Job Discussion Forums

[saint57]

Yeah, I still browse here. Give me a PM.

Peace

saintinmalaysia.blogspot.com

[sly1139]

Yo, saint....

So, what's a guy to do with a bach degree and one year of ESL experience for a job in Malaysia????

[Jati]

There are many private colleges and language schools in the KL area that would hire a native English speaker with Bachelors degree and TESL experience. You pretty much have to show up in person, however, as they don't like to hire over the internet and often need someone NOW, not in 2-3 months. December is a good month to go around and ask about openings as many programs start new semesters in January.

Teak

[sly1139]

Thanks for that info. My contract isn't up until February. I am going to KL for New Years. What is the best idea for compiling a list of potenial schools? I guess google would be a start, but maybe you know of a better way???? Thanks again...

Also, I could do a tesol program in march but wan't sure if it was worth it???

[torrentstorm]

[Henry_Cowell]

Malaysia is one of those places where there is an over-abundance of well-qualified English speakers to teach English. The demand for foreigners to teach English is not nearly as high as in places such as Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, and elsewhere in Asia.

Getting to know people and their institutions in Malaysia is probably the best way to get the job you want because very few of those jobs are available. Those on the ground with connections will usually get them.

[torrentstorm]

[thatguy26]

[Henry_Cowell]

[Jati]

Check with some of the larger private colleges, especially in Petaling Jaya (PJ) and Subang Jaya (SJ). They like to hire native speakers as English teachers. They also have various American Degree, UK Degree, Australian Degree, and Canadian Degree programs and like to have a foreigner for cachet. Here is a list:

Taylors College
Inti College
Metropolitan College

The above three all live on the same block in Subang Jaya and, in fact, Metropolitan is owned by the Inti Group. One visit and you can see all three.

Sunway University
Segi College International -- both also in Subang Jaya

University College Sedaya International - south of KL, in Cheras I believe; they also have a Medical College campus in Kuala Terengganu and I know the former English teacher there; she just quit and left Malaysia so maybe there is an opening.

Nilai College
Inti College, Nilai
La Trobe U program at Nilai College

Both in the 'burb of Nilai which is closer to Seremban (Negri Sembilan) than to KL. Close to KLIA.

In PJ there are several colleges in the immediate "city" centre: Stamford College is the only name in my brain right now.

Downtown KL also has a slew of "colleges", mostly occupying shoplots:
Cosmopoint
De Montfort
Informatics
Universiti Kuala Lumpur (used to be the Kolej Teknologi Pelajaran Mara, Mara is a Malay-edu scheme: UniKL, they love their acronyms here)

KLIUC - Kuala Lumpur Infrastructue University College (Malay-run)

Of course there are the big public universities, but they tend to only hire foreigners who have the PhD and research publications.

Many more but my memory is lagging this morning.

Check out a good bookstore, Kinokuniya (KLCC), MPH (several malls), and Borders (Imbi Plaza); they will have a book about Malaysian university education which lists the various universities, colleges, college-universities and etc. with addresses and phone numbers. Best to visit in person, however; resume-reading is not a big activity.

Teak

[Jati]

Sedaya International University College recently opened a medical campus in the beautiful east coast town of Kuala Terengganu. I know the woman that was hired to teach English there last year and she just quit (for personal reasons, not work-related). They are probably looking for a replacement.

The chances of being hired from overseas is probably very poor now and you really have to be "on the ground" as someone else posted recently. Many Malaysians are coming out of their certificate, diploma, and degree mills now with paper qualifications in TESL. Most cannot carry on a conversation in English (I have tried talking to some of my college's recent new hires) but that doesn't matter to the administrators who don't really care what does and does not happen in the classrooms. This current economic downturn is not looking good for us expats.

Teak

[Jati]

Another place to look for TESL jobs is at the KL Expat forum:

http://www.expatkl.com/v3mb/forumdisplay2.php?fid=6&page=1&ref=1

This particular member, ayeshah7, is always seemingly looking for teachers. Here is the latest posting:

posted on 20-11-2008 at 05:52 PM Edit Post Reply With Quote
-------------------------------------
English Teaching Position

A private college is looking for qualified/experienced ESL teachers for immediate employment. We offer flexibility, a competitive rate and a pleasant work environment. Part-time/full-time and short-term contract positions available. PM me for more details.
--------------------------------------

It probably isn't the best position out there, but once one gets into the country and settled, it is easier to look around and jump at opportunities that come up from time-to-time.

Additionally, teaching content subjects is always a possibility. In 13 years of teaching, I have only spent one year teaching English and the rest teaching different subjects in English. The past three years I have been able to teach content subjects (engineering) in Malay, which makes me even more employable.

Teak

[torrentstorm]

[Jati]

Another good site to check out regarding Life in Asia is the Stickman Bangkok website. It is, of course, about life in Thailand but there are some similarities to Malaysia especially in regards to work life.

http://www.stickmanbangkok.com

I have copied an email that was just sent in to the website regarding a trend in Thai language schools whereby they are hiring non-native speakers of English, who are not Thai. This trend may not happen in Malaysia since there are plenty of Malaysians capable of teaching English, but the attitude of the administrators is very similar. Be aware!

------------------------------------
Bye bye Farang, hello Flip!

Does there appear to be a trend of more and more Thai schools hiring non-native speakers to teach English?

Granted there may be some schools way out in the country where no native speaker lives in retirement or is willing to go to teach. The usual culprit is the low salary, which many Filipinos seem only too happy to accept, if it means a ticket out of their archipelago and a chance to make money to send to their un-supported family with scores of siblings and maybe children of their own. However, it seems that more and more of the private schools, even with English Programmes intact, where the tuition paid by parents certainly provides enough funding to hire native speakers, are increasing tipping the ratio in favor of non-Thai Asian teachers.

At one school I know, white teachers are now the minority teaching English. They have been replaced by "native-speaker" Filipinas, who not only never complain about what the school provides them, but also have earned their Bachelor's and even Master's degrees outside of Thailand. While they can be admired for their tenacity in practicing their second-language of Tagalog daily in every conversation with a fellow Filipino at school (remember that they're native English speakers, despite their grammatical shortcomings), what makes these high-achieving professional teachers most remarkable is that many of them earned their B.A. and sometimes M.A. or M.Ed. at the prodigious age of eighteen! Rather than be proud of them and show them off to the parents of the students, however, the administration sees fit not to display them prominently at functions, on the website, banners, or promotional brochures. In fact, all the pictures of foreign faculty were recently removed, leaving only the Thai teachers on the wall for the parents to admire.

In light of this, it's curious how over the past year the boss has told three different white teachers that if she had her way, she'd fire all the 'Farangs' tomorrow and replace them exclusively with Filipinas, who are far superior teachers and never complain. Obviously she has yet to scrutinize some of the classroom whiteboards and tests, where examples of this superior English instruction may be found. Could it be, on the other hand, the lower salary which can be paid to the non-native "native" speakers? When discussing the administration's hiring practices in terms of the bottom-line for the profits of said business, oops, school regardless of parental complaints, one teacher opined, "They can't help it. Their greed surpasses their racism."

----------------------------------
BTW, I added the paragraph breaks into the above email. There were no breaks in the original.

Teak

[torrentstorm]