Job Discussion Forums

[LarssonCrew]

Vietnam seems to be like China in that if you're white, you're +4 on the dating scale already, if you're not an old man, add a few more points, and they also know your salary is probably going to be above average, so add another few points.

[Spelunker]

Good points there larssoncrew. I'd rather take my chances dating in Viet, than in the UK or the EU where a vicar gets his throat slit, and churches in the UK have to be on high alert. But each to their own.....I also told people that Hanoi airport was better than any I had seen in the UK, they laughed at me....until I showed them some basic photos on my smartphone. The UK is the third world place and unsafe nowadays!!!

[nomad soul]

[D. Amokachi]

I've never lived in Vietnam but my advice, FWIW, is go for it. If you're sick of living a humdrum life in the wet and windy UK then a stint in Asia might be just the tonic. You never know, you could end up really enjoying it and stay out there for good. Or move somewhere else and carry on teaching. If you don't go for it soon then you probably never will and then spend a lifetime wondering 'what if?'

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[RustyShackleford]

[Spelunker]

I knew a teacher, who I worked with in Saigon, who used to rock up to work most days in a three-piece suit Confused.

Gave up on the quote thing, was he normal?

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[Spelunker]

It often is the case that those without degrees can make excellent teachers and stay in Asia forever. The problem with the overqualified ones is they can be a wee bit too picky and choosy and like to gripe about things, the degreeless older blokes just get on with it, and enjoy a few beers from the proceeds. Not always good, but I do think those qualified types should stay at home and teach or work in whatever area their MA is in, TEFL should be left to just those with a B.A. or no degree at all.....just my ten cents.

[danshengou]

[nomad soul]

[TRH]

It seems that people have meandered from the original topic but sometimes that is a good thing. It shows people are engaging with each other.

Since we are on to discussing degrees/no degrees/MA/BA etc, I would like to put in my two cents. The best teachers that I knew and observed were holders of regular teaching jobs who had retired early from both the US and AU. Many school pension systems disincentivize staying past 50 so the fact that they have left their jobs is not necessarily a negative. Both of these gentlemen could manage both the well off kids in the centers on weekends and the classes of 50 in public high and middle schools. They had classroom management down pat and were also able to adapt sometimes irrelevant and insufficient materials to classroom use. I did not know any former elementary school teachers but I expect they would have been similarly skilled in Viet Elementary schools or with the small ones at the center.

I put myself at a level below them because I have a BEd, which is the entry requirement to become a certified teacher in the US, but did not remain in the business long due to financial limitations of the profession and the needs of my then growing family. Even my limited experience, one year plus a full semester student teaching, gave me tools that I know those with a BA and a TEFL cert just do not initially posses. The limited experience that I had, and the full experience that the others had, may be why we were able to take the public school assignments in stride and even find them fulfilling, where others reject such work in dismay.

For my money (again only 2 cents) were I a hiring manager, I would be delighted to find retired teachers even if they were past 50.

[Spelunker]

[TRH]

Spelunker: I think you may have missed my point. I was referring to teachers with 10-20 years of real classroom time under their belts. There's a big difference compared to someone right out of school, yet let's ask ourselves who would get hired first in Vietnam.

Even my limited experience may have better equipped me to deal with 50+ classes. I taught not in an inner city school but in an area that could be considered rural poverty stricken with almost all the students being children of immigrants. I can see how someone really fresh out of college with teaching credentials might struggle depending on where they were trained.

[Spelunker]

OK, no harm, nor foul.