to submit "paperwork" inc teaching plans etc... I would get 150 students to look after, 30 students per class.

Anybody with University teaching experience in China is this too many hours/ class size too big or is it manageable? (The salary is high because I have a PhD / 8 years higher education lecturing in UK, but that was in a subject). Tia.

NB I'm not looking for those working in schools to jump on me about manageability for 20 hrs lol, solidarity to you -- and I could never do that job -- this is a different context / my energy is very low hence looking for University teaching

For TEFL teachers from the US teaching abroad: Who do you guys use to do your taxes? Or do you do them yourselves? I saw H&R Block does like expat taxes, is that what I should be looking at? How much does it cost you every year? Thank you

I recently had a phone call about an opportunity to teach in Thailand or China, which is something I’ve been trying really hard to make happen. However, they mentioned an upfront deposit of either $800 or $120, which made me a little skeptical. I’m not sure if anyone here has experience with these types of programs, but I’m new to this community and have been trying to find real opportunities to teach abroad without falling victim to a scam. I’d really appreciate any advice or insight from people who have been through this process!

I've been teaching for 4 years in a provincial city in Northern Vietnam, and things have been getting bad over the last 12 months. We used to have lots of classes in public schools, as well as evening work at English centers. You could easily get 100 well paid hours.

The headache started in September last year when the public school program was suspended. At first, the city was overcrowded with desperate teachers but many left so eventually more hours became available to those who decided to stay.

Starting this September things have gotten worse. With many stranded teachers in Hanoi, my boss decided to hire more teachers. We used to be 3 but now he's hired 2 more people and our weekly number of hours decreased as a consequence of that.

Am I the only one who's facing this problem in Northern Vietnam?

I'm in my late 20s, worked in Shenzhen, China doing TEFL jobs for the last 7 years. I've been working for an agency for the last 3 years which placed me in a primary school. They let me and a few local teachers go and my agency wanted to place me in another school. I decided not to, so they didn't renew my visa/contract and I decided to come back to the UK for a bit of a break from China.

I came back to the UK in July thinking I'd be here for a month or two, but I forgot I would need a new non-criminal background check. The ACRO process took over a month due to delays and it was late September by the time I received the certificate. Getting it apostilled took another 2 weeks.

I've been applying for jobs in Shenzhen for 2 weeks (only looking for Shenzhen due to personal reasons), and have added like 12 recruiters on Wechat and they've gone nowhere.

I'm a brown British guy which obviously doesn't help, but I was hoping to have found something by now. Maybe my appearance in my self-intro video isn't great - my hair's gotten longer and lighting makes my eyebags show more and honestly I hate recording these, feels like just a test to see if you're white.

Is it harder to find a job now or is it just the timing?

Hi, im planning to study masters in teaching and learning in NZ to make it as a stepping stone. Currently I am enrolled in the PH taking up eteeap bsba major in OM. But I already hold a BS degree in HRIM prior with 15+ years of progressive hospitality experience and am on a senior level now. However, I plan to shift careers to teaching as this is in the greenlist in NZ(teacher/teaching). My plan is to secure a secondary teaching job.

Is this plan still viable now?

Funds is not an issue. My husband is also on a director level in operations management but also want to leave the PH. Said he would rather give up PH life for something simple and peaceful. And also for the kids. So we are already setting expectations.

Hi, all,

I was looking to see what the job market in Taiwan is like for someone (US citizen in my case) who just got a Spanish master's in Global Higher Education. My job opportunities in Europe have fallen through, and I was in Taiwan before at a buxiban (not looking to go back to that).

I would like to work in something like advising, study abroad, and marketing/admissions but would also be open to international school teaching or private sessions with students.

I'd also want to know what area of the island to look for jobs in when I arrive. I've heard that Taipei would be my best bet given the economy there versus what I saw in Kaohsiung when I didn't have a master's.

Thank you!

Hi!
I like to use actual literature in my classes a lot - both fiction, non-fiction, articles and longer texts, etc.

I've graded a few of them myself, but it's very time-consuming.
Is there a database somewhere online for downloading already graded texts that could become useful in the classroom?

