Job Discussion Forums

[Iosif]

First of all,hello, I'm from Romania,and recently I decided to change my path,my career choice and become a teacher.

If this will work out,or I shall scream in pain and frustration,I can't say,but I hope that I will be a good teacher.

With the help of my parents I opened a small business,I even managed to go to China,mostly for buying merchandise,never really got to see anything special like the wall or the forbidden city. The economic crisis,corruption,bureaucracy and a lot of other issues helped in pretty much killing all my hopes and dreams of ever opening a business again.


Since I am for the moment unemployed,and in the past I actually wanted to teach.....well it's not too late,I'm 28 not 58 so I can still try and see if I am made out for this.

Now I looked at China because they do not require so many diplomas and years of experience as for instance countries in EU or the Arab world,and since I was in China before(not as a tourist living only in 5 star hotels),I have a vague idea about certain things in that country.

My questions would mostly consist about:

I am not a native,how much will that affect my chances of employment and a good pay?

I have a few months teaching experience at a university and an English camp,I have the required diploma as in psycho pedagogical module,but I do not want to enter the corrupt state system in Romania to become a teacher,all I need to do is take a national test and then get assigned to some high school in the city or some place close to the city,depending on my results.

People in my country are mostly discouraged by a completely useless,wasteful and bureaucratic system,education is no exception.

If I do not have years of experience,nor am I a native,what could I realistically expect? In terms of pay,conditions and so on. My IELTS overall score is of 7.5(IELTS academic),could have gotten that 8 if my handwriting skills would have been better,to my shame I spend too much time writing with the help of the keyboard so my other writing......sort of deteriorated.
TEFL for the moment is out of the question,I can't afford 2000$ on a piece of paper. I have heard about online TEFL degrees that are not even half the price,but many places require the real thing,they will not accept an online degree.

So what would you people say,or write about this? What could I expect?

Btw,my university was in International Relations and European Studies.....not much to do with English teaching,but it did not have anything to do with managing a small business either and I did that just fine for almost 6 years. I am also finishing my master's,hopefully this year since I have a lot of other things to do,the master is in evaluation of public policy.

[Larry Legend]

The only thing that I can say for certain.. with you not having much experience, or being a native speaker is that DD Dragon will hire you. They will tell parents or whomever that you are from England or something. Salary as a first year teacher teacher there is 9,000 give or take. More of a clown job than actual teaching but it's easy and requires no office hours.

[buffalobill12323]

[Larry Legend]

Yeah, I was being nice. I know that DD Dragon has hired non-native speakers before and told everyone they were from a different country, so you could try that, but it will be difficult to find many jobs since your English isn't quite up to par at the moment. Your appearance might make all the difference.

[Iosif]

I can't say that my English is that bad,I mean for crying out loud if an American school in Amman actually wanted to recruit me,I have to be doing something right. As I mentioned my score mainly suffered because of my writing skills. What can I say,I write a lot on the pc and my hand-writing suffered over the years,it's not about the spelling,I would like to think I have no major issues there,it's more about the readability....well in any case,that is that,regardless of how I would feel about it,maybe next time I will get a better score.

I have seen teachers in China and especially in the Arab countries you would not believe. People from Pakistan with almost no experience,a level of English that would not even qualify for a 5 on the IELTS general score,yet they are in Saudi Arabia,earning between 2500-3500 USD. I have seen video demos on youtube of so called teachers who can barely speak 2-3 words,non natives,yet they have almost 10K RMB salary,how the hell is that possible?

Also what is the adequate level? I see many job postings about teaching in some private school for 12 year olds or in a kindergarten,do those people actually care about the IELTS score? or a high TOEFL score? Will you be teaching the passive voice to them? or present perfect continuous?

Will your erudite vocabulary be needed?

I am asking these to construct a proper image,what is needed. If you require a native that only talks and says hello,maybe writes a few words and teaches really basic stuff like conjugations, maybe a small power point presentation explaining the tenses.....I mean is that what it is all about?

