Job Discussion Forums

[thomthom]

I'm feeling somewhat like an ESL goldilocks right now. Having lived in Seoul and Tokyo before I've got a sense of the pros and cons of both. I saved bags of cash in Korea, but didn't enjoy the country that much, whereas I absolutely loved Japan, whilst being permanently skint.
Could China offer a happy medium?

HK has long been somewhere I've dreamed of and it seems quintessentially oriental. I prefer the prospect of going somewhere that has long been developed and had time to liberalise. However: it seems that the majority of schools there hire only teachers with a full CELTA or teaching degree, and perhaps if I gained employment with one of the few that do not, I'd find myself in a comparable money situation to the one I was in in Tokyo.

I'm unsure about Shanghai. It looks tremendously exciting, but I'm worried it will be too similar to Seoul (a place where peoples' social attitudes haven't developed quite as quickly as the architecture). Without a doubt, though, it looks easier to land a well-paying job in Shanghai with only a BA, online TEFL, and some experience.

So skip to the chase:

Do I have any chance of getting a decent job in HK without a CELTA?

Would it be worth doing a CELTA just for the sake of going to HK?

Generally which city do you prefer? (You might gloss over that one, I can Google it)