Job Discussion Forums

[niki]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some info on what the job scene is like in Hanoi if one is without a Tesol or Celta. I actually took part of the course but had to leave it and so now have the knowledge and no piece of paper. I have a years experience working in Taiwan, just came to the end of my contract and would really rather go somewhere else and Viet Nam sounds more interesting to me and not bad money. I've been reading lots of postings on this forum and have followed links to find jobs and apply previous to coming there but all the jobs seem to demand a Tesol. So my questions are:

1: If I just took a chance and flew to Hanoi, would it be possible to find a job with a BA and experience? If so would I make the average $15 an hour.

2: How about finding a job with a decent and semi-organised school? Some things about Taiwan that have driven me mental are the empty promises and lies, the lack of professionalism of the schools and the general disinterest in the quality of education by the management. Should I expect this in Viet Nam? I've read mixed reviews about these points.

3: Also is it easy to find an apartment to rent in the old quarter? I would like to live in a beautiful, semi-quiet and cultural city which is what I picture Hanoi to be. Are my visions correct?

Thank you for your suggestions,

Niki

[GeorgeD]

you can get work fixed up pretty easily pretty easily without a teaching certificate, but high chances are you're not going to escape those hassles you described in taiwan unless you've got a teaching cert.

i worked in taiwan for two years and can say quite a bit about the relative values of the places, but i can't be bothered right now. the vietnamese are 75 % chinese, which means they're after money, money and more money. i found the taiwanese to be the nicest of the chinese. on the whole i didn't like the vietnamese although as individuals they can be absolutey great, most problems come from the constant street hassles and them trying to rip you off all the time. Hanoi IS a beautiful city, old world colonial Paris of the east complete with catherderals, cafe culture, opera house boulangeries........, but it's also carrying that stench of rudeness that Paris has also.
You do not want to live in the old quarter, trust me on that, but you'll see yourself because that's where everyone heads to when they first arrive and that's where most of the drinking/ eatings done. It's noisey as hell, you feel like some spiritually malnurished cow in a tetsie fly swarm "you want moto, you want shoe shine, you want map??"And this is done with mindless tenacity from the moment the vietnamese wake up to the moment they go to sleep.
that sound pretty negative but they're great things about being there, just don't expect a tranquil experience. it's a lot more in your face than anywhere in taiwan.

[gjan45]

George, I absolutely agree with you about Vietnam and Hanoi. It is a beautiful city and the people if treated individually can be great but when it comes to the work aspect I found them to be as money hungry as the chinese. I lived in China for nearly two years and although I think the chinese are nice people in general they have a long way to go when it comes to dealing with foreigners.


I don't know if it's just me but I have found most of the foreigners who come here traveling to be completely rude, not all of them of course but IMO a big part of them. Although I think Vietnam is a great country that has a lot to offer I don't see myself here longer than a year. Hano is lovely indeed but I have encountered a great deal of rudeness from both the vietnamese and the foreign expat community. I'm sorry if I am coming across as negative, but this is how I see it. Do keep in mind that despite my not very positive comments that is not to say I haven't met good people, I have indeed just not as many as I hoped I would.

[Mr Wind-up Bird]

Having lived in HCMC and visited Hanoi, I have to say that HCMC is much friendlier and you get far less street hassle. In HCMC the hawkers, xe oms and shoeshine boys generally take no for an answer, unlike in Hanoi where they're a lot more persistent. HCMC isn't as attractive a city but when you're living in a place quality of life takes precedence over aesthetic considerations.

As Gjan said, the way some foreign tourists, particularly backpackers, behave, it's no wonder many Vietnamese have a dim view of foreigners.

[OzBurn]

Don't kid yourself about Hanoi or Saigon being lovely cities. Vietnam is nothing like the movies that have been made about it. Although both places are interesting cities for a few days, neither has much aesthetic appeal. Basically, they're loud, funky, colorful, crowded, noisy piles of boxes. The older quarter of Hanoi is not very old for the most part, and most of the old Chinese houses have long since been scraped.

Most of us world travellers are hopeless romantics and are looking for something lovely like Paris in the 1930s, say; or a living scene from movies such as The Scent of Green Papaya or The Lover. You probably won't find that in Vietnam. (The man who shot The Lover was appalled at what he considered the visual ugliness of Vietnam. He had to search far and wide for his imaginary colonial Hanoi, and the movie was not shot in Hanoi, at all.)

My advice: if you want lovely cities, forget SE Asia. Go to Europe; move to San Francisco, California; or perhaps try Buenos Aires.

[Guest]

Hi evryone

I lived in Ho Chi Minh City for only two months in 2003 - but I was volunteering in an Orphanage and not looking for work. However, I was approached and offered "teaching conversational English" jobs everywhere I went. I was offered between $8 and $10 U.S. per hour - without any qualifications at all.

I have now been living happily at a private Boarding School in China for the past 17 months and I have no intention of leaving. To me it is HEAVEN here, at the School and in the City.

All the best.