ESL Teaching Jobs: 3 Important Things to Consider When Deciding on an ESL Job

ESL teaching jobs are a dime a dozen but there are 3 very important questions you should be asking yourself before and while you are performing your search for the perfect ESL job.  What you will learn here are those exact questions. Let us read on and explore these questions and the reasons why I recommend that you ask them.

1.    Is the position in the country you would like to visit?

If you are interested in China, be sure to just check out the ESL teaching jobs in China. Checking out other positions in other countries will only confuse you.

2.    Do you want to teach in the country or the city?

As I said before, there are millions of positions out there. Are you considering an ESL teaching job for the money or for the chance to immerse yourself in a different culture and have it funded by a teaching job?

If you are looking at an ESL job for the money, then I recommend you hit the bigger cities. For instance if you are considering China, then I would only look at positions in the bigger cities of GuangZhou or Beijing. Shanghai’s cost of living makes it impossible to save anything. The reason I say this is because cities tend to pay double, sometimes triple that of their country counterpart because the cost of living is so much higher than in the country.

If you are looking to immerse yourself in the culture and your income should be just enough to support you, then I would recommend trying to find a position in the country. The money won’t be anywhere near what it would be in the cities but you will be FULLY IMMERSED into the culture of the country. You might even be fortunate enough to land a room with a family of nationals. Then you will TOTALLY experience the culture first hand!

3.    What qualifications do you need and do you have them? (IE: TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, etc…)

Each country has their own requirements and regulations and they are quite different from each other. Some countries are VERY strict about you having your Bachelors Degree in any major (such as Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan) and some like China just look at your ability to teach and the fact that you would be a “Native Born English Speaker” as they put it. Also, many countries will choose you over others if you have some ESL training such as TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, etc.. These courses can be had at home easily and very inexpensively. I have seen signs that advertise that you could have your TESOL certification over the course of a weekend. Those ones I would be leery of. But generally speaking, you can have your TESOL certification over the course of a couple weeks and the cost varies from school to school. It usually is below one thousand dollars at the time of this printing. I highly recommend you start with this as soon as you have made your mind up about teaching esl.

As you can see, the more prepared you are, the better your experience will be. In summary, get your ESL certification, figure out where you would like to go (which country), and whether you would prefer working in the rural or country areas or the city. Either way, I am sure that you will have the experience of your lifetime. I know I did and I plan on returning soon.