Job Discussion Forums

[mrjack]

Overall, all things considered; which Country in Asia is the best one to teach in? Lifstyle,culture,standard of living,enjoyment, etc, etc

Please - To make this poll worthwhile please respond only if you have taught in three or more asian countries.

[mrjack]

Maybe I'll answer that one myself!

[garlic and basil]

India - culture and food (religious and exotic)
negatives: wears on you quick. Have worked here but not as a teacher. Consider applying for work at call centres - wage can be good. Immigration can be a hassle. India is famous for red tape.

Chiang Mai, Thailand - lifestyle (climate, veg food)
negatives: lousy public transportation. Have worked here though not as a teacher. Hard to find ESL work, modest wage.

Bangkok, Thailand - nightlife (albeit not cheap). Everything you could possibly want including good value medical care. negatives: horrible traffic unless use skytrain. Have worked here though not as a teacher. Plenty of work but poor wage. Great lifestyle, but not for saving. Thailand has very easy immigration *and Customs* for foreigners.

Shan state, Burma - Chinese efficiency since it seems to be run by gangsters, easy going people (the Burmans and Shans). Have travelled here. No idea about Yangon etc. negatives: while still in Burmese controlled areas north of Mai Sai, the burueacrats stink of corruption. No work for ESL?

Surabhaya, Indonesia - nightlife (albeit double pricing), easy to get a local younger good girl girlfriend
negatives: no charm, airport officials are very coprrupt. Have worked here though not as teacher. Suposedly there are many positions there, but at modest wage. Residents please correct me.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - nightlife (albeit diminishing fast)
negatives: lousy food, very little culture, poor hygiene. Have worked here as a teacher. Polite students but not much work available. And the days of a very good wage there are over. But easy visas - just pay the graft over fees.

Singapore - great value and variety of food, squeaky clean, excellent transport, wonderful nature parks and open zoo, can sleep in JB across the bridge in Malaysia and work/live in Singapore? Easy visa-free travel for persons from developed countries. Have worked here though not as a teacher. Very little work except for the very well qualified?
negatives: hotels are always more than US$20

Kunming, Yunnan, China - charm and good value living, sizeable expat population, close to the 'real China' (countryside)
negatives: I haven't been for six years. Maybe it is a hellhole now. they were tearing down all historic building when I was there. Have worked here but not as a teacher.

Saigon (HCMC), Vietnam - not half-bad public transport, some veg food (specialty ones, though most are lousy, best ones are out of town), cheap pirated DVDS and VCDs. I have worked in HCMC - pay is good, students can be rascals, and great variety in standards of schools and their management. The only reason I don't return to HCMC is police check requirement. Hassles having a regular girlfriend due to Commie rules about who can stay at your home/hotel. Anyway, all the best looking VN girls are working on their backs in PNH. Actually VN would be good for finding a local 'good girl' wife who is Catholic, which I am not.

Shenzen, China - big city, no charm. Was robbed by a streetwalker (never anywhere else in Asia) have worked here though not as a teacher. Wage puported to be good, but my guess is that relative to Vietnam you couldn't save as much due to cost of living.

Haikou, Hainan, China - ethnic minorities, not many long-noses go there. Great nightlife in Qiong Hai, so can escape for weeked to China's Pattaya. Have worked here though not as a teacher.



On my list of places I never want to visit and certainly would never consider teaching in...

Hellhole # 1 Jakarta, Indonesia : traffic, spread out, little veg food, polluted and crowded, mosque calls at all hours. Worked here but not as a teacher

Hellhole #2 Pattaya, Thailand: oldest prostitutes in the world. Actually it's very easy to get around, eat foreign food and rent a hotel very cheap. But forget any decent quality nightlife. That was 20 years ago! Worked here but not as a teacher

Hellhole #3: Hong Kong: expensive hotels, rude people. Worked here but not as a teacher

Hellhole # 4: Manila, Philippines: horrible traffic, public transport, food and security. i have been to the poorest parts of Asia and never had a security problem. I was in PI two weeks and had money stolen twice. The only positive is English is widely spoken, beer is cheap, and the people are warm. Have worked here but not as a teacher. Not much work here since the main export of this country is service labour to the USA.

