07/15/2021
hello hi welcome to another live session from itt
my name is linda um yeah welcome back this week
if you've noticed last week our live or my life was actually on a different day different time um if you've seen it it
was really really interesting i had some really really interesting guests two
sisters from australia who are currently teaching in japan under the jet program and we had a
lovely chat it was really fun so if you have not seen that i highly recommend checking it out if you're interested in teaching
abroad uh teaching in japan if you're from australia check it out two really lovely girls it
was so much fun talking about what it's like to teach in japan and this week i have i'm here by myself
again and i have another um interesting topic for you that i've picked today we're gonna talk about
tefl um contracts so teaching contracts and what to watch out for before you sign the
contract to make sure it's all good and dandy okay um
guys as always if you can see me if you can hear me please just say hi in the comment section we're live on
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issues you never know so please just let me know that everything's good you can see me you can hear me you can
see the presentation here um just say hi and maybe where you're
watching from i'm always really interested in that i am in south korea i'm about an hour
and a half south of seoul in a city called chongju and it's 10 a.m on a friday here
um and yeah the weather is not too bad actually um so we'll see if it's holding up i
actually got a little ring light over here uh because one time actually i always go live
usually on friday 10 a.m and one time it was like end of the world weather out there everything just suddenly became super
dark and i was almost sitting in the dark because i'm in front of a window here and i felt really bad because you
couldn't really see me anymore so um i just got a ring light real quick i feel like a real
youtuber now i have a ring light so that's fun anyway um please say hi real quick in
the comments i'd really appreciate it so that i know that someone's out there watching um and it works
well but yeah and then just a couple of more seconds and we'll wait for more people
to join and then we can um start
hi juliana hey juliana says hi linda nice to see you again this week i'm watching from illinois it is 8 p.m
now great awesome very very good um as a reminder real
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so that you don't miss any of our future live sessions we go live twice a week one time me and then one time my
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really great information so if you're non-native english speaker even if you're a native english speaker
i highly recommend checking her out um and yeah we might switch
in the future with some times so just so that everybody um has the
opportunity to watch our live sessions so normally i go live at this time but next week is probably
going to be a different time maybe also a different day just so that we can reach as many people as
possible because there's always going to be some people who are not going to be able to watch because it's like night time where they
are so we just want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to tune in and get this information
um also there is a 30 discount during this live session
so you might have noticed the qr code up there in the right hand corner you
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hello fares hello from egypt thank you great awesome
so yeah as you can see today's topic is all about tefl contracts and what to
watch out before signing um you know what you should look out for um some of the things you probably
already know some of the things you might not know um it's sort of gonna be a checklist of
things and at the end i'm going to put the checklist on the screen and i might also share the checklist in
the comments for you to save and to use later on i think that'd be really useful
so that you have that and you can just later when you need it you can just make sure that you um use it and you check all the
items off your list for your contract so that's what we're gonna do today
i hope you're ready i hope you're happy hello henna hi
how are you also in south korea awesome thanks so much for joining great all
right so let's jump right in i'm going to make myself a little bit smaller here like this
and then i'm just gonna do a real quick self introduction i know some of you have already seen this like every single time but there's
also some new people that i would like to just say hello to and we have tri here from cambodia hi
how are you thanks for tuning in so my name is linda and um i'm a travel writer and content
creator under my name linda goes east east because i've basically been in asia
since 2012 i've lived in china and south korea
and traveled all over asia pretty much i haven't been to cambodia yet that's actually on my list i hope i'll be able to go next year if
everything works out but we'll see um but yeah you can find my own stuff
basically at lindagose.com it's a travel blog platform and also
information about teaching abroad so if that interests you check it out also on my instagram i'm very active on
there also at linda goes east you can hit me up you can also message me i'd be happy to have a chat with you
on there i'm originally from germany at the u.s my mom is german my dad is american
and i've been based in south korea for the last six years already i'm also a teflon tesol marketing
professional at itt that stands for international tefl and t
cell training you can find itt at
www.teflcourse.net and on instagram at international tefl training and obviously on youtube
i know some of you are watching from youtube and also on facebook where also some of you are watching
so um check that out all of our other social medias
