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KalerDayblaze
Joined: 21 Nov 2008
Posts: 4
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 Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: Longing for Vietnam, but craving Information :( |
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Hello all, this is my first posts!! (Little excited, sorry) I am a 22 year old undergraduate at UMASS Amherst, obtaining my B.S. in Geology. (Yes, I've been looking at rocks for 7+hrs a day for the last 3 years...why? I'm still not sure) Anyways- I'm earning my degree in June and am looking to depart in Aug/Sept. I have been looking online for information as to what is the best method of getting a good (nothing special... but enough to live in a small place and have money to "party" as much as I see fit, I enjoy a good time)
First question- Do you actually need your diploma, or is a printed out offical transcript of your grades and showing you graduated good enough to get a job? (I ask because i just found out it takes UMASS about 3 months yo get your actual diploma to you... very weak in my opinion)
Second question- Are there a lot of terrible jobs? The more I read it seems like almost every school pays late if at all and treats if english teachers like "shyt" Is this true or are the bad schools/jobs few and far between?
Third question- What is a realistic asking salary and benefits (help with housing / medical insurence / visa help / etc etc) should I ask for with the following qualifications:
first- Just a B.S.
second- B.S. and a TEFL or TESOL
What about dateing there? I am 22 and think Asian people are beautiful... I don't have a "fetish" though.. thats just weird (no offence to anyone)
Is HCMC the best place to teach... and the best experience of vietnam? Any other locations I should look at?
Finally, is there any other information people can think of and share with me? I'm very excited to go and have not been this excited to do something in as long as I can remember... (this may be because the past 15 years of my life have been devoted to learning / academics... ) Please share anything with me that you feel is good information about being an ELT in Vietnam.
Thanks for taking the time to help a fellow ELT-
Seth |
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haller_79
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 145
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| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:30 am Post subject: |
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Yes you need to bring original documents, in my experience they're very stringent about that stuff.
Yes there are many terrible jobs and schools here.
Schools pay upwards of $17 ph, depending on experience. Either way you'll have no problems with expenses here as an English teacher.
Yes you can date VN girls (just don't be surprised if they propose to you within 3 months).
I don't think HCMC is the best place to live in VN, but many people would disagree.
Anyway you're only 22, you have nothing to lose - good luck. |
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Vietman
Joined: 19 Sep 2004
Posts: 19
Location: HCMC
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| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:09 am Post subject: |
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| Take my advice. Stay away from Vietnam. It will suck you and wring you out. You're better off in Korea, Japan or Thailand. |
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erica63
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:13 am Post subject: |
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| Vietman wrote: |
| Take my advice. Stay away from Vietnam. It will suck you and wring you out. You're better off in Korea, Japan or Thailand. |
Yeah, if you want to live in a cramped, tiny apartment and work 8-5 every day. Here you can work a few hours here, a few hours there.... and live in a nice house, have a ridiculous amount of disposable income that will go really far here. SE Asia is a lot warmer (literally and figuratively) than NE Asia as well. I think this is a far better destination for teaching, and my friends who are teaching in Korea and Japan who came to visit have concurred.
Kaler, the major schools in HCMC (VUS, ILA, RMIT, Apollo, Cleverlearn) are very reputable and will always pay you on time. Don't worry about that. There are about 1,000 language schools in HCMC, so of course some aren't reputable. But I don't know anyone who has ever had problems with any of the major companies. Plus, it's easy as hell to teach here... many schools don't even require you to teach grammar. The students are good and generally well-motivated.
I think your transcript is enough proof. I never even gave my employer my TEFL certificate... they're not very strict on documents over here. You don't NEED a TEFL but you will command a higher salary if you have one. Just get it online if you can't afford the in-person class.
BS/TEFL you will get $16/hr minimum (my friends with BA/TEFL make $18/hr at some schools, and with CELTA up to $26/hr). No housing allowances in Vietnam. My school gives you $400 for medical insurance and pays for your visa once you work there for three months. I think that's about average. Most schools will give you a bonus if you finish a year as well. No TEFL and you should be able to get $15. But, anything depends on your negotiation skills.
Vietnamese women tend to have very different relationship timelines than Westerners! Such as meet -> hold hands -> fall in 'love' -> kiss -> marry -> have sex. Obviously there are many exceptions but often they feel social pressure to do this in this order, so don't expect those relationships to be the same as what you're used to at home.
