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Hansen · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 737 Location: central China

It sounds like you didn't do much shopping for a decent TEFL course, one which actually covered helpful elements of teaching ESL.

The numbers which I quoted are not far from actual reality, in the central parts of China. They reflect accurate numbers of those taking quality ESL training in the USA. Certainly, if a person is a recent college grad with no earning power, a month of time is an investment; however, for people who actually can make money while they work, a month is a lot of lost wages.

Top universities in these parts, a couple of years ago were paying ~3500-4500 /monthly, with the standard "benefits package". There are some outfits that actually are keeping wages down because they agree to work on the cheap to secure positions for members of their organization. At least that was the case a couple of years ago.

http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/foreign-teacher-salary.htm#salary_guidelines

Few people fall into the top tiers of the salary schedule at the above link.

As for taking the course in Thailand, sure it might be cheaper; however, factor in airplane costs and the fact that some schools might want to only reimburse tickets from Bangkok to China rather than home country to Bangkok to China, and you can add another several hundred $ to out of pocket expenses, which may not be reimbursed.

If you want to stay in a dump in SF, one full of backpackers blasting stereos day and night, you can find cheap(?) accomodations. Like anything, a decent place in SF is going to cost. One CELTA student stayed in the Hilton at a cost of several hundred a night for an entire month.

There are always people, such as myself, who do things on the down low.

Another couple flew in from Asia for training in SF. Factor in those expenses as well, unless they happened to be reimbursed, which I doubt. In their case, they specifically wanted CELTA training.

According to one source, there are only 8 places in the USA which offer CELTA training. CELTA is a British thing. Most people are going to need accomodations for a month in one of the cities, such as Boston, SF, NY, Houston. You think lodging and food in any of those places is cheap?

My main point was that, using good judgment and references, one might find a suitable TEFL course online which will satisfy employers in China and provide useful material on major points such as grading, concept checking, and other useful teaching methods. Those things don't require weeks of training to master.

Some of the "better" TEFL courses spend a lot of time teaching how to make lesson plans, for instance. I still consider them a waste of time, yet numerous hours can be devoted to the subject in a TEFL course.

I have developed a system that satisfies my school, and keeps most of the students involved. Most FTs, unless they are thick as a brick, can do the same thing, just by trial and error.

Financially, CELTA, or any other relatively expensive TEFL course, all things considered, is probably not a good investment for most people who plan to teach in China.