teaching english abroad.

[junctionalfunkie]

I've been here for about 4 months now. The weather has barely changed since I arrived, and according to people and what I read, it never will. Apparently Thailand has 3 seasons: Hot, Hotter, and Hottest.

Ugh. Way to kill my enthusiasm. Oh well, I grew up in Texas.

Then again I am an auditory listener...

Is there any other kind? Or perhaps you meant "auditory learner."

PM me if you'd like tips on Pimsleur or anything else relating to TESOL or languages . [/color]

Will do. Thanks.

 

[Changed]

so how long can you stay in one country teaching? I am graduating in December with a BA in English, and I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do afterwards. I'm looking at all possibilities.

I have spent time in Western Europe, and can get by with my German.

 

[mariacallas]

^^^ Wow! I wouldn't have thought HK needed foreign English teachers. Don't most citizens speak it at a native level.

Also conspicuously absent from Jam's list is the Philippines, for the same reason I assume.

Right. We are quite proficient in English compared to other countries in SE Asia. I'm in fact an English teacher myself, and I've been teaching Koreans (web/phone based) for about two and a half years now.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

^^^ I'm amazed Taiwan and other rich Asian countries don't hire more Phillipinos to teach English in their cram schools. Women from your counry definitely work as nannies and au pairs and home health aids for infirm elderly people in Taiwan, and the local kids they basically raise speak GREAT english!

I've heard the Philippines is becoming both a popular winter tourist destination and place to retire for Koreans.

 

[Felonious Monk]

Teaching in English in Vietnam - Lost in America - Figuring out a career

Hi E&C,

I'm hoping you guys can help me a little bit. I'm struggling figuring out where I'm going in life and feel like I'm at a crossroads. I'm a college graduate (BS in history), 27yo, no debt, but quickly running out of money living in major metro area with no steady income.

How did I get here? Basically, had a job, company closed, started my own co with old co-worker, did ok for 12 months, 2016 has been slow, not good future for current job/not something I want to continue (cannabis consulting/education, basically).

I'm not sure what I want to do with my life but feel like it's time to figure out a career or something. Want to leave this metro area. Would like to live somewhere rural or rural-ish. I'm very clean cut looking so that prospects for academic/corporate work are not out of the question, though I couldn't do anything that goes against my quite liberal leanings, unless it was seriously like Scrooge McDuck money (half joking).

So taking into account the current political situation, I've considered 2 choices for the near term, going back to school for environmental studies (or Natural Resources is actually the program) to get a MS and be able to be a consultant or work for the state to inspect/certify/build cannabis farms in the emerald triangle. Unfortunately, depression caused me to delay for too long (or maybe I thought of it too late, hard to say), I won't make Fall 2017 applications, so earliest I could start school would be Spring 2018.

Second choice, which now feels like a better idea based on having to wait, and the connectedness of the world now (in terms of contacting professors, studying for GRE, etc.) is to teach English in Vietnam. Probably not a permanent solution to my problems but it seems like a reasonable temporary solution. I have the money to take a good TEFL class and I think I would do ok at the job. My main concern with this scenario is that I'm a current patient of medical cannabis in addition to using a small amount of heroin (16mg/day). I could quit opiates to be able to get settled there, but I have Crohn's-adjacent disease symptoms and am somewhat worried about giving up both medicines which keep me stable (I was on oxycodone pain management for 2 years until I lost my doctor). Has anyone lived in Vietnam that could comment on this scenario or teaching English in general?

Also willing to take advice on other things I can do or pursue.

 

[Vagina Lover]

I have a friend who had no previous tertiary education. He did the teaching English course and went to teach in Vietnam.

He now has been doing this for approximately 8 years.

He has a gorgeous Vietnamese girlfriend. And he takes her home to his country sometimes (for the record, Asian women seem to love westerners for many reasons, one of which is clearly the ability to get partner visas)

Anyhow, it has been highly prosperous for him. He seems very happy. Vietnam is an amazing place. It is beautiful and rich with culture and history.

Just be aware of if you follow this path .... I receive friend requests from his Asian students around twice per week. Wanting to "practice English". Or for whatever reason, they seem to like sending me friend requests which is pretty damn funny I think ?

If I were you, and you have nothing holding you down or holding you back, I would go for it.