iitt is a leading teflon tesol course provider worldwide we have a different a huge
variety of different courses different also specialized courses standard teflor tesol courses
all that good stuff so do check that out and we also always turn our live
sessions into podcast episodes so we have a podcast it's called the tefl and tesol podcast by itt you can find
that on all major podcast platforms like itunes spotify apple puck google podcast um
stitcher i think um all of those podcast platforms you can find it there
and then you can just listen to it i know that maybe some of you don't have time to watch the whole session or every live
session so if you prefer audio only the podcast might be a really good option for you as well
um and that's about it yeah let me just take one sip of my coffee
this room where i'm in there is no air conditioning and it's really hot in korea right now so i have my fan behind
me so if that kind of messes up the audio i really apologize but um i need this
fan or i think i'm gonna have like a heat stroke or something
and i need to hydrate so please don't get mad at me if i drink a lot during this live session but
um that's just what needs to happen okay all right hello tasha
hi thanks for joining today awesome good so now that's that the introduction
now we're going to jump into um the nitty gritty of tefl and tesol contracts teaching
contracts what to watch out for before signing so i'm going to go through a lot of
important things um that you need to watch out for and i'm gonna show you real contract
examples and how um the stuff is written in the contract and how you can find it and
what to watch out for with examples i think that's gonna make the most sense um
and is the most useful and like i said at the end i'm gonna have a whole checklist of all of the things that i
talked about that you can save or you know screenshot or i think i'm also gonna share it in the comments
later as like a pdf um so you can just print that out or save that for you
for when you need it when you are going to sign a contract all right um maybe the first thing
that i want to talk about before um yeah just a disclaimer
uh obviously these are contracts not from itt that i'm going to show you the examples
they're just uh samples that i found online um and also
just never um accept a job without a contract right i think that goes without
saying so even if you're already in the country um or no matter where you
are no matter where you go never just start a job without signing a
contract that's just a very bad idea it's also illegal so you can get into trouble in the worst
case you could get deported from the country there's fines there's all these other things so and also for you personally
because you need to have a binding contract as proof um you know that states your salary working
hours and all those things so that your employer can't take advantage of you so never accept a job without
a contract hello super pong hi thanks for joining
gets you from thailand awesome all right so the first one
that we're going to talk about today is the contract written in english and easy to understand so that's the
first thing that you need to make sure of and here's an example and it might be a little small depending on if you're
watching this full screen or how are you watching this but basically this is a contract um for
school in china so you can see there's chinese on it but there's also english so that's the first thing
if they give you a contract that's only in chinese or only in their language um that's a bad thing right because you
can't read it so don't sign a contract if it's not in english and you don't understand it
right so that's the very first thing and then also very important you know do the translations of both languages make
sense do they match um is it the same content right um because a lot of times for
example if you sign a contract like this one for china for example it's chinese and
then english so if there's any issue only pretty much the chinese
version would count um because it's china and
likely people don't really speak english there um and like from a legal standpoint the chinese text
is what's valid and so that's gonna count if you have any legal issues so you need to make sure that the
chinese version or the native language version also matches the english version right
and so how can you do that if you don't speak chinese or if you don't speak korean or whatever um if you look for the job
through a recruiter you can ask your recruiter to have a look over the contract and make sure that it's good
um you can also if you know somebody obviously you can speak the language you can ask a friend
family member to have a look over it um you could also in the most simplest
and easiest case you could just uh you know take a picture of it and like google translate it and just make sure
it's you know the same um or you could always pay somebody to have a look at it you
know translate it and make sure but um those are just some ideas
how you can do that so yeah i think that's about it for the
first point thinking i feel like i forgot something um let me just think about it for a
second
yeah i think that's it though so just to remember if they only give you a
contract and it's not in english at all there's no english do not sign it um and just read through
always read through the whole contract um in general right before signing anything
um but that's the first thing that you want to make sure look at the contract is it in english or
is it only in the native language of the country and do the translations make sense right so try and verify oh
one other way you could do that is by like going in either a facebook group there's a lot of
facebook groups for like efl teachers in china if all teachers in korea and whatnot and
you could upload or you can find someone there to maybe have a look at the contract
or you can upload your contract obviously you would black out any sensitive information like the school
