Job Discussion Forums

[frankly_norse]

hey all - i'll be completing the celta course in hcmc in mid december after which i'll be looking for employment. the tet holiday looms tho so i was wondering if anyone had any comments about what to expect or advice on how to proceed at this time of year.

thanks in advance!

[toiyeuthitmeo]

The families all save up their money in the months before and spend loads of it, so there's a big drop in enrollment at most schools leading up to, during, and after Tet. In addition most businesses shut down for 5-10 days, including schools. The slight upside may be that many teachers choose to get out of Vietnam during this time, for reasons you may come to understand, and many teachers use the week off to build a longer holiday, which means lots of schools that are still running classes may actually be in need of more help. Over all it may be a little more difficult than usual but not impossible by any means.

[spycatcher reincarnated]

I pretty much agree with Toiyeuthitmeo, but would like to add the following:

Next year Tet starts around 3 February (relatively early). From experience I believe that the earlier it comes the better it is for the industry.

Obviously when schools are closed there is no teaching at all. From mid December onwards there is a large slowdown in teaching English to adults, but only a small slowdown in teaching English to children.

Many foreign teachers go away for Christmas and Tet and when two holidays are relatively close some teachers decide to take a long break and not return during this period. Because of this there is often a shortage of teachers during this time. This shortage is much more acute at schools that focus on teaching children as their customer downturn is considerably less than schools that focus on teaching adults.

Not many new teachers arrive in December as they generally like to be with friends for Christmas, thus adding to the teacher shortage.

It has always been easy to find work teaching English in HCMC, no matter what time of year, it just depends what work you are willing to accept.

The above is for HCMC, but I assume Hanoi would be similar.

[frankly_norse]

thank you both for your replies - i'll sleep a little easier tonight!