Job Discussion Forums

[nrgstar2000]

In your opinion, is there a place ?

[31]

No

[molly farquharson]

yes there is, but it is not easy. You need a masters degree in TESOL or linguisitics and your English has to be perfect. If you are really interested, you should go to the TESOL conference and check out the employment clearinghouse. look on the web site (tesol.org i think). You might be able to get on with a language school with fewer qualifications, but you need to be aware that the market in the US is glutted with teachers right now because fewer international students are able to get visas these days. So, it is possible, but you will have to work at it.

[Bahcevan]

Language schools here are not the phonomenon that they are
in other parts of the world. There are very few, and the people
who go to them are Americans with the money to spend on trying
to learn some other language, not emigrated people who don't
speak english yet. There is virtually nobody here who grew up
in the US, and doesn't speak English. The people who need to
learn the english are gonna be mostly poorer people from various
parts of the world. The market is slim. If you want to teach english
in a land of english speakers, you will most likely have a couple of
main possibilities: community colleges (junior colleges) or in an
actual university if you have some high-powered credentials.
Overall, the US has many people with ability. But if you have a
special niche that you can exploit (if you happen to be from a
country whose immigrants live in the US, for example) you
can probably make something work. Personally, I would
avoid the US like a hippie avoids soap - doing that kind of
work here would likely prove a disappointment.
Maybe Canada is better.

[31]

TEFL is exile. It is pitiful to see time and time again how teflers and their foreign husbands, wives and partners trying to find a way to go back to USA/UK. Once you have done a few years tefl abroad your chances are very limited. Your qualifications and experience are not valued and count against you. Retraining is expensive and whose got savings?

[dmb]

two questions 31.
Is your wife Turkish and is that why you are 'stuck' here?
Why are you so bitter?

[31]

To answer your 3 questions:

Yes
No

Trying to make a living, support a family and put up with all the crap in TEFL. It is exile and it is very hard to go back if after 10 plus years when you have no marketable skills or qualifications and you have changed your mind. By changed your mind I mean you have decided that you don`t want to be a foreigner anymore.

[dmb]

come on 31 think about your skills as a teacher. they are marketable and transferable

[molly farquharson]

people older than mid-30s have gone back to school to upgrade their skills. seems it would be better than spending the rest of one's life being bitter. there are scholarships if you dig deep enough and if you are determined enough.

[31]

I am sure it is more egalitarian in North America but in the UK if you don`t have 3 years worth of NI stamps you have to pay for it yourself. Of course if you have been on the dole you qualify sinc e your stamps are paid for.

[31]

[dmb]

31 you can pay your NI while living abroad and if you have not paid in years you can pay in arrears, it's not that expensive. I posted a thread a while back about it. I can look out the website if you like

[31]

[dmb]

as i said you can pay the arrears. When i last went back to the uk i paid off ten years. I can't remember how much it was, again i can check

[31]

yes yes yes yes you are right. It entitlements you to the basics-it does not entitle you to a grant why you upgrade your qualifications.