name your own name and like personal information black that out but you could upload that
and you know ask people about advice and if they think this is a legit contract
so that's another thing good
next up what we need to look at in the contract is the name of the school the same as
the one you were told during interviews and has it been spelled correctly so that's also very important
so for example this contract right here as you can see they have logo usually um school
contracts they would have a logo at the top if it's like a big chain school
or even a smaller school they would have their own logo and so that should be on the contract um
and so is that the same as you know the school that you interviewed with is that the same name is it spelled the same way um
you know a lot of different countries have like um not the same copyright
uh laws like we have maybe in your country so there can be a lot of
like knock off schools especially like if it's a super famous big like school chain that has a
certain name for example abc college and then there could be knockoffs like
um you know abe college or something or abc
um college but spelled with an a or something like that so there's a lot
of like knockoffs um and they can't really do anything about it because of their copyright laws they're not the same
so just make sure that the name is the same as the school that you interviewed with and
then also does the logo match is the logo the same you know check out if they have a website make
sure that is the same name the same logo and also like typically it'd be like
here obviously at the top the header would have the logo and like the name and then also it should be mentioned
again in the text so usually the first paragraph where it says this is a contract between
then there be your your name um and abc college and the name and also
the address of the school so the address should also be stated in the contract
yeah that's it for that part i believe so yeah make sure
very important i know these these are very simple things and uh you're probably like why are you
saying this this is like super there's like common sense but like i feel like if you get the contract and
then you're like so excited i've heard this from so many teachers they get a contract
you know they're just so excited to go abroad and they just sign they just sign it without even you know
paying too much attention to it um a lot of teachers they just pay the
first contract that they get because they they're so eager to go abroad and i get it you know it's super exciting you want
to go abroad you want to go to china you want to go to thailand wherever um but it's really important that you
take your time and review the contract so those are very simple things i know but it's it
matters and it's very important and i just wanna i have to say it i just have to say it
all right good next also very important so the school's
name and then also is your name and passport number on the contract and
are they correct are they spelled correct and that's very important because a lot of times um especially in a country like
china or korea or japan where they don't use the same writing system they have their
own writing systems right it's not the same letters like abc that we have in english so
there it's very important that your name is spelled correctly and that is for um visa purposes right because you need to
take this contract usually to the embassy of that country to then get your work visa so you need
to really a hundred percent make sure that your name is spelled correctly that it's also the same as it is in your
passport also the same order some countries they they do like last name first
and then um first name middle name or some countries they don't have any
middle names like in korea they don't really do middle names they might be confused like what what is
the second name so you need to make sure that it's really in the correct order and written on a contract and also your
passport number and your citizenship nationality is correct
so this is an example of a job contract in korea and here it clearly says
employment agreement uh so this agreement has been made on this day between um
[Music] this would be the school name so abc college for example
with its principal office at and then the address
and then or is this your name forget oh no
and here and this would be your name for example linda dunsmore is citizen
off and then they would write the country passport number and now you're going to feel like why is your passport number on
the contract but it's very important like i said for visa purposes so you
might think like this is weird why do they ask for my passport information why do they ask for my passport number
but it's very normal because they need to know that to prepare your documents for your visa
so that's not a red flag if they ask for your passport number and then typically there'd be a section
of personal information so your name and make sure you spell it like it is spelled in your passport
it's very important and the date of birth and here against citizenship so is your nationality indicated and is
it correct and is your passport number correct and like i said is your name
also spelled correctly there should not be any errors in there and also just the order of your name
should be correct okay are there any questions until here am i
confusing i don't think i am but um it's very basic stuff in the beginning
so um i just want to make sure everybody understands what i'm talking about and we're on the same page so just let me
know please
like i always say feel free during this live at any time to leave a comment
to ask a question i really like engaging and if i don't hear from any anyone for
a longer time i get kind of nervous i'm like do it make sense um or you know
i don't know but let me know
what you think and then i'm gonna move on
