Job Discussion Forums

[delacosta]

You have experience in Japan and Korea, which is what a large percentage of the ESL market caters to in Vancouver, so that experience will help you a lot. Just based on that I think you'd be able to find something without a certificate, but of course getting one will open more doors and perhaps get you into some of the better schools. I don't know haw many schools there are but it's a huge market and new ones are opening all the time-some fly by nighters run (mostly) by Chinese, so be aware.
In the summer months there is tons of private tutoring going on. When I left I was working with a Korean guy who took care of rich Korean kids who were studying in Canadian high schools for a couple of years prior to starting university and this was the best way for them to improve their English enough to get into university. They needed the extra tutoring to get good grades-a lot of it was simply helping them with homework and explaining what they didn't understand in class. Some of the kids were very well off, lazy, spoiled brats who had been set up in their own aprtments downtown with a car to boot. In the summer they take intensive English tutoring, so I had all the hours I wanted, at $25 cash an hour.

The OP enquired about coming here on a working holiday, not about carreer prospects in the ESL market in Vancouver. I think with his experience and the amount of schools there he'd do fine and have a blast, especially in the summer. Rent is higher than a lot of cities in Canada but there are also 2 universities and a large college so there's lots of student housing available, and more in the summer. And there is affordable housing available, you just have to look harder and perhaps get lucky. I lived on the ground floor of a 2 bedroom house that backed on to park (Trout Lake for those who know Van), with a nice yard and a few blocks from everything you'd ever need-the wonderful Commercial drive area. Rent was 650 including utilities. When I left to come here I passed it on to a friend, who's still living there and paying the same rent!

As for Whistler there's even a school there that offers combined learning/snowboarding/skiing/biking packages to rich kids, once again mostly Korean and Japanese. It's called Tamwoods International, do a search. If you have any outdoor sports skills I'd say they'd be interested in you

I think if you just showed up and knocked on some doors, put yourself on the subbing lists for absent teachers you'd have a job in no time. And check out the links for jobs posted above, there are often jobs there. I believe that Vancouver Community College also posts ESL jobs on their website.
Good luck!