Teaching Abroad (TEFL)
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Soldato
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My sister is hoping to do it, next time I speak to her I'll ask her about it. 
Met some people traveling who have done it. They loved it. One taught english to business men in korea, another at a school in Japan and the other worked in China then Korea and now is in Siberia (lol). Met them all while they were getting their official TEFL qualification in Nepal.
There are official websites that advertise these sort of posts from what i've been told.
Even im considering it as possibility if i have difficulty job searching after graduation.
There are official websites that advertise these sort of posts from what i've been told.
Even im considering it as possibility if i have difficulty job searching after graduation.
I got my CELTA qualification from the University of Sheffield last year, did some teaching abroad over the holidays and want to go out and teach once I finish uni in a few months time. Good to have some idea about what branch you want to teach - probably more money in academia & business backgrounds but they usually look for older people. There are shedloads of jobs for kindergarden/pre-school age if you can put up with the kids!
Associate
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I was thinking about this myself. Don't you need a degree or something though?
I know a bit about this because I am currently living in Japan teaching English and I did the research on a load of countries before I went. I would recommend doing it and I suppose my most important bit of advice would be to be careful about who you work for because there are a lot of dodgy companies. It's very easy for them to exploit you when you are in a foreign country and don't know anyone and you can't speak the language of the country.
If you have any more specific questions, I can try to answer them.
http://www.onlinetefl.com/teach-english-abroad/japan.html
This shows a list of the most common countries and gives details about requirements, salaries, working duties and conditions etc.
If you have any more specific questions, I can try to answer them.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on what country you want to go to and what kind of teaching you want to do in that country (i.e. state run school, language school, business English classes etc.). A good place to have a look is here:
http://www.onlinetefl.com/teach-english-abroad/japan.html
This shows a list of the most common countries and gives details about requirements, salaries, working duties and conditions etc.
All TEFL jobs in the UK will require a CELTA or equivalent, as will most reputable schools in Europe.
If you want to go to Asia or Central and South America, you could probably get away without any qualifications at all, or a week's 'TEFL' course.
They are rubbish though and you really can't learn anywhere near enough in such a short space of time.
If you have the money and want to teach seriously and make a career out of it then i highly recommend investing in a CELTA or TESOL. They're not cheap, at about £1,000 for a month.
They're also very intensive, so be prepared to work.
If you want to go to Asia or Central and South America, you could probably get away without any qualifications at all, or a week's 'TEFL' course.
They are rubbish though and you really can't learn anywhere near enough in such a short space of time.
If you have the money and want to teach seriously and make a career out of it then i highly recommend investing in a CELTA or TESOL. They're not cheap, at about £1,000 for a month.
They're also very intensive, so be prepared to work.
Soldato
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Interesting thread. I will be graduating in a few months with a BEd degree in Business Studies and I've been thinking about teaching abroad since there's no job opportunities here and I don't really fancy just going across the pond.
Taught kids and adults in China for 4 years for a big brand EFL school. The company runs month long course that they paid for which gives you a non-celta certificate. It's only good within their schools, but they pay for your flights there and back too. It was hard work but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'd recommend it if you don't have any major responsibilities here.
When I went out I was broke but after 1 year I'd saved enough to backpack SE Asia for 12 months and in that time found another city & school I really liked and stayed there for 3 more years.
When you are in your choosen country it's much easier to learn the language (although I'm still hopeless at writing Mandarin but speaking is just not an issue now).
I'd recommend it if you don't have any major responsibilities here.
When I went out I was broke but after 1 year I'd saved enough to backpack SE Asia for 12 months and in that time found another city & school I really liked and stayed there for 3 more years.
When you are in your choosen country it's much easier to learn the language (although I'm still hopeless at writing Mandarin but speaking is just not an issue now).
Soldato
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My girlfriend and I are currently looking for work as TEFL teachers. We did an online course through I to I which includes a weekend course (£400). The course itself was fairly helpful and gave some good ideas for lessons as well as testing our english grammar. Paying for the course should have also enabled us to use their job service. This is where things started going wrong. Their TandCs state you should hear from their agent in the country you want to go to (in our case south Korea) within 28 days of receiving documentation such as our degree certificates. We didnt hear back for 60 days and even then it was simply to be told there aren't any jobs really.
Lessons from our experience: If you have no teaching experience at all its probably a good idea to do some sort of online tefl course. This will at least give you some confidence.
You dont necessarily need to use the job placement service for the tefl course you aredoing. There are plenty of agencies you can look at on the internet.
Things take a LONG time to get sorted and there arent as many jobs around as there were a year ago. Most teachers have renewed their contracts this year and its a lot more competitive than it was.
Lessons from our experience: If you have no teaching experience at all its probably a good idea to do some sort of online tefl course. This will at least give you some confidence.
You dont necessarily need to use the job placement service for the tefl course you aredoing. There are plenty of agencies you can look at on the internet.
Things take a LONG time to get sorted and there arent as many jobs around as there were a year ago. Most teachers have renewed their contracts this year and its a lot more competitive than it was.
Actually I think the pay can be pretty good depending on where you go. I think South Korea was the best paid when I last looked, followed by Japan, but wherever you go, you normally earn enough to live quite comfortably in that country, even if it's a pathetic amount when converted back to pounds.
I did the same but if you look at their site now, their job finding service is no longer bundled into the courses. It's a separate thing. I did actually get a job from them but I soon realised that all they actually did is submit an application for me to my current company (Interac), which I could have done myself on Interac's website.
I'm sure the course was helpful for you and your girlfriend but bear in mind that it is no replacement for a proper course or experience so when you do start teaching, you will probably find it tough. I know I did but then the longer you do it, the easier it gets.
I did the i-to-i weekend course and the internet one (although I never actually finished the internet course).
Niigata, a very countryside area on the west coast. It's not by choice, but rather where I was sent
The best place to start would be to do some reading about the different countries you can go to and pick one. Then you can see about what kind of qualifications and training you will need. The local university course that you mentioned is probably quite serious, so depending on where you go it might not be needed (but would probably make teaching easier).
If you want to google teaching abroad, the 3 acronyms that are usually used are TEFL, ESL and EFL.
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