Job Discussion Forums

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I'll say this about Europe, I considered it. BUt housing and HEAT is very very expensive.

Heat? I've lived here for 12 years and have never thought that heating was extraordinarly expensive...housing is relatively expensive in comparison to salaries for newbie teacher, though.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:54 pm Post subject:

Last time I spent much time in Europe, I visited Granada, where heat is free.

Cool, however, is VERY expensive.

Wink

Justin

AndrewR · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 26

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

I did start one of those "Get a degree" threads. As I'm sure you're aware, the US is not the only place on Earth that gives degrees. Canada is sustantially cheaper than the US, so is England, so is South Africa, so is India. What I want to say is that money doesn't have to be a barrier for attaining a degree.
Also, you can finish an affordable degree online. South Africa and India have a number of Unis which offer online degrees for VERY cheap prices.
In the long run--if you're going to stay in the TEFL game, getting a degree is a great advantage, if only to expand possible places to go.

That being said, I'm sure you can find work in Mexico without a degree; I met at least two teachers working there full-time without one.
Russia is possible, but not having a degree with probably make it difficult to get the relatively well-paid positions. If you wanted to come to Russia, I'd recommend going to a smallish city in the middle of nowhere. Why? There will likely be very few expats there, thus less competition; I think schools (even Unis) in those areas would be ready to hire a native speaker with no degree.
Ukraine is possible (or it was). Try to find schools there. I used to work with two people who didn't have degrees there.
Latin America has been mentioned.
China isn't as bad as some have made it out to be. The larger cities are quite nice (I'd totally live in Shanghai, Dalian, and Qingdao, for example), so I wouldn't discount it.

All-in-all, there are a number of possibilities for you. However, if the market continues how it's going, you might find yourself on the short end of the better jobs with no degree.

Best of luck!