02/27/2023
hi guys hey Linda here from ITTT back
this week with another live session thank you so much for joining me today and taking some time out of your day
today to be here with me and learn something new hopefully about teaching English and today we're going to talk
about the do's and don'ts of teaching English abroad sort of everything you
need to know you should know before you embark on this exciting journey of
teaching English abroad so yeah let me know if you can hear me if you can see me uh drop a hi in the comment section
oh perfect and also let me know where are you watching from today
I already see crystalline here Hi crystaline how are you doing good to see
you again awesome great where are you guys watching from today where are you right
now what time is it there um anything else you want to share put it in the comments I'm always curious
um as always I'm in South Korea I am I've been living in South Korea for
almost eight years and um yeah I'm gonna give you a quick intro
about myself if you're watching this for the first time also in a couple minutes but just wanted to see who is here we
have welcome English from Algeria hi good to see you
Daniella is here hi from Venezuela how are you doing Daniela awesome
crystalline says doing great so far how about you I'm excited for this because I get to do this for my internship in
Japan in August oh my gosh exciting are you going to teach English in Japan in August how did
you get the internship that's amazing how long are you going for for just a month amazing okay then we have rudeen
Hi how are you doing from Laos 8 30 a.m oh amazing I love Laos I really want to
go back there such an awesome place okay cool we have a good group here
today thank you so much for watching I hope everybody's doing fine and yeah we
are going to talk about the do's and don'ts of teaching English abroad
um kind of the things you should think about before you go things you shouldn't forget
Etc all of these kinds of things and if you're already teaching English abroad feel free to add your own
um tips your own do's and don'ts later on if there's something that comes to mind that I don't mention then just let me
know put it in the comments we also have kasara hi good morning from
Thailand hi awesome how are you all doing
all right so this is what we're going to talk about today just a quick
um table of contents here and maybe this is a bit small so let me just show you guys so obviously we're going to the
introduction we're into introduction right now I'm also going to introduce myself uh for people who are watching
for the first time and then we're going to talk a little bit about how to prepare to teach English abroad all the
things you should think about and no I'm gonna let you know we're going to talk about living and
working conditions when teaching English abroad very important things to consider
and then we're going to cover some do's and don'ts and then as always we also have a q and a session so that's on the
agenda today probably might take between 45 minutes and an hour if you don't have
that much time today no problem you can always come back and watch the replay
um all of our live sessions they do not disappear that's why I always say please like And subscribe so you never miss any
of our upcoming content but you also have access to the previous the past
life sessions right so um yeah that's what we're gonna do so
you have you can find playlists on both Facebook and YouTube for our live
sessions and you can watch them whenever you feel like it and we also always turn
our episodes no our live sessions into podcast episodes like that
so if you prefer you know listening to this as a podcast episode Audio Only uh
on the go wherever you are um then you can also do that so you can just search for the tefl and tesol
podcast by ITT and um it's on Spotify on iTunes on all the
major platforms where you get your podcasts from so that is that
and then uh uh welcome English is I want to start I
I studied tesol of ITT okay great nice awesome congratulations
and crystalline says I apply through Meiji internships and I got one in Fukuoka I get to be there for six months
I'll be I think an ALT but then they said since I'm staying there for a while I get to teach classes oh that's
exciting oh nice I need to look into Meiji internships I'm gonna save that for later very cool oh yeah accredited
University accredited internships across Asia oh they also have South Korea interesting okay
nice all right awesome that sounds like a great opportunity especially six months is
gonna be so great um so and Fukuoka is nice I've been once
uh but just very briefly um but I remember it was a really really nice city
um kind of near the the ocean right near the sea so that's really nice cool
actually can take um a ferry from Fukuoka over to Korea
maybe you should do that and then we can meet up there how about that or you just fly over flights are super cheap anyway
okay um good so just a quick introduction oh and also
of course we have again a 30 off deal today so if you're not yet tefl or tesol
certified and you're like today's the day this year is the year whatever it is
um yeah save 30 you can scan this QR code
or you can also apply via a link so I'm going to share the link with you in the comments section and you get 30 off any
tefl or tesol course from ICT today looks like this this is the link so as
you can see it ends with FB live minus Linda this is the discount link so if
you click on that um you will see an application page and you also see something like congratulations you get 30 off or
something at the top and then you know it's the right link and it works and then you can just fill this out
um and uh pick the course of your liking and save 30 so that's a pretty sweet
deal do not miss it if you are not yet certified I highly recommend it don't
pay full price I always say that don't pay full price use this link it'll help you out right that money you can save
you can spend it on travels on food once you are abroad
all right crystalline says that would be awesome too yeah let's let's meet up that would be great obviously awesome or
I might come to Japan that would be awesome too okay nice
um yeah that's that so if you're watching for the first time and you're wondering who is this who's this girl
here my name is Linda and I'm a travel writer online marketer and language teacher I do many different things
um if you're interested in the travel side of things I have my own website at lindagos east.com and I share uh travel
guides travel tips specifically for Asia um solo female travel tips even though I
am married I still travel a lot alone I love it and I think every woman should travel alone at least once in her life
um more if you possibly can it's just amazing it's absolutely freeing and you learn a lot about yourself and so I
encourage everybody to do that and on my website I share tips how you can do that and how you can do that safely the best
destinations to do so and obviously also on Instagram I'm very active over there I like to create
content so if you're interested in that check us check me out on uh Instagram at
Linda goes east um if you have a question that you don't want to ask you in front of everybody send me a DM also cool last time many of
you guys reached out via DM so that was really nice I'm gonna get back to you as well and I'm originally from Germany
slash USA I always also say that my mom is German my dad is American