but yeah this is pretty much like a standard like beginning of a contract for pretty
much anywhere so this is korea but it's usually the same for any country
obviously and also sort of a disclaimer like every contract is kind of different
um they don't all look the same they're not all gonna look like this exactly but um pretty much they're
all kind of similar right thank you guys so nessman said we're good faras all
clear so far great thank you so much for your feedback i appreciate it
because you know sometimes it's just like me talking to my computer so it's like um you know is everything good on your
end so thank you for your feedback i appreciate that good so next one then
very very important good person said please continue we are listening everything you say is really important
thank you so much yes i appreciate that all right next one is is the salary the same as promised
to you in interviews and is it written down correctly so very important right your salary
so i'm going to show you an example um this is
also from yeah from a korean contract
so there's always like a joke for um teachers in korea because our salaries are millions
for example a monthly basic salary of 2.1 million won so in korea um you're a millionaire
basically but 2.1 million won um that's like
i think a little bit less than 2 000 us dollars so yeah but this is how it's indicated
so you want to have basically stated a monthly basic salary of 2.1 million
won so is the salary correct is it the same as what you discussed in the interview and
then there'd also usually be a little bit more detail so they calculate that what it's
a yearly what the yearly amount looks like and then how also how it will be paid
so and also the hour how it's calculated per hour and things like that
so that's very important and then also you need to make sure that overtime is overtime paid or not paid
is that stated in the contract it should be stated sometimes it's paid and then it should indicate like here
the overtime compensation per hour 60 minutes is 26 000 won
that's like 22 23 i believe so that should be stated
um if you get paid overtime it needs to be stated how much so this is correct here or maybe it says
overtime is not paid then it's not paid um just make sure it's what you've
discussed before if you if you're not if you have not discussed over time then you know it's just how it is
you might be you you can always ask write your employer about anything you're not sure of in a contract
it's better to ask more questions than to just sign and not be like 100 sure of what you're signing um
so important is an overtime rate stated sometimes there is not because overtime is not paid in some
schools um or there is no overtime but yeah that's very important
so yeah also i will say in some contracts it's not as detailed as here
um they would just say like monthly salary and also for for all the americans out there um
typically it's the salary is paid on a monthly basis not weekly or bi-weekly
so that's something to consider as well um once a month and that kind of also
varies from school to school they all usually do it on a different day sometimes it's like the first
of the month sometimes it's the 10th or the 15th it really depends on the school um
but that should also be stated in the contract when it is paid actually so um
[Music] it doesn't say it in this paragraph but probably later on
um and i think there i'm gonna talk about that as well in a little bit but yeah that's that
about the salary good all right next
up uh very important are the start and end date written down
correctly so start and end date of your employment right typically esl
contracts there um for one year or sometimes also two years so the date needs to be written down and
not only like the month but also really month and day exactly what day it starts
and when it ends so for example in this contract
this is this is also korea um it doesn't say doesn't matter it
doesn't matter where it is but here it would it should say it's somewhere like this
so period of employment from march 1st 2013 to february 28
2014 so that's a one-year contract so that's typically what it looks like and this is very important because
in a lot of countries you pay for example taxes and in korea you pay into the pension
scheme and when you leave you get the money back um not in all the countries and not
for everyone but in a lot of instances so it's very important for taxes for like any kind of benefits bonuses
severance pay so it's very important to have the exact date on the contract
um and then it should also it's also stated later on here in this paragraph as you can see it says the employee will
commence his or her employment on march 1st 2013 the employment will continue to february
28 2014 unless terminated sooner as provided here in and for such further
period as provided for herein subject to the following conditions
yeah and we're actually going to talk about this part in just a bit so is the start and end date written out
correctly and also one thing to note um the start date and the end date are not the same
as your arrival and departure date typically right you're going to arrive
earlier than the start date right if you start on march 1st you're probably already gonna arrive
in february maybe a week earlier or two weeks before it's kind of gonna
depend on that right it's it's obviously you're not gonna arrive and then start teaching right
away right typically so that's not gonna be your flight will be earlier than that
that's what i'm trying to say and also you're probably gonna be leaving later than that right your last
day is february 28th but maybe you're just changing schools you're staying longer maybe you will um
extend your contract uh but then you're gonna get a new contract um or you know you're gonna move to
different city things like that so just keep that in mind
all right got a comment here let's have a look at that from gordon having been teaching internationally for
