CELTA or TEFL for non native teachers

[briho]

Hi,

I am thinking to become an English teacher, mainly to be able to live abroad as I really like travelling.

I had a look at the current job ads though and it seems like most schools are looking for native speakers only. I have been living in the UK for quite a while but I am German. Also I have University Degree in Business Administration (don't know if that helps?). My question is, would I be able to find a paid teaching job abroad anyway and is it very recommendable to have a CELTA or would a regular TEFL do the same thing?

Thanks for your help!
Britta

[fluffyhamster]

'ELT' is a term that blurs the distinction between ESL and EFL, and in the UK at least that fudging can be useful (because the foreign students tend to be a multinational mix, and not usually long-term immigrants); if however a CELTA holder opts to teach overseas (outside of the UK), then the 'ELT' rapidly becomes equivalent to/assumes the equivalence of 'TEFL', and you'd probably be hard pressed to find substantial differences between the two sorts of course (the real difference is most likely in the recognition that the CELTA has - 'TEFL' by itself doesn't actually stand for a certificate of any kind - and its resulting marketability...not saying that a "TEFL" certificate wouldn't offer better quality of training, though).

BTW, the CELTA used to actually be called the CTEFLA!

I've worked alongside Dutch speakers of English in China, and Indonesian speakers of English in Japan, so it is possible to get hired for at least part-time work (i.e. I don't know if the Indonesian guy got his visa sponsored through the same employer); certainly if I was an employer I wouldn't be opposed to hiring fluent English speakers of whatever nationality, provided they also seemed competent and professional teachers (and there are many very competent non-native teachers around, especially in Europe!). And, hey, you would also be able to teach German!