um but I'm based in South Korea and before I moved to Korea I actually lived
in China as well so I've been in Asia pretty pretty much since 2012 and um
it's great I love it and that's kind of enough about me now about ITT ITT there
we go International tefl and tesol training and many of you are already ITT
certified so that's great but if you're not and you're thinking about it um just some stats about us ITT actually
has been around since 1997 and we offer um we are a leading Teflon tesol course
provider worldwide we offer a variety of different courses online courses
in-class courses and also combined courses and also different hours right
you're gonna see on the website anywhere from 50 hours specialization courses up
to 550 hour of tefl trading so really a wide range something for everybody
something for newcomers newbies to Teflon tesol but also something for
already established teachers who want to get more training or specializing in a
certain field so we all we do all that and you can find us at teflwars.net and also obviously on
social media where you are right now we are live on Facebook and on YouTube as always and so
um yeah oh I can see Pedro is here as well hi
Pedro cool how are you doing um Amit is asking any suggestions on
teaching English in Thailand Thailand has a very good demand and English teachers often choose Thailand as a
destination so the demand is very high and um you definitely want to get a tefl
certificate for Thailand it is definitely getting more competitive especially in the bigger cities so I
recommend definitely getting tefl certified and then um and ittt what's great everybody who
takes a course from ITT has access to Lifetime job support so we will actually
help you then afterwards to get a job in the location of your choice so um you
have access to our database to unadvertise jobs that we only have
internally with our partner schools and actually a lot of ITT staff have taught
English in Thailand so we have a lot of connections specifically in Thailand so
um that's definitely good oh I already have you already have a tesol certificate good in that case you can
just and something I'm going to mention later but you could just go to tefl course.net to our website and then at
the top you will see a jobs section and then you can see the advertised jobs on
our website and you can filter for Thailand and you can see the jobs there
crystalline says is there is there more information about teaching in Vietnam or Taiwan so kind of the same Taiwan
Vietnam are also very popular destinations for teaching English abroad and
um definitely on our website what you can do you can uh look at the jobs as
well so same thing at the top menu um header menu and then jobs and you can
filter for Vietnam or Taiwan we also have a Blog where we share information about Vietnam and Taiwan and
um yeah again uh yeah we also have like country pages so
um if you go just put like in the search bar there is a search bar on our website and if you put Vietnam you can see like
all the Vietnam content and a lot of FAQs so for example you put Vietnam in
there and it says are English teachers in demand in Vietnam do you need a tefl to teach English in Vietnam how much can
I earn teaching English in Vietnam and um so you'll see a lot of those
um posts there just use the search bar and you'll find a lot of information about that
all right good so this was the introduction and now we're gonna jump in and we're gonna look at preparing to
teach English abroad so the things that you should consider and know when you are preparing to teach English abroad so
first I want to talk a little bit about the benefits and the challenges of teaching English abroad and of course
um because you should know like both things right usually we are all here because we really want to go abroad and
teach and we usually only look at the benefits right travel opportunities number one for many
people I think cultural immersion if you go and teach in a different country you
um live like the locals you can really immerse yourself in this local culture from like an inside perspective it's not
like traveling uh where you get maybe just a small glimpse um but when you live and work in a
different country you really are immersed in this culture you get to celebrate like the festivals and if you
work you know with locals together you learn a lot about the culture so these things are usually what a lot of people
really love about teaching English abroad and then we also have career development of course it will really be
super beneficial for your resume a lot of people they only choose to teach
English abroad maybe for a year or two and then come back home and pursue a different career so then having this
International work experience on your resume is really really really helpful
and you also learn a lot of new skills obviously and language acquisition so if you live
in a new country right you also automatically will pick up a new language even if you don't know any of
the language beforehand so we see this I see this a lot with people coming to Korea obviously you just pick up uh you
know a little bit of the language just by living here you know at some point you'll be able to order food you'll be
able to take a taxi um have like a small uh conversation
with people that's just something you pick up naturally and um so these are just some of the really
really great benefits for teaching English abroad and this is this is what a lot of people just kind of focus on
but you should also not um underestimate the challenges right
and here challenge number one is definitely culture shock right A lot of
people um kind of underestimate culture shock but it can be really really um traumatizing even or really really
difficult to work through foreign I've seen this uh a couple of times
where people you know from um English-speaking countries America or Europe they came to Korea and the
culture is just really very different and they couldn't really handle it and then they quit their job and they went
back home um which is very unfortunate um so how can you prevent culture shock
um just do as much research as you can beforehand and I think a lot of us here are doing that if there's a country a
place where you're really really keen on going for example Korea or Thailand or
Vietnam Taiwan um just research as much as possible and
I think the great thing about today we have things like Instagram and Tick Tock so you can find a lot of people who are
currently living and working there as English teachers share their stories so
follow them read blogs like mine you know to get that understanding to kind
of understand oh these are some of the challenges this is some of the cultural aspects so you are prepared and it's not
like a slap in your face once you arrive here also again language barrier we talked
about a benefit being a language acquisition that you learn a new language but certainly once you if you
arrive in a new country and you don't know anything of the language it can also be obviously a language barrier
especially if you are in a country where English is not widely spoken at all
there are many countries where English is not widely spoken at all so it can be a language barrier as well right
um so I do recommend if you're sure hey I want to go to Korea I want to go to Vietnam wherever it is do like a a small
like language course and even now you know we have Duolingo we have pre-ply all of these like online language
learning platforms just sign up for a few hours and you know even if you just
