Job Discussion Forums

hp34 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Alberta, Canada

Hi all! I am a 34 year old female with a B.Ed and a teaching certificate. I am very interested in teaching English abroad for a year. My main questions deal with finding somewhere that would encourage a family to come along with the teacher. I have a two and a half year old boy and a wonderful and supportive husband who is very interested in us pursuing this opportunity.
Are there any opinions out there on where a safe place to go would be (health and physical safety) for a family group? Are there many TEFL'rs who do take a family along with them? We are doing this for the experience, but do not want to come out behind moneywise as well, so somewhere where we can make a fair wage would be best.

I am taking the Oxford Seminars TEFL course in June (it is one of those 60 hour courses).

Thanks in advance for your help in answering these questions and any other advice you may have!

mlomker · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 378

Do you have a few years of public school experience? If so then you'll be a lot better off looking into International Schools rather than standard TEFL positions. It would also expand the number of countries where your salary could reasonably support a family because they often pay twice as well as the best TEFL positions.

The highest paying countries for TEFL (Korea, Taiwan, and Japan) are at about US $2k/month. I'd imagine that you could break even in those countries (they'll pay your airfare but probably not the rest of the family) and they'll have modern medical care. You'll need to give some thought to insurance, though, given your young child. TEFLers often don't have much to speak of and buying your own international policy will cost a bit.

saint57 · Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 3:02 am Post subject:

What are your teachable subjects? You can probably find a job teaching something other than English which will pay more and be more accommodating. If you're a fully qualified teacher, the Oxford seminar won't do you much good.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

If possible, look for a position in an int`l school. I am here in Japan with my wife and 2 young kids, the youngest was born here. I teach in a university and my wife looks after the kids. This would be impossible if I worked in a conversation school as the money would not go far enough.

hp34 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Alberta, Canada

I have taught for several years, and am currently a substitute teacher in the area I live in now. I am an elementary music specialist but do not know if that would be of any value overseas.

I thought that the TEFL course would be a necessity...I would certainly prefer NOT to pay the $857 that they charge, but their Teacher Placement program sounds very helpful as I would not know where to begin or how to look over a contract to see if it is a proper one.

Thanks for the help so far...

Any other hints?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Wherever you decide, make sure your salary can support the 3 of you, or that your husband can work, and that you have reliable daycare. Your salary won't support 3 in Japan, and daycare is either terribly expensive or nonexistent (and you'd better know some Japanese).

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

Elementary music specialists might not be in very high demand. In that case, the TEFL option might be a good one: again, International schools would be the preferred option but there might be more of them willing to offer a decent salary to someone who could cover both music and EFL, rather than either one of those on its own.

Chris_Crossley · Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:32 pm Post subject: What a "shambles"!

There have been a number of occasions when people have suggested to me that I go to work in an international school since I, too, am a qualified high school teacher (albeit in science, not TEFL), have an MBA and have thus far accumulated 4 1/2 years of experience of teaching in China.

I was totally single, foot-loose and fancy-free when I came to China in October 2001, but now I have a wife, a daughter (now just past her second birthday), and a job that I like very much and which pays well - so well, in fact, that we have a mortgage in a brand-new property (but guess who is ultimately going to have to pay for it all!).

Nevertheless, I do not intend to stay in this job forever nor in the place where we now live - although, if and when we move, we could always rent it out to my wife's parents, since they live in a different district of the same city!

I am currently undertaking an MA in Education with the UK Open University, and so going to an international school after I (hopefully!) complete it by the end of 2007 is an option just in case, for example, I am unsuccessful in getting a full-time salaried position back home.

With teaching experience, you would certainly do well to search for international schools in countries like China: you can go to an interactive map of China at http://www.shambles.net/chinaand scroll down to find a list of links to international schools in this vast country that is the Middle Kingdom. There is also a list of curriculum areas underneath this and music just happens to be one of them. You can go to http://www.shambles.net/music for further information. There is, of course, one link for ESL at http://www.shambles.net/esl, which (at least on my screen) is highlighted in yellow on the bottom row - you can't miss it!

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

Beware of Oxford Seminars job placement service for its graduates! You are better off finding a job yourself. I activated my job placement service in May and the so-called coordinator never took the initiative to contact me other than to confirm that she had received my activation and later, the documents needed to process my case. I was told a recruiter had been working on my behalf to find me a job but I never heard from this recruiter, or any others that the coordinator later told me she had given my documents to. When I e-mailed her, she told me that because (1) I was not a university degree holder and (2) because of my Chinese background the recruiter was having a difficult time finding positions for me. She also used this excuse that because I had "insisted" on working in Dalian it made things more difficult. That was of course a lie because I had only said that my preferance was Dalian, but never did I say Dalian ONLY. As for the no-degree and Chinese-face problems, I received plenty of job offers from my own job search and even had to turn down a few contracts before deciding on well-paying job in a northeastern Chinese university.

The Oxford Seminars course is useful for anyone without any teaching experience. To me it was just spending some money to buy a piece of paper in order to increase my marketability.