Job Discussion Forums

[Cathy OB]

Hi, is Vietnam a good place to teach and live in? I have read some negative reports, are these an over-reaction by people who haven't worked outside of their own country before?
Thanks

[londo]

Actually, except for a few fresh-out-of-uni kids at ILA, almost everyone here has travelled quite extensively.
VN is not a place people come to and stay for any length of time without at least visiting a few other places in SEA.

Don't understand your question, are you saying that if they say anything negative about VN, they have little experience abroad?

Personally I wouldn't trust people who were overly positive (everything is wonderful here) or overly negative (they're all thieves, hate the place sort of remarks).

Anyone who has lived here for more than 3 years will tell you that:
a. We love it here but sometimes not sure why
b. It's a country of incredible highs and lows, one minute (and sometimes it's just a glimpse, fleeting moment of incredible beauty) you believe this place the most fantastic place on earth, the next minute you can hate it with an almost evil passion.
c. It's a hard land, the elements, the people, the architecture, the general feeling can be astonishingly hard and even violent (I don't mean people hurt you but their interaction with you is often less than polite)
d. There are real problems here: corruption, pollution, traffic, hygiene etc etc, no point denying it
e. A lot of people here will tell you they prefer Thailand, and many get there as often as possible...I am one, and yet I have been here for many years, have a home, family and business.....?????

As for teaching, I came here as a teacher and found the students to be far, far nicer to teach than any in Thailand or Korea and easily as nice and responsive as those in Japan (not saying much), Indonesia or Malaysia. You earn much more than in Thailand or Indonesia but not as much as in Korea or Japan.

A good compromise then, probably the only compromise that I can think of when thinking of Vietnam.

[jb0072009]

As londo said Vietnam is tough place to live, it is almost a third world country in many ways, in many parts it still is even if they deny it. As for working the pay is better than most of SE asia. Nice places include: Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Halong Bay. Saigon and Hanoi are good for a few days if you are only going to be a tourist. However this country is very different from a toursit point of view as to living and working here. Personally I stay here only to make money, the Viets can be very rude and unintelligent many times. But they can also be nice as well. So you get a mix like anywhere else. As londo points out Thailand is considered nicer by most here including me but if you read on their forum living and working there has many bad points as well. The country is not all Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya etc. The Thais can act the same way as the Viets if youy stay there long enough you will see. My 2 cents. MOD EDIT

[hot_rock]

I agree with the above post (londo) whole-heartedly.

[Andy123]

Great post Londo. So true.

[snollygoster]

Love it one day-hate it the next.
Every day I have been here (and thats quite a few) I see at least one thing, or event that surprises me. Not always pleasantly, but there is at least ONE new surprise in store every day.

[sigmoid]

[blateson]

A lot of really good points have been made on this thread and a few others over the last week or however long. I think that posters with experience aren't trying to be highly negative and therefore convince newer arrivals not to come over to Asia, but instead I think that what they are saying, or at least I speak for myself, is that there are real issues, and realities, that should be discussed before a new person makes the jump.

A person shouldn't hear a few "good stories" and then spend about $2000 moving expenses, probably invest a thousand in a tefl program, and make all of these risks, only to get overseas and find out that life over here is, to put it nicely, more "real" than what discovery channel might depict it as. I personally wouldn't want to make a decision for anyone thinking of coming over, but I also wouldn't feel good if I painted a place as "wonderful" or an "awesome time" when it isn't necessarily so.

Speaking of Vietnam in particular, there are plenty of irritations about in the society at large. Those can definately bring down the experience but not necessarily completely kill it. However, the whole perspective as well as details you might later find you simply cannot accept or will find very unappealing, should be reviewed beforehand.

Now that prices have risen higher than ever and everyone from landlords to business owners are all just trying to make a fast buck, there is also a financial analysis that is even more important than before. (terrible rent levels, schools stagnating or decreasing wages, cutting your hours and hiring more teachers chipping away at earnings, on and on.) For the folks who have been in said country for a while and are watching all of this happening, some unhappiness about that as well appears to be rather warranted, to say the least.

Best of luck! (sorry for the long wind for those who prefer a quick read!!)