know like thank you and please like please and thank you and hi and goodbye
those really go a long way and it will just help you make things better but naturally language barrier is
going to come and it is a challenge even if you go you know to things like the
post office uh you want to ship something you need to go to the bank very challenging so
um a lot of times your employer or somebody from the school will actually take you and go with you but it's
obviously a little bit um annoying because you feel like you're you're a child you're not very
independent right so keep that in mind um and just try if you can to learn the
language obviously if it's a really difficult language it's not easily done right but um just be aware of that you
know it might you might be more dependent on other people because of the
language barrier then of course homesickness um if you're somebody who and even if
you're not somebody I actually was never really a person who was super homesick I loved being in different countries but I
noticed like the longer that I am abroad the more I do miss my family especially
during holidays so just consider that birthdays Christmases any other holidays
Thanksgiving you know whatever it is uh you're probably not gonna be with your family and that can be very hard right
but luckily we do have technology we do have zoom we do have Skype where you can talk with them imagine like 100 years
ago where you could only write letters um so we definitely came a long way and
it's gotten definitely a lot easier with zoom and Skype and FaceTime and all that
so but homesickness can be real you know so just keep that in mind and don't bury
yourself in a hole you know make these connections make friends go out you know and meet people that's very very
important and of course this is another very big uh important challenge that you should
be aware of the legal and administrative issues especially legal things
um and this this can really be a big challenge a lot of schools
um private schools do some shady not a lot of them but some of them do some
shady things to their foreign teachers because as the foreign teacher you are unaware of the local laws and legal
things right so they try to maybe make you do things that legally you shouldn't
have to do you don't have to do and so kind of just inform yourself
but it's it's a bit tricky but um I also know that for example in Korea there are
Facebook groups legal like legal assistance in Korea and stuff so there
are groups like that and always ask other teachers as well so if your
employer asks you to do something that you think is this legal is this okay ask
other teachers you know online or just friends at other schools that you make is this okay and if it's not okay speak
up so just know that this could be a challenge right or um the other way
around sometimes maybe what would be illegal or not okay back home is totally
legal and fine here right or in other countries so keep that in mind legal
issues also how people run their businesses and companies the schools
um the the work culture can be very different so these are some important challenges and we all kind of just focus
on the benefits of traveling and the culture and all that fun stuff and we
don't really think about the challenges that's why I wanted to start with benefits and challenges because they're really important just to keep that in
mind not going to say that everything's going to be bad but just keep these things in mind right so that when they
do happen you're not gonna be super surprised but it's part it's just a
natural part of moving abroad living abroad in a different country
okay I don't know I just have something in my
throat now it's strange I was fine before the live okay
anyway I'm gonna make it so benefits and challenges if anybody has some other challenges or benefits
they want to add here let me know in the comments of course there will be many many more but this is like these are the
most important for for each side that I just wanted to mention that are so
important awesome okay then uh let's see what's
next of course we need to talk about the requirements for teaching English abroad
and most of you guys will know this uh because we talk about them a lot right but for anybody who's watching here for
the first time I just want to mention them again and also have to say that
these requirements they vary obviously from country to Country and then also school to school okay they're not all
the same in every school in every country these are just some general requirements
that we often see sometimes it's just a few of those sometimes it's all of them sometimes
it's none of them right so it depends on the country so let's go over them a little bit a
degree oftentimes is required also not always you can still find positions even
if you don't have a University degree if a degree is required though note that it
can be in any field so in some cases a degree in education or related field may
be preferred in education or in English it's definitely a huge plus if you have that but it is not a requirement so for
me I have a University degree in management business
um and that's also fine so usually when they say a degree is
required it doesn't matter in what field it is which is great then of course you
need to have English skills if you want to be an English teacher so English language proficiency of course native or
near native levels so as good as possible obviously as high as possible if you are a non-native English teacher
definitely get some English proficiency certification like an IELTS or a
Cambridge certificate or um what is the other one uh truffle right the big ones
one of those is a huge Plus or if you can get more of more than one uh that's
always a really good idea then of course you need to have an understanding
um and an ability to teach English grammar vocabulary pronunciation Reading
Writing listening speaking skills all of these things but the good thing is that you learn all of that when you take a
tefl or a tesol course so do not worry about that that comes with your Teflon
tesol course but you should obviously have that um so that's a huge Plus so talking
about Teflon tesol this is obviously any kind of teaching certification will be a huge plus and specifically for teaching
English abroad a tefl or a tesol certificate of at least 100 hours so
what does that mean on our website you're gonna notice that we have a lot of different course options like I
mentioned in the beginning and sometimes the courses varied with um study hours
so like I said it starts with 50 hours all the way to 550 hours now the
international minimum the international standard is 100 hours or 120 hours
that's why the 120 hour tefl course is the standard course that we offer and
many other tefl course providers also offer so you should get at least that one
everything under that um is not really uh good enough high enough for teaching English now a lot of
people also have for example a teaching license from their own country they're already teachers in their own country
but um you will still need in many cases the Teflon tesol certificate on top of that
because tefl tesol is just specifically for teaching English as a foreign
language um so only a teaching license is not enough but it's of course a huge plus
because you're already a teacher and you taught you have experience you have a teaching license so that's really really