some years now i can categorically say that not one contract i've had was followed by the school
don't expect your contract to be followed going to each with a very very open mind do as much do diligent do diligent as
you can read sites like isr yeah good point of course contracts you
know um should be followed by both parties but um sometimes yeah there might be an issue
you know it's not they don't follow it or you don't follow it 100 how it's written
um yeah that's it also depends on where you teach i feel like and what type of school
typically if you work for any one of those government-funded programs like epic
or the jet program they pretty much it's all how it is in the contract but private schools yeah they in a lot
of schools they are actually looking for loopholes right what they can do to just for their benefit so that's also very important
that you that's why it's very important that you need to read your contact contract through very thoroughly
so but yeah that's a good point thank you gordon all right good that's that about the
start and end date very important next point would be is everything with
regards to your package written down and the same as previously agreed upon
so what do you mean with by package package basically like your your benefits everything that goes
on top of your salary do you get housing do you get like a year of your end of contract
bonus a yearly bonus paid vacation day sick leave all of
these kinds of things are your package paid airfare maybe you get like a
housing allowance or you do get an apartment um provided to you free of charge so all of
those things those and this is very important right so um typically you will have discussed
this already during your interview so now it's your time to check if it's uh stated correctly in
the contract that's very important one of the most important things right because you will you want to get what they promised you right
so that's what we're gonna look at now obviously this always depends on you know
the different school different country so this is a contract actually a epic contract that i have
here korea um so with epic here housing stipulated
so it says the employer shall provide the employee with a single housing chosen by the employer etc etc
any and all fees charges cost taxes expenses etc incurred in using the
housing shall be borne by the employee so you do get free housing but you need to pay for utilities and all that kind
of stuff so that's important that you really read between the lines here read the nitty
gritty um to make sure it's all the same as what you expect and what you talked
about during the interview also any benefits should be stated for
example settlement allowance medical insurance things like that and again so this
varies from contract to contract there are some countries that don't give you any other benefits um
but in epic epic contract this is very standard this is what you get in an epic contract
and i believe also jet has a lot of this similar stuff in japan the jet program
but also private schools in korea most of them do have housing sometimes
it's um you can choose between housing where they give you an apartment or a housing
allowance where they basically give you some money per month for your apartment so if you don't want
to live in this apartment and you want to get your own you can get some a little bit of money
per month to um help with your apartment but that also obviously needs to be stipulated
and so that's why i put here check this very carefully um
some more examples like paid leave right how many vacation days do you get is that the same as what they
promised you in the interview also sick leave what does that look like
um and obviously if there's something that doesn't match up with what they told you before or
with or you don't you have questions you don't understand something always ask right always ask
um ask as much as you can before signing the contract and even like like what we talked about
before if it's all like always have someone read the contract
um like a family member a friend someone have them read the contract also and you know
give you feedback if it's a legit contract okay i think
that's all right also next part what you need to check in your contract
before signing are you work hours stipulated correctly
very important point because i feel like this is one of the sections where um the employer might
look for loopholes so the more detailed this is written down and stated in the contract the better
so this is another example from the epic um epic program in korea and their contract
so how it is stated here so article seven work hours it is very
clear um indicated here clearly indicated the employee shall work eight hours per day for five calendar
days per week from monday to friday
so oh oh what happened here
okay here we go um if this is not written down like this you know
imagine like if the five calendar days uh per week from monday to friday this
part is missing they could basically have you work on the weekends and whenever they want
um so that's just something to keep in mind and usually it doesn't say it here but in my i
remember from my contract it even states uh the times the exact times of the day
that you work so like what time you need to be there and until like when uh you can go home the times
of the day this is missing here because i guess it's just different um from school to school and like epic
because every epic operates for a lot of pretty much all of the public schools in
korea so they all might have different times so that's why it's not stated here but um
that should also be in there your exact like starting day and yeah
things like that one second here okay good and then also
uh your teaching hours very important so not only work hours but usually also teaching hours or working
days um should be indicated so employees class instruction hours