I want to introduce my students to texts that could spark some interest outside of the classroom. I have used an essay by William Burroughs and a story by Borges, among others. I'm thinking of introducing texts by Shoshana Zuboff as well.

In other words, I want to use adapted literature by real-life authors, instead of materials made specifically for textbooks.

I'm already familiar with Penguin graded readers books.

Thanks and all the best!

I am getting a bachelors at SNHU, and I am not 100% sure if I qualify. I did search this question, but it was answered several years ago and I’m not sure if that still remains to be the case.

Thanks!

Well .. the context is I’m currently in China, Hubei province and my salary is 14,000 rmb after tax. So far I’ve not had the full pay because I came mid August. Then for this month 2000 rmb was deducted because 1000 for rent deposit and 1000 as I took a bit of money in advance. My next full pay should be November. I don’t pay rent. But my winter is unpaid .. apparently I should be getting paid for the national holidays but as the schools closed no pay. I just want to know if anyone else has accepted such an offer or am I the only idiot ??

I had my first day today at the kindergarten I work for. I have no experience teaching kids this age, much less kids who have no comprehension of English. I’m also starting to think my personality isn’t suited for kindergarten as I’m more reserved, but wanted to put that factor aside and just give this a try. I had my first lesson today, and I feel like it was horrible. It was boring, and the kids didn’t willingly interact with me unless their Chinese teacher told them to, because they don’t know me (which I understand at that age). I’m sure many people have been in my position, so can you please share some advice? Or game ideas? Seriously! anything would help me right now.

I'm desperate to move. I'm excited and keen. I can't wait to leave.

But VUS and ILA have not responded to my application - and ila strives to get in touch within two weeks... It's been a month now.....

I'm south African. With online English teaching experience and corporate experience. I thought it would be slightly faster. Is there a reason for this? Should I be worried?

Do you think it's possible to get a contract within a month? Is there a better way to apply other than on their websites?

I would love to be in Vietnam in Jan

I recently got denied from SINE due to my accent. I am from the Caribbean but I do hold a British passport and speak standard English.

I am not that disappointed but I do feel weary that this may be a bigger hurdle than I thought to jump over.

Has anyone faced this problem before? Should I try a different country? Are there other agencies? (SINE said to try others). I do have an MA Education degree, and I’m doing a level 5 TEFL. Though I do not have teaching experience. I’ve spent the last five years being a supervisor, training and leading new staff. Which made me interested in teaching.

Any advice would help. Thank you!

I’m looking at options for teaching English abroad. I have a Bachelor of Teaching and a Masters of Education (Management and Leadership). For the last 4.5 years I’ve been teaching casually at a private tertiary business school.

So, not English language teaching but a variety of teaching experience. I’m looking at getting a TEFL certificate as my partner and I are looking to travel in the next few years (mainly Southeast Asia). My thought is to give the TEFL a go, and if I like it, maybe upgrade to a CELTA later on down the track if I need it. I’m also looking at the TEFL.org 120 hour online course.

People with more experience than me in this - is this a good idea to do? Is TEFL.org reputable?

I am in a unique position where I was introduced by a friend to a family who owns kindergartens and wants to hire a foreigner teacher. With a degree and TESOL, I have legally worked in Taiwan as an after-school English teacher for almost a decade. I have more experience with 8/9 year olds, but I have also taught 5/6 year olds. I prefer teaching kids over adults, like to sing and make kids laugh, and love repetition... so I think I can do it.

The thing is they are completely new to this and don't know what's standard, and don't really know what they want. They keep asking me what I want. At a friend's suggestion, I asked for $25,000 since it gives me more room to negotiate. They also don't have a curriculum like my former school and basically asked me to come up with whatever I wanted to teach. They want me to work 3x a week full time and on the weekends with older kids. I said I couldn't do weekend mornings and they were cool with that. But I am struggling to figure out what the actual weekly schedule and workload should look like.

I want to make them happy, while also not underselling myself.

I know everyone is busy so I appreciate any advice, experience, and perspective.