great but you still want to get a tefl or a tesol certificate on top of that
then again you want to have teaching skills and again this is something that you will learn in your tefl or tesol
course so knowledge of teaching methods and materials appropriate for different
age groups and levels of English proficiency right and this this is something you will learn in your tefl
course so yep and then other skills mentioned here cultural sensitivity and
adaptability especially adaptability and we talked about this before but just to
kind of reiterate uh a lot of employers you know when they hire a foreign teacher from
abroad is very expensive so the last thing that they want to happen is
um that you come and you it's too much for you you have culture shock and you
leave so this is why they want to make sure you are adaptable so if you have any kind of Prior travel experience
living abroad experience anything um that would be hugely beneficial and
just show them that you're not going to leave and have culture shock and yeah
lose the money basically um and also you should have strong communication and interpersonal skills
of course if you work with colleagues and students that's always a important
skill to have so these are just the general requirements for teaching English as a foreign language that we
see a lot abroad um again you're not going to find all of
them always all together there's also teaching positions where you can teach
without a degree for example without a tefl without this without that but
usually we see these requirements um
so okay I think that's all about the requirements just so we are on the same
page you know I want to go over these uh really basic things because we also have some new viewers today
um and then let's also quickly talk about so we understand everything the types of schools that you might work for
when you teach English as a foreign language abroad and here are six different excuse me six different um
scenarios that might happen usually so we have the private language schools and
they offer English language instruction to Children teenagers and adults so
private language schools you might be teaching children you might teach teenagers and you might teach adults
there and so you usually have regular classes you might also have intensive
courses that do not follow the public school curriculum or you might also have
one to one lessons so these are private language schools they also come
um they they are very common in in in in countries around the world
and then the second one would be Public Schools also very common so usually you
would choose between private school or public school those are the two most common ones Public Schools
um depends on the country if they hire foreign teachers into public schools so in some countries they do that and the
requirements for these positions they again vary from country to Country so
some of them only hire native English speakers for example some countries will
have special programs where they Place teachers into public schools for example
in Korea that is the Epic program then in Japan it's the Jets program
in France it's the tapiff program so there are a lot of different programs
like that that place teachers into public schools predominantly and again private and public schools are the two
most common School types but we also have international school positions a
lot um and they typically offer education in English solely in English and they
follow a curriculum that is similar to schools in Western countries so you might find an international school that
follows a British curriculum or an American curriculum um things like that and these schools
they may require teachers to have a teaching certificate and experience so
some of them they only want people who have an actual teaching license from their country some are fine with the
tefler T Cell certificate um others they only hire people with experience so usually international
schools their requirements are a little bit higher than private and public schools
then we also have universities and colleges and here you offer English
language courses obviously to students um and in a academic setting right so
that can also happen these positions are not that many compared to private and
public schools but the um university positions usually pay
better and you have a lot more vacation but also they're a little bit
harder to get in some universities even want a master's degree
um for their professors teachers so it really depends but
if you are I know from Korea if you like want to be in a university a university instructor in Seoul or in like a big
city they want a master degree or like at a very popular University a
well-known University but if it's a smaller city um a smaller University they will also
be okay with a bachelor's degree but you will need a degree minimum
minimum bachelor's degree for universities and colleges and then we also have corporate try
to hire English teachers to provide language instruction to employers these positions may require a teaching
certification and experience in business or corporate carpet training and this is
something we see a lot in Latin American countries so very very popular in Mexico
this kind of situation because of the closed business relationships to America
so that's why in Mexico and in other Latin American countries this model is
very common that you would actually work for a company and then obviously you would teach adults
and then the last option listed here is online teaching obviously and it's it
online teaching has become so popular in recent years and many English English teachers Now teach and work remotely so
you can do this from your home from anywhere in the world and you can teach students English from anywhere in the
world which is really really great and I also started teaching English online during the pandemic and I have a lot of
students from Japan actually which is great um because the platform that I work on
teach on is predominantly uh Japanese but you can meet people from so many
different countries it's really really exciting um and yeah you can do this from your
home so yeah I love I really love teaching English online before the
pandemic I was not really interested in teaching English online but then I tried it out because of the pandemic and
because some uh in-person classes finished right they stopped because of
the pandemic so I was like okay I'm just gonna try online teaching why not and now I still do it I love it it's so much
fun so flexible too so these are the six main types of
schools or places that you can work for as an English teacher abroad there might
be more but these are the six most common and again out of these six the two most common are private language
schools and public schools all right on on of course online teaching you can find positions there as
well okay uh don't forget if you have any
questions throughout this live session just leave a comment let me know and I'll check in with you guys okay
then really quickly how to find jobs so now we we went over these types of
schools but how do you actually find a job a position for teaching English abroad
and these are six really great resources so we have Dave's ESL Cafe which is
really one of the number one ESL efl uh teaching English abroad sites for jobs
so this one's a really good one then also indeed and Linkedin we all know these from other regular jobs
non-teaching jobs as well so those also especially LinkedIn I'm really surprised
