Employment & Prof. Development

Prior to finding this site I had a plan that went as follows: sign up for a TEFL course that would take place on-location (there's a CELTA course in Shanghai, or a TESOL course in Hong Kong) and once I was there--on the spot, in between doing the classes and other work that the certificate program required--I would search for a job. This seemed like the best approach to me, as I had tried and failed to find any really solid information on how else to approach my job search. I had also thought, based on my previous contact with a school struggling to fill its positions, that finding a job once I was there and certified would not be too difficult.

This is the plan that I've been operating under for some months now, until I found your website. On one hand, your website has given me a wealth of information that I greatly appreciate. On the other hand, I've discovered that my previous plan seems as though it was pretty much the worst possible and I'm wondering what I can do to recover in the time that I have left before the start of the school year.

For one thing, we're already past the time (early April) that you say is best to get your applications in. A bigger problem is that I'd prefer teaching calculus to teaching English, but I was apparently confused about the role that international schools play. I had thought of them as immersion English environments for local students, but evidently this is not the case? If I need to be certified as a teacher here in New York before I can work over there then... well, it looks like it would take at least six weeks for just an initial teaching certificate. I could do that over the summer, but obviously I'm not going to be able to do that and then apply for a job.

The CELTA course in Shanghai is timed to finish in late August and I had taken that as my cue for the right time to be seeking a job. Anyway, the point is that I've clearly made some mistakes. So I have three questions.

First, I see that you generally warn against China and give solid financial reasons for this. Is there an alternative that you can recommend? In truth, I don't firmly care about the country I teach in. I had picked China because it seemed like an adventuresome way to spend a year and jobs appeared plentiful. I'd be just as happy in Japan or Korea or Europe or anyplace else. I'm not that picky is what I'm saying, but I do need someplace where I can plausibly find a position and getting a work visa for Europe seems unlikely.

I ask this knowing that your firsthand experience is limited to China and the UAE but, well, I'd appreciate your input anyway. If there are other websites like this one that are half as informative about teaching in Japan or elsewhere then a link would also be greatly appreciated.

Second, I mentioned that I'm not certified as a teacher here. I realize that the site doesn't focus on international schools, though I did read the page that you have on the subject. It indicated that I should be certified here before I could teach over there, should I think of that as the inflexible requirement? In China and Hong Kong and everywhere else? If so, I don't see how I could pull this off for the upcoming school year. I have bachelor's degrees in math and physics (double major) and worked at a prominent university after graduating in 2008, but not in teaching. I was basically a computer guy (systems administrator, among other things). I would be happy to take any certificate or training program necessary, if you know of one that's applicable.

Third question: setting aside financials, you make the statement that teaching EFL in China prepares you only for teaching EFL in China. To the best of your knowledge, is that true outside China as well? If I taught English in Hong Kong or Tokyo, I expect that the pay would be adequate but, ideally, I would also like some measure of job satisfaction. I would certainly prefer teaching calculus or physics or chemistry to teaching English, but I don't hate English: it's just that it isn't exciting in the way math is.

I have a second cousin who has been teaching English as a foreign language in Japan for many years with a bachelor’s degree in a non-related field. He is married to a Japanese woman and has both a stepdaughter and a biological child with this woman. He is extremely happy with his life as I understand it. He receives just enough salary with which to stay afloat. As a lay English teacher with a bachelor’s degree in a non-related field, if he were to ever leave Japan (and he won’t, perhaps can’t), he would have no choice but to find a comparable position in another Asian country for similar money.

In all that you wrote, what you never mentioned and what I really needed to know to advise you properly is what your long term plans are. What are your career goals?

You make an indirect comment about looking for something to do for one year. For example, if your plan is to work abroad for one year and then return home to attend graduate school in math or physics, then it doesn’t matter where or what you teach.

If you are looking to gain relevant work experience before returning to the university as a system’s engineer then I would seriously caution you against teaching EFL in China (or anywhere else) for a year. In that context, it will present as a giant black hole on your curriculum vitae.

