A great article, although from 2011 it still applies today. ESL is a total waste of time and money for young people. When these individuals should be back home earning some decent coin and paying of a mortgage ( think about where you will have to live later ) and building up their finances they are pissing their lives away in China.

When they eventually, inevitably have to go back home they have no practical skills that can used in the workplace. They may have a degree, but an employer will not be interested in someone who left the UK or Australia at 23 and taught English in China for 5 or 6 years. Employers want those people with skills relevant to the position and recent experience.

Sure, some people will say "I can start my own business", but without capital how do you do that? English teachers are nearly always almost broke half the time, or in debt. A bank is not going to give some loser English teacher a loan without any security.

The bit about suits is quite funny. It is very amusing to see ESL teachers wearing suits and ties and pretending to be professional at crappy training centres and sometimes even at a university, but that is rare.

ESL is a totally useless and unprofessional business, so to see these "pretend professionals" wearing suits and trying to be serious is just hilarious.

It is also true that a majority of people involved in ESL, especially in China, have serious mental health issues. Or they were sane happy and normal individuals before they went to China but went nuts after a year or so and became psychotic, narcissistic, neurotic, paranoid or just went crazy after living in China for too long.

Then we have the worst type of individual in ESL: the moralist, to do-gooder, the one who thinks they are "contributing to a developing country", or "helping the Chinese", the one who "respects the culture" and other such BS.

Just pathetic. Young people, keep away from the shitty world of ESL and DO SOMETHING USEFUL WITH YOUR LIFE! ESL and teaching English in some backwater is a dead end with no future.