Job Discussion Forums

[chrisms86]

I'm having trouble deciding where to teach. After considering a number of factors I think I've narrowed it down to Turkey, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. A factor I'm now considering as I look at jobs is that I really don't want to be teaching kindergartners. This seems to knock most of Taiwan out, as well as Korea if I want to work block shifts.

Is there any place where teaching adults still has reasonable hours? In the interest of full disclosure, here is my main concern with each country. These can be offset if I am allowed to teach adults instead of kids:

Turkey: forced to get a CELTA which I have to go slightly into debt to afford when I factor in living expenses for the month I take it. Will be ok if I can land a job within 2-3 months of finishing the cert.

Japan: jobs seem very competitive and impossible to land for an inexperienced new grad

Korea: pay is relatively bad now considering the bad news one hears coming out of there, and most of the teaching is little kids. Good backup option if all else fails.

Vietnam: probably need a CELTA to get decent pay, can't take a course until Feb because of Tet.

[Mike_2007]

Hi,

I taught in Turkey for 5 years and I think you'd find it quite easy to get private lessons there to top up your income. This could help you initially, especially if you have a little debt after going through the CELTA course (or for extra money during the course to prevent your getting into debt in the first place). Privates pay reasonably well in Turkey (or at least they used to) and Turks were very interested in taking up classes with native speakers.

Mike

[chrisms86]

Thanks Mike. How do you typically find folks wanting private lessons? What is the typical work schedule and pay like per client, or is too variable to say?

[Mike_2007]

Hi,

I left Turkey in 2004 so you should ask on the Turkey forum to get the latest info.

I advertised on a site called sahibinden.com. I kept an ad on there full-time, updating it monthly to keep it towards the top of the listings. I would say I got about 50% of my clients from that site, and about 50% of my clients through recommendations. Turks seem very willing to recommend people and so every satisfied student would bring me at least one or two more potential students.

Regarding the work schedule, the vast majority want lessons after work or at weekends. This meant classes most evenings from 6-8 or 7-9, plus generally 4-6 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. I also had some students who took lessons during the day Mon-Fri (unemployed, housewives, students, shift workers, etc.). I never really looked into in-house contracts whilst I was there so I can't say how readily they are available, but I imagine you could teach managers in their offices during the day if you don't mind the travelling.

Pay is, as you say, variable. I gave all lessons at my place and because of this I was able to offer a very competitive price (not having to waste time or money travelling). At the time it worked out as about 25-30 euro a lesson. This might seem cheap now, and indeed, if you were only giving privates as a top-up, you'd probably want to charge more. As it was my main income I offered good prices in order to attract long-term students and to maximize my time. At that time (1999-2004) I was able to live very comfortably and save quite a bit too.

Best,
Mike