How to get a job teaching English as a foreign language abroad?
Loren Everly, traveling English teacher
It’s easiest to get overseas teaching work with a minimum of a bachelors degree in any subject from a university in an English speaking country. However it’s possible to find work sometimes without this or by getting fake documentation. I wouldn’t recommend going this route because it puts you in a more precarious situation. It’s even better to have a teaching certificate for English as a foreign language. The most recognized ones are CELTA and Trinity. There are many places worldwide where you can take this course. It takes about a month of intensive effort and costs a couple thousand dollars. There are other teaching certificates and even online courses. But many of these are not well recognized at all. I began EFL teaching as a volunteer in South Africa, but took a CELTA course in Hungary before I got my first paying job as an EFL teacher in Iceland.
East Asia is a good place to start EFL teaching. If you commit to a year contract in South Korea, Japan or Taiwan you can often get airfare paid for the round trip journey from North America or Europe. Wages are pretty good in those three countries as well. And the quality of life and cultures are not that hard for Westerners to get used to.
The best place to start looking for jobs is Dave’s ESL Cafe at www.eslcafe.com.
For a serious career in teaching overseas it is best to have an education at a masters level in education and whatever area you want to teach. This is for jobs in international schools rather than as an EFL teacher. This sort of investment would open up the opportunity to get (usually two year) contracts in international high schools that exist for the children of the elite in virtually every national capital and large city in the world. This jobs are well paid and have
generous benefits.
Loren Everly is Vagabond Journey’s teaching English abroad correspondent.ask Loren a question. If you are interested in pursuing a job as an English teacher in a foreign country,
Leave a Reply