Job Discussion Forums

[VietCanada]

If you coming here to teach English it is competitive and having qualifications other than your BA in a non English subject helps. But if you have a degree in some other subject then look at international schools as an option. You could end up teaching Math or Biology for example and having a certificate to teach adults or 120 hrs of group teaching is no longer an issue.

Language mills are usually understaffed so they don't care either.

I teach Math and Science at an international school. I find it fairly easy to attract job offers. Nobody says Tefl, Tesol, Celta or Delta to me.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Personally I would just would do the CELTA and have it done with. It's the most recognised and respected TEFL qualification (unless you want to do an MA or a DELTA etc) and I don't see this changing anytime soon. Also once you got it then you got it and you will never have to worry if you are qualified for any other entry level EFL gig again.

In regards to getting a job I would just rock up and start sending out e-mails and knocking on doors (that's how I did it). With a degree, CELTA or equivalent and clean criminal record and OK medical you will get a job in Hanoi or Saigon (there other options as well but these are the main areas). You might have to start off at a few schools doing a few hours here and there, but if you are competent that will pick up. Also avoid looking for work just before or during Tet - the whole country pretty much shuts down.

[barkwood]

There are a surprising number of language schools in Saigon. Follow the CELTA...mantra and just do it. You will most likely find a job with the CELTA.
You should also be prepared with the work permit documents.

[VietCanada]

IMHO if you want to work here than show up and start applying. Don't accept less than $15 an hour unless your desperate for money and can comfortably walk away when the real job offers come. Don't accept positions that require you to pay for a 1 month crash course in tefl or whatever.

After a year of working here you'll find the offers more serious if you can do this job well or present as such.

You will fare better if your degree is not just a standard BA in an English related subject. Teaching just English in an international school is very competitive. Teaching just English in a language mill is not. They take what they can get. The tefl requirement is just a way to lower your pay expectations. $15 an hour, after tax minimum.

[shanewarne]

Celta, Delta, Tefl or whatever, makes no difference here in Vietnam, really. From my own personal experience and that of my work colleagues, these certs have very little value, but what really counts is experience and who you know.

I landed my first job straight out of my 1 month intensive teacher training course (not a celta) at a well known international college. I worked side by side with teachers 10 times more qualified than me. Some even had a delta but most had years of experience.

These days i won't except anything less than $28 and i still don't have a Celta, Delta or whatever.

[hot_rock]

[shanewarne]

[LettersAthruZ]

[quote="shanewarne"]Celta, Delta, Tefl or whatever, makes no difference here in Vietnam, really. From my own personal experience and that of my work colleagues, these certs have very little value, but what really counts is experience and who you know.





DITTO HERE!

When I (eventually) move back to Tayland, I would love to open and operate one of these TESOL/CELTA/TEFL mills! It's more of a license to print money than a casino, and is of sooooo little practical value to the sap who just dropped anywhere from $295 to $1500+ to get this holiest of holies certificate.......when the guy or gal teaching next to him or her in 'Nam has nothing but a Uni degree in Art History and ZERO TESOL/TEFL/CELTA and is getting paid thee same twenty bucks per classroom hour.

Save yer money......

[barkwood]

I tend to agree that your ability as a teacher and university credentials are far more important than any of the ESL certs. If your English is understood by the Vietnamese student and your personal enthusiasm is expressed in the classroom you can be very successful.

I thought the question was more about which cert to have if one is not a teacher by profession.

[haller_79]

[1st Sgt Welsh]

I have only done a CELTA so I won't comment as to the merits of other TEFL courses which are out there. Anyway I am the first to acknowledge that a CELTA will not make you a fantastic teacher. Most of 'the CELTA method' which I was 'taught' on the course (perhaps 'indoctrinated with' would be a more apt description) I hardly ever use any more; although I regularly cherry-pick certain elements. Indeed, I haven't done a proper CELTA lesson since I finished my CELTA course.

Even when I was doing the course I was convinced that a lot of what we were being told was a load of bull fertilser. We had trainees that were spending three or four hours writing ten page lesson plans so they could conduct a forty minute lesson That's a lot of prep time to explain the difference between the present and past simple, which, incidentally, all the students observing us knew in the first place. Naturally the lesson plans included a diagram of a white board (where you practicised writing exactly what you planned to write on the white board when it was show time) and a lot of other redundant nonsense. Anyway you don't need to be mathematical genius to realise that, in the real world, this amount of prep time is, to put it midly, impractical.

However, one thing I will give the CELTA course is that it helps new teachers get over that 'first year hump'. Like has already been mentioned, you don't really start to learn how to teach until you become experienced. This takes time. But, at least if you have done the CELTA, you start off with a foundation with which to build on. Although you will make mistakes while you are learning as a teacher (which is the best way to learn) you should be, if not a 'good' teacher, at least be sufficiently trained to be a competent one during the process. Furthermore, a CELTA simply makes you more employable (I love the school I work for and I don't think I would have got the job without that piece of paper from Cambridge). Some schools in Vietnam may be somewhat blase about training certificates (at least for the moment) but a CELTA can help unlock doors elsewhere and give you options. Although it's just my two cents it is well worth spending the time and money to get one

[shanewarne]

I can only think of one school (language mill) that cares whether you have a celta or not (they also happen to tbe the same ones who train it). Alll the rest don't give a hoot. Seriously, I know plenty of teachers without a CELTA, who work in HCMC's top schools.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[Rabbit81]