Job Discussion Forums

oinkoink · Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 3

Hi All,

I'm a CELTA qualified native-speaker with a year to teach, mainly for the experience of travel and not money. My plan is to teach a semester in three different places. I managed to get a 1 semester job in Prague without much problem (there's a lot of demand here), but where would be a good place to go for the next semester, bearing in mind I want to go outside europe? Is it possible to get such work in China? I don't mind working 'off the record' either.

Thanks for your expertise!

tedkarma · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:14 am Post subject:

If you don't mind working "off the record" geez you can work almost anywhere - just depends on visa and immigration issues.

You might try www.TEFLtemp.com for what is available for short term stuff.

When you say "semester" - does that mean you are wanting to teach at colleges, universities or?? If so, might be more difficult - except for summer camp stuff sponsored by unis - but that usually means kids.

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

Summer camps in Asia, Taiwan, Korea or China are good places. If you don-t mind having a bad record, you could say that you want to stay longer and up and leave, though I woulnd-t recommend it.

A semester_ Is that three months, four months? Might be hard, six would be easier.

Latin America-s a good place too, just except to work under the table and get paid 5 an hour.

ecocks · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 899 Location: Gdansk, Poland

that job with Princess Cruise Lines posted on the Job Board? Whoo-Hoo! Talk about a fantasy, living on a cruise ship for 60-90 days at a time? Teach 5-6 hours a day in return for free room and board plus mingling as a passenger during the off-times sounds tolerable to me.

oinkoink · Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 3

The cruise thing sounds great, but they are looking for a masters degree Sad

And by a semester I mean around 3 months.

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

Cruise ship jobs sound fun, though I-ve heard they-re hard work

comenius · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:01 pm Post subject:

Another vote for China. There are so many job opportunities not being filled there right now that I can't imagine you would have any trouble setting something up in advance for a single semester.

I expect you may have similar luck in Korea, although the market demand is no where near as intense as China.

My thought is that setting something up in advance in one of the other, smaller countries may be a bit tougher as they may have less openings in general.

Another issue you may run into is that nearly all private schools expand and contract their teacher pools based upon their enrolments, and thus may not know how many teachers they need months in advance. As a result, they may not want to commit to you many months in advance for only a semester.

The flip side of this can work in your favor, though, if you're willing to be somewhat flexible. Being in country just before the start of a semester can almost always turn something up, but you have to be willing to go without having something firm lined up. I've done that before with no problems at all, but I understand it's a strategy not everyone would be comfortable with.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

alexcase · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 215 Location: Seoul

The big chains in Thailand used to accept teachers who worked loads of hours for a few months and then shot off travelling, not sure if that's true anymore. If you're young enough, schools in Australia will recruit people on a young person's visa (sure there's a more technical word for that, but hope you can guess what I mean) during peak times like Xmas. Westgate in Japan hires people on short term contracts. Otherwise, that just leaves breaking your contract somewhere, I guess...