I don't use indeed that much but LinkedIn you can definitely find English teaching positions nowadays as well and
even remote so also online positions so look at that and then we have the ESL job feed and we
have uh go overseas which is also another really great platform and go overseas is also great if you're just
looking for internship kind of things so more short-term kind of things as well they have that too and then of course we
have to mention our own job resource right we have the ITT job section so
like I mentioned before when you go to tefl course.net you see in the header menu
where it says home about ITT courses and then it says jobs and so you can click
on that and you can see all the available jobs and also we have an
internal database so this is only for people who complete a course with us who
get access to unadvertised jobs and also to our recruitment partners and other
schools uh network of schools and recruitment recruiters and other
employers that we work with so this is internally but the ITT job section on
our website is accessible for everybody okay
all right good fun stuff and then let's have a look at the living and working
conditions for teaching English abroad and after this uh after we covered that
we kind of summarize everything with the do's and don'ts what to do and what not to do when teaching English abroad but
we need to know a little bit about the living and working conditions in different countries when teaching
English abroad first okay so here you want to consider kind of
four different aspects so when you do tefl abroad teaching English abroad you
want to consider obviously your celery right the salary for teaching English abroad is not the same everywhere so is
the cost of living it's not the same everywhere there are expensive places to live and there are very low uh cost of
living places to live then of course the cultural differences every country has a different culture
has a different um yeah cultural differences from each other so consider that and also the work
load so the type of work uh for the different schools the different in the
different countries so let's have a look at the cost of living situation
so what you need to know what you need to consider here is that the cost of living can vary significantly from
country to Country right so you need to consider housing you need to consider Transportation food and other expenses
to determine how much you need to earn to live comfortably and this is kind of
something we also talked about last week with paying what was it saving money and
paying off loans when teaching English abroad we also talked about this so some
just for perspective some High Cost of Living would be in Europe
um places like Paris Rome London of course like the big European Capital
Cities very expensive to live there but yet so many people really want to go there but then to teach right and then
you arrive there um and you're like oh my God this is too expensive to live and you kind of regret
your decision Maybe Maybe um North America obviously also very
expensive to live and then we have East Asia and East Asia has a little star so
with East Asia places like Seoul and Tokyo are expensive to live however
you actually when you teach English in Korea when you teach English in Japan
um I think Japan less so but definitely in Korea what you get is you actually get
um usually paid housing so you don't have to pay rent so that's why yes the
cost of living might be higher food things uh grocery uh groceries are more
expensive usually in uh Korea and Japan but
um you're not going to pay rent so uh then it's uh not really a problem with cost of living
low-cost living places of course we have southeast Asia Latin America so places
like Vietnam Thailand or Ecuador Peru they're very low cost of living there however what you need to know for Latin
America salaries are not very good southeast Asia salaries are better but
um still not the highest in the world and we're going to talk about celery I believe next
but I think one more thing hold on there's one more thing I wanted to mention about this oh no okay
oh I actually wait I wanted to put this in there I forgot to put this in here but um there is what is it called cult
yeah
yeah I wanted to show you this so I'm going to share my screen real quick and I showed this last week as well
um but it's just so so useful so I want to share this with you guys so this is
numbo.com so n-u-m-b-e-o.com and they have a cost of
living calculator so if you're like interested in teaching
English for example you are from let's say we are from San Diego California
okay yeah and we want to compare how do we compare again so this is the cost of
living in San Diego you see a lot of different things utilities you see Transportation
groceries how much of stuff how much is a meal um
and so yeah compare we live in San Diego but we want to move to Seoul for example
so we put Seoul South Korea and then it compares the two we're not going to log in you don't have to log in
and we set the currency back to USD here we go and then it kind of
compares the cost of living between Seoul and San Diego so you can kind of figure out here are
the biggest differences and then again kind of for comparison so a meal at an inexpensive restaurant is almost seven
dollars in Seoul but in San Diego it's 20 so that's a very big difference
um what else we have a Coke and salt is a dollar fifty but in San Diego it'd be
2.68 for example and so you can do this and figure out
the differences in cost of living between the place where you live currently and where you want to go to
and you can kind of see oh these things are more expensive these things are less expensive so it's very interesting to
just have a look here so I really recommend the site again this is numb Bo
.com and you can check the cost of living
okay then let's go back I wanted to put this
in here but I forgot so this is a very useful thing for cost of living what you should consider and then also what we
need to consider when figuring out if this is a good place to live salary ranges and here I have it organized by
three different places so one has high earning potential then we have medium
earning potential and low earning potential so high earning potential here you can make anywhere between two
thousand and five thousand or more US dollars per month and this is in places
like the Middle East um East Asia so China Korea Japan Taiwan
these are the areas with the highest earning potential
the highest salaries for tefl teachers and here also housing airfare and health
insurance is oftentimes included as a bonus so you don't have to pay for housing you don't have to pay for
flights you don't have to worry about health insurance it's all included so this makes these areas really really
good if you are looking to earn the most money medium earning potential here you
can make anywhere from 800 to 1 500 US dollars a month and this includes places
like Thailand Mexico Spain for example and here housing airfare and health
insurance is sometimes included sometimes might only be one of those included so either housing or airfare
but maybe not both it depends and then we have the low earning potential places here you can make
anywhere from 500 to 1 000 US dollars a month and this is Latin America and
certain European countries and here you will get no benefits so this is what you
need to know before you move where are the um the where can you earn how much
money basically so and what is included all right nice and now good to know also