i don't know why it's doing that in place class instruction hours per week shall not
exceed 22 hours that's the teaching hours if you teach more than 22 hours
um you would get overtime pay that's also stated here
right so here uh if however the employee's actual weekly
class instruction hours exceed 22 hours due to supplementary class instruction
the employee shall be entitled to supplementary class instruction pay of 20 one power that's about
um eighteen eighteen thousand eight eighteen dollars or something like
that um yeah so overtimes clearly stated things like that right
um very important i think this part is one of the most important ones and this should be written down as
detailed as possible so like i said here um it clearly states eight hours per day
for five calendar days per week monday to friday typically oh and it also says and shall
not work on saturdays and sundays and also labor day and any national holidays of the public
republic of korea so that's also very important that it states that you do not work on public holidays
um but there can be english camps etc etc um and yeah there should be
also the hours of the day when you start and when you finish
and like this could also be different right monday might be different from tuesday from wednesday so
but it should be written down in the contract as well
good i hope i'm still making sense here yeah so this is an example of where they
have um the start time very good so here again this is from a different contract not
the epic program um so monday to friday uh
and here we have general hours of the institute are from 10 a.m
to 7 40 p.m and it also says free lunch provided and when your break is so from 1 30 p.m
to 3 p.m break and only classroom teaching in excess of 120 teaching hours per month
approved by the academic director is to be considered as overtime and then there's probably a clause about
overtime and how much overtime pay you get right so this is another great example with
the times stating when you start when you finish and also when your break time is
and then you get free lunch so all of these things are very important to check that they
are in there um in the contract right not saying that every school provides
free lunch but if that's something that they already told you before during the interview for example that
you will get free lunch and it's not in the contract then you need to let them know and they
can add that in right i mean contracts they can be revised many many times until everybody's happy um
right so yeah all right and then i think those are the
last three things um they all have to do with kind of termination and dismissal
so one thing is how to terminate the contract early and the panel penalties for doing so so
if you don't want to um stay for the whole year if you have problems or you like you need to you just don't want to finish the
contract how can you terminate and if you terminate early what penalties um
happen to you the offenses which may lead to your dismissal and contract
termination and how and also then also how to extend
the contract and any benefits for doing so so i'm going to show you some examples
of how it might be written in a contract um again this is the epic program
contract so it has article 9 a clear section about resignation so the employee shall perform the duties set
forth under article 3 here of during the oh this contract
is binding unless the employee gives 60 days written notice of termination
and this will obviously vary from contract to contract right sometimes it's 60 days sometimes could
be less 30 days it could be more also depends on the law
of the country that you're going to usually they have this in labor law written down um
so yeah um yeah and then also what happens so
failure of the employee to give 60 days written notice of termination to the main school um
[Music] leads to uh then you will be reported to the korean immigration service and
shall affect the employees ability to freely enter the republic of korea in the future so
as you can see this is a very serious thing if you don't do this properly you might
end up uh getting deported your visa might be canceled you might not be able to return to korea in the
future so this is something very serious um for yourself to know how to
uh properly you know give notice and terminate your contract early um so that you don't get into trouble
because that's that's annoying right we don't want that um unless you hate it so much that you
don't care if you can't come back um then i guess it doesn't matter um
so yeah another example here about renewal so how to go about to renew your
contract um and also the benefits of doing so very important usually there's a benefit
right if you renew either you get a higher salary or you get like a bonus or something like that
and here it also states in this epic contract that the renewal shall not exceed one
year so you can only renew for another year another year another year it can't be longer than that obviously this depends
um on the school varies from school to school this is what it's like in the epic program um and then
there is a contract renewal allowance of two million korean ones that's actually
really nice 1.3 korean one will be paid within one month
of the beginning of the new term and the remaining 700 000 korean won
to be dispersed after the successful completion of the contract that's really nice i didn't know that so
if you and two two million one is about just under 2 000 us dollars
um so that's really nice if you um sign up for another year in case of
the termination of the renewal contract within the first six months um the paid leave specified in the
foregoing clause shall be unpaid all right so just some things about renewal and termination
um here another contract about termination oh why the employer might
terminate you this is that part so obviously if you violate any laws of the country