[gastropod]

I've been browsing these forums for a while and I'd just like to express my thanks to all those who have offered realistic, balanced and experience-based opinions in this thread. This is the kind of useful information that I (for one), as a person looking at coming to VN and start a new life really need to hear. So often it seems that when someone genuinely seeking useful information asks a question like this you get a bunch of 'experts' chiming in pushing contradictory opinions that are often more self-serving than helpful. In the contest of egos that ensues the business of answering the question gets left behind as the person who asked it (presumably) sits shaking his/her head in bewilderment. Expressions of flippant or generalised opinion, however well-intended, are no more helpful to someone whose future may depend on the advice given. Thanks everyone, I see this thread as a really good example of how it should all work in an ideal world.
Peace and love and a big thank you to all of you.

[mark_in_saigon]

What's life like in Vietnam? What are the best places?

is Vietnam a good place to teach and live in?

Expressions of flippant or generalised opinion, however well-intended, are no more helpful to someone whose future may depend on the advice given.

One of the problems I see with all this is that a general question has to be answered in a general way. We all know we can have experiences that are on both ends of the scale. There are so many �it depends� to factor in, I think much of it comes down to the individual, what he is really seeking, and how much he is willing to deal with in order to achieve his goals. I especially think anyone who allowed his future to depend on advice is probably not well researched, independent and strong enough to cope here. Perhaps honest to goodness readings may be of value, but these threads are not true readings. Advice may help me with where to eat dinner or where to shop, I would not let my future ride on advice. Finally, I suspect that many people who come over will ask those kinds of generalized questions as the one that started this thread, but not really state the poster�s true agenda. Is it maximizing income? Is it escaping aspects of western life? Is it helping people in poverty? Is it working with highly motivated and advanced young adults? Is it working with children? Is it maximizing numbers of romantic events? Is it finding one high quality romantic event? I think our motivations for coming here are really important to know if we are going to answer that kind of question (the original questions) in the most meaningful way. Look at the original questions, what is life like in VN, what are the best places? Life for who, a poor native, a rich native, a western man, a western woman? Very different answers. Best places for what? Making money? Spending money? Working? Playing? This is all so general, generalized readings may be of greater value when researching answers to these kinds of questions.

[Kornan DeKobb]

^ Mark is exactly right. Answers to such general questions generally tell us more about the responders than the country itself.

What are your priorities?

[haller_79]

IMHO you only need to consider one thing, that is 'Do I really want to be an English teacher?'

[ajc19810]

I stay in Phan Thiet, but Hoi An and Sai Gon has got it all as far as I'm concerned. I could sit on the beaches in Hoi An all day drinking cold beer and eating seafood brought to be me by a friendly waitress. Saigon, I could hit the clubs/pubs all night, listening to awesome viet music or just chill on the side of the road on a plastic chair yarning to people who go by, don't care if it's D1 or D6 there is always amazing people to meet both foreign and local.

Work is work. It makes me money to do the above and is usually far less stressful than work back home, which is Oz for me.

[haller_79]

[ajc19810]

Nah, I'm a 30 year old and i too had plenty of those moments where everything is just surreal. I'm one of those guys that hopes Viet Nam doesnt change too much and I cringe every time i hear things like work permits, FDI and helmet wearing.

It was really difficult to go back to full time life in Oz, hence half and half.

One year at VATC will do that to you. I did some time there bec a friend brought me across to help out with some programs there, but it never eventuated and I ended up working way too many hours for very little money, in D6 of all places. It was the same time as that Blackhorse dilemma began brewing.

Half and half is not as difficult as you may think, but unfortunately it may become more difficult due to wp enforcement.

I have house in Nam, cheap as chips. So all my stuff is there and i have spent enough time in Nam to secure teaching jobs before coming over either in Sai Gon or the countryside. And even if i couldnt get a job before coming over it would be easy enough to find one. Market's still pretty good.

Tickets are real cheap from Oz to Nam airasia or jetstar. I work short term remote jobs. Currently in Cape York.

And the two critical components are Viet banks interest rates and i married a country girl.

I would love to set it up so I had someone who wanted to do the same thing, and is in the same line of work as myself in Oz and then simply switch between the two jobs. eg. I go to nam and take over their job and they come to oz and take over my job and then vice versa. But thats taking it to a whole new level. lol