International schools in China are not English language immersion environments: they are real schools whose curricula are approved and credentialed by Western educational accrediting councils. That is, earning a high school diploma from (for example) an American international school in Shanghai has the same meaning as earning one back home. Most of the students in these international schools are the children of Western expats and affluent Chinese kids with plans to study abroad. There are only a relative handful of these Western-approved international schools in China and, yes, you really have to be certified as a primary or secondary school teacher (or both) to even be considered. These jobs are very competitive because the salaries are often better than those offered back home and, unlike home, housing is included and fewer taxes are typically paid.

Teaching EFL in Korea, Thailand, Japan, or Taiwan on the basis of a bachelor’s degree in a non-related field and a 4-week TEFL course certificate is no better or worse than teaching English in China from a vocational perspective. Working in Europe is out of the question for an American citizen unless you can somehow manage dual citizenship with a member country of the European Union.

To answer your third question and part of the first, here is a basic rule of thumb you and others should seriously consider when contemplating Asian EFL employment: If you are being paid to do something in a foreign country that you are not qualified to do and would never be hired to do in your native country, then—professionally speaking—it probably isn’t worth doing. As for the money, that is a very different story because everyone has different needs. What is a “great gig” for some, others would never even consider.

English teachers in the UAE must have a master’s degree in linguistics or TESOL and the better English teaching jobs in Hong Kong also require an advanced degree. Of course, this is why English teachers in the UAE earn an average of $4370 USD per month instead of $951 (and that doesn't include housing, travel allowances, and outstanding medical insurance). The EFL teachers at my University, for example, would be eligible for ESL teaching jobs back in the States with provisional licenses. They would then have a limited period of time with which to become permanently certified.

The same is not true of EFL teachers in China because the EFL curriculum in China is not standardized and it's not approved by any Western accrediting body of education. If you will be teaching at a university, more often than not, you will be told by your supervisor to download materials from the Internet to use in class (there are rarely assigned textbooks and I've never seen a course syllabus for any college level EFL class). Your mission--should you decide to accept it--is to get a bunch of overworked and exhausted Chinese kids to talk to you in any way you can: through jokes, personal stories, and even physical comedy if you're up to it (one completely uneducated and unqualified foreign "teacher" I personally knew of used to pull up his shirt and expose his fat belly to the class every time they appeared bored. The kids would roar with laughter. He was a big success in the classroom and the Chinese school owner loved him because he kept the kids coming back for more). This is the full extent of my “general warnings against China.”

If you haven’t already, you should read the personal reactions of a real English teacher who came to China for three months on a leave of absence. She couldn’t believe how relatively unimportant English is regarded in China and how in order to reach her students, she had to stop teaching… as she understands what it means to teach English in her home country.

The perceived economic advantages or disadvantages of teaching English in Asia seem to be as varied as the number of people who are doing it. We are living in a global economic depression. Thousands of Americans, Canadians, Australians, Brits, New Zealanders, South Africans, and Europeans with high school and college diplomas are piling into China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan every month eager to receive an average salary of $951.00 USD (6000 yuan, the national average) and free substandard housing in exchange for the privilege of having a job and saving a little bit of money each month (unless one travels or gets really sick).

I personally know of a South African couple who have been working as EFL teachers in China for years and will die there doing so. She has a nursing certificate (equivalent to our associate’s degree) and he is a high school dropout with a fake double-major bachelor’s degree. They are not very happy with their salaries (as, at one point, they had three children with them) but they have no place else to go and they would be the first to tell you that their lives in China are actually better than they would be if they were to go back home.

As I see it--and I am quite vociferous about this bias--teaching English in China makes sense to subsidize a short-term working vacation (as was the case for the Latin-American teacher above) or Chinese language study for a year or so. Everyone else needs to carefully consider the issue of diminishing returns unless, like the aforementioned South African couple, this is your best option (and for many, especially in today's economy, it is).

As for entering China without a work visa and then looking for work after completing the TEFL program, our research data consistently show that about 84 percent of all Westerners who enter China with a non-work visa will eventually be able to convert their tourist or business visas to Z-visas. Restated, 16 percent, or one in 6.25 people, who enter China to work on a non-work visa will never receive a Z-visa. As for finding work in late August, if you knock on enough doors, you will eventually be able to find a job at a private English language school teaching EFL, not math. University employment would be out of the question unless there were an unforeseen last minute opening.