12/09/2022
Hi, welcome Linda here. Back this week with another live session for ITTT today. We're going to talk about the best countries for teaching English abroad in 2023 next year. It's already December, it's December 9th today here in South Korea. It is 10:30 a.m. where I am.
So, the new year is approaching fast. Time flies. So, that's what we're going to talk about. Where are the best countries to teach next year? What are some predictions also for the EFL industry (English as a foreign language industry) for next year? What are some things that we see? What are some things that we can expect? And yeah, that's what we're going to talk about today.
So, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for joining. If you can see me, if you can hear me clearly, just please leave a hi or something in the comment section and let me know where you are watching from today. What country are you watching from? Where are you right now? How are you doing? Thanks for being here. I really really do appreciate it. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you're always up to date whenever we go live.
This is a weekly thing that we do. We go live every week usually at this time on this day. It's always the same and topics are changing every week. So, every week we're going to talk about something a little bit different. And every first Friday of the month (so last week, that's what we did) we have a Q&A session. So, every first Friday of the month there is no topic assigned. It is a Q&A so you can ask me your questions.
And today, also at the end of every live session, you can ask questions. But also during the live sessions, feel free to leave comments and I will try my best to answer questions whenever they fit in and they tie in with the topic. Any other questions not related to today's topic, we can do those at the end. Yeah, so that's what we're doing today. We have Manal here who is already posting a comment before the live started saying "we're waiting." So, the wait is over. I'm live now. I hope Manal you are here as well. Then we have (not sure how to say), I'm sorry, hi. How are you doing? Where are you watching from? Then we have Odana watching from Nigeria in Africa. Awesome, hi hi. Thank you for being here. Daniel from Mexico City, hi Daniel. Can you hear me loud and clear? Perfect, that's awesome. That's what we want to hear.
And we have Amitava. How are you doing? I'm great, how about you? How are you doing today? I hope you're having a great day. I know it's very early where you are, so I appreciate you tuning in, Amitava. Maybe one week we should move the live session to a little bit later time for Amitava, because it's super early. Amitava is in Kolkata, India. What time is it again? 6:30, 5:30, I don't remember. 4:30, was it something like that, or just was it 7:30? I know it was earlier for you. Then we also have Zilla watching from Malaysia. Hi, how are you doing? And we have Debbie Huang from Taiwan. Hi, Debbie. How are you doing today? Great, so we have a very mixed crowd. We have Nigeria, we have Mexico, we got Malaysia, we got India, we got Taiwan, we got me here in South Korea. Awesome, guys. Thank you so much.
I see you're all excited about today's topic and you're looking for some inspiration on where to go teach in 2023 and also some kind of trends about teaching English in 2023. Oh yeah, I mean Thomas says it's 7:00 a.m. in Kolkata, yeah, okay, quite early, quite early. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. I could not wake up that early, but maybe you're still laying in bed and watching. That's that's cool. Maybe I don't know, that's what I would do at 7 a.m. Oh hi, we have Jayanta, I hope I'm saying that right, Jayanta in Sri Lanka. Somehow I want to be an English teacher because I prefer to see progress of students in my country. Yes, that's kind of the best part about being a teacher, when you see your students progress. That's really great. Cool, how is everyone doing?
So we have people watching here on YouTube, we also have people watching via our Facebook page. So thank you guys so much for being here today. So as I said, don't forget to like and subscribe. And I also want to tell you guys, we do have 30% off again today. Yes, we do, so 30% off any TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT. That's always very exciting, a very big discount.
So, what you can do is you can either, you know this, you can scan this QR code with your phone if you want, or I'm also going to share a discount link with you guys in the comments. So I'm going to do that right now, so you can see it. It ends with "FACEBOOKLIVE-LINDA" so you copy paste this link into your browser and it will take you to the application page. And then it should say like "congratulations, you qualify for 30% off" or something like that. So you can do that if you're not yet TEFL or TESOL certified. We're going to talk about some trends for the new year, and let's just say a TEFL or a TESOL will come in very handy next year. Okay, we have Nana from Myanmar. Cool, how are you doing?
Love it with Crystalline. Hi, Crystalline. I remember you, you have a very special name. I remember that. Crystalline Sparks, I love it. Is this your real name? Incredible. If it is, I love it. All right, she says hi. Girl, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your help. I'm officially certified, oh my god. And I'm now trying to get my degrees in early childhood education and TESOL. Ah, congratulations, Crystalline. It's amazing. Congratulations. I love that.
