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Have Any Of You Fastlaners Taught English In China?

Villain

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I am seriously considering moving to Asia (preferably China), to teach English and would love to hear some Fastlaner perspectives.

This will be an improvement in my current living situation, will allow me to start saving, and give me time to develop my online business.

I am 25 and have a bachelor’s degree but I don’t have any teaching experience or qualifications. I am prepared to take the CELTA course if this is recommended.

I would love to hear about your experiences if you have ever taught English in Asia. Any general advice is welcome but I have a few specific questions:

- Is it feasible to survive on a part-time income or should I go full-time?
- Is there much work to do outside of contracted hours (like marking, lesson planning, etc)?
- If you have taught both children and adults, which do you prefer and why?
- How important is it to learn Mandarin?
- Are there specific cities or regions you would recommend for a beginner?
- Are there any TEFL agencies you would recommend or should I just go solo?
- What is your social life like?
- Did you feel confident about teaching when starting out and did you receive enough support?

Thanks for reading! I am still in the early stages of my research so I hope these are good questions to ask.


"If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia." – Jim Rogers


Moderators: I wasn’t sure what section to post this in so please feel free to move it.
 
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G

GuestUser113

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Maybe find a forum that deal with expats???

Unrested jfaq
Busankevin
List goes on and on and on and on
 

Ninjakid

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This has been a dream of mine for a while actually. Except I would go to Korea (I don't speak Mandarin).

Do it homey. No amount of dollars could compensate for the experience you'll get.
 

Villain

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Yeh I will post in other places too. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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livingBJJ

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I currently teach in Japan, if you want any questions regarding teaching here ask away.

I will answer your questions in regards to Japan.

1 Is it feasible to survive on a part-time income or should I go full-time?
2 Is there much work to do outside of contracted hours (like marking, lesson planning, etc)?
3 If you have taught both children and adults, which do you prefer and why?
4 How important is it to learn Mandarin?
5 Are there specific cities or regions you would recommend for a beginner?
6 Are there any TEFL agencies you would recommend or should I just go solo?
7 What is your social life like?
8 Did you feel confident about teaching when starting out and did you receive enough support?

1 - get a full time job with part time hours. - my job last year. start 8:30 home by 3:00. sometimes I was home before lunch time.:woot:
  • ALT job teaching at public schools for a dispatch company.
2 - in terms of ALT - a little bit of lesson planning. I do around 30 mins the night before. Sometimes zero. It gets easier the more experience you get.

3 - only taught children - better hours for me personally. To teach adults you will work when they don't work. Positive for teaching adults is you will not be working during normal business hours so you can get shit done easy.

4 - Learning Japanese - Zero required, how much you want to learn just depends on how much you want to make your life easier. But you can get by with none.

5 - In Japan - Tokyo.

6 - Many job sites out there, google is your friend. I found my first job on gaijinpot but there are many more sites out there.

7 - Most of my free time is spent at BJJ so my social life kinda revolves around people I meet there.

8 - Support, you will probably get zero support I prefer it that way though. They will put you through an induction program with teaching ideas. Mine lasted like 3 days 5 hours a day or something like that.
Compare that to how long a real teacher back home becomes a teacher, 3-4 year degree.

I was nervous but that only lasted 2 weeks I would say. After that its easy, just rinse and repeating the same shit everyday.

My main lesson I learnt is don't take anything personally when your teaching.

80% of the class doesn't want to learn English, the Japanese Teacher doesn't want to learn English. There is pretty much zero discipline at Japanese schools, so think about what would happen if you had a class full of 7-13 year old kids who didn't want to learn what you are teaching and cannot understand anything you are actually saying with a teacher that does not discipline the kids. Imagine the possibilities haha.
 
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Villain

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Thanks for the info. Those classes sound like a full scale riot haha!
 
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Villain

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@livingBJJ - Have you taken any TEFL courses? I've heard that doing CELTA can help you get jobs at better schools. I would certainly feel more confident that way.
 
D

DeletedUser394

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Maybe find a forum that deal with expats???

Unrested jfaq
Busankevin
List goes on and on and on and on

Normally I agree with you, but this topic is valid and has merit.

A lot of members are expats and should have some relevant experience or tidbits of information.

The only wrong thing is the section of the forum it's posted in.
 

Red

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A buddy of mine taught in China for a few school years at a private school. The school paid for his housing AND gave him a stipend for bills. Also, negotiate the hell out of your pay, don't take what they offer you first. I got to spend about 3 weeks over there last summer with him & it was awesome. The only complaint I had was that the pollution got bad on some days (I was in Jinan), so if you're a super outdoorsy-type, that may be difficult for you (it's really the only reason I couldn't live there). The exchange rate was awesome, the food was fantastic & bullet trains rock.
 
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tafy

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I taught in Thailand for nearly 2 years, go for it man its easier than you think. If I was single I would go to China.
 