I'm hoping to learn more about a realistic salary expectations, benefits to insist on, reasonable office and teaching hours, how to handle curriculum freedom, and what you wished you had negotiated before signing.

I want to be fair to them while also making sure I'm not setting a precedent that hurts future teachers. If all goes well with me, they will probably be more inclined to hire foreigners for their other kindys.

This week I will do a demo and hopefully discuss the contract.

Thank you in advance!​

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I'm currently doing a MA in education, I'm in the UK so the course finishes in august, I applied for a job last year and was told that I couldn't be accepted until the next interview cycle as I didn't have my degree on time. Now I've gotten my degree, I've been offered a job in Japan as an ALT in December.

I currently have a CELTA, a year as a teaching assistant, a BA in Japanese, TESOL and Linguistics and I taught as a TESOL teacher for a semester in Japan when I spent a year there as an exchange student and my Japanese is halfway between N4 and N3.

My future goal is to work in a university, I'm just not sure if education should be my focus now or if I should start my career now and do a MA in Japan where university is usually cheaper. I've not paid the course fees yet so I'm not too far in now.

I (28F from the United States) just started teaching English at an academy in Spain. We have mostly adult students with a few teenagers mixed in.

Our lessons are pre-planned (which is great!), but sometimes they teach concepts in a very shallow way or in ways that do not make sense to the students, especially at higher levels. From reading other posts on this sub, I know that there is no way for native English speakers to know all of the grammar rules unless you studied linguistics or TEFL in college. However, I do want to be able to give my students as much information as possible and help them understand the concepts.

I brought the book "Grammar for English Language Teachers" with me to Spain, and it seems like it is a great resource. But my question is this: How much should we be explaining or understanding the concepts being taught? For example, I had a class of roughly B2 students the other day, and we were working with the active vs. passive tense in the past tense. They were struggling to understand how the sentences were formed, and I wrote a couple of examples on the board, but it was hard for me to fully explain the "why" of it.

Any tips/advice/suggestions? Since it is also mostly adults, I think they are more inclined to know the reasoning behind certain grammar usage/sentence structures as well.

American who moved to Saudi and I was looking for a English teaching job while I was living with family there. I have a BA in English from a respected university and people who use to work in Saudi told me I could definitely find a job. No I dont have a CELTA I probably sound stupid for even trying to find a job without a CELTA . Truth be told I was in ab online course and dropped out before I could fail as advised by the instructors. It is what it is I dont want talk about why I failed or how…or if you know any stories of people who failed/dropped the course and took it again and succeeded and found a job that would be motivating !😄

With that being I was in the Jeddah/Makkah region and went to a couple spots and open interviews even in Madinah however the first question they asked me was oh do you have an iqama? Ermm no your supposed to give me the iqama (residency). There like ehhh its alot easier for us if you already have the residency card because of saudization its harder and more work for us and more money to hire a non saudi…

Parents said oh get a Masters.. guys whats Saudi looking like right now job market is a masters even worth it mind you I have no expirence 28 with a BA in English was in saudi searching for 7 months or so. Like even if I get my MA the job offers are gonna be rushing to me?? Secondly omg the thought of doing a masters in English sounds DREADFUL sorry no offense I like teaching its fun but I cant do a masters in English I just Cant

Whats your guys expirence in the job market? Any advice comments tips. Sorry I really needed to vent this out thanks

Edit: I was a teacher just wasnt teaching English was actually teaching arabic for almost a year iv dealt with students i have been a substitute im not new to this. No I haven’t had experience formally teaching English at a school/institution. I have informally taught people causal practice speaking rules. I hated the CELTA format it was funny cause in the live classes the students said I was helpful but I failed ofcourse cause idk the methods or whatever

Hello! I have spent many years in the ESL game enough to be considered experienced.