about the workload and the cultural differences so in terms of workload English teachers may have different
workloads depending on the country and institution so some schools may require more classroom hours or lesson planning
time than others so that's why it's very important during your job interview
stage that you ask your employer your potential employer if they provide you
with the curriculum with all the materials or if there is a lot of lesson planning involved and then you can kind
of gauge okay for this amount of work this salary is appropriate or not appropriate so it just depends on the
school so sometimes the schools they really want their English teachers to plan out everything the whole year you
need to plan everything but some other schools they will actually have their own curriculum and all of the materials
already done and provide them just to you and you don't have to do any lesson planning so it depends
then cultural differences of course the culture in the country you are considering May differ significantly
from your own country so prepare to adapt to new Customs social Mourns and
communication Styles so this is definitely also true but again this is something if you follow already people
like on tick tock on Instagram on YouTube you watch videos of teachers who are teaching in the country where you
want to go to you really learn a lot about that um what are some cultural differences and then you can already
you can already know what to expect and you don't have that much culture shock ideally but it's still going to happen
and just good to know and something to keep in mind I hope that makes sense and I think now
we are really jumping into the complete do's and don'ts and I picked out some of
the most important ones from kind of what we talked about today all right and what I want you to do is
keep that in mind take it with kind of a grain of salt also this is from my experience and people that I've talked
to of course you're teaching abroad experience can be different than my teaching abroad experience right so it
can be different for everybody however um also if you want to add something from your
own experience a do or don't let me know in the comments okay and we have somebody new joining so amitaba hi I'm
doing well how are you doing amitaba and we have parkash hi parkash good to see
you okay so let's start with the dues
and I think if you if you remember anything from what I said today it is do
your research right do your research research the culture the customs and
laws of the country you are consider you are considering before you go okay very
important might be very different from where you're from so do as much research as
you can like I said jump on YouTube on tick tock on Instagram find people who
are currently teaching where you want to go and listen to their stories how's their experience uh what what what are
some things that they found interesting or had a culture shock about or what they found really awesome and they share
about it so just do your research as much as possible then second one also do learn the
language if you can learn the language familiarize yourself with the local language as much as possible to help you
communicate and navigate daily life so even you can even start before you go if
you know oh I'm gonna go to Korea next year sign up for an online class they're not
expensive you can do this online pre-ply for example or even Duolingo for free you know learn a little bit learn how to
say Hello Goodbye please thank you that really goes a long way how to take a taxi all of these things it's just gonna
make your life a lot easier and connect you to the local people even better you
can make a really good impression first impression um also with your potential boss maybe I
remember from my boss my um the the private Language School owner where I
worked here in Korea in my first year he didn't even speak English so he was just the owner but uh he had basically a
manager who spoke English and Korean and he would communicate between the owner and the
teachers but the owner did not speak any English so if you know if you want to make a good impression you know you can
use their own language and speak with um the owner or the other foreign the
other local teachers so it's really going to help you and it's obviously going to help you in your daily life as
well so that's a big deal do like we said just now consider the
cost of living and so you can jump onto num Bo that website that I showed you guys and kind of compare the cost of
living where you live right now and where you want to go to to kind of get an idea so consider the cost of living
uh in the country you are considering uh in the country you're considering and
how it compares to your salary as an English teacher so also that right so you can already figure out okay my
salary is this and then you jump on you do your research about the cost of living okay so I have about this and
this much maybe left every month that I can save or then I can pay off debt or
then I can travel so you can already know this do your research and just consider that cost of living or if
you're like oh my God the cost of living is so high maybe I shouldn't go to this place before you make a wrong decision
and then last Point here do Embrace The Experience that's very important most
important thing so embrace the opportunity to learn about new cultures and ways of life while teaching English
abroad and enjoy the experience to the fullest okay I have seen many people
well not that many people luckily but I've seen some people come here
to Korea specifically because I'm I live here um and
they just didn't accept the experience um so there was this one person and they
would just always be in their room after work always go to their room to their
apartment stay watch Netflix on the weekend not go out Skype with family back home or you know
order food uh make their own food they just wouldn't leave the room
they wouldn't do anything they would just stay back there watch Netflix they wouldn't really travel they wouldn't
really go to any festivals they wouldn't really go any any place else than work in their apartment and watch Netflix and
order pizza basically so you can do the same thing back home why
are you moving abroad when you're gonna do that I do not understand okay
that I feel like that's a waste of everybody's time then you're taking the opportunity from somebody who really
wants to be here and who really wants to embrace local culture you're taking that away from somebody else you could have
done that at home my personal opinion but I do not get it so
and it's just a waste a waste of her time and everybody's time right so embrace it you might really like it you
might learn something new you might see something different so just embrace the experience do not just hang out in your
apartment of course we all have days where we don't want to go out and do anything of course but don't make this a
habit and do it every single day and every weekend all right Brent over
now we're gonna look at don'ts so don't and this ties in perfectly
don't expect the same right so assume don't assume that all countries offer
the same standards of living and working conditions so be sure to do your research beforehand also concerning laws
and things like that so but this also this is what makes this experience fun right because we're not
all the same not all the countries are the same but also I get a lot of people coming for example again to Korea or to