On the other things you mentioned, I'm sure you could acquire Kratom or some less addicting substance to assist with your transition. There are a raft of new medications which help with this. Pregablin or gabapentin help enourmously with withdrawing. If you find you will not be able to function after stopping (or being on these somewhat retarding medications - you forget everything and lose things easily) then I would suggest looking into kratom.

Vietnam is a hotspot for heroin. You must look inside yourself and work out whether the reason you would like to go to this particular country is so that you can acquire heroin easily, which, let's face it, will end in misery.

I'm not a doctor. But I do have experience in nearly everything you have mentioned. My ex has Crohn's so I feel your pain. But she has a severe form and makes do with NO PAIN KILLERS whatsoever. She takes shots in her tummy and is on immunosuppressive drugs which are not nice to be on. She drinks red tea when her tummy hurts. Also, she has now just finished a one year contract full time as an economist (her first gig out of uni) and I am immensely proud of her for it.

Just have a think about the "geographical thing", because they can fail miserably. But they can also work tremendously to develop you as a human in many ways.

Good luck ?

 

[thujone]

I'll PM a mate who did the ESL-in-Asia thing in his late 20s but he doesn't check in here very often so not sure if he will respond. From what he told me though, the infamous opiates/debauchery lifestyle is real and there is of course the stigma that Westerners are mainly there for sex/drug tourism. He has since returned to Canada, citing cultural differences. He isn't the sort of person prone to culture shock either so I think that it says something huge about the psychological impact of going East for someone accustomed to the liberalism prevalent across the Western world.

Honestly I wouldn't do it. It sounds like you want to go there to get away from an undesirable life here instead of to pursue a specific goal, which means the cards will likely be stacked against you even if you can overpower the fact that English teachers aren't very well-paid or well-respected and that most of your peers will either be younger and more enthusiastic or older guys burned-out on life with nowhere else to go.

Definitely travel and get out of the U.S. and see more of the world, but IMHO you should get the right qualifications to do it in Europe or at least aim for Japan where you may actually stand a chance of being decently compensated and experiencing a higher quality of living in a rural area, since ESL teachers there mostly gravitate towards the major cities. Healthcare in Japan is also excellent so you will be taken care of, obviously using cannabis or opiates would be out of the question but on the flipside you might benefit more from treatment better than what you feasibly have access to in the U.S. and SEA will always be a short plane ride away if you really need to decompress with some drug abuse here and there.

 

[ControlDenied]

I am the infamous person cited by thujone. It is I, He, Me. The man they call "Epitromius."

I also went to Asia to escape the emptiness of Western life, and like thujone said, fear is not the right motivator to act on, in life. I ended up in a horrible job in China with no friends, strung out and took a one-way to ticket to Cambodia and nearly OD'd my first night there.

There is so much drugs and debauchery out there, if you have any hankering for opiates and want to keep your use minimal or quit, then DO NOT GO THERE. EVER. If you WANT to experience a psychotic frenzy of pleasure and self-destruction, and nedarly die or end up broke or in debt, or prison or worse, stabbed by a thug, then sure, go there.

The other person mentioned in the thread is happy there because he went there to GO there, not to LEAVE here. Big difference.

Now I'm clean or rather, on suboxone, in a much much better job teaching in CAnada, in a job that will actually be useful on my resume, and actually making a difference, not babysitting spoiled Asian kids.

Seriously though, Asia is very dangerous for people who like opiates.

And the hotties there indeed just want your passport. Ain't never nothin' been ever free in dis world, fien

 

[spacejunk]

I think the cultures (and attitudes) that exist around english teaching gigs varies a lot - and "asia" is pretty general.
Not every language school in asia has a party/drug culture - far from it

I'd recommend looking into CELTA English-as-secondary-language teaching diploma, which is an intensive course run by Cambridge University, taught - and recognised - globally as a teaching accreditation.
It's an intensive course, which you can do over approximately 10 weeks, or a super-intensive 4 week program (or something like that) - at least, those are the options students are offered at the schools i'm familiar with in Australia. i'm not sure if the course structure/duration is the same everywhere it's taught - but either wayg, it's a quick way to improve your job prospects, especially if you're looking to travel.

It costs a couple of grand, but it's a good way of getting experience as well as a qualification - and it's a good way to find out how confident you are as a teacher, before you find yourself in front of a class full of students, half way 'round the world.
Teaching a 40-minute, structured lesson to a class of students on your second day of the course is quite a trip!

 

[theMerovingian]

I am the infamous person cited by thujone. It is I, He, Me. The man they call "Epitromius."

