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FlyinGavin
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 8
Location: Anchorage, AK
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 Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:31 am Post subject: Any advice you have for newbies? |
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I've been thinking about putting my career on hold indefinitely and teaching english overseas.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with the newbies? What sort of things would you have done differently? Are some countries better than others in terms of being "beginner friendly" (If there is such a thing). Countries you'd avoid?
I know it's a vague question, but anything will help.
Thank you so much! |
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tedkarma
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 1598
Location: The World is my Oyster
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| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:40 am Post subject: |
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I like Thailand and Korea as being "beginner-friendly" countries. It really doesn't matter too much unless you have debts you need to pay.
Korea doesn't expect much of you - but the culture is a bit cold. Thailand asks a lot - pays little - but the people are wonderful. So a bit of a trade off.
Just remember your first job - is just your first job. Things will go awry - problems will come up - but you will learn to solve them - will learn to be a bit more flexible - and will get a GREAT education just by virtue of living overseas.
You'll be an "old hand" soon! |
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FlyinGavin
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 8
Location: Anchorage, AK
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| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:49 am Post subject: |
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Hey thanks a lot.
I was hoping Thailand was "beginner-friendly". It was one of the places I was looking at. I actually posted a few questions on the thailand board about it. And I actually do I have some debt to pay off, but I plan on saving up enough so I can make payments for a year. And if I like teaching enough I'll either go to a place that pays a little more, or come back home and save up again.
Thanks again |
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tedkarma
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 1598
Location: The World is my Oyster
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Most EFL teachers in Korea can save about US$800-1000 or more with out really counting their pennies. It is where many people - including me - go to shore up the finances or pay off a few bills. |
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snorklequeen
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 188
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:51 am Post subject: upper age limit in Asia? |
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| how do employers in the various Asian countries feel about hiring English teachers in their 50s and 60s? |
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tedkarma
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 1598
Location: The World is my Oyster
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:07 am Post subject: |
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Thailand too - I should say is a great place to get started. Certainly a more friendly place to get your feet wet than Korea. If you have the funds to pay your loan, Thailand would be a good place to start. And do as many people do: go to Korea when the money pot needs refilling.
50s and 60s? No problem. I'm 54 - and going strong - don't anticipate any age related issues - yet.
Some schools want younger teachers for kindergarten - but I am quite willing to cede that part of the market to them! |
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JDYoung
Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 157
Location: Dongbei
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| Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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snorklequeen:
Mainland China has few problems with older teachers with a significant number preferring them. My school currently has six foreign teachers with ages as follows: 34, 44, 48, 58, 58 and 60. The most important thing is good health, not age as such. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:01 am Post subject: Re: upper age limit in Asia? |
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| snorklequeen wrote: |
| how do employers in the various Asian countries feel about hiring English teachers in their 50s and 60s? |
Im in Japan and there are teachers at conversation schools in their 50's and 60's. Ability, not agility is key here, and also its a question of how you feel about having some one the same age as your grown up son or daughter as your boss or supervisor, and the teachers room is like a frat dorm.
Teachers here will typically teach 6 or 7 classes a day so you need a lot of stamina and energy. |
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Jazz1975
Joined: 14 Feb 2006
Posts: 301
Location: Zama, Kanagawa
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:58 am Post subject: Re: upper age limit in Asia? |
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| PAULH wrote: |
| Im in Japan and there are teachers at conversation schools in their 50's and 60's. Ability, not agility is key here, and also its a question of how you feel about having some one the same age as your grown up son or daughter as your boss or supervisor, and the teachers room is like a frat dorm. |
Wow, Paul. I seem to be following a lot of your posts today (or shall I say, since yesterday). I agree with what you said here. My Dad, before he retired for good, taught ESL (not to be confused with EFL) for a few years (he'll be 62 next month, did the ESL gig in his late 50's). It was a career change for him. Mind you, he never taught overseas, just locally. Despite being retired, he still goes to ESL workshops and conferences when they are offered. It was him who initially planted the seed for me to pursue a career in EFL since he knows of my desire to travel, learn about other cultures and see the world. He actually told me that he wanted me to have the experience of living in another country just as he and my mother did. Even went as far as to say I should stay there as it is cheaper to live in Japan than in Toronto (I don't know about that). A few years for me is realistic, don't know about indefinitely. Who knows? At this point, I'm just gonna go where life takes me. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:33 am Post subject: Re: upper age limit in Asia? |
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| Jazz1975 wrote: |
Wow, Paul. I seem to be following a lot of your posts today (or shall I say, since yesterday). I agree with what you said here. My Dad, before he retired for good, taught ESL (not to be confused with EFL) for a few years (he'll be 62 next month, did the ESL gig in his late 50's). It was a career change for him. Mind you, he never taught overseas, just locally. Despite being retired, he still goes to ESL workshops and conferences when they are offered. It was him who initially planted the seed for me to pursue a career in EFL since he knows of my desire to travel, learn about other cultures and see the world. He actually told me that he wanted me to have the experience of living in another country just as he and my mother did. Even went as far as to say I should stay there as it is cheaper to live in Japan than in Toronto (I don't know about that). A few years for me is realistic, don't know about indefinitely. Who knows? At this point, I'm just gonna go where life takes me. |
Jazz,
I dont know if you know but last weekend there was a TESOL conference in Florida which had over 8000 attendees, enough to fill a convention center. A few years ago I went to an education coference in Hawaii which had over 120 presenters. Theres plenty of places to get involved in ESL.