China where I lived before and they're like oh my God why are you doing it like this uh oh back home we're doing it like
this it's like yeah good but this is not back home this is
China or this is Korea so yeah you don't maybe need to make a
comment about all the things that they're doing wrong in your opinion they're just doing it different doesn't
mean that that's bad it works for them and you are a guest in this country so appreciate it appreciate being here
um so don't expect it to be the same as back home
all right then next Point here don't underestimate networking this is really really good
especially for first-time teachers so your first year for many actually the
first year abroad is not the perfect year um because you're totally new you don't
know you know the location you don't know the schools so maybe you're you end up working for a school that you don't
really like uh because you didn't know better you you end up being in a place you don't really like because you didn't
know better so networking and building relationships with locals and with other expats can
really be super important and lead to other New Opportunities so again don't
just sit in your apartment go out make new friends talk with other people and a lot of times you will find that for
example somebody else is leaving and they work at this really amazing school and they would tell their friends first
so maybe they're leaving and then they're like hey do you want to take over my position at that school or at
this amazing University and you can really move up that way so
um yeah a lot of times really through word of mouth and networking I found a lot of positions even like one-on-one
tutoring gigs somebody's like oh somebody asked me if I wanted to teach their kid but I don't have time do you
want to do it so a lot of times it works like this so don't underestimate networking you can really find a lot of
cool opportunities when you go out and engage with people
then also don't make assumptions so never make assumptions about your
students background knowledge or abilities every student is unique and
it's important to approach each one with an open mind and a willingness to adapt your teaching style to meet their needs
this is also very important especially as a new teacher so you quickly learn
you know not every student is the same they're all different they all have different needs
um and don't just assume they're all the same especially new teachers I think we're
just gonna assume oh they all oh Korean students are like this Chinese students are like this don't make assumptions
they're all different they're not all the same they all have different needs and different strengths and weaknesses
and you're gonna figure it out and then the last Point here very very important don't forget your health and
this is physical health and mental health everything take care of your
physical and mental health while you are abroad and always seek support if you need it a lot of times because of
culture shock because of language barriers and all of these things a lot of people kind of isolate and this was
especially the case during covid when somebody came we also had a lot of international students come to Korea and
they only had online classes that so they didn't really go out they didn't really socialize and they were just kind
of in their own bubble and isolated so don't forget your health and take part in
activities there there are gyms everywhere you can or just go for a walk just make sure you don't forget your own
health you know travel talk to people um also for your mental health there
will be a lot of support groups you can find people on Facebook um also English speaking English
language groups that offer support um figure out you know things uh
like support hotline support institutions in the country where you want to go to so you know who to call
um maybe also what I do always register with your look with with your Embassy in
that country that they know you are here and in an emergency they will contact
you so sometimes when there's like natural like we get typhoons sometimes in Korea if they're really strong we get
emails from the American Embassy from the German Embassy when there's some things going on so that you know kind of
where to turn to if there is an emergency um
so yeah I think these are the most important do's and don'ts for teaching English abroad I hope
um there's something that you kind of took away from that today something for yourself something you learned and you
are you yeah I I thought I I hope that was helpful to
you guys today um if there's a do or a don't that you want to add let me know in the comments
if there's something oh Linda you forgot this important point or that important Point let me know
so yeah because we again we all have different experiences and so I made
these do's and don'ts kind of from my experience and from the people that I spoke to what they tell me but maybe
your experience is different and you're like oh actually you should really keep that in mind that one point that's so
important that was really important to me so if that's the case let me know in the comments if there's something you
would like to add and if not we are in the Q a session
right now which means you can ask me your questions also again if you want to
add something to what we just talked about or if there was something that was not clear from today's session let me
know and again we have this 30 off so you can scan this QR code or I'm gonna
share the link with you again you can save 30 from your tefl course with ITT
so tefl or tesol chorus 30 off okay if you're not get certified
and you really want to get certified this is a great opportunity you could save a lot of money
all right and then I'm gonna make myself bigger again so you can you can see me here hi
um so yeah I think I really hope that was helpful if you are trying to uh teach English
abroad this year um so yeah all right Amit has a question thank you
Amit I know Spanish a little bit so is it a good idea to move to Latin America for teaching English
sure why not and I mean you're lucky because Spanish is spoken in so many
different countries around the world so that will definitely help right but don't just move there because oh because
I know Spanish I actually want to move to China but I don't know Chinese so I want to move to so I'm going to move to
Latin America don't do that right um move somewhere where you're interested in moving to right of course
if you already know Spanish and you are interested in Latin America then that's really really great that's really going
to help you so go for it I think that's great
Jacqueline says hi Linda I know many schools countries have an age limit for teachers do you know of this applies to
business teaching also yeah so sometimes with the age limit what that means is
um it usually has to do has to do with the local retirement age okay so we have
some countries where in China the local retirement age is 60 years old for men
and 55 for women as far as I'm aware of and Korea is
um I believe 65. if I'm not mistaken
I would need to check that out but um so this is why they have age limits not
because they hate older people but because of the retirement age right so
you would have to research what is the retirement age in that specific country but what I will tell you
there is a bit of prejudice towards older people when it comes to teaching especially very young children so
