I landed a remote job for a European company, and now I'd find it hard to go back to a US-based company — I feel spoiled by the perks
I landed a remote job for a European company, and now I'd find it hard to go back to a US-based company — I feel spoiled by the perks
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for any fluent English speakers out there, it's a very similar situation if you want to start teaching English abroad.
20-25 teaching hours a week, sign up bonuses, airfare reimbursement, at least a couple months of vacation per year, much lower cost of living in most countries, with maybe the field-specific benefit of thousands of job openings currently available.
Plus you get an adventure the whole time you're in another country, new experiences and new cultures.
Definitely why I never went back to the work culture in the US.
Teaching here is a 20/20h for a fulltime job and you get around 90 days off, but you can't choose when to take em.
2 weeks off for the easter holidays, then 6 weeks of work, followed by another 2 weeks of holidays. Those start tomorrow officially, as Monday is a national holiday.
Are you tough enough to handle 6 whole weeks with only the weekends off?
Is anything more necessary than being a fluent speaker?
Not OP, but I taught English in Japan. You need a bachelor's degree to get a visa there. It doesn't need to be related to teaching/language, but that will help make you more competitive.
nope.
some countries and schools require a TEFL certificate or prefer candidates with an associate's degree depending on the position, but if you want to teach English, all you need is to be a fluent English speaker.
some English teachers i know aren't even native speakers. they are very good at English and have a minimal accent.
Very interesting. You seem to be quite knowledgeable about this. Could you give me a few pointers before I go searching - if it’s not too much to ask?
Sure. Some general recommendations:
You'll be able to teach in your country and school of choice with this certificate.
That said, you don't need a TEFL certificate to start teaching and if you fly to China on a tourist visa tomorrow and are a fluent English speaker, you will get a job in one of the first schools you inquire at. Someone might even stop you on the street to offer you a job if you look like a foreigner.
I could go on, but I don't want to overwhelm you.
If there's anything specific you want addressed or you have followup questions, I'm happy to answer them.
TYVM. Im still amazed about it all. So I don’t really have specific questions. Feel free to go on, I won’t be overwhelmed. I may take a while to answer, but that’s unrelated to the topic at hand 😄 To clarify: I’m not in the US, but Europe. Yet I’m still very much interested. I’d be working for a European company that does business in other parts of the world? Why are the hours so agreeable? Is it just the demand? China wouldn’t be my first choice, but other parts of S/E Asia or South America perhaps.
The demand is a big part of it. Most non-native English speaking countries have hundreds or thousands of job postings available today, so if they're going to attract the relatively few English teachers out there, the hours, pay and benefits have to be competitive.
SEA/South America are wide open markets, but the pay is generally going to be half of what you'll get in East Asia. You'll always make well above the CoL though, wherever you teach, and there are always lots of jobs to pick from, so if you have a preferred country it'll still be a great time just living abroad in general.
I was just looking at jobs in Panama, and there's a beachside town an hour away from the city offering $1100 a month for those same hours and benefits, although they do throw in free housing.
more general points.
you really are helping the students. at this moment in history, english is in demand for students, business and socializing in general, and by learning english they are afforded more real opportunities, so it's a rewarding job in that sense.
every month you teach is a huge boon in terms of experience. if you ever want to go back to teaching and you have any amount of experience, you'll be offered higher pay and better benefits.
A corollary is that once you teach, you'll always have that job available. Want money but don't want to work much? ESL. Need to save up capital or pay off debt back home? ESL. Want to offset all of your globetrotting habits? ESL. Most financial difficulties are fundamentally off the table if you're an English teacher.
you'll have so much free time that you can focus on your hobbies and interests, which was a huge part of me enjoying my time abroad, living my actual life.