I also went to Asia to escape the emptiness of Western life, and like thujone said, fear is not the right motivator to act on, in life. I ended up in a horrible job in China with no friends, strung out and took a one-way to ticket to Cambodia and nearly OD'd my first night there.

There is so much drugs and debauchery out there, if you have any hankering for opiates and want to keep your use minimal or quit, then DO NOT GO THERE. EVER. If you WANT to experience a psychotic frenzy of pleasure and self-destruction, and nedarly die or end up broke or in debt, or prison or worse, stabbed by a thug, then sure, go there.

The other person mentioned in the thread is happy there because he went there to GO there, not to LEAVE here. Big difference.

Now I'm clean or rather, on suboxone, in a much much better job teaching in CAnada, in a job that will actually be useful on my resume, and actually making a difference, not babysitting spoiled Asian kids.

Seriously though, Asia is very dangerous for people who like opiates.

And the hotties there indeed just want your passport. Ain't never nothin' been ever free in dis world, fien

Agree with you saying you have to want to go there as opposed to escapism from western decadence.

I would agree that it be a brillant move to make but you should have properly analysed all the pros and cons and then come to a logical decision.

 

[Jackal]

I am the infamous person cited by thujone. It is I, He, Me. The man they call "Epitromius."

I also went to Asia to escape the emptiness of Western life, and like thujone said, fear is not the right motivator to act on, in life. I ended up in a horrible job in China with no friends, strung out and took a one-way to ticket to Cambodia and nearly OD'd my first night there.

There is so much drugs and debauchery out there, if you have any hankering for opiates and want to keep your use minimal or quit, then DO NOT GO THERE. EVER. If you WANT to experience a psychotic frenzy of pleasure and self-destruction, and nedarly die or end up broke or in debt, or prison or worse, stabbed by a thug, then sure, go there.

The other person mentioned in the thread is happy there because he went there to GO there, not to LEAVE here. Big difference.

Now I'm clean or rather, on suboxone, in a much much better job teaching in CAnada, in a job that will actually be useful on my resume, and actually making a difference, not babysitting spoiled Asian kids.

Seriously though, Asia is very dangerous for people who like opiates.

And the hotties there indeed just want your passport. Ain't never nothin' been ever free in dis world, fien

Some good advice there from SJ. I love S.E.A, and have lived here for over seven years now. You could make a very comfortable living as an ESL teacher in Vietnam. Any move is what you make it.


Is there a lot of heroin, meth and amphetamine around? Yes, but it's not difficult to avoid those scenes and have a healthy and happy life. Culture shock will be an issue; if you make such a move it's a good idea to make yourself very busy with work, networking, workout, hobbies etc to fill in the gaps until you have established a support network for yourself.

Also - nothing says you must teach English. I don't, and don't plan on doing so. Search recruiters and you may well find work in your field of study, or a tangentially related field. I'd say English teachers make up less than 30% of the expat workers in this region.

 

[EphemeralOutlet141]

I am the infamous person cited by thujone. It is I, He, Me. The man they call "Epitromius."

I also went to Asia to escape the emptiness of Western life, and like thujone said, fear is not the right motivator to act on, in life. I ended up in a horrible job in China with no friends, strung out and took a one-way to ticket to Cambodia and nearly OD'd my first night there.

There is so much drugs and debauchery out there, if you have any hankering for opiates and want to keep your use minimal or quit, then DO NOT GO THERE. EVER. If you WANT to experience a psychotic frenzy of pleasure and self-destruction, and nedarly die or end up broke or in debt, or prison or worse, stabbed by a thug, then sure, go there.

The other person mentioned in the thread is happy there because he went there to GO there, not to LEAVE here. Big difference.

Now I'm clean or rather, on suboxone, in a much much better job teaching in CAnada, in a job that will actually be useful on my resume, and actually making a difference, not babysitting spoiled Asian kids.

Seriously though, Asia is very dangerous for people who like opiates.

And the hotties there indeed just want your passport. Ain't never nothin' been ever free in dis world, fien

Lately I've been considering doing this. But come on man, now I WANT to go there! Well you and the guy above you's description at least. I hate the western world and would love to go and die in opiate and Asian girl heaven! But I think that says a lot about me as a person.

I am actually interested in teaching English somewhere though because my life is falling apart. Vietnam sounds like a great place for it to fall apart in though. Totally not looking up ticket prices.