Job Discussion Forums

[cbab]

Hi all,

I've read these forums for almost a year but this is the first time I've ever posted. I greatly appreciate the shared knowledge and experience represented here.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet. Here's my idea: I want to take a year to a year and a half to travel around the world. I want to spend three to six months at a time teaching in a city, backpacking extensively during and between those periods. I am 21 years old and a very recent college graduate. Basically, I want to travel around the world, experience life in different cultures, and pay for it by teaching English. I'm not looking to make a lot of money. I just want to finance my trip with teaching and meet a lot of new people in the process.

Here are my credentials:
BA Intercultural Studies
TEFL Certificate
1 year experience teaching EFL, both in the USA and Amman, Jordan
2 years experience as a teacher's assistant in a tutoring center

Here are my questions:
Does this sounds realistic? Will I be able to find three to six month contracts? What problems will I run into? Any other thoughts?


Thanks all!

cbab

[naturegirl321]

You might be able to do it, but getting teaching jobs for only three months might be hard. You could teach for six months, that might be more likely.

Or, try getting a job with a chain company and you can travel to their different chains. See here for chain schools
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=4556

Placement companies also might be an option.

BUT, where do you want to go? China might be easy for short term. Summer jobs can be found in China, and Korea, and England.

AND, visas might be an issue. Employers might have a hard time getting a visa for someone who's only staying three or six months. OF COURSE; you could say that you're going to stay for a year and up and quit, but that's not the best thing to do.

So yes, I think that in short you could do it, if you commit six months, are up to possibly working under the table, and aren't too concerned with moving up the ladder.

You could, however, just pick a nice paying country, like Korea, Taiwan, or Japan, stay there for a year or two, save up and then travel the world.

Hope this helps

[Glenski]

Where do you want to go? You are likely going to have to deal with time delays in getting work visas, and in places like Japan you are going to face contracts that are mostly 12 months in length. Sure, you can break them, but you only make the rest of us look bad.

Stick to one place unless you can research the right countries that accept such short term work and that offer faster visa service. Personally, I doubt you can find much.

You certainly aren't going to make any money! Setup costs and airfare are not cheap things to deal with, but perhaps this is different in some countries.

[renzobenzo1]

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

You can probably pick up some summer camp jobs in Korea and Taiwan. 4 month contracts exist in Thailand and I have seen 6 month jobs advertised for China.

Just remember though that while it sounds good on paper travelling is taxing and more than not you don't want to waste your time and your employers organising visas and not working them out....also some contracts will have a probation period where you can get pinged with fees and exit clauses if you don't complete...just read it all through properly.

Law

[parrothead]

Anything is possible. How about starting your adventure for 6 months or so in a country that pays well enough to fund the remainder of your trip? Korea maybe? From there you could take your savings and do your traveling without having to worry about work. You would have more time to take part in cultural activities or volunteer.
Just a thought.

[JZer]

[denise]

Some places--Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Middle East--pay enough for you to be able to save quite a bit. You could work for however long you need to (I agree that it could be difficult to get short-term contracts) and then pack up and move on. You can rule out the Middle East, though, simply because you don't have the qualifications or experience. Many other places--based on my own experiences, Europe and South America--will pay enough to live comfortably while you're there, but you can't save very much, so if you need to fund a plane ticket to your next destination, it could be hard. This job really doesn't allow you to travel the world unless you spread it out over several years and get jobs that pay your airfare. You will need quite a bit of your own savings to do what you want to do.

d

[JZer]

[Kootvela]

Getting a job for about 3-4 months is very difficult. The shortest period I managed to hunt was 6 months. Also, such trips from school to school, country to country hardly will look good on your cv, and if they ask you why is that, your reply that you want to travel the world in 360 days will hardly put you in a good light. It takes about 5 months to finally start really doing your job in a new place (my own experience). But if you don't try, we'll never know. You may try starting now, summer camps (these are hell, I'm warning you!) last until late August so you may get a short-term job and then be transferred somewhere else.

[cbab]

Thanks everybody for all your advice and thoughts. You've brought me back down to earth, thankfully. I'm hoping to spend a year in Japan or Korea first and then take the next year to travel.

I'll be sure to spend some time looking through the Asia forums but I want to ask for a brief thought on what kind of job is going to be the best fit for me in Japan or Korea. See my qualifications in the first post above. Should I look for work in universities? Language centers? Private tutoring? A mixture? Any other advice for me?

Thanks a lot!

Chris

[parrothead]

If you go to Japan, try to find a language school that offers free accommodation or will cover your start up costs (like key money). If you have to secure your own housing and set up, you are not going to save much money if one year. A lot of Korean language schools offer free housing, so that would save you a bundle. From my experience in Japan, it took me a full year before I was able to start saving in earnest.

[sarahg]

If you save some money in the higher paying countries, you can do volunteer vacations in the others. You have to pay the organization putting together the trip, but it's usually very reasonable and just to cover your room + food + paperwork. You have contacts, a job and accommodations when you get there and can easily work as short as you want (once you pay the initial fee, extra weeks are often very cheap -- $114/wk in Costa Rica with uvolunteer -- so you can stay as long as you want too). Plus, you often help schools that wouldn't have funding for teachers if not for volunteers. Uvolunteer.org is a great-priced organization that does work in latin america, and i-to-i.com has trips all over the world plus a TEFL certificate included in the cost of the trip.