Is that why you need vast amounts of teaching experience and hundreds of diplomas? Or is there more to this story that I am not getting.

What exactly do you teach for students aged 14 to 18 for instance? Oral English? high level grammar? both? Do you talk about your personal life? Is anyone actually interested in that,do people care about what life is in America or UK or whatever other country or do they care more about learning high level English?

I am sorry if I come out as rude perhaps,but I am actually interested in what the true requirements are,they kind of differ from country to country. For instance a native can't just come into Romania and teach right away(maybe for 5-8 year old children) like in China,you have a lot more to prove since the level is a bit....higher,regardless of how and what you might think or Romania.

I am trying to decide what road to take and in what direction,for that I kind of need to know the roads ahead of me,what prospects does China offer,what is the required level to teach there and so on.

Now obviously my IELTS score is not as good as I would have hoped,will have to improve on that as soon as possible. Who knows,maybe I just suck,maybe my English is not adequate for teaching,I am considering that as well. But I will not know unless I can construct a proper image of the road ahead,what I see on youtube can be misleading,that is why I wrote on this forum so other people might share some of their thoughts as in what is it exactly that is required.

[Larry Legend]

There are no real requirements in China; depends on the school- they will make all of the fake documents for you if that's their thing. I'm not even sure of this now since things seem to be getting more strict in China. Maybe they won't care that you aren't a native speaker. Maybe they will care based on what you look like. Maybe they won't like your accent- whatever it sounds like. Who knows. I gave you one option that is realistic...beyond that, I'd say...just apply and see for yourself. Can't hurt.. .

[thebroformerlyknownaschou]

[Javelin of Radiance]

This guy's English is no worse than some of the regular native speakers that post on here, people who wouldn't have a hope in hell of being an English teacher were it not for them holding the right passport.

Plenty of schools that will accept non-native speakers, just need to cast a wide net to find them. Start applying and see what happens.

[LarssonCrew]

His English is also better than many wu mao's who post on here, who practice writing their English everyday!

[Toast]

Yeah - his English is fine. Punctuation is for shit, but so is everyone's now with this smart phone revolution making everyone dummer.

"I want, Eat table?"
"Huh?"
"It's not me. It's the phone!"
"Wadevahh"

I know some native speakers who might struggle with a 7.5 band IELTS score.

One old kiwi biddy I worked with was 90% deaf. 80% of the conversation with her was her replying "Hmmmm????" to everything anyone said. Refused to use a hearing aid. Would love to see how much the listening portion of an IELTS pulled down *her* overall score.

More or less all of us know some non-natives who are teaching English. At my school alone around a third of the teachers are Eastern European or East Asian of some type. Point being the jobs are definitely out there. As mentioned shoot out the resumes. You're young, presumably white, your English is decent enough. If a school is desperate enough they'll work out a way around that pesky passport issue.

[doogsville]

[roadwalker]

[NoBillyNO]

[fat_chris]

[buffalobill12323]

A second rate job in a second rate city is possible - but does anyone really aspire to that? For a decent job, its a sad but true fact that
his English is not bad, but not native. Thats what Chinese employers want most of all - then the govt. has its stipulations. For these reasons he will never find a worthwhile job.



My original advice, though apparently unwelcome, was well meant - he would struggle to get a decent job here. That was my honest opinion and it stands. If he wants to get all bitch assed defensive about it - then WTF ask for advice in the first place.

Now I looked at China
If this will work out,or I shall scream in pain and frustration
Will your erudite vocabulary be needed
I can't say that my English is that bad,- - - - -no, it is not. It's just not good enough


have seen teachers in China and especially in the Arab countries you would not believe. People from Pakistan with almost no experience,a level of English that would not even qualify for a 5 on the IELTS general score,yet they are in Saudi Arabia,earning between 2500-3500 USD.

Don't believe you

I have seen video demos on youtube of so called teachers who can barely speak 2-3 words,non natives,yet they have almost 10K RMB

Don't believe you