Job Discussion Forums

[mishb93]

I've had a brief look around the site and haven't found anything up-to-date on this.

Does anyone know about the possibility of teaching in the smaller, more rural Vietnamese towns? I understand the smaller the town, the smaller the pay, but some have also suggested lower living costs, so I'm wondering if it balances out a bit. I'd be willing to sacrifice a bit of income to live in a quieter, more peaceful place, but it'd still be nice to have a decent income.

Any info will be much appreciated.
I have a TEFL certificate and a BSc in biology. No teaching experience.

Thanks!

[mishb93]

I take it you haven't found out any more than I have mentioned about teaching in rural VN then?
I will also be arriving in November! In HCMC.
I cannot speak any Vietnamese myself.
Perhaps we can help each other find out what we can about the rural areas.

[nomad soul]

[Dream_Seller]

This most important thing you guys/gals should do is to ask yourselves the right questions? Why do you want to move to rural Vietnam....Immersion, to learn the language (everybody wants your language), do ecological research? Pay off college loans as quickly as possible? What kind of lifestyle do you want?

Some teachers literally work every single day, then spend at least a good amount of their hard labor (if not all) on travel. Perhaps in rural areas some flee to Cambodia, Thailand or The Philippines periodically and spend their savings.

The reason I say this is that demand is high, perhaps higher in smaller towns as less foreigners desire to live in them. Expect to be ripped off alot your first year. As well as expect to experience some culture shock (even if your heritage is Vietnamese). At the end of the day you still will be capable of saving more than your friends back home provided you don't come here with outstanding debt.[/b]

Ask yourselves the right questions, then act accordingly.

[sigmoid]

[SimonW1986]

Having been here 2 years i'm about to move from HCM to Thu Dau Mot for a teaching position with an excellent package. They do exist just not in big numbers.

However i've recently noticed an increase on Facebook message boards such as Teacher in Saigon, Teachers in Vietnam (there are a few) an increase in jobs advertised throughout the country by agencies. It appears some companies have been set up either as recruiters or more likely offering native speakers to the public schools (something Vietnam is keen to get in every public school I believe) which are offering mixed salaries and benefits to live in different provinces.

I've seen some offering $1000 up to $2500 a month with different benefits including housing, Vietnamese lessons and a free motorbike.

Although they seem more prominent online now I wouldn't bank your life on the companies or the conditions being great unless you like working in non air-conditioned schools with 50 kids. Some people might.

[jhma]

I do not know why my post was deleted. What did I do wrong so I can fix it?

This is a great discussion going. I am willing to put in the time, money and effort to try out anything rural or not. I have been to Vietnam before and lived rural areas and in the city Long Xuyen and HCMC before so I have a general understanding and openess for change.

mishb93 - I have 3 relatives teaching English as non-native speakers in southern province of An Giang in public schools. Things are moving along on my end. But this November trip to Vietnam is more of a trial for me and my sister to try out. I am really hoping to depend on my relatives for support at first. So it depends on them if they are willing to get me into schools and teach me the basics first. I don't think anything is a guarantee but I am determined to get working. So us finding work together really depends on my family support at first which could be a obstacle to overcome at first.

[nomad soul]

[TRH]

This is just to reinforce what has been posted already.

Beware of falling for an idealistic vision of rural Vietnam. My wife is from Ben Tre "City" in the delta. I use quotation marks because it would be an incorporated town in most of the US but it is the provincial capital. I love to visit there but living would be another story. The first few days are a peaceful respite from HCMC and a literal breath of fresh air. Then after I have ridden my bicycle around for a few days, boredom starts to set in. My language center once asked me to go there for a week to teach a seminar for Vietnamese public school English teachers. My wife had a prior commitment so I declined and the school director went instead. When she returned she told me that it was nice but incredibly boring. If Vietnamese from the big city find it boring, imagine if you had to live there with only a few people to speak to. There is only one language school there and it is very recently opened (as noted by Sigmoid,) so opportunities are limited, particularly if you run into problems with the owners.

To jhmain particular: If your relatives are schoolteachers, it is less likely that they would be the type to see you as a cash cow but please remember that they live on a ridiculously small salary for college graduates even by VN standards. (Of course the same could be said of teachers in most any country.) I don't think knowing them will necessarily secure you employment but they could tell you where to go to look. I have heard of a few HCMC principals trying to break out of the pattern but most public school placement is through private agencies. Foreign public school teachers usually meet each class one or two days a week, focusing on speaking. Students meet with the VN English teachers the other days for grammar and reading. I was fortunate that the VN English teachers in my school were very competent and professional even if not all were fully fluent. I do not have a citation, but I have read and heard that in rural areas, most teachers are failing to pass the Cambridge FCE which represents B2 intermediate on the CEFR scale. This may actually represent an opportunity to "teach the teacher" in private lessons but the ability to pay may be limited.

Yes, as SimonW1986 said, public school teaching is 50 students a class but I loved it. I did notice that the foreign teachers who did the best in this environment were those who were trained teachers, usually retired from a full teaching career in their own countries. This is both in terms of effectiveness and being able to cope on their part. Many others lasted only a few weeks. Excuse the mixed metaphor but it may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is the real deal.

By the way, I see that the center of An Giang Province is T.P. Long Xuyen. On the map it makes T.P Ben Tre look like a major metropolis. One good thing may be that nice beaches are maybe 2 hours away by motorbike. Delta beaches are basically accumulations of silt instead of sand.