When I first came here in the 80's I thought I would be here for a year or two and do the big OE. Life plays nasty tricks on you, thats for sure. |
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Jazz1975
Joined: 14 Feb 2006
Posts: 301
Location: Zama, Kanagawa
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:00 am Post subject: Re: upper age limit in Asia? |
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| PAULH wrote: |
| Jazz1975 wrote: |
Wow, Paul. I seem to be following a lot of your posts today (or shall I say, since yesterday). I agree with what you said here. My Dad, before he retired for good, taught ESL (not to be confused with EFL) for a few years (he'll be 62 next month, did the ESL gig in his late 50's). It was a career change for him. Mind you, he never taught overseas, just locally. Despite being retired, he still goes to ESL workshops and conferences when they are offered. It was him who initially planted the seed for me to pursue a career in EFL since he knows of my desire to travel, learn about other cultures and see the world. He actually told me that he wanted me to have the experience of living in another country just as he and my mother did. Even went as far as to say I should stay there as it is cheaper to live in Japan than in Toronto (I don't know about that). A few years for me is realistic, don't know about indefinitely. Who knows? At this point, I'm just gonna go where life takes me. |
Jazz,
I dont know if you know but last weekend there was a TESOL conference in Florida which had over 8000 attendees, enough to fill a convention center. A few years ago I went to an education coference in Hawaii which had over 120 presenters. Theres plenty of places to get involved in ESL.
When I first came here in the 80's I thought I would be here for a year or two and do the big OE. Life plays nasty tricks on you, thats for sure. |
My Dad doesn't go to those @ conference in Florida. However, he is going to a local one next month. It's a TESL Conference and he'll be getting in on the discount rate as he is a TESL Ontario member. At this point, I'm not sure those conferences are up my alley just yet. Let me just focus on getting in first  . |
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snorklequeen
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 188
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
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| Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 5:06 am Post subject: Middle aged teachers |
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thanks, everyone, for your replies
PAULH, you wrote: "and the teachers room is like a frat dorm." is that the teachers' lounge, or do you mean the living quarters?
tks,
Queenie |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 6:27 am Post subject: Re: Middle aged teachers |
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| snorklequeen wrote: |
thanks, everyone, for your replies
PAULH, you wrote: "and the teachers room is like a frat dorm." is that the teachers' lounge, or do you mean the living quarters?
tks,
Queenie |
I am only generalising here (I worked at a large-ish NOVA branchin Osaka in 1988 and its much bigger now, havent set foot in one since then.
Some of the larger city branches have upwards of 20 foreign teachers congregating in a room not much larger than your average bedroom In Tokyo, space is at a premium and rents are very high. They may look something like this with a dozen people crammed into a small space between classes.
Typical things teachers do in the teachers room: lesson, prep, fill in student reports, change student files, do paperwork, caffeine or tobacco fix (usually these places are non-smoking), check mail etc. Keep in mind a majority of teachers will be just out of university a year or two and the average age of teachers is about 27 or 28. Some as young as 22 or 23. The oldest teacher I have known and heard of at NOVA is early 60's.
Some more I found on NOVA's apartments (which by way, are shared or single, furnished, relatively clean and have Internet access. Who you share with is a lottery and are generally recognised as a rip-off as you pay rent per person, not per room in a shared apartment.
Let me say something about the housing now. NOVA does provide a place to live for teachers upon arrival in Japan. But this system is full of holes, and is another part of the "profit or die" mentality. The apartments that NOVA rents to teachers are generally 3LDKs, which means 3 small bedrooms and one shared living-dining-kitchen room which is about 7 feet by 12 feet. EACH occupant is charged either 65,000 or 69,000 yen depending on where you live, which totals either 195,000 or 207,000 yen. The next-door neighbor told me that he was paying 70,000 for his apartment, which was the same layout as ours. Did I miss something there? NOVA was getting 125,000 yen over and above the amount of rent that the normal apartments were going for. Granted, our utilities were included in our rent, but for a comparable apartment with 3 occupants, the utilities do NOT come to 125,000 yen a month. Actually it's something like 25,000 yen. So what is NOVA doing with the extra 100,000 yen? And there were 2 apartments they owned in our building, and all of the other teachers on the Keihan line who were at NOVA-owned housing were in similar situations. After I found my own housing, I was really shocked at how much they must be raking in off the unsuspecting teachers. That really annoyed me, that the company I worked for was so money hungry that it would virtually steal money from its own workers. But then I haven't said anything about the insurance they offer either. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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Look at the picture of the teacher's "staff room" in this NOVA related site.
http://vocaro.com/trevor/japan/nova/level_up.html
Some of the other pictures may also give you an idea of teacher ages. If you can hack working in such tight quarters with people that age (and their respective conversations), go for it.[/url] |
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snorklequeen
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 188
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
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| Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:22 am Post subject: NOVA |
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thanks, Glenski for the link to that NOVA article, and to everyone else with tips
Queenie |
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