kindergarten or elementary school because a lot of teachers are like like
private school people they think uh older teachers don't have that much energy and they need to keep up with the
little kids and that will be hard so sometimes we see that that those types of schools want to hire younger teachers
more but because you are talking about business teaching so actually for
teaching adults and teaching business English they prefer hiring older teachers so I think
I don't know how old you are um but if you're under 60 you're okay
most of the time so definitely for teaching business English
older is sometimes better yeah for business
because your students are going to be usually older too so yep that's great
then we have oh parkash how to deal with undisciplined or rude
students in the class what about your experience in this regard a very very uh interesting
so a lot of times depending on where you are teaching if you are teaching in Asia actually a lot of times you will have a
um local teacher with you in the classroom so there would be an English
teacher you and then a local Korean teacher Chinese teacher also so a lot of
times they will actually take care of disciplining the students so they would take them out and talk to them and yell
at them in in the local language um but also how to deal with
undisciplined or rude students you will actually also learn this in your tefl course little techniques you can do so
what I really like to do I usually like to use a um uh uh a uh uh what is it
called like a reward system there we go a reward system right so I really like using
stickers so my students could have like sticker boards and whenever they do something good you give them a sticker
now at the same time if they do something bad you can remove stickers you can take stickers away from them and
they don't want their stickers taken away so that usually works really well with a reward system
okay but you're gonna learn little techniques and stuff in your tefl tesol course
and Amit says I'm in love with Latin American countries and the language as well well there you go that sounds like
you have found your destination then for teaching English and you also say I have
a master's degree in chemistry and a tesol certificate I have been teaching English online for two years now I
taught a lot of students from Thailand Vietnam Philippines China Indonesia and India sounds like you are good to go
definitely you have experience you have a tesol you have a master's degree you
have a teaching experience so I think apply apply apply apply
however for Latin America a lot of people actually want to interview in person they want to interview in person so you
might have to go down there and we actually spoke about Peak hiring seasons
Maybe a few lives ago that was not that long ago and so watch that live session about
Peak hiring seasons and then you can go down to Latin
America during those Peak hiring seasons and interview in person I would
recommend that okay Jacqueline's is under 60 yet okay
yeah um you know just same for a meat apply apply apply apply an interview and apply
an interview some more um for business English I think you you
you will be good uh but for like I said teaching children a lot of schools prefer hiring younger
teachers but again this is just Prejudice and if you are super energetic and you show them you know
uh how much energy you have I guess uh you will be fine don't get discouraged I
met a lot of older teachers in my time in Korea and in China as well so don't
worry all right good stuff all right anybody else has more questions let me know
oh kasara I can't see your comments it's empty so maybe
maybe try again sorry about that
okay all right I'm gonna take maybe one or two more questions so send me your
questions and then I'll try my best to get back to you and answer it
um okay Amit says how about teaching English in Colombia great well I have
never taught English in Colombia so I can't speak from my own experience however Colombia
is from what I've heard it really emerging teaching market so they
apparently are putting a lot of money into English education there are a lot of there's a lot of demand for English
teachers in Colombia from what I've heard so I think this would be a really really good destination
go for it from what I've heard here in my in our ESL industry
yeah Colombia is a really good place with high demand for English
language teachers at the moment so good choice
because Sarah says how can I apply how can I apply for Tesla course or a job or
what exactly do you want to apply for Amit says thanks a lot yeah you're
welcome all right Jacqueline says thank you again Linda very informative good night
from Wisconsin USA good night thanks so much for staying up that late I don't know how late it is but I think it's
quite late so thank you so much Jacqueline have a good night see you
next time bye oh great Amit says I already applied for
teaching positions in Bogota Colombia nice good well I I keep my fingers
crossed for you I hope you hear back and you have a good um interview time
okay Parker says are there any opportunities to teach in the USA yeah there are always opportunities to teach
English in America um however it is a little bit difficult because of Visa things
um so they like to hire people who already have paperwork who have a work
permit who have yeah who can live and work there so a little bit tricky if you're not from
America if you don't have a green card a work permit a passport but I have a
friend who she is American and she is teaching basically
um English to uh kids whose first language is not
English in America so there are positions like that as well yep
okay nice thank you guys so much for your questions let's take one more and then I
have to say goodbye but I really appreciate all of you guys questions I hope I can answer them of
course I don't know everything um but I'm trying my best and also let
me share this so if you have any questions for more details
um always email us also courses at tesolminist tefl.com and my colleagues
there can also answer a lot of questions so that's always a great way to
get information as well okay
last question who will be the last question today
last final question Who's Gonna Take It
or maybe everybody's happy and we just say goodbye now
hmm just don't forget
um to use this discount code if you are really thinking about getting tefl certified
this year use our 30 off link you know do not pay
full price use this link 30 off it's gonna save you a lot of money
um I will be back again next week so don't worry about that I will be here and we are doing a q a the whole session
right because it will be the first live session of the new month so that time we
always do a full hour or 45 minutes of only q a so you can ask me your
questions then as well and so yep I think we are done then no
more questions today I think everybody's happy I'm happy and I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend
um have a good night have a wonderful day wherever you are and just have a great weekend and I hope to see you all
again next week with a q a live session so note down your questions what you
want to know what you're curious about and I'll try my best to answer them and then yeah I'm gonna say goodbye and
thank you so much for joining me today I hope you learned something I hope it was uh informative
and then I hope to see you all again next time thank you guys so much have a
great weekend bye