Hellhole # 5: Seoul, Korea: Absolutely no charm, cold people. Would work here only if I could save $1000+ a month after all expenses. Honestly, I have been there only for 48 hours, in the year they were constructing the underground, and in 2000. Both times I thought 'wow, this place sucks'.

The only country I have mixed opinion of is Japan. I worked for half a year in Sapporo on Hokaido in the north. Great seaweed, shopping (at a price), efficient public transport, and snow (yeah!). But I found Japanese most racist and cold people on earth. AT least the Thais are both polite and sweet. But I haven't given the Koreans a far chance. Maybe they are worse! Bottom line was you can't do it the western way in Japan, going independent. Referrals and introductions are everything. You could send out a million name cards and the only people who will respond are the mentally ill.

[garlic and basil]

nil

[garlic and basil]

Webesite was not responding so accidently posted three times

[garlic and basil]

For the novice here is some basic advice that is true for travelling as well as working...

India, like China, is a huge country. Kunming is not Shanghai. Manila is not the Palawan Islands. The tribal areas of Jarkhand are not the same as Bombay. So it would be useless to compare say, Calcutta with a provincial capital of Thailand. Plus school chains and individual branches of those schools vary in management style and personalities. So the bottom line is that, while there are general differences between countries and cities - well, it all depends on precisely where you work, what your position is, who the Director of Studies is that month, etc.

And I find that India changes very slowly but Thailand and Cambodia change policies like mercury.

When considering my comparisons of countries realize that I was a self-employed professional in most of these countries and taught only in Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia. Plus I have never stepped foot into Himalayan countries, Pakistan or West Asia, so I have no idea what it is like to teach in say, Yemen or Bhutan.

[Tiger Beer]

[liehtzu]

Thailand: good. Stay out of the big cities and tourist centers. Find a town with few foreigners and no real attractions and live it up. Even the smaller cities have a club or two. Thais like to party. If shopping/food variety is an interest, live near Bangkok or Chiang Mai. All jobs in Thailand pay peanuts, and now that there's a new military rule and the furor over the guy who worked in Thailand and claimed to have killed that Ramsey girl, I understand the scene is very difficult now. No more backpacker teachers.

Vietnam: good. Cold and frowning folk in the north in Hanoi, nicer ones down Saigon way but more hustlers. Very chaotic and third-world, but cheap and nice once you get to know it. Job scene hit and miss. Pay by the hour, hours can fluctuate wildly. Used to be any whity off the street could get a job, now they're demanding credentials. From what I understand this can still be bypassed.

Korea: decent. Best money for teaching English in east Asia hands down. Pay for your flight and housing, and salary is good. Korean food is top-notch, though not to everyone's taste. People can be really splendid, but by and large they ain't the most cheerful or welcoming folk. Cities are bleak. Winters are cold.

Japan: seems like the glory days of ESL teaching in Japan have passed. Hard to get jobs. Japan is expensive as all hell, but very cool and modern.

China: rapidly rising. A city for any temperment (tropical south, wintry north). New clubs every week. McDonald's on every corner in the city. Impoverished rice-paddy villages. Much variety. Pay is still very low.

Mongolia: extremely weird. If you can weather the winters and don't mind getting paid next to nothing I'm sure it'd be an experience. Outside of the capital city: nothing. No nightlife, and in most cases not even any electricity.

Cambodia and Laos: nice places to visit. I hear good and bad things about the work.

Taiwan: pretty good pay, the best outside of Japan and Korea. Easy to get a job. No one has ever told me it's their favorite place in the world, though one fellow I know says they're the best looking girls in Asia.

Malaysia: few jobs, mid-range pay, but I hear good things. Don't smoke marijuana there.

Indonesia: from what I understand not much outside the major cities, which are crowded and smog-choked.

[nickelgoat]

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