Rheno747
- 2006-04-10
I personally think you would be best off in South Korea. Pay is better, and you don't need a TESOL. It helps if you have a TESOL, but it helps more if you have a master's, which you do. One caution, however. A new teacher has just arrived at my school (the 49th English teacher in like 3 1/2 years) from South Korea, and I'm getting new insights into that place from him. He's badmouthing it really, but he himself spent 16 years there. It must not be THAT bad. But then again.....
Stay tuned.
frank andrews
- 2006-04-09
Hi Margherite! Welcome to ESL.
Mostly teaching English internationally is pretty basic stuff, and can be quite hit and miss when it comes to a quality organization or place to work at. The blunt truth about it is that almost all employers and students want white faces to teach them English, that they wouldn't get "Real" English from anybody else. Thats a hard cultural norm that you'll have to cope with, especially in South Korea.
Another difficulty you may bump into is that most employers are looking for teachers that will teach very generic English. Basically there are only two types of Ebglish calsses taught: conversational and business; and these are usually taught in such a way that there is often no difference between the two. An employer may tell you they want to get some specialty English calsses going, and have been looking for a teacher, but it never happens.
The way you want to get started is to get some good TEFL training. Universities in large cities occasionally offer this. St Giles has a one month course that is TEFL specific, but is quite expensive, and I've seen the course work, and its all very generic, and they don't seem to teach trainees ways of being creative. The Boland School in the Czech Republic and China is a five week course, but is busy. There they have 6-8 hours of training each day, then practicums in the evenings. But its affordable.
Having a TEFL training certificate greatly improves your emloyment oppurtunities, and also gives you some great insights needed when trying to teach an entirely different population than what you are accustomed to. But you need to realize that once you finish with your training, probably 2/3 of the jobs will be for teaching children, and you need to ask yourself, "Do I really love children's behavior?"
Very few of us are saving the world by being TEFL teachers, but we do have the opputunity to help improve the lives and careers of a few people.
Good luck!
Hello Forum Members.
I am considering a career change, mostly out of boredom with the way technology has been dumbed down to appeal to low-cost programmers, to teaching. I have a Master's degree in training/organization development and have worked as a documentation and training specialist for many years.
Does anybody have a recommendation for a recruiter or school I can talk to that makes sense for someone of my background. Many of the certificate programs I've seen try to cram the highlights of what I already did in my Master's program into a short schedule. Most are aimed at teaching children or assisting immigrants who want to work and shop in the U.S.
If I change careers, I'd want to work with adults or secondary school students and specialize in any of the fields I've worked in for years -- manufacturing, aerospace, software development, etc. The countries I'm most interested in are Spain, South Korea, South America ... countries with strong cultural and spiritual ethos that I can learn from also.
Thanks.