Amitava says “It is not that early in the morning and usually I am wide awake by this time. I am sitting in front of my desktop”. Oh wow, I am not a morning person which is why I start this live at 10:30. This is early enough for me, so kudos to you for waking up early and already sitting at your desktop. That's amazing, I could never. Alright, if someone's watching here and you guys don't know who I am, let me just introduce myself real quick for everybody who's new here. My name is Linda. I'm a travel writer and content creator among many other things. I say this every time, but if you're interested in Asia, in teaching English in Asia, and living in Asia, particularly in South Korea where I've been living for the past seven and a half years, go and check out lindagos.east.com. That's my own personal website and I share information about Asia and living in Asia on there. I'm also on Instagram at Linda goes east. I'm very active over there and I love sharing my photos and reels and everything about my life here and my travels. I recently came back from a trip to Cambodia which was very, very nice and I have some stuff up on my Instagram about that. I'm originally from Germany/USA. My mom is German and my dad is American. I'm based in South Korea but I also lived in China for a little while and I taught English in China. I taught English in South Korea. I still teach English now. I also teach some German, if anybody wants to learn, contact me.
And yeah, I'm also a TEFL/TESOL marketing professional for ITTT, which is why I'm here talking to you right now. If you're new here and you don't know what ITTT is, ITTT stands for international tefl and tesol training. So we provide teacher training for people who want to become professional English teachers abroad or online, or maybe in your own country. You can check us out at teflcourse.net. ITTT is a leading Teflon tesol course provider. ITTT has been around for more than 25 years, operating worldwide, with lots of different course options, etc. But most of you will know this, most of you I think are already definitely certified from ITTT.
So, this is not new information, but you know we gotta mention this for all the people who are new here watching. So yeah, all right. Crystalline here says fun fact, it's actually my cosplay name, but we're discussing about changing it possibly. Oh my god, that would be amazing. Imagine, you should totally change it. Oh amazing, Crystalline Sparks. Maybe I should change my name to that. I love it. No, I'm not stealing your name. It's great. Okay, all right. Uh, that's enough about me.
Trends in the EFL industry in 2023
Okay, we're already jumping into the trends, so yeah. Before we talk about all the individual countries, I believe is it 10 countries? I can't remember, I didn't number them. It might be 10 that I'm gonna mention, might be less, uh, I can't remember exactly. But anyway, before we go into depth of talking about specific countries, we are going to have a look and talk a little bit about trends for 2023, a little bit of uh predictions and some analysis that I found during my research. Just some things good to know if you are planning on teaching English in 2023, you know what's to come. So let me go back to that slide and I'm gonna make myself smaller so you can read the text. So here are four kinds of trends or predictions that I've found.
E-learning is here to stay
The first one we have is “e-learning is here to stay”. And this is the same with like, remote work is here to stay, all of these things. So e-learning continues to be super popular. It was super popular, had a huge boom because of covet and the pandemic. And uh, a lot of people, a lot of institutions, a lot of schools, online teaching platforms, students, teachers, we've all seen the benefits of e-learning, right? And uh, just a couple of numbers, so the projected growth of the online education market is expected to rise to 319 billion in 2025, and it was 187 billion in 2019. Billion, so that's huge.
This just illustrates the trend towards digital learning, right? It's going to continue over the next few years. It is convenient for students, even especially in the English language education industry. A lot of students, maybe who don't have access to English teachers or native speakers, fluent English speakers from other countries, they really benefit from this uh, this boom. Even if they live in the most remote village somewhere, they can have access to a native speaker or a professional English teacher through e-learning, which is really, really great. So we're going to see a lot more of that, a lot more positions for online teaching as well. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that as well at the end.
Preparing Students for the Job Market
And we're also seeing, that's now kind of before as well, but the focus now is kind of more on preparing students for the job market. So what I mean by that, because we're getting more globalized, of course English will remain one of the most important job skills, and more countries are now pushing this actively.
They want more focus on writing a resume for example, for an international employer. They want more focus on communicating with clients from different countries. They want more, for example, reading reports and papers, so a little bit more business English. We're gonna see that incorporated, even maybe in general English classes. This will be the ultimate goal is going going to be more emphasized, just these job market skills, right? So you might see that when you start a job, that you also will be required to kind of teach a little bit of these skills. So this is where something like the TEFL course for business English, the specialization course for business English might come in very handy. You will learn about these things in this course. So if you want to kind of stand out, you uh, could you know get that and add that to your portfolio.
