Job Discussion Forums

[travelgoddess]

My fiance and I are headed to KL in about 2 weeks time and have bee trying like mad to find online info about living and teaching in KL, but with few results.

Why are KL/Malaysian Eng teachers so quiet online? Enjoying life too much? Not internet savy? Not wanting to give away the best job secrets? None of the above? Very curious. I found an expat website for Malaysia, but its not helpful either. Hmmm.

If you live in KL and can spare some time, please provide any advice/leads on the following: (please post them here, not PM, cause then other folks wont hit as many of the same no info walls I am in the future.

1. Where is a good place to find temporary housing that isnt a long term hostel?

2. What online resources (if any) exist that can be checked for jobs available and longer term housing? Maybe even KL newspapers available online or classifieds papers.

3. When is the main hiring period and is it possible to get hired from overseas BUT not in your home country. For example; we are both US citizens but have been living in Asia for the past few years. Going home to the US to interview is not realy convenient or cost effective.

4. What is the usual process for getting a work permit? Does the school that hires you usually do the footwork, or do you?

5. What types of EFL jobs exist (language schools, university entrance programs, etc), any good place to look for these jobs (online or off), and what hours do teachers usually work in these types of jobs.

Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much,
Steph

[Henry_Cowell]

You don't find many English teachers online because there simply aren't very many non-Malaysian teachers of English in the country! The numbers are nowhere near those in Thailand and Indonesia. I think the main issue is the fact that Malaysia is a nation with English as one of its (unofficial) languages. It was, after all, a British colony until the mid-20th century. So there are very many qualified English teachers who are native Malaysians.

And from independence until the mid-1970s, English was the medium of education at most schools at most levels. This changed to an all-Malay policy that lasted until 2002, when the government woke up and mandated that science and math teaching be conducted in English.

There is a need for more English teachers in Malaysia. If the government doesn't train more of its own, then foreign teachers will become necessary. But it hasn't yet come to that.

[anyway]

I have watched the job boards pretty closely for several years. This is from one of the few ads I have ever seen for Malaysia (besides CfBT). The job description was standard (with housing, airfare, salary) and mentioned only one years experience and a ESL/EFL cert preferred. I hope this helps.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Tel: + 607-5531804, + 6017- 7420847 Fax: + 607-5566911 Email: [email protected]

[Mister Al]

You could try http://www.els.edu.my/

They have half a dozen schools in Malaysia including 3 around KL.

[sheikher]

If the Canadian press is to be believed, the Malaysian Ministry of Education intends to hire 14,000 English teachers by 2012.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/23/malaysia-halts-english-experiment/

[travelgoddess]

We are still in KL and whew, getting set up was a chore!

There are huge deposits for everything here from rent (3-1/2 months up front), internet, water delivery and more.

Then most jobs want a 2 year commitment and take 1-2 months to get a work permit, so it might actually be 2 years and 2 months here to get the full contract. Add to that the lower pay (compared to Vietnam and Japan, where we were before) and the not so great public transit, and our honeymoon period with KL is officially over.

But we moved here for a reason and are going to stay and see what happens when things settle down and we get into a routine, not to mention a first paycheck.

If anyone is thinking of moving to KL, feel free to hit me up with questions. This was not the easiest place in the world to get answers on due a lot of expats here are NOT English teachers, they are very well taken care of business people whose companies does most if not all of the setting up for them.

Steph

[Kana65]

It's true that Malaysia might take more to get set up compared to a place like Vietnam but that's because the standard of living is quite a bit higher here.

To anyone coming here, I would suggest if you cannot get in with an internatioanl school or a university hit all the language school in KL not just ELS but there are a number of others....The pay scale is lower but you may be able to negotiate a housing allowance and they will do the work permit for you.

There is a lot of available work in Kl doing corporate English training....You just have to go out and look for it.

Most language school like to have at least one or more native speaking expats on the payroll as they can then advertise they have this to offer.

A bit surprised to hear criticism of KL's public transport system....Next to Singapore it's the best I've come across in Southeast Asia

[travelgoddess]