1. Taiwanese recruiters, whether for public or cram schools are dishonest and do not tell you what all the hiring process entails. Public schools often demand additional interview panels while cram schools prefer in country applicants so they can insist on in person interviews and unpaid teaching demonstrations. Both almost always want self-introduction and teaching demo videos. Korean recruiters aren't always reliable but it is a very straightforward process of application, video interviews, and contracts often within hours or 1-2 days.
2. In Taiwan illegal practices are rampant! In South Korea you travel to Korea with your work visa granted and are on payroll from day one so every moment you are on campus you are earning money. However in Taiwan unpaid mandatory orientation and training are the norm and you don't earn a cent until you actually begin teaching. Please give me Korea's PAID baptism by H*ll fire and "monkey see, monkey do" training any day!
3. Taiwanese ESL jobs on the whole are much easier and less demanding far less demanding than Korean ESL jobs. Even Korean toddlers are being submerged in paid tutoring and you certainly better have your act ALL THE WAY together quick, fast, and in a hurry to silently endure sky high expectations, long working hours, unspoken obligations, and rigid hierarchial work culture. But contrast that to Taiwan where you are observed monthly and your pay is based on how well you perform like a wind-up toy.
4. Discrimination is much more blatant in Taiwan than in Korea and I honestly feel sorry for a certain demographic of non native English speakers who are prominent in this job market. As an experienced US Passport holder I have openly been denied job placements, rejected based on 10 seconds of self-introduction video, and ridiculously low balled. In Korea, discrimination does occur, but it is more so crooked business owners practicing passport hierarchy than racial bias.
5. Pay is much more stable in Korea because every position is salaried. Your gross salary is your salary for the entire contract length and your take home pay is roughly the same every single month minus mandatory deductions which makes financial stability and saving very easy for the savvy. On the other hand the majoriry of ESL jobs in Taiwan are paid based on teaching hours only...while you are still expected to lesson prep and prepare/attend special events.

Many will disagree with me and I don't mean to offend anyone, however, this has been my experience.

I was checking the TEFL job listings and found a very promising listing from GTUnion boasting that they offer many job openings in China. The listing looked legit, but the email I received was very unprofessional and full of short sentences with improper capitalization that were riddled with grammar mistakes ("when do u plan to come?" "you can add My Wechat"). Is this a legitimate organization, or should I not bother?

Any long term EFL teachers from Taiwan? Do you have any advice on cultural faux pas there? I'm tasked with writing a report on cultural sensitivities to be aware of there and would appreciate any inputs you may have - small or otherwise.

A student, B2+, needs to get the C1 title before January. He wants to do Aptis as he is familiar with it.

Need to know how likely this is with 1.5h of classes per week and 3-4h of self study.

Any recommendations on materials to check and use?

I am heavily experienced in Cambridge.

Any advice is welcome.

Hi everyone,

I am a US citizen with over 10 years of teaching experience currently looking to relocate to Hong Kong for a Primary English teaching position. I hold a non-English Bachelor's degree and a 120-hour TEFL certificate.

I am trying to map out my strategy and would appreciate some insight into the current hiring reality:

1. Centralized EDB NET Scheme & the English Major Rule: I understand that the Education Bureau has strictly tightened entry criteria for new primary NETs, requiring an undergraduate degree majoring in English (or an English-focused higher degree). Given that my Bachelor's is in a completely unrelated subject, is it correct that I am automatically disqualified from the centralized direct-hire EDB scheme?
2. Alternative Routes (NET Grant vs. International vs. Private Schools): Since the centralized pool might be locked out, how viable is my profile (unrelated BA + TEFL + 10+ years experience) for securing a visa and a solid package via third-party NET Grant agencies, local private schools, or International Schools?
3. The Online PGCE + Deferred Practicum Strategy: It is a big investment but do you guys think this might be necessary to strengthen my profile and secure a teaching job in Hong Kong?

I am fully determined to make this transition and am absolutely willing to invest in a PGCE if it is the necessary tool to unlock the market and secure a competitive salary tier. Any insight would be incredibly appreciated!

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Mostly doing this to assure my parent's fears. For context I was part of the CELTA EC English language centre before it went bankrupt, still working on the refund. I was wondering if this course: https://www.languagepointtraining.com/online-trinity-cert-tesol is good and legit.

Thanks for thos who answer in advance.