Digital Nomad Visas
We're also seeing a lot more digital nomad visas in many, many different countries. And I did a live session about that not too long ago, different countries who rolled out digital nomad visas already. So you can have a look. You can search in our playlist on YouTube or on Facebook, search for digital nomad visas and you're going to find that live session.
But basically, more and more countries are introducing digital nomad visas or remote working visas. So this can basically allow you or allow teachers to come and teach English online from a variety of countries. So if you prefer, you know, teaching online but you still want that living abroad aspect of tefl or tesol, that you know, a lot of people want to go abroad for teach English.
You can basically combine it too. You can teach online, have all the flexibility in the world, while still experiencing living abroad. So yeah, we're gonna see a lot more of that, which is really, really exciting and great. So a lot of, as you can see, digital things here are coming up.
Competition for In-Person Positions
The other thing is, because the last couple of years were, some countries were more closed off than others. So now, I think pretty much most of the countries are open, especially for teachers. Again, we're definitely going to see a little bit more competition for in-person positions now. So as the world is almost fully open again, competition for in-person teaching positions may increase. So that's why it's great that you're here today, you're getting in all of this information. And you can you know be mindful about that and work on maybe getting an additional certificate or additional training and things. So those are the four trends that I just outlined, and I think are the most important. So yeah, and Daniel says, I think that this e-learning boom is the best thing uh, since sliced bread, despite what others say. Yeah, I agree, I agree and actually, I also started teaching English online because of the pandemic. I before that, I had a lot of in-person students, and I actually never saw myself teaching online. I never was really interested in that, but because of COVID, I picked it up. I started teaching online, and I've been really enjoying it, and I still do it today. It's just so convenient, so I really like that.
It is really the best thing since sliced bread. I agree. Pedro is here too, hi Pedro, nice to see you again. Great. And crystalline has a quick question, so I'm just going to answer that real quick. So, uh, can't you answer this at any time. Yeah, I'm answering it right now. If we are certified now, would we be allowed to use our certificate to substitute teach? You know, this is an interesting question. This depends on you knowing where you live, and the school that hires you, if they accept this as a qualification. Substitute positions for teaching abroad are definitely more rare. They usually if they need substitute teachers abroad, for example, here in Korea, they would just kind of pick people who are here, for substitute teaching. But maybe in America or Canada, I don't know where you live, I think you live in America, right, it depends on the school, I would say. Yeah, so a tefl or TESOL certificate is definitely not the same as a teaching license, like an American, a U.S teaching license. It's definitely a little bit of a different thing. Teflon tesol is definitely more of a qualification for teaching English abroad, right? So this would depend on the different school, or the individual school.
So these are the trends, and now we're just gonna look at the individual countries that I've picked, and I think I sorted them alphabetically, and I think there's about 10. So let's have a look, first one might be a bit of a surprise. Oh yeah, I do also have a disclaimer, wanted to mention this too. So just a note on teaching abroad and covid. The following countries that I will mention are open, uh, maybe not all open to travel actually, but open for teachers, so they are hiring teachers. You can go and teach, but definitely certain nations here that I mentioned have requirements for vaccinations and or masks. Mask mandates for example, masks are still required on public transportation in Spain.
Of course, we also see some lockdowns happening in China and things, so just check your destination's covid restrictions before travel, because they also change all the time. But I mean, they're definitely loosening up across the world, and all of the countries that I mentioned are open for teachers as well. Just a little disclaimer, always before you go, of course, do your research on those things, right? They change all the time.
Teaching English in China in 2023
So let's jump in with the first destination, which is, yes, China, surprise. China is again back, and before when China was kind of in a weird situation, teaching wise, when they were really locked down, and they did not let anybody in, that was really hard time, and we did not recommend China, but now China is back, and it is actually best for job availability. So they are really trying to fill these positions again, they're hiring a lot, and China is yet again back, and a shining star in terms of teaching abroad.
So, why go here? Just some little uh, bullet points for you, average salary range, we have, so always the country's own currency, and then US dollars behind it. So, a big range as well, you can make from anywhere from a thousand two hundred to three thousand five hundred US dollars a month, depends on you know, the type of school, your experience, your background, the city that you will work in in China, and then also, as you can see, monthly average cost of living, very low compared to salary and you also get some really great perks when teaching in China. Usually you get housing, flights, and health insurance, so you can save a lot of your salary when teaching English in China. That's why a lot of people love going to China, you can actually save a lot of money from your paycheck.