here it's republic of korea for example um if you don't have a visa if
obviously they would kind of know before but maybe if your visa got cancelled or something if you don't have a visa if you don't
have the correct kind of visa for an english teacher you need to have an e-2 visa so if you have another
kind of visa it might be a reason and then also obviously if you fail to
perform your duties right um for more than five working days
without receiving prior consent so
and also any of the information provided in the employee's application is false or inaccurate so this also depends
obviously from school to school country to country but it's usually pretty much similar stuff
obviously if you fail to perform your duties if you violate the law things like that
then you might be terminated so yep just something for yourself to
know right um and those are two things i just want to mention two additional tips for you guys
what you can do before signing your contract so the first one is even after going
through the contract with the checklist that i just gave you get someone you trust to
read through it before you sign it so this could be your mom your dad an uncle a friend anyone a teacher a professor
have someone read it through and give you feedback on what they think if this is a good contract or not
and then also good to know you will likely this is likely um pretty much uh depends on the country
but pretty much you're probably going to have to sign two contracts one before you leave
so right after the interview when they tell you yes we want to hire you they probably send you a contract or
online you print it out you sign it and you send it back to them
that's what you will need to basically get your visa then to go to the country and then you
sign another one when you arrive typically on your first day like in person
together and that's important that you make sure that those two contracts are identical and that nothing has been
changed or if something has been changed um that you're aware of the change they would let you know oh we changed
this part are you okay with that um and then you say like yes or no
so be aware that you're probably gonna sign two contracts one uh before you leave and
one when you're there in the school in person together so make sure that those contracts are identical
and if anything has been changed they let you know right so don't just sign it like right
away maybe ask if you could take it home with you and read it through and bring it back the next day or
something like that that's totally reasonable okay
this is the checklist everything that we talked about i just want to review real quick for people who maybe were
here came here late so the first thing we talked about is is the contract written in english and easy
to understand and also if there is two languages if the translations make sense
um then is the name of the school the same as the one you were told during the
interviews and hasn't been spelled correctly is the logo the same is your name and
passport number on the contract and are they correct and also written in the correct order
is the salary the same as that promise to you in the interviews and is it written down correctly
um also it should always kind of a side note the salary should
probably always be stated in the currency of the that country where you're going to get it if they
write it down in like u.s dollars they're not going to pay you in u.s stock unless they pay you in your sales
but typically they would not they pay you in their currency right so if they write it down in u.s dollars it's kind of ambiguous
it can change like every month so it's better to have the salary always in
the currency of that country then it's always the same right um just another side note um then
are the start and end dates written down correctly and then disclaimer please note these
dates may not be the same as your arrival and leaving dates to china or to wherever you go
but they must be there nonetheless that next point go through the package
details carefully is everything with regards to your package so accommodation medical insurance bonuses etc
written down and the same as previously agreed upon are your work hours stipulated correctly
and as detailed as possible so you're working days monday to friday
but some teachers they also work like wednesday to sunday with monday tuesday
off that can also be the case um and your work hours you know how many teaching hours do you have
max if you exceed that do you get overtime pay how much is the overtime
pay um and also ideally uh the time of the time of the day
you start and when you finish are the following details with regards
to the contract stated how to terminate the contract early and the penalties for doing so
how to extend the contract and any benefits for doing so the offenses which may lead to your
dismissal and contract termination boom that's it that's the checklist
and i'm probably gonna have this um later in the comments on facebook
under this live as like a just image um so you can save that
for you so you can have it um for when you need it when you need to sign a contract
but after all of this are there any questions or any comments maybe something i didn't
mention or any questions now is the time
i'm just gonna leave this up real quick in case there is a question about one of the points please let me know
and then we can just move into the official q a section just let me know if there's any
question about this or if it's all good um or if you would like to add something
all right here we have good person thank you so much linda it is a wonderful resource not only for teachers
but also for anyone who wants to work abroad in any field that's true it doesn't apply only to teachers right
great thank you fares thanks linda and much appreciated thanks so much thank you guys
listen i am good okay great then i just want to quickly mention
before we go into the official q a how to find itttt online uh facebook
