Job Discussion Forums

medusa · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 50 Location: France / India

Thanks Bobby Sue for giving us a good solid example of someone who has climbed the ESL ladder so to speak right to the top, and I suppose still wanted more so 'moved over' to a different field using her experience. I think it is excellent that she did an MBA with her language school work as a tool. It's something i've pondered over too, not strictly teaching ESL right now myself either, but non native English speakers on how to teach ESL to other non natives using e-learning.... long story but the fact is I do A LOT of business and management and I'd like to use that in the future.

Where did she do her MBA out of curiosity?

zaylahis · Joined: 01 May 2007 Posts: 59

I was working as PR professional for ten years, left to get my TESOL certificate and worked in Istanbul for five years. Started with language schools, moved onto high schools (private and Anadolu) and ended up teaching first-year students at Bilgi. Then I was invited home to take up a very high post in central banking in my home country. The pay scale was 20 or 30 or 40 times that of an EFL teacher. Finished my contract and formed my own company. This year the travelling bug hit me again so I applied for a teaching job in ME, was accepted and am now waiting for my papers. So one can not only return home but one can also go back into teaching abroad later. Admittedly I am not American or British but hey, if a non-caucasian can jump into TEFL AND get jobs abroad, you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Nothing is wasted..whatever you do is counted as experience and knowledge and that is what employers look for.

guangho · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 476 Location: in transit

I'm going back this weekend to start a Ph.D. in Louisiana. You can always go back if your time abroad isn't being wasted.

MELEE · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:07 pm Post subject:

I wholeheartedly agree with Justin.
Can and want to are two entirely different things.
I've been away since 1995. Of course I could go back. Teaching EFL is not my only talent. And I'm not sure I'd want to work in ESL teaching in the US. I'm not at all against retraining, people do it all the time. My uncle became a nurse at 52.

But in my case, I just really don't want to.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

guangho · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 476 Location: in transit

Linguistics.

shuize · Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 1270

As long as one uses time spent overseas wisely, there shouldn't be any serious issue returning home. Problems begin, however, when, after 5 or 10 years of doing nothing to improve his employment prospects, the average EFL teacher decides he's tired of working for crappy wages and is ready to head home only to discover that "language school instructor" doesn't really carry much resume punch and he doesn't have the money needed to retrain for another profession.