As for the requirements, you definitely need a bachelor's degree, and also a TEFL certificate of at least 120 hours. You also need to be a native speaker from an English speaking country to teach English in China, and you need to have two years of work experience. This is actually two years of work experience, I believe, not necessarily teaching experience, so any kind of work experience will count. They do also have an age limit, so you want to be under the age of 60 for men and under the age of 55 for women. This is because these are the retirement ages for people in China, so it's 60 years old for men and 55 for women.
Yes, so we did a live session before, not too long ago, all about teaching English in China in 2023. I had a lovely guest, Dan Wharton from Teach English Global, which is a partner recruitment agency for ITT, and he focuses on China. He also recruits to South Korea, but mainly China. In this live session, if you're really interested in teaching English in China, you should go and check this out. He shared all the things you need to know about teaching English in China in 2023, including all the current requirements, the best cities to teach in, the differences between schools, and how to best find a job.
Go ahead and check this out, I really really recommend it. You don't want to miss that if you're interested in China. Yes, Daniel says "Nihao China". Absolutely, so if you're interested in teaching English in China, 2023 is going to be a great year to get back into this country and go and teach there. So again, you want to go and check that out.
I'm going to share the link with you of course. I forgot the link to this past live session about teaching in China. This is it, I just pasted this YouTube link, so if you're interested go ahead and check it out. It is very long, so you might want to sit down and grab a snack, or watch in installments. It went very long, but it was very in-depth and I really really am so thankful that we have people like Dan who come on and share their wisdom for everybody here. So, if you're interested in teaching and working with Dan, he can help you find a teaching job in China. And just let me find this... yeah, this website. So we have a page on our website if you want to work with Dan for teaching in China, or also South Korea. You can go here, teflcourse.net/teach-english-global, and you can fill out the application and then Dan will get in touch with you. So it looks like that if you're interested. Okay, good. That was the first one, so China.
Teaching English in Costa Rica in 2023
Next up we have Costa Rica and this one is best for minimalist living. Very nice nature, you can really have a great time if you're looking for a kind of off the grid natural experience. Costa Rica will be really great for you. And Costa Rica is also an emerging ESL market, so they're also kind of investing more now into English education. You're going to see a lot more English positions there, English teaching positions, and average salary as you can see 600 to 1000 US dollars a month. And the cost of living is also quite high compared to the salary.
Right, so it might be a little bit challenging. And the perks also depend on the school. We don't really see that many bonuses or flight things, those are things you will have to negotiate on your own. That's why the cost of living is quite high compared to the salary. A lot of teachers are taking on private students in their free time or do online teaching on the side. So that's going to be something you might have to do or you come already with some savings. Requirements for Costa Rica are not that strict compared to other countries. We're gonna see that you definitely need to have a TEFL certificate, some teaching experience is preferred but it's not required.
Native speakers are preferred but fluent English speakers are also okay, so might be a great place to go if you know you're not all about the money and you just want to have a great experience in a beautiful country, and you're a nature lover, then I think Costa Rica might be just the place for you. So, yeah, that is that not more to say I think about Costa Rica. But, I would love to go. I mean, the natural landscape looks amazing. The only thing you would have to just figure out is the finances. You need to figure out how you can supplement your income a little bit or you just need to be really good at negotiating your contract with your TEFL employer or teaching employer over there.
Teaching English in France in 2023
France is best for language immersion. If you want to learn French for example, you should definitely go to France and learn and pick up a new language. Here we have salaries ranging from 790 to 1,970, and the cost of living is a bit of a problem. Right, the cost of living in France depending on the city where you are is quite high. You're not going to get any additional benefits, no perks normally. But it is France, that's why everybody wants to go, right.
So, what I would recommend is maybe looking into the TAPIF program. So, the type of program is a teaching program from the French government, and they hire English teachers through this program, and it gives you a little bit of a better situation, and they have a lot of support and can kind of help you out a little bit. So, most TAPIF program participants, they just finished college, and they do the program during the school year after they graduate.
This is what the ideal candidate looks like, what most people do. So, if you want to do this, you need to apply during the fall of your senior year of college. So, this is just good to know, right? You can also head to tapif.org, which is the official website for this program, and check out all the details generally for teaching English in France. You will need to have a bachelor's degree, a TEFL certification, and for the TAPIF program you also need to have French language skills. You need to be B1 or higher, you need to prove that as well.
So, you need to have a DELF certificate or any other French language certificate at least a B1 or higher. So, yeah, if you're interested in teaching English in France, you can also obviously find positions that are not through the TAPIF program and so on our website, we do have a job section, which is completely free to use for anyone.
