Where to teach English: China

Teaching ESL in China

We continue on with the series on ESL teaching destinations around the world. I've previously talked about plenty of other places, but to name just a few:

Teaching English as a foreign language in Peru
Teaching ESL in Hong Kong
Teaching English as a Second Language in Malaysia

Today, it's all about teaching English in China- what follows is an excerpt from the book, The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future, where I rank China as an "okay" destination because while it does have plenty of good things going for it, there are some significant negatives as well.

China is very similar to Vietnam in that it is an up and coming country with a growing economy and rising salaries for ESL teachers but has a very low cost of living, especially outside Beijing and Shanghai. It also has the huge advantage of having an in-demand language that could benefit you greatly in your future career if you use your time there to become fluent. China is not in the top-rated group for a few reasons including: while salaries for the private institute jobs are reasonably high (but you will have to work hard for it--around 30 teaching hours/week), they are very low for university jobs, and it is quite difficult to find a quality job in China simply because it is such a big place and there is not that much information.

Perhaps the biggest drawbacks and the main reasons why I would not go there are the pollution and lack of safety standards for things like food, manufactured items and infrastructure, police unwillingness to get involved in any disputes involving a foreigner, difficulty in getting money out of the country, a very poor quality of health care as well as lack of freedom as it relates to the Internet. I depend on things like Facebook to keep me connected with my friends and family around the world and do not want to have to deal with trying to get around this with proxy servers and other such annoying things.

   

Get the Monthly Newsletter

Where to Teach ESL: South Korea

Teach ESL in South Korea

For my thoughts on other ESL teaching destinations besides Korea, check out:

Malaysia as an ESL Teaching Destination and Teaching ESL in Vietnam

Today, it's all about Korea and of course I've talked about job conditions and the like on this blog for years, but here's a quick summary for newbies considering Korea as a place to teach English. It's an excerpt from my book, The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future.

Ten years ago, South Korea was one of the best places in the world to teach English due to the high salary, extremely favourable exchange rate with the USA and Canada, free housing and airfare along with minimal qualifications and low expectations for teachers. These days, cost of living has risen significantly while salaries have stagnated and qualifications and expectations for teachers have risen so that it is not the prime location it once was. 

However, there is definitely money to be made and saved, especially if you are willing to live frugally. Most teachers can put away around $1,000 per month with little effort and live quite well. For others, with some effort and frugal living, they can save up to $1,500 per month (and more if they are doing overtime or have permission from their visa sponsor to teach at other companies or schools). 

Another way to live well in Korea is by working your way up the job ladder into a university (for tips, check out: How to Get a University Job in South Korea: The English Teaching Job of Your Dreams, which has a very low number of working hours and lots of vacation. If you do some overtime work during those down times, you can increase your savings potential significantly, up to $4,000-5,000 per month.

Where to Teach ESL: Malaysia

This is an excerpt from the book, The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future. If you like what you see, head over to Amazon-it's available in both print and ebook formats.

Teaching English in Malaysia

Along with Vietnam, Malaysia is a place that you will find lots of teachers who used to teach in Korea or Japan but have moved on to bigger and better things. While there are not that many English teaching jobs in Malaysia, the ones that are available are excellent in terms of salary, professionalism and vacation--especially the mentor-teacher ones where you travel to public schools and work with the local English teachers. However, out of all the countries in South-East Asia, it is perhaps one of the least attractive ones for a variety of reasons including lack of tourist infrastructure (of which any foreigner working there would benefit from), food, and a high prevalence of Islam and the negative things associated with that, especially for women.

Working in Malaysia-Helpful Resources

Teaching English in Malaysia- A concise introduction.

The Best TEFL jobs in Malaysia- From the most fabulously helpful website, TEFL-Tips. All the major companies that do the popular mentoring program can be found here. (As an aside, I went to Malaysia to visit an old friend last summer; he is now doing one of the mentorship programs. He loved it and it did seem like a great job from everyone I talked to about it).

Teach Away- University ESL Instructors in Malaysia-  This is a recruiting company, but it seems like a very decent job, especially for those who want to teach university students.