HCMC is the best place to live if you want to participate in expat life, and if you want to make a high salary. The most people are here, and there are about a hundred million bars and restaurants. Only downsides are traffic and pollution. But if you don't mind living in a big city, then it's a great spot to teach. |
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blateson
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 144
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| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Erica63. It's fine that a person embraces and feels love or passion about their new host country, and that is your personal and private right to do so. But I have to say that many of the points you made in your recent posts like this one seem very factually inaccurate, some points even the opposite. I would agree with your quote of $15 to $19 an hour and definately can agree with your comments about women and dating here, but that's about it. Just to name a few of the many points you make, I would say far and away Vietnamese people do not speak English well around town or in the classroom and I've had much better experiences when communicating with people in Thailand than here. You said that there are fewer beggars here than anywhere else in Asia but in fact Vietnam would be a leader in beggars and hawks. You said that the students are respectful but in fact that is often an act and they regularly do an about face and will interrupt you during your class and commit a wide array of other annoying acts, not to mention speak bad about you on occasion with school staff. You said that HCMC has many forms of recreation and is a really "comfortable" place, when in fact there's little to do here and expats look forward to getting over to Cambodia and Thailand for real R & R when holidays come up. The schools you named you described as "very reputable" but plenty of others would describe them as places to avoid. You said there are 1000 schools around HCMC, I would say less than 1/10th of that, and don't forget that many schools are under the same umbrella of the same owners, and just as well, plenty of schools are places to avoid. I would agree that getting an online TEFL would hold a person over for awhile until much later when they have the money to do one in class. But your comments that there are hundreds of bars and HCMC is a wonderful or relaxing place to enjoy is very disagreeable. |
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erica63
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| blateson wrote: |
| Erica63. It's fine that a person embraces and feels love or passion about their new host country, and that is your personal and private right to do so. But I have to say that many of the points you made in your recent posts like this one seem very factually inaccurate, some points even the opposite. |
Nothing I said was "factually inaccurate," perhaps you have just met different people than I have, or have approached things with a different attitude than me?
| blateson wrote: |
| I would agree with your quote of $15 to $19 an hour and definately can agree with your comments about women and dating here, but that's about it. Just to name a few of the many points you make, I would say far and away Vietnamese people do not speak English well around town or in the classroom and I've had much better experiences when communicating with people in Thailand than here. |
Yes, of course people in Thailand speak better English than Vietnam, it's far more heavily reliant on tourism. But I guess we differ on the definition of "speak well." Many, many people in Vietnam do speak a little English and it's very easy to live here without speaking any Vietnamese aside from numbers. You can pay any bill in English. You can find a place to live using English. You can order food at most restaurants with only the most basic Vietnamese. Check out China if you think that Vietnamese English skills are poor! And is it the worst thing in the world that everyone here doesn't have perfect English? Isn't that what we're here for? Lots--LOTS--of people are trying very hard to learn English and are very happy to talk to you. I don't really see it as a horrible thing that everyone here isn't fluent.
| blateson wrote: |
| You said that there are fewer beggars here than anywhere else in Asia but in fact Vietnam would be a leader in beggars and hawks. |
Not in my experience. Everyone in Vietnam has to have a job so most of the "beggars" sell lottery tickets and are very, very gracious when you say no. Get out of Pham Ngu Lao--where you're most likely to get hassled by the 5 sunglasses guys than anywhere else--and there is almost no one begging or hawking. Tourist areas everywhere have begging and hawking, but there is less here than the other places *I* have been in Asia. Vietnam's reputation is far overblown from what I have seen in 5 months here.
| blateson wrote: |
| You said that the students are respectful but in fact that is often an act and they regularly do an about face and will interrupt you during your class and commit a wide array of other annoying acts, not to mention speak bad about you on occasion with school staff. |
They're kids!! Of course they'll interrupt! But my students are by far more respectful on average that those I went to school with in the States. Dealing with behavior issues is a natural part of teaching, and I don't see how you can expect everything to go 100% perfectly. I also don't see where you're getting your generalizations from--being respectful is "an act"? Depends on who you're teaching... the kids I teach are incredibly earnest, and the adults are generally very committed to learning English. If your students are speaking badly about you to the staff, isn't that more a reflection of you than of them?
| blateson wrote: |
| You said that HCMC has many forms of recreation and is a really "comfortable" place, when in fact there's little to do here and expats look forward to getting over to Cambodia and Thailand for real R & R when holidays come up. |
People come here because they like traveling, so it is any surprise they travel on their holidays? Or that they enjoy going to the beach when they live 10-11 months a year in a city? HCMC can be a very comfortable place if you make it so. Living quarters are cheap and spacious for a city of this size. And if you have a lot of friends and are creative with your time, there is indeed a lot to do. You create your own experience.