Let me just share that with you as well and this will come in handy for every country that I'm going to talk about today. So, you just head to our job section on the website, and you filter for the country you want to teach in, you can browse current job offers and even if you're not ready to teach yet, you can pick the country or the countries you're interested in and kind of browse through through the job offers.
I'm not sure if they're posting on Facebook if this works, is this coming through? I'm getting an error that it's not coming through, I hope it went through now. Basically what I would recommend if you're at the beginning of this journey you know pick the country where you want to go to or the countries you want to go to and kind of browse the job offers and see what are the typical requirements and also like the typical like benefits or celery ranges if it's mentioned just what are the typical requirements and then you know what you kind of have to work towards. I think that's a good idea.
So, yeah France will be a great place to be in 2023, it's always a hot destination and very popular for teachers. So, this type of program is also very competitive, so you really need to kind of get a head start. You need to start early for this and that's why you also have to have French language skills. It is France after all, they love French so and I was reading on the TAPIF website that you will have to do some things in French, which is why you need to be able to have these language skills for the TAPIF program, but this is not for all of the teaching positions in France, not for all of them, you need to have French language skills.
If you don't, but you still want to go to France, you can still find positions where it's not required. This is just for the TAPIF program.
Teaching English in Japan in 2023
Every list of teaching English abroad, Japan is super popular, and Japan is actually really great for professional development. They really have a lot of options for you to develop in your teaching career, so let's talk about it. Japan actually has some of the highest salaries to be found anywhere in Asia, and it's currently between 1400 to 4,000 US dollars. But the cost of living is also on the rise, right? It's between 1300 and 2200.
But the great thing about teaching English in Japan, you're gonna get a lot of great perks, a lot of housing, we're seeing that a lot of free flights, health insurance, you're also going to have some contract completion bonuses and they also have a successful and super popular teaching program which is called the JET program. And you can check out those details at jetprogram.org, and they spell it the British way with “mme” programme.
Like I said, it's a very competitive program, it's a very well-established, long-standing program. So, if you're completely new to teaching English abroad, you're completely new to maybe moving to Japan or moving to Asia, I would really recommend going through this program if you can. Of course, competitive, not everybody can make it unfortunately, but if you fulfill the requirements, you need to have a degree in any subject, so a bachelor's degree University degree.
You also need to be obviously fluent in the English language, you do not need to be an English native speaker actually for the JET program which is really great, you need to be fluent, and you also need to have a strong desire and willingness to pass on your language knowledge to your students. You also need to be interested in Japan, they say on their website, so I think a lot of people can take these boxes very easily.
You can check it out, they also have some strict kind of application deadlines, they usually hire very, very far in advance, so you might actually already be too late for 2023, or it might be then the end of 2023. With programs, you usually need to be on top of things very early, but that's why we're talking about it now, so maybe you can prepare yourself in 2023 to be ready to teach the following year. You can fill out your application next year, I think they might, I actually didn't check the dates for this, but check it out on their website.
But again, you don't have to go through the program, they also have a lot of other teaching jobs positions which are not through the program, so you again, I would suggest going on our website, checking out the job section, and looking for these non-JET program positions and they hire pretty much at any time, private schools especially, so you don't need to do the JET program necessarily.
Teaching English in South Korea in 2023
Okay, let's move on, next destination, South Korea. okay, so I guess it's not sorted alphabetically, actually, or it might be. Are we having a lot of tea destinations after this? Maybe it might actually be sorted alphabetically, but we're at S already so it might not be ten destinations. I don't know anyway. South Korea is best for job benefits, you're gonna get a lot of great perks when you come to teach English in Korea.
And again, you're also going to find some of the highest salaries to be found anywhere in Asia here as well, between 1100 and 4400 US dollars. The cost of living is also actually lower, I believe, than in Japan, 1000 to 1400, and because you're getting all of these great perks like free housing, free flights, health insurance, contract completion bonuses, you're also getting a pension. So, you pay into the national pension scheme, and when you leave, you get all that money back, which can be a couple thousand dollars depending on how long you stayed here. So, that allows you to save a lot of money from your monthly paycheck.
South Korea, they have a program called the English Program in Korea, EPIK. The EPIK program, which is similar to The JET program in Japan that I just talked about, kind of the same thing also competitive, but uh, a great opportunity if you're completely new, and you're kind of looking for the support that's really great.
