Job Discussion Forums

[swollavg]

Hello all, I just recently finished a 1 year contract in Korea with EPIK-SMOE. I am now thinking about coming over to Vietnam and teach. I have 1 year experience, BA and a CELTA. The problem is that I have forgotten/lost alot of the skills/knowledge from my CELTA course. "Teaching" In Korea was pretty ridiculous and I literally did nothing.

I am wondering how difficult it is to teach at language institutes in Vietnam. Do they provide materials like they do in Korea? Or are you required to plan all the lessons from scratch?

Thanks!

[kurtz]

I did the public school thing in Korea. I too felt it an utter joke. Whilst in some ways I find it a joke here too, it's 10 times better than the Korean PS scene. The kids are generally much nicer here too. The teens can be a lot of fun but sometimes difficult but I've found the adults to be tough work. They go to school all day or work and then come and want to be entertained. The classes are usually 1.5 hours+ so you can have flexibility and also be as creative as you want. If you work in a good school that gives a WP and visa, you should have good texts and resources and some kind of guide to follow so even though it's up to you to plan, you have something to follow.

Best of luck.

[swollavg]

Hey thanks for the reply. So it sounds like you teach all ages. On average how long do you spend planning a lesson? Do you follow the book and then add supplementary activity etc?

[inhanoi]

Good school with pacing guidelines, good text with its own supplements = 30 to 45 minutes prepping a solid lesson. Maybe less with motivated students.

[vabeckele]

For what I have seen:

You can smoke heroin before a lesson and still get through it.

You can smoke weed, drink and fall asleep in the lesson and it's still... 'good'.

You can go into a lesson, regularly, and have no materials at all and still get paid 20 bucks and hour.

You can tell the management that you cannot come in because you have a party to go to - see you tomorrow is the answer.

BUT DON'T EVER MESS WITH THE PHOTOCOPYING MACHINE!

Good luck.

[kbot5]

Having taught for four years in the US (but not English), I was comfortable walking into a classroom, but nervous about filling two hours a class with English grammar and supplementary material.

I enjoy planning an enriched lesson with a variety of games, speaking activities, grammar skills and whatever else necessary, so I spend about an hour planning. This is also the result of my inexperience in prepping for multiple age groups and English levels.
We follow a curriculum which, on its own, would probably comfortably fill an hour of time. The rest of the time is for creative supplementary activities. It's a great balance. My kids are all super sweet and I actually enjoy the teens the best. Best of luck in your decisions.

[VietCanada]