Advice On Teaching English Abroad

by nadia

posted on 11/06/2009

If you have Facebook or any other community sites and you see your old school mates are having fun in other countries. All their pictures taken in places you thought never to visit until you're old and grey. This year in South-East Asia, last year in China and before that in Europe. How do they do it?

Pretty easy actually because if you come from any English speaking countries, you're already one foot step in the door to a lot of other countries. How would you like to be paid to come and then to spend less than 40 hours a week having fun AND go around the countries (or nearby countries) you are in at the moment and get paid to go back home after a year of frolicking? All you have to do is teach your language, English in these far and foreign countries.


Certification

Usually many English courses around the world only need one thing and that is the proof that you at least have a slight idea of what you're going to do in their countries. If you have a teaching experienced before, you still need this certificate/s before these fine institutions will ever consider you to come to their countries.

The two most famous certifications would be CELTA and TESOL. These courses would take from as short as a month to all the way up to several months long. Due to this duration, the cost to enroll and get your certificate - your ticket to the world - varies from several hundred dollars to around USD 1,000. I can assure you that this is the best investment of your life.


Contact Them

I know for a fact that English Learning institutions would always need English Native Speaker all year round. And that there are many institutions out there who always on the watch out for new teachers.

However, you need to browse carefully and usually you can try to contact other teachers who's teaching there to give you the inside scoop of the people, culture and the drawbacks as well as the advantage of teaching there. If you asked the institution you're interested in, they'd be more than happy to give at least one teacher's email so that you can ask as many questions as possible. To get as many inputs and information as you can so that you can juggle the pros and cons more deeply.

After you decided where you want to go and what institute, all you have to do is email them and then wait. A good institution will call you just to directly have an interview over the phone, this is usually being done by an authorized expatriate. To avoid mis-communication and so that both you and the institution can have a final say "Yea or Nay."

If you passed this usually they'll contact you with the detail, such as what you have to do (some countries required you to so certain shots before you leave - and this you usually have to confirm yourself) and other paperwork.


Visa And Travel Cost

You do have to be ready to pay for the visa and the flight out of your country first. Because as a precaution the institution will not reimburse you until you have to stay a certain amount of months (each institution has different policy on how long) and when you first arrived they usually give you a pocket money enough to live until paycheck day.

As for your flight going back home at the end of the contract, they would already prepare it for you unless you want to try to get cheaper flights to get extra money.


Salary

Though usually the salary is a pittance if you compare to income in your own country however, your salary would most likely be higher than local standard. It would be enough for you to buy your meal and your beer and of course to travel around the country or even neighboring countries.


What To Prepare

When you're going is the most important thing. Why? Because there's a big chance that you're staying away a minimum of a year, so you need to count when do you want to be home. For example: If you want to celebrate Christmas back home, it's better if you start your job in the beginning of the year. So at the end of that year, your contract is ending and you can take your leaves and go home for Christmas.

Hopefully, you have talked to another teacher that's staying in your destination country, so you know a general view of that country. It won't hurt to google about it too although I have to say there are things pretty conflicting on the net. Just remember what the other teacher who has been living for sometime has to say.

Bring enough clothes, but you don't need to pack your whole closet. You can do your shopping in that country. Bring a nice footwear, so even if you don't have formal shoes, you can still teach in a respectable footwear and not flipflops.

Bring some medicines, especially for your stomach. Asian countries use more spices and herbs in their cooking, so there's a possibility your body has to adjust although some people have no problems but other had been known to miss a day or two of work because their stomach disagrees with the food.

Most importantly, learn what is taboo in that country. This is especially for Asian countries where they have a more restricting culture than western countries.


I Am Here, Then What?

If the institution you choose is not a big institution, you'll have a two weeks of getting to know the how and the what periods. In these two weeks, you'll learn about the institution and the people including your future students.

It's not a formal school? Well, it's very good for you because usually this kind of institution is not as strait-laced as schools. I can say also that you'll have a good time in this kind of institution because of that too. This type of institution usually starts their classes in the afternoon and finishes at 9 PM with an average of 3 - 4 classes a day.

While you're there, you can also study the local language and of course travel around. Don't hesitate to ask the people in charge of the institution if you want to go some places. Language barrier can be a difficult barrier to overcome in a month or two, so ask assistants from the institute if you want to do some traveling.


Have fun traveling and maybe we will meet somewhere out there.

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