So, they always have an orientation at the beginning of the program and you always have someone you can contact, they will pick you up from the airport, you have orientation and then you'll be placed at a public school around Korea. So, very exciting, check it out for South Korea.
You're also going to need a degree, a bachelor's degree, a University degree in any subject, it doesn't have to be in English, it can be in anything else, it can be in science, math, art, doesn't matter. You also need to have a TESOL certificate and unfortunately for Korea, you need to be a native English speaker from certain English-speaking countries, those are only seven English-speaking countries that are accepted with this, and that is Canada, America, United States, Ireland, UK, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. I think that's all of them, so unfortunately only those are able to go at the moment to South Korea.
I can speak to this. this is definitely true with all the benefits, and, you know, best for job benefits also great for job opportunities. Once you're here, you can actually do a lot. I mentioned this the other day that pretty much every week I get a message or an email or text from someone who's looking for an English teacher. You can really find a lot of jobs here. So, once you're in, you're good to go right?
We have a question here from Madame Macabre. Okay, if I take a combined class in Spain and September, is there still a high chance for me to find a job even if I miss the peak period of September? I do not know at the top of my head the peak seasons for Spain, but private schools are hiring usually throughout the entire year. And private schools are typically the most, the biggest employer for English teachers in Europe is not so much the public schools.
So, you're not going to rely so much on these peak hiring seasons. So, I think you will be good if you're applying for private schools. Again, I would recommend going to our website, go to the header it says jobs and then look for Spain and look at these job offers in there and see what they typically say.
Here we have one, well this is different, this is a three month thing but here, a lot of them are looking even like immediately. So, you're gonna find something, especially if you do a combined course and you're already in Spain, you're ready, you're already there, you're gonna have a high chance to find something. So, yeah, good luck. Okay, I think maybe Spain will be actually next, let's see, yeah perfect timing.
Teaching English in Spain in 2023
So, Spain, great for work-life balance, there's a lot of great stuff to do in Spain. The culture is also very chill, Mediterranean, Southern European, they usually value a lot of their work-life balance and free time.
So, the monthly salary range here in Spain is between 690 and 1770. Cost of living is about the same, 800 to 1,200. So, this is with all of the places kind of in Europe, it's hard, Europe is expensive and they do not pay that great but in Spain, most of the time, you actually get health insurance which is awesome, but a lot of teachers are going to have to supplement their income a little bit. So, you can take on online students, private students in your free time or you can do other jobs of course in your free time.
They also have a teaching program that I just want to mention which is called the NALCAP program, from the Spanish government and this is their website, you can check that out. They also hire for schools throughout Spain, which is really great. So, for Spain, you need to have a bachelor's degree for the teaching assistant program, which is the NALCAP program, uh, for private schools. This is private schools and public schools. I feel like this is wrong, teaching license for private schools, I think this should be Public Schools, a teaching license for public schools, maybe I typed something wrong here.
Anyway, the teaching assistants, they should also be under 60, so there is a age limit with the NALCAP program, you want to be under 60 years old, and uh, yeah, also with Spain, you can find a lot of jobs, actually, you don't have to go through the NALCAP program, you can find jobs on your own as well. Again, I would recommend going to our job section on the website, looking for Spain, and you, you see like there's a lot of schools contact us, so you can find even if there's here for example is a good job offer, but it's already older a little bit, it's been posted a while ago but you can still take these email addresses from these schools and contact them because usually, they need teachers every year, some teachers they just stay one year and then they need to hire again.
We have a lot of job offers here for Spain on our site, I see, you can take these email addresses and literally just email all of these schools even if the job offer is old, because they're, like I said, always, most of them are always looking for teachers every year, someone's leaving so they need a new one. So, just do that, even if it's an older job offer, always just email them, mass email.
Teaching English in Taiwan in 2023
So, this is actually a good country for infrastructure, yeah, great for traveling, you can get around very easily. It's also a great place to be, you're, you're like sort of in the heart of Asia, you can easily travel to East Asia, Japan, Korea, you can also easily go to Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Taipei airport is a huge airport connecting other countries in the region, so it's a great place to be for infrastructure and exploring other parts of the world.
Here, we have also very good salaries between 2000 and 2400, and here again, Asia, that's why I love it, the cost of living is low, so you can actually live, you can actually save some money and you also get some great perks here again, like housing, paid housing, paid flights, health insurance and also contract completion bonuses.