twitter instagram check us out also our website teflcourse.net
also my personal instagram at linda goes east you can send me a message i'd be
more than happy to have a chat with you on there and then we're moving into our q a section
again as you can see i just want to mention the 30 off link you can scan this qr code
or you can also um check out the link in the comment box and if you're listening to this um
as a podcast it's also in the podcast description so you can just copy that link and then
get a 30 percent discount any tefl t-cell cores from itt
looks like this that's the code
alrighty then i'm back bigger here with my water
ready to answer any questions about either this topic today the tefl contracts
or anything else related to tefl in teaching or korea china um itt
anything let me know i'm gonna be here another maybe five minutes depending on how many
questions you have um and then i'm gonna sign off but i hope you found today useful i
think it was um you're probably gonna
think some of those things are super like common sense and like duh but um it's very important and like
i said in the heat of the moment when you get your contract you get offered a job in the country of
your dreams a lot of people just get carried away and just sign it and they just trust their employer completely
but not all employers are a great unfortunately some of them really try to take
advantage um of you and you know try to
get all the loopholes in there that they can so really take your time with the contract don't
sign the first contract you're offered unless you're really 100 sure that this
is the job for you that's my advice
all right question here do you linda have to make your own lesson lessons planning or they do it at your
job um so i teach i used to teach at a um
english like private kindergarten and we had kindergarten in the mornings and early afternoon and then late
afternoon elementary kids and at that school it was a big big chain
um in korea they actually provided us with all of the material because they
had this school all over korea so it had to be the same thing had to be taught in all
of the schools at the same time on that on the same day you knew exactly which page you had to
do which exercise you had to do everything was stipulated and they gave you all the material
so i didn't have to do a lot of planning there now i teach a lot online my own lessons
my own classes to like um students and that i
do plan yes because that's just what i offer so anything like that you always have to
do your own planning um yeah but so some schools you know you might have
to do your own lesson planning but some schools have all the materials and give it to you and there's very minimal
lesson planning it depends on the school so this is a good question to ask during a job interview
with the school you know and ask how they handle that
and another question nesman what countries do you do you that put
lodging in the car okay what countries offer accommodation um so typically east asia uh
so that is japan korea china taiwan those countries typically have
accommodation free accommodation for their teachers um and that's pretty much
it a lot of times but again it depends you know from country to country school to school
it depends but east asia typically has really great benefits i also think
the middle east um has great benefits and might also have paid housing but then like europe
or um latin america not so much not so much so yeah
wow i guess that's good they have the lessons in place yeah you know sometimes it's i think
that's really great for first time teachers if you're new to teaching it's great to just have that
material in front of you and then you get more experience and then if you are
at a new school where you have to do most of the teaching or lesson planning um you have maybe more ideas
so i actually know a lot of people who are teachers who prefer just planning out their own lessons they
really like this flexibility and freedom so it really depends on you and what you
want to do good thank you
yeah thank you guys so much for um being so active today and asking
all your questions and listening and giving me feedback it's really really nice and i hope you really took something away from
today's live session it's not easy coming up with a new topic every week
so um you know i wasn't sure if this topic was good but i think it was really good and helpful
for you guys for future reference and also because i'm going to share that checklist with you in the comment
section so that you can check it out and just save it and have it there
um you know for the future for when you need it i think that's going to be really useful
all right i think i'm going to sign off soon it's been an hour now this session if you have any
questions when you watch the replay or just later on you can still leave the questions in the comments and we will get back to
them later on no problem as i mentioned you can also just reach out to itttt
directly or you can reach out to me directly on instagram i'd be happy to answer any of your questions on there as well
don't forget the 30 off link looks like this this is your chance to start a career in teaching english
abroad or online so um yeah right
good thanks so much yeah totally great then i hope all of you are going
to have a wonderful weekend um and you're staying safe out there and
i hope to see you again next week like i said i might be live on a different day and time
so please like and subscribe so that you don't miss that on our page um and you get notified
when we do go live but um yeah thank you guys so much and i hope you have a lovely weekend and i
hope to see you again and please don't hesitate to comment leave more comments on this video or anywhere else we get back to
you um no problem okay all right then thank you so much
have a lovely weekend and i'll see you hopefully next week
bye
