Job Discussion Forums

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

william wallace's thread about the history had me wondering just how many "career" overseas TEFLers there are. I'm talking people who plan to teach EFL overseas for a better part of their adult lives (10-plus years might be a good starting point).

I'm going on my eighth year, and have no intention of changing careers, or moving, in the foreseeable future.

tedkarma · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 2:10 am Post subject:

I'm one. Started in 1992, taught in four countries - semi-retired in 2006 - about 15 years total. Great career!

hollysuel · Joined: 07 Oct 2007 Posts: 225 Location: Connecticut, USA

1994-1996 Hogwans in Korea (was planning on returning to the corporate environment, but after one year the teaching bug caught me)

1996-1998 got my MA TESOL in the states and taught in an IEP

1998-present Teaching in Finland--came for a nine month contract and am still here...don't plan on leaving the profession any time soon! Very Happy

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

I've been in this field for just about 8 years, but two of those were back home getting an MA. I do plan to do it for a while to come, but I'd like to move back to the US in another couple of years and teach there.

d

John Hall · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject:

I have already done ten years. But I don't see myself as an "overseas" TEFLer any more. I have been in Costa Rica for seven years now, and for me it is now my home! I am not planning on going anywhere else!

Pura Vida! Very Happy

MELEE · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

I started in 1995.

Like John Hall, I consider myself an immigrant. Mexico is my home now. Even if I did leave Mexico for a couple of years, I'd come back to Mexico, not back to the US.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

I think your poll is showing a very misleading result, because most people who are not career EFL teachers and yet are on this board aren't likely going to click a thread asking if they are a career EFL teacher? "Career EFL teacher? Nope. Not me, next thread!"

The example was just an example! I am a career English teacher, and I plan on being in Japan until for whatever reason I have no job, or the only jobs I can get are really, really crap. Then I would go to another country, but probably not back to Canada, or else I'd be back in Canada for like a year, tops- teaching ESL, getting my pension refund from Japan, maybe studying a bit of the language of the next country I would be heading to, I, so I didn't arrive totally helpless.

soapdodger · Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 203

Did my first EFL class in Spain in 1983, and apart from a few forays into other areas, it has been my main source of income ever since. Having a foreign wife and 2 kids and the UK being so far down the toilet it's never going to come back it looks like staying that way for the forseeable future, although I have an eye out permanently for anything more interesting. I would never call it a career. At one stage in life it was a convenient means to get around and see the world, then it became a means to support a family simply because there was and is nothing much else on offer to a foreigner where I am. I'm not unsatisfied with it, it gives a higher than average salary, hours that allow more of a life than most people get, and I meet (mostly) interesting people, but it has its limits like anything else.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

soapdodger posted

cspitzig · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 56

soapdodger · Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 203

Oh dear, whatever I post there's always either gaijinalways or his sidekick fluffyhamster like the Beavis and Butthead of the Far East, in for a personal swipe.

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

It would also be interesting to find out how many career teachers started out with that in mind.

I would guess many didn't - they just did the job and came to like it, and then went on to get further training.

Meaning that some who don't think they are career teachers now may turn out to be.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject:

I'd hardly call gaijinalways' post above a "personal swipe". soapydodger - if anything, he came to your "defence" before ("Fluffy, soapdodger has his moments of rationality", bit of a back-handed compliment though I know LOL); so surely his question deserves an answer and isn't really that out of line (I'll answer it for you though if you like: ELT is simply a way of paying the bills until you decide what else you could do). As for me, I've only responded to a couple of your posts in total ("always"?!), and certainly wouldn't have bothered responding here if you hadn't mentioned me.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

It's a career for me. I'm 25 and doing it full time for five years.
Been in Peru for about 3.5 years and will become a citizen next year. Now I'm in Korea taking a bit of a break from Lima. I like teaching English, though I'd like to get more into management.

MELEE · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject: