Job Discussion Forums

[Moore]

I get the impression that you�re not earning very much and possibly not working in a very good school if you consider your job to be a "sham" and "earning b*gger all" - having taught for a good many years, and gone through very similar feelings, I have learned that when you do get that feeling it�s because you�re in a bad place- as in school/country. It is possible, without too much effort, to get good money teaching tefl, but if not , you very quickly become demoralised when you can�t even make it to the end of the month with any cash, let alone fly home and be able to buy a round for your mates.

My recommendations to you are:

1. Try looking for a better school with better conditions/support
2. If you�re getting the same deal offered to you everywhere then change country
3. Try finding extra revenue doing other work on the side and/or picking up a few private lessons
4. Try going home (UK?) and sit in a cr*ppy office in the dark and the rain for a year and then go back to teaching seeing all the benifits with refreshed eyes
5. Realize that you�re going through a bad patch in TEFL, but it always gets better when you do something about your situation

I really hope this doesn�t sound preachy: I�ve been there with those feelings, but don�t give up on TEFL - it really is a good job, but you have to sort out the money side of things, otherwise sooner or later it can get you down.

[hamel]

wow, this is a long thread. back to one of the first posts. in the united states many people have really good career jobs without a BA degree. who you know and people skills and luck seem really important. i know many people in this category.
canada's economy can be challenging to break into. i read that when jim carrey was in high school his whole family had to work as security guards just to keep the family afloat after his dad lost his accountant job. i really like canada by the way.


i landed in korea by accident and now have a family here. i had seven years of higher ed. when i first came here. i think there is a need for esl teachers in countries like korea. one problem i've seen is the turn over amoung teachers. korea can be a tough place to live and soooo isolating at times. the current crop of young teachers are really hard even to speak to at all, and usually are canadian and twenties.

the economy is suffering and english isn't as popular these days and folks are talking about requiring tesl or a teacher's degree. well, the trouble is that teaching jobs just don't pay enough and there is too much turn over to warrant these qualifications. what does one do who has years of experience in the field and is already "over qualified"--my opinion is that a creative and caring person can teach esl, period. there are so many great materials in korea.

have you spent much time in public school classrooms in the west? i did in the united states, and i was not impressed with much of the teaching i witnessed. and teaching degrees are great/impressive, but how does that really prepare one to teach esl?
thanks for the interesting posts so far.
hamel

oh, i think that teaching esl is a useful job and possibly a profession.