Job Discussion Forums

[SinaloaPaisa]

Wondering how much of an issue I will have finding enough or decent work without any ESL cert. I have a bachelors and an actual teaching license from the states with 3 years ESL exp in Korea.

Also, would 4,000 usd be plenty to hold me over until getting that first decent paycheck?

Wanting to get out of Korea asap.

[skarper]

Yes - you will have issues getting decent jobs without a CELTA of equiv. The better centres know the other TEFL certs are bogus and they also know a Teachers license has no bearing on EFL [anymore than a CELTA makes you a school teacher].

3 years experience in Korea also has little weight. Better than nothing maybe but Korean hogwans are very different to what happens in Vietnam. Different culture, different L1, different problems. In some ways Vietnamese are easier to teach IMO but they are certainly very different and some things that worked in Korea will not fly in Vietnam.

4000USD is tight. First month you'll spend up to $2000. Next months you can manage on $1000 if you are frugal. That gives you 3 months to find your feet and make a living wage - say 1500 a month. That's 25 hours a week assuming you average 15 USD an hour. 20-25 is possible but you won't get 25 hours at that rate for a while, if ever.

You may need to get a CELTA - which is costly and far from easy to get the grade B which is a default pass grade. You should have money on hand for that [say 3000 USD including living expenses] plus an emergency fund of maybe 3000 to get back home or back to Korea if it all goes pear shaped.

I'd wait until I had 10K USD. I know Korea can get you down but hold out until you have 10-20K. You should be able to save 10K in a year there if you focus on saving and are not paying off debts.

[SinaloaPaisa]

Why would i spend 2k in my first month?

Arrive and get 10 dollar hostel for 1 week.

Locate a room or small studio apartment for 150-250 dollars.

Eating cheap VN style food or cooking yourself will cost about 6 dollars a day.

If you are pressed you can find those charity type eat joints that are super cheap.

Can drink cheap local beer for like 10-22k dong. Although I wouldn't recommend any partying even local style without getting your first paycheck.

Only way I could see myself spending anywhere close to 2,000 dollars my first month is if I pay for 4 months of rent up front.

[TRH]

Looking over your posts seems to reveal a pattern. You pose a question then refute the answers if they are not to your liking. Why don't you do this. Go to Vietnam with 4K or any amount you like. Report back to us after two months. Either you will be sitting pretty in some international school, or working for $15 for three separate companies in three districts. Lets just go for it.

[SinaloaPaisa]

The issue is I am getting conflicting info. Has nothing to do with whether I like it or not.

Just had a guy on another forum tell me he was hired at one of the main institutes without having a CELTA etc.

Hell, people post conflicting info on the Korean ESL scene which is pretty set in stone. So I guess it should be expected with VN.

[kurtz]

[SinaloaPaisa]

[nomad soul]

[SinaloaPaisa]

[sigmoid]

"Conflicting info" is just the result of different perspectives. Skarper's seem more professional than most and as such his advice is a bit conservative and cautious. But it is still valid and quite beneficial advice.


Many posters here have fundamentally the same two questions:

1) Can i get a teaching job in VN?

2) How much money do I need to bring?


The answers are:

1) Yes, unless a person has a major physical or mental disability, they will able to find some kind of teaching work, mostly weekend kiddy classes. VN is developing with a growing population (getting married and reproducing everyone's duty) and a strong economy. So, demand for English teachers in quite high, especially in the larger cities.

The bad news is that most teaching work is casual part-time work paid by the hour, especially if you don't have the CELTA. So, teachers are often looking for "hours". You've missed the summer which is the peak time when you can really "maximize" your hours. So, in short, you may not get a "job" but you will have paid work. Obviously, everybody is competing to get the most hours at the best schools (or Korean/Japanese private students) at the highest hourly rate. This is the game that is played by most teachers in VN.

2) The cost of living in VN is very low, but of course, you get what you pay for. So, if you really need to, you can get by living in a guesthouse and eating noodles and rice twice a day and 50 cent beers at night. So, yes if you're fairly careful with the cash and pick up some "hours" fairly quickly, $4000 should be enough.

[SinaloaPaisa]

Thanks Sigmoid.

That is about what I expected.

Unless I get lucky, guess I will be running around picking up hours here and there.

Really want to end my contract early in Korea and head to VN in October.

However, I would only have 4-5k saved. With 200 usd worth of bills back home to pay every month.

Need to suck it up and wait till February and finish my contract. Then head to VN with 9-11k.

[skarper]

You seem to have arrived at the best plan of action.

February is not the best of times to look for work since the Tet slowdown will only be beginning to pick up pace again. But that will overlap with your orientation period, finding a good place to live, buying a motorbike, acclimatization, etc.

You may well manage on less than 2K in the first month but I'd say more than 1K. I added in a few dollars for unforeseen events. Visa costs, vaccinations. Dental work. I've had things like that happen when moving country and it pays to have reserves.

A very plausible event is getting scammed out of your pay for a week or two of work. There is zilch you can do and if they don't like your style or just find a better candidate they can just keep what they owe you. You'll be working illegally so up the creek with no paddle.

It doesn't happen to everyone but I'd say it is a serious risk. The more desperate you are the more likely you will take work with employers who will do this.

I tend to have a more professional attitude than is typical and err on the side of caution with regard to advice. I try to discourage people who are on a wing and a prayer from coming here. They have a miserable time and just ruin things for the rest of us.

I hope it works out for the OP. You can never tell who will succeed. Paper quals are often less important than a willingness to make an effort and adapt. TEFL is not rocket science but it does require a modicum of application.

[TRH]

My guess is that it is likely that the OP will have some difficulty obtaining a work permit and hence legal status even if he finds an EFL job. I have a fairly firm understanding from my lawyer that a BEd means that the applicant does not need a TEFL cert. However when she first told me that she thought for a few minutes and said that we had better submit the TEFL anyway. This was of course reflective of her understanding that written rules are subject to varying interpretation. Sometimes we are reminded that Vietnamese can be just as frustrated by this as we foreigners are.

Also the OP said he had a Bachelors degree and a teaching license which probably indicates that he took part in a post graduate non-degree program for licensing. Any school system in the US would understand that this is fully equivalent to a BEd but it is unlikely that a Viet bureaucrat would. Bottom line is that the OP could probably get a WP if he is teaching math at an international school but not if teaching EFL.

One note on Sigmoid's comment on population. "VN is developing with a growing population (getting married and reproducing everyone's duty) and a strong economy." This may no longer be entirely true. The current fertility rate is only 1.8 which I would think is below replacement. Poll your teen classes and I expect most will say they have only one or no siblings. The possible good effect is that while there are fewer new students, there will be more family disposable income per student to pay for English lessons.

[1st Sgt Welsh]