Job Discussion Forums

vibgyor1111 · Joined: 09 Jan 2008 Posts: 10

Hello, My name is Travis from South Carolina, USA. I've been accepted into the TEFL program in Siagon in April. What should I expect as far as the course is concerned? Will it be so intensive that i couldn't make it up north on a weekend? Are the courses off on weekends? Are they legit (TEFL International)? Dave seems to advertise them a lot. For any in Ho Chi Minh or know about it any tips would be awesome. Any books that can help on Grammer, and basic TESOL type stuff would be helpful as well. How much difference is there between Hanoi and Siagon? I'm looking for a more Oriental feel instead of the south east asian feel. Peace. MOD EDIT first post!

longanluv · Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 5

teacherviet · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 18

One cannot even debate whether to choose the CELTA over TEFL International's certificate. Well one can if they have little or no experience concerning the EFL industry. The CELTA is the standard in teaching EFL and it has certain standards which are assessed against certain benchmarks. This is not the case concerning TEFL International. There is no reputable school on the planet which would not employ someone because they have the CELTA however some schools will reject someone if they have the Cert. from TEFL International. In addition, if someone is competing against another candidate for a job position and the only difference between the two is the cert. the person with the CELTA will get the job. If you don't believe me, ask experienced and qualified Directors/DOS etc working at reputable language centers and the answer will always be the CELTA.

lizarddoctor · Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 141 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

I saw the 2 posts that longaluv posted before the mod edits and just let me say that both of you shouldn't be talking about drugs on the forum.

MOD EDIT: The above is very good advice. We have a zero tolerance policy on such discussions on this board and violations of the policy are very likely to result in speedy bans. This is especially true of repeat violations.

As far as TI, they do not pass everyone and the CELTA thumpers out there seem to find fault in most other programs. ILAs CELTA program is good, but it gives nice monetary kickbacks for their teachers who recruit others into their program and I do have the emails to prove it since I am still on their mailing list from years ago. Gets a few of them to bash away. Granted a CELTA opens certain doors here and is prefered in Eastern Europe over the rest, but SE Asia doesn't care which one it is and if it even stands up to par with the rest. It's all about a piece of paper around here that matters to the Viets. Take them to an industrial country and they all are worth the paper they are printed on.

TI does have a 4 week course and I am familiar with the people over there and they are real good teachers in their work outside of work. (VN anyway, I cannot speak about other locations). I find a lot of value in the TEFL and CELTA courses here in the fact that they offer you a month of on hand exp. while actually learning to live here in the daily grind of Vietnam without the extra stress of landing that first job right off the plane. They do have some good contacts for your first job that are not the 'backpacker dumps', though they do work with VUS if someone is interested in getting in there. If you would have posted a 4-5 day course, then I wouldn't have recommended you take it.

As far as your Hanoi vs. Saigon question... just search the forum as there are tons of threads that do not need to be rehashed over and over again.

Tayne101 · Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 15 Location: NSW, Australia

I've also been accepted into the TEFL course in Saigon, but the Feb-March one.

I've also got some questions:

1) What is a realistic hourly rate that I should be trying to negotiate for, for a 20-year-old with no degree? No less then $12/hour (AUD)?

2) Is it difficult finding access to wireless internet in HCMC and Hanoi?