Job Discussion Forums

[Thomas250]

Hi all.

Im stuck with a few questions and I was wondering if someone could answer them. Im a 28 year old dutchman with a BA in education in the subject of business and macro economics. I have 3 years of experience teaching economics in highschool down here in Holland. I would like to know what the odds are for a non- native speaker with my background. I arrive at the beginning of September, would that be the right time to hit the pavements?

Any advice would be very welcome.

Cheers.
Thomas

[toiyeuthitmeo]

Hi,

It all depends on how good your English is, which includes the thickness of your accent. Anecdotal examples from my years in Vietnam include several successful teachers born and raised in places like Spain, Venezuela, Germany, France, Belgium, and of course, the Netherlands. All of these people had near-native use of English, but did retain light traces of their mother tongues in accent, intonation, occasional interference and false friend lapses in accuracy. However, any of them could produce a piece of fine academic writing in English if they were tasked with it, had been speaking English constantly since at least early teens, and would be 8-9 range on IELTS . Can you say the same? Or can you successfully convince somebody of the same?

[TRH]

This is just a casual observation but I believe that the Dutch have an almost unique ability to speak unaccented English, whatever that is. I think it is partly the linguistic similarities and partly the fact that their educational system makes English compulsory from a young age. I have known two ESL teachers who are Dutch, although they both spent some time in different English speaking countries. I was totally unaware of their Dutch origins until they told me.

Realistically, the OP may be better suited to teach English pronunciation than someone from the deep South of the US or the more remote parts of the British Isles or Ireland.

[sigmoid]

Well, does it matter when people can't get more than a 3-month visa?

OP and others should be looking into teaching in other countries and just forget about Viet Nam.

[lenny321]

A decent number of schools or universities will still hire you as a non native speaker. But getting a full time contract with benefits (insurance, paid leave) and a good salary is way harder for non natives, as employers like RMIT, British Council, international schools, etc. expect their teachers to be native. And those who accept other nationalities (like VUS, for example) will still have lots of native teachers applying for the same job.

My employers have told me more than once that they could give me so many classes (at other schools or universities) - IF I was native.

So from my experience, it is possible to be a non native English teacher in VN, but it can get frustrating you will be struggling more than your friends from England, AUS, etc. (and some of them might already be struggling). Especially if you plan to live here for more than just a year and want to have a perspective, or a thing people call a "career"

[Thomas250]

thanks for the input. I will hop on a plane and give it a try. I just need a small income to cover the rent to enjoy my gap year. So lets hope it will work out. My accent is indeed near native but have to study some more about the grammar to get it back into mys system.

cheers