I'm someone who took an actual TESOL training course and have worked in TEFL for a little over a year. If I were you, I'd do what I know now I should have done. I'd go to Bangkok and get a fake TESOL certificate made on Koh Sahn Road.

There are plenty of resources you can use out there to help you learn how to teach English--books, the internet, et al. Actually teaching English isn't that tough. You're already an expert on the subject, after all. Why fork over hundreds, if not thousands of your hard-earned greenbacks on a certificate when it isn't required in some (good-paying) places? Why pay to learn all the methodology to teach ESL only to end up teaching unappreciative, lazy students who don't care one iota about how many degress you got hangin' on your wall?

I know. This sounds like a 'grease-ball' thing to do, this getting a fake TESOL. You won't think that if, after paying big money for a REAL certificate, you get a job actually doing it only to discover you don't like teaching after all. Lots of folks try teaching, and lots of folks head home after a year (or even less), minus the money they dropped on their now-useless certificates.

The airlines love these guys, for sure.

Maybe if Delta Airlines actually flew into places like Bangkok, they'd not be in bankruptcy now. Yeah, Delta could make some big money hauling TEFL teachers to and fro. The same plane could carry a load of suckers HERE, and then turn around and carry a load of fed up, disgruntled FORMER teachers back home.

Just be careful, is what I'm really saying. Don't just jump into the TEFL world and start dropping big money. Get the fake and try teaching first for about six months. Go back and enroll in a genuine certificate program later if you actually like teaching.

No, don't blow your money on a fancy TESOL course like I did. Instead of taking a month-long course learning something I never really used in the classroom, I should have bought an ESL text and stayed in a hotel for a week learning how to teach on my own. When finished, I should have then gotten a fake certificate and gone to the job I ended up with after actually taking the course. I would have been just fine in the classroom with my fake and my 'acquired' ESL knowledge.

The resources are out there--use 'em to the hilt and save, save, save. You may need that money later to take your aggravated butt back home. The odds are against you liking this, after all.

PS--You can also get a fake certificate on eBay for like twenty bucks. Do it up.

Virtually anywhere in China (PRC).

My husband and I have been talking about trying to teach abroad...however neither one of us has certification (no CELTA or Trinity, or Master's). Are there places we can teach without having these certifications? Thanks!