| blateson wrote: |
| The schools you named you described as "very reputable" but plenty of others would describe them as places to avoid. |
Maybe some people have negative experiences, but I find that the teachers who complain about the school where I work tend to be the same ones who complain about EVERYTHING. Fact is, you'll be paid fairly, you'll be paid on time, you'll have good job security, and you'll usually have as many hours as you want at all the major schools. That's relatively unusual in Asia, from what I can tell.
| blateson wrote: |
| You said there are 1000 schools around HCMC, I would say less than 1/10th of that, and don't forget that many schools are under the same umbrella of the same owners, and just as well, plenty of schools are places to avoid. |
True, 1,000 is a bit of an exaggeration, but there are certainly hundreds when you count the teeny tiny language schools that are EVERYWHERE. Probably a lot of these are not reputable, but it's almost irrelevant to the average foreign teacher, who works at somewhere like ILA, RMIT, VUS, Apollo, Cleverlearn, etc. It's very easy to find work at a reputable school.
| blateson wrote: |
| I would agree that getting an online TEFL would hold a person over for awhile until much later when they have the money to do one in class. But your comments that there are hundreds of bars and HCMC is a wonderful or relaxing place to enjoy is very disagreeable. |
I go to new bars with my friends all the time. If you don't take the time to explore then you'll never find new places... the city does extend past Pham Ngu Lao and the expat ghetto, you know! |
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merz
Joined: 07 Jan 2009
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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Blimey! Im a new poster but have been reading for a while, and the above difference of opinion is endemic. Personally, enough people sound enthused like Erica for me to go for it, but I appreciate caution too.
Regarding other info, can anyone please tell me if they used a company to arrange their visa to be picked up at the airport on arrival ('Visa-vietnam' and 'vietnam-visa' are the 2 imaginatively named ones ive come across).
Also, a lady from 'Teach Away' tells me my documents need to be notarised, apostled (?) and TRANSLATED (into vietnamese) at the embassy, in London, before I leave!!
Any info much appreciated, especially if it says this is balls.
Cheers!
Adam |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| erica63 wrote: |
| Vietnamese women tend to have very different relationship timelines than Westerners! Such as meet -> hold hands -> fall in 'love' -> kiss -> marry -> have sex. Obviously there are many exceptions but often they feel social pressure to do this in this order, so don't expect those relationships to be the same as what you're used to at home. |
Hmmm, interesting. The shame of it all! 
What would be the western equivalent?
meet -> have sex -> kiss -> ask name -> marry -> fall in love?
This would be an interesting topic to follow-up in a separate thread. |
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surreycouple
Joined: 06 Oct 2007
Posts: 40
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| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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No offence meant:)
meet -> have sex -> kiss -> ask name -> marry -> fall in love?
from where i come from in S London.....
meet (at 2am in a packed club drunk on Stella Artois) > grope > 1 night stand > run away at 6am.
On a more serious note, agree with erica63, been here 6 months, have good work a lot of disposable income and have just signed a 2 year lease on a new apartment. Love Vietnam and the people and HCMC is a great base for travelling Vietnam and S Asia. Would highly recommend working here. Vietnamese are some of the friendliest people I have met, of course you get the false smile and inflated prices at times but you get that in Thailand and other Asian countries.
Beggars/hawkers, yes lots of them - in PML, dong koi, le loi... tourist areas but living in D7 have seen maybe 1 or 2 a month. If you want to spend your time with backpackers when HCMC is spread over such a vast area then of course you will experience many hawkers, beggers and street children. From my experience, the majority of "beggars" reside around the streets surrounding De Tham and Bui Vien. Having lunch there last week for half an hour I was approached at least 20 times, 3 times by the same sunglasses man.
There is so much to see in Vietnam, Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Sapa, Dalat, Halong Bay, Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Mekong, Phu Quoc, plenty of places to fill the holidays travelling. Bangkok, Singapore, Malaysia within the hour, i could go on... Vietnam is an exciting and buzzing city and has so much going on, pick up Asia Life or The Word, plenty of events and the like in there. |
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lost_gypsy
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 274
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:32 pm Post subject: a troll? Or just unhappy? |
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Ha! I really want to believe that "vietnam" (poster) is NOT a troll, but someone who either:
1) Doesn't want MORE people to come and therefore give away too much about the enjoyable lifestyle/salary
2) Is really totally burned out on Vietnam and/or doesn't really get along with the locals
3) Is being wonderfully cheeky
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andriesheyns
Joined: 05 Feb 2009
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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| I can't wait to go... |
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