So, again, that's why I like this part of the world, Asia, you actually get stuff right, and you get perks, you get a good salary, cost of living is low, you can actually live and have a good time, you're not struggling, like maybe if you were when you're teaching in Europe. Anyway, requirements here also, you will need a University degree, a bachelor's degree, you also need to be a native speaker from an English-speaking Country and there is no age limit like the other countries we mentioned but usually under 60 years old is preferred for Taiwan.
So, and this is why I love Taiwan, I've only been there once, unfortunately, and I really want to go back soon, it's just a great Vibe, like I recommend it, if I could probably choose, I would probably move to Taiwan too to be honest. Taiwan is great, great food, great people, great culture. Sci-fi news says, “Keep this Live on YouTube, I'll watch it later”, yes, we always keep our live sessions on our channel, so don't, don't worry, don't worry, you're gonna find it, we have a playlist called Live Events, you're gonna find it there, you can watch it later, you can also still comment later, and we'll get back to you as well, in the comment section, don't worry, I appreciate it, thank you.
Okay, cool, ah, now I really want to go to Taiwan, I don't know, I'm seeing this picture and I'm like, ah, yeah, this is this is great, wanna go, all right, Taiwan, so we spoke about a lot of countries already, I hope there was something that you like, but it's not over yet, we still have a couple, actually.
Teaching English in Thailand in 2023
Let's see, we have a few left, let's see here, next up we have Thailand. Thailand is one of the most popular countries for teaching English abroad, and this just also continues in 2023, and Thailand is really great for non-native English teachers, and I actually know a lot of people, also a lot of people who work at ITT who have taught in Thailand, native speakers, and also just fluent, just will also fluent English speakers, great teachers from other countries. So, and they also love Thailand.
I mean, Thailand is a great country, anyway to be great food, great people again, great places to visit, so most teachers in Thailand know they work at government schools or in private language academies. So those are the two big ones, and most positions can be found in Bangkok, in Chiang Mai and in Phuket.
Average salary range between 850 and 2,500 US dollars a month and the cost of living is going to depend on where you live, but it's going to be between a thousand to two thousand US dollars a month. But with Thailand teaching in Thailand, most of the time you also get free housing, you get health insurance, so that's really going to help you out with your money. Requirements typically, you need to have a degree, this can be in any subject, that's fine, it doesn't have to be English or TESOL, it can be anything, you need to have a TEFL course as well of at least 100 hours, and there is again no age limit, but people usually prefer under 60 years old, and yeah.
So again, here in the requirements, you can see it is not a requirement to be a native English speaker in Thailand, so this is a great destination for anyone who might be struggling to find positions because they are not a native English speaker. Thailand is very much open to hiring anyone, of course, with the right qualifications.
Teaching English in the Middle East in 2023
Let's have a look, oh yeah, of course we also have a Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, and of course, this region is best for money, High salary, the Middle East really pays usually pays the highest salaries in the entire world for English teachers and also most of the salaries are tax-free.
But more on that later, United Arab Emirates, what's great here is that 90% of the population is expats from all over the world, especially in Dubai, I think, not all of the UAE but specifically Dubai, it's a very International, Multicultural place, which is super awesome, and you also get some attractive benefits here like paid airfares, furnished apartments, health insurance, contract completion bonuses, so you don't have any of these expenses, you don't have to worry about and you get super high TEFL salaries between 2,300 to 5500 tax-free, right, so you don't pay any income tax here, which is amazing and the average cost of living compared to the salary look it is very low, and you don't have to pay rent, you get your apartment, you don't have to worry about your health insurance, you don't have to worry about any airplane flights, so it's really great. You can really make a lot of money teaching English in this part of the world, but the requirements are usually a little bit more strict compared to other countries, so you will need to have a bachelor's degree at least, and sometimes some schools even ask for master's degrees here, you need to have a TEFL sort of certificate as well, and previous teaching experience is also a huge plus for teaching in this part of the world.
So basically the better, and I mean this goes for any job, but the better your qualifications, the more opportunities you will have, of course. So, this is definitely true here in the United Arab Emirates. So, this is usually a place that I see where English teachers who have already taught in other countries, for example, people who've taught in China, people who've taught in Korea, or in Japan, or Taiwan.
Once they've done that for a couple of years then some of them decide to move to the Middle East. I've seen that many times. So, it's usually not a first-timer's teaching destination; it's usually for people who already have experience and who've already taught for a few years. But still, some people go as first-time teachers. It's not impossible, of course. So, yeah, I just wanted to put that out there. Great destination to go for money if you're all about making money, this is the place to be. And I think this is the last one that we have is Vietnam.
