Job Discussion Forums

[esl kev]

I'm a 48-year-old real estate investor interested in traveling the world teaching ESL. I would like to gain some ESL teaching experience here in the USA before trotting off to far parts of the globe. I want to put myself in a classroom situation, to find out if I'm any good and if I actually like it. Any ideas on the best way to do this? I live just north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Doing something local is preferable. I have lots of interesting life experience, as well as a BA in Communication from Stanford, but no other certifications. Thanks!

[spiral78]

Teaching ESL doesn't really support 'travelling the world' anymore, depending on how you would define that phrase.

Most contracts are for 9-10 months, and you are either working in Asia - where many schools will still reimburse travel expenses - or other regions, where your travel expenses are your own. Start-up costs in terms of rents and etc can be considerable in many regions.

Normally, to enter the field these days at a newbie level, you will need to plan to:

1) have enough cash reserves to get yourself there and get set up (amounts obviously depend on region)
2) Experience and native speaker status is not considered enough in most places these days - you'll need to consider basic certification, which normally consists of 100+ hours on-site with supervised teaching practice with actual students (not peer trainees). CELTA is the brand name, but there are some generic courses that meet the standard. Online certs obviously don't include the real teaching practice and are considered substandard in many - not all-parts of the world.

You can most likely find some immigrant centres in your region to introduce yourself to the field.

If you like it, you'll most likely need to decide what regions interest you most and find out what's needed to compete successfully on the job market in those regions.

[Chancellor]

[spiral78]

Chancellor, have you left the US yourself yet as a teacher? I don't dispute the usefulness of the links you have included,but I do wonder how viable such 'opportunities' really are for most newbies to consider.

Perhaps some caveat/hedge might be more realistic here - I think.

[Chancellor]

[Symphany]

esl kev, the way I did it to start, was that I volunteered for a newcomer settlement agency. I helped newcomers by being paired or put in groups (with newcomers) for conversation. I found it interesting and it made me want to know more. The agency I worked with was very supportive and that helped alot too. There might be something similar in your city or you may be even able to teach. You may want to do an internet search for charities/agencies in your area that need volunteers in the area of ESL to get started and get an idea of what you would like.

[15yearsinQ8]

substitute teach kg -high school any opportunity you can get - any subject - any school
do this while getting a teaching license - go to a nearby college or university - it'ss only take 1 1/2 - 2 years with your degree already

forget a certificate - get a teaching license by your state - that way you can teach at an international school worldwide and not just be a gig-by-gig efl teacher

[Chancellor]

[Chancellor]

[15yearsinQ8]

the guy has zip experience - any experience is experience at this point -

[NYCESOL11211]

[NYCESOL11211]

I didn't really answer your question though. If you just want a little volunteering experience look up the Oklahoma Literacy Coalition. They could probably set you up with some ESOL students to tutor at a nearby library.

[Nozka]

If you can just get your mind together
Uh...then come on across to me
We'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea
But first, are you experienced?

[Cubism]

My advice is to jump, leap and It'll work.

If you can stand the politics, go to Dave's China Board and send out a few resumes. Land a job that pays air fare. Learn the going wages and try not to make too many mistakes. Read the Asia forums. (That's where the work seems to be.) I'm older now, so Taiwan doesn't work for me, but it used to. Ditto Korea. Maybe Vietnam is good; don't know. Read the Boards.

For steady work, China's been best for me. The other Asian countries are more pleasant, like Thailand or Nepal, but the work's not steady or reliable enough to support my art. Maybe for some people, but for me, no. Living around China's politics is a bit hard on me, but it's temporary; I'll go back to full-time writing some day. The sts are generally honest, etc. but again, do your homework. Read the Boards about your area, ask lots of questions. It's worth it.

And go to work as an English teacher. You do NOT need experience and your BA degree will be fine. Looks like you're a male, so that's also an asset (a strangely primitive point of view exists along those lines). You can learn more about ESL as you go along, on the Boards, on-line reading, etc. Autodidacticism is an excellent educational method in Asia. China blocks many sites, but still leaves many educational sites open, and if you're choosey when you get a job, you can have your own computer and/or internet service, printer.

I write and publish, and have "used" teaching ESL to support myself for many years now. Be brave and just do it. Oh, there are also contracts for one semester ("short term contracts"), which might suit you better.

[anyway]

I second the idea about contacting your local educational authorities (as in 'respect muh authority'). There is bound to be a volunteer gig waiting for you. Check with the adult education/GED provider/technical college near you. Then again you could probably start a class at one of the iglesias mexicanas.

Personally, I think you should just go for it. I know you don't want to do an abrupt about-face and come back home, but that has been known to happen to the best of them, can happen to you at any time, and eventually will happen to you (if you are really traveling the world). I mean, even if you like teaching English here, it bears almost no resemblance to doing it overseas. The food, the air, everything is different. (Sometimes curiously and pleasantly so, sometimes just oppressively and unbearably so.) One might even argue that you should not teach too long before you go abroad because the job (and traveling) loses its luster sooner or later. The honeymoon period theory.

Now by go for it I mean, of course, do your research. Find a place you are really interested in and the teaching will come easier and prove much much more rewarding. You won't believe they actually pay you to do it.

On the down side, if you're just doing it to do it (ie the job and country aren't really the reasons), you might also not believe how wrong you were about this romantic notion you have. In that case, just north of Tulsa will suddenly seem a whole lot better than it does now, so you pack up, do the about-face, and half-step Mississippi uptown toodle-loo...

Traveling the world and teaching English can work together, but precious few actually do that. This fall I will start my 9th year abroad in my fifth foreign home and, well, I can't really recommend it to many people as a lifestyle, you know? One must have the right combination of good temper/humor, short term memory loss, tolerance for ambiguity, love of language, intrinsic interest in culture, high pain threshold, and healthy lack of common sense in order to make it work for a considerable length of time.

Oh, and lots of credit cards.