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Despite all the negativity on here, Korea is the best place on the globe for one to begin an EFL teaching career.
Quote from: Thomas Mc on April 25, 2016, 12:39:00 PMDespite all the negativity on here, Korea is the best place on the globe for one to begin an EFL teaching career."Begin" being the operative word here. You'll see a lot about people leaving, but it's after they've gained experience while on a good salary and are able to demand higher pay in other countries. 2-3 years experience is pretty key for making that jump, regardless of other qualifications you have.
- China is like the opposite of Korea in terms of rep--you never hear much about the people having a bad time, you only hear from the few people who claim it's "so easy" to get a job making $3000 USD or more in Shanghai or Beijing *where you can chew the air). I looked at a public school job in Shenzhen and there were just too many gray areas in the contract and too many misrepresentations. At least in Korea salaries and free apartments are pretty standard across the board so you know what you're getting. And yes, sending money out of China can be hard.- I've only been to Hanoi in Vietnam and the air pollution was way worse than Korea, and there's insane scooter traffic everywhere. No thanks.Anyway most ESL teachers likely have some student loan debt and I can't imagine Vietnam/Thailand/China are good places for paying that.
I think there is no such thing as a good high paying teaching job. If that is your goal then you should choose a different career.You could earn more more money in corporate jobs, but you'll probably enjoy your work less. You could enjoy yourself more in university jobs, but you'll probably earn less money. You could get a masters+teaching certification, and go work for an international school. You'd get the best working conditions you can get while teaching abroad. But you'd still be paid less money to do the same job that you would do in your home country. Everything has an upside and a downside.
You could get a masters+teaching certification, and go work for an international school. You'd get the best working conditions you can get while teaching abroad. But you'd still be paid less money to do the same job that you would do in your home country.
I love China and would love to live there again but I chose to teach in Korea because I felt so much more secure with the government contract. If China had something like EPIK and their contracts were legally binding everywhere I'd return there for sure.
Why do you have to post stuff like this Weigookin74??? I'm still in the beginning stages of talking with schools in Korea and you make me doubt my decisions! Seriously though, is Korea THAT bad? I know that article is from 2014 but are all the experienced teachers just riding the train for as long as possible in Korea and then going to jump to China/elsewhere in a few years? That is sometimes the impression I get. The real concerns I have with China (besides pollution) is that I don't really know what they have in place to protect the teachers in case of disputes. Korea has the labor board and they are (usually,mostly,sometimes...?) on the teachers side.I have also heard that it can be harder for foreigners to send money back to the US from China. (Haven't researched that in depth though) Vietnam also sounds pretty great but is it really that stable or are you constantly going to be losing/gaining classes. I guess the tutoring option would make up for that though.Myanmar sounds really cool but I know next to nothing about it. I wonder if it really is an emerging ESL market. The same with Kazakhstan!
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Topic: Forget Korea: Where the Good, High-Paying ESL Jobs are Hiding (Read 2176 times)