Teaching English in Vietnam in 2023
Vietnam is great for the teaching and traveling experience. Vietnam is great for teaching and traveling experience, if you want to see, you know, a lot of cool places. Vietnam is a beautiful country, with beach resorts, but also mountains, so you're gonna get the best of both worlds here.
Most teachers in Vietnam usually work for private language schools and mostly in the big cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Salary range is between 1,200 to 2,200, and that's pretty good, considering the low cost of living. So, you're gonna pay around 900 to 1,400 a month.
Perks also include health insurance here, so you're probably not going to get paid housing, but some schools I have seen that before, and some job offers we get here at ITT, where they also cover that, and sometimes also flights, so you might be able to negotiate that. But most commonly it will be only health insurance, but maybe depending on your qualifications, if you are already experienced or you know, you might be able to just negotiate those things on top of your contract.
For Vietnam nowadays they really also want native English teachers, you need to be a native English speaker, you also need to have a bachelor's degree and also many employers will want to have a Teflon or a TESOL certificate of at least 120 hours, and here also you should be under the age of 60 years old, because of local retirement age restrictions.
There's no teaching program here. Yeah, so you will have to look for a job either with a recruiter or just on your own. Again, you can go to our job section, we actually Vietnam is very popular, so we have a lot of positions there. I'm just checking now. Yeah, here, full-time teachers needed in Vietnam, teachers wanted in Hanoi, teaching positions available in Vietnam.
So go ahead and go there, and email these people. Like I said, even if the job offer is already older, take those contacts here. Every job offer on our site has the school name and their email address at the top. So, what I would do if I really wanted to go to this one country, wherever if it's Vietnam or a different country, take all of these contacts and email them, even if they're even if the job offer is old or they haven't posted because like I said, the turnaround is so fast.
With English teachers, it's usually you know a year, and then they move on, not always, but so usually schools they are looking for teachers every year, right? So do that and just email everybody. All right, good. I think this was the last one. Uh, let's have a look. Oh, there is a bonus of course, yes. How could I forget? So of course I also want to talk about teaching English online in 2023.
Teaching English Online in 2023
In the beginning, when we spoke about the predictions, we talked about how online e-learning and the digital Nomad visas, they really uh, are perfect, they laid a foundation for online teaching.
Also, in 2023, it's just a great way. Again, this is best for convenience of course, you can literally teach from at home or a different country right, if you live abroad. This is also great for supplementing your income if you work in one of those countries with a lower salary but High Cost of Living. Or teaching online is also great for getting initial teaching experience before you then go abroad. So, you can really work from anywhere in the world with this.
You can also take command of your own schedule, right? You can work whenever you want when you teach online. Pretty much the average salary range really varies from platform to platform. So, usually, you can make between 15 to 30 dollars an hour.
The more hours you teach, the more money you make, so you also have kind of that in your hands. Typically, you will need a bachelor's degree, a TEFL certification, online teaching equipment, like a microphone for example or just a laptop, of course, maybe some light, I have a ring light here, those things, but they're not necessary.
The most important thing is a good internet connection for teaching English online. You might also have to invest in some props, if you work for you know one of those companies like uh, vipkid, Q kids who kind of cater to Children, you want to have some props. But yeah, the requirements also, this is for teaching online. I think I don't have this here in the slide. I just wanted to let you know was it that. Oh yeah, we were going to talk about this too, anyway. So with teaching online, pretty much you, you, you choose between two options. So one is a teaching online organization like vipkid, cute kids, magic ears, these are all big companies. And usually, these provide you with the curriculum, they provide you with the teaching material, and they assign students to you, so you don't have to prepare anything. They give you everything.
However, the other side is a teaching platform, an online platform, and there you would basically register and you create your profile, put your picture, you put your text, you put maybe an intro video, and you list all of the lessons that you offer and you set your own price. With the other platforms like Q kids, the companies, you can't do that, you get fixed, you can't set your own price on the online teaching platforms.
And for the online teaching platforms usually some of them have no requirements right because it's the students who then browse the profiles and they can see your qualifications and they decide if they want to book your lessons or not. So, even if you don't have any uh qualifications at all, you can sign up, and students can find you and book you there. So this really depends and if you want to learn more about teaching English online and how that all works, I did a very thorough live session about everything you need to know about teaching English online and I'm going to share the link with you as well, if you're interested in starting to teach English online, you can have a look, which is this one right here, so I just pasted that in the comments, this link YouTube link, have a look, have a watch, have a listen and that's all.