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ezmoney

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I just read a book on Amazon called "the post grad party" by Brent Danis. Check it out - it was all about how to do this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

splok

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- Is it feasible to survive on a part-time income or should I go full-time?
- Is there much work to do outside of contracted hours (like marking, lesson planning, etc)?
- If you have taught both children and adults, which do you prefer and why?
- How important is it to learn Mandarin?
- Are there specific cities or regions you would recommend for a beginner?
- Are there any TEFL agencies you would recommend or should I just go solo?
- What is your social life like?
- Did you feel confident about teaching when starting out and did you receive enough support?

I taught in Seoul for a while, so from that perspective:

-You'd want full-time, but depending on how flexible/qualified/lucky you are, you can get a full time salary for some pretty short hours.
-Depends a lot on the school. At mine, we were expected to be in the building during normal business hours, but again, there are some places where you can work fairly minimal hours
-children ranging from maybe 4th grade to high school. Which you prefer probably depends on how much you like kids. The younger classes are more "fun" but the older classes are more interesting.
-It wasn't necessary to learn Korean, and the schools specifically disallowed teachers from using Korean even if we knew some.
-Probably Seoul, but if I were going back, I would probably stay on the southern coast or Jeju.
-Solo was fine when I went, but it was a few years ago.
-You'll probably go out and eat/drink/karaoke with co-workers a LOT.
-Zero support, but they don't actually expect you to be a good teacher (at least in a job that doesn't really care about your teaching qualifications.)

Maybe not exactly the same as China, but I imagine that it's fairly similar. Except that you'll probably make more money in Korea. Most jobs in China pay FAR less than in Korea, though there are some exceptions.

I highly recommend it, regardless of the country you go to. If I had it to do over, I'd have gone sooner and stayed longer.
 

Jinxus

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Had zero experience, zero certificates had no problem getting a job.

To add to this, I was recently in Japan for a completely different job and met a guy teaching English. He offered me a job at his school... told him that I don't even have a degree, he said "No probem." Didn't do it as it's not the right time in my life, but would definitely love to in the future. Friends in the right places > experience/certs
 
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Nyx

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- Is it feasible to survive on a part-time income or should I go full-time?
- Is there much work to do outside of contracted hours (like marking, lesson planning, etc)?
- If you have taught both children and adults, which do you prefer and why?
- How important is it to learn Mandarin?
- Are there specific cities or regions you would recommend for a beginner?
- Are there any TEFL agencies you would recommend or should I just go solo?
- What is your social life like?
- Did you feel confident about teaching when starting out and did you receive enough support?

I taught in South Korea for a few years. It was an amazing experience and one I would highly recommend to anyone with an adventurous spirit.

As to your questions:

- You probably want a full time job, at least when starting out. It makes it easier to get visas and make sure you aren't breaking any sorts of rules that could get you into hot water. Also, (at least for Korea) some of the full time positions will pay for your plane ticket there, so that's less cost for you upfront.
-I never had to make any detailed lesson plans, so most of the prep could easily be done between classes. There was some tests to mark and essays to edit/grade on occasion, but it wasn't all that much. I rarely took work home with me, and I knew plenty of people there who never had to do a single bit of extra work outside of their hours.
- I only taught kids. Most of the schools you'll find in Korea (hogwons) are focused on kids. Really only the universities cater to adults, and those jobs usually require a bit more experience/education to be considered for them. The kids were great, though. I taught a wide range, from grade 1-9. The smaller kids are fun and full of energy but hard to keep focused. The older kids, especially any of them who have spent time abroad, are interesting and will be much more curious about you (and every detail of your social life...some of which they will invent and spread as rumors) and will enjoy just chatting instead of doing the work.
- It wasn't necessary to learn Korean, but I learned quite a bit. I could read and write the language, and I knew enough have small conversations. It was very useful when trying to guide taxis to destinations (you don't actually give street names, you give names of landmarks or subway stations and hope for the best.)
-Seoul and the surrounding areas are great. I lived in Anyang which is just outside of Seoul proper, and it was a great place to live and teach. The south is a great spot as well, especially Busan. It's right on the ocean and the weather is much nicer all year round.
- I found my job on my own without going through agencies. I had a few recommendations for schools to approach from some friends who had worked there, and I found one on that list that was hiring and went for it.
- There is a lot of drinking to be done in Korea. A lot. It's sort of part of the culture. When the school takes you out for dinners, they give you crazy amounts of booze and everyone (bosses included) get drunk and then go to the karaoke equivalent in Korea (the norahbang) to sing. I had a pretty active social life while there. Since we worked odd hours (generally 4pm -10pm since hogwans are after school things), everyone just met up at bars after work sometimes 3 or 4 times a week. As long as you are in an area with a decent amount of foreigners, you will always have someone around to socialize with.
-I can't really say I felt confident when I started. The school tossed me into a few classrooms to watch the person who I was replacing run the classes. A day later, I had to take over all of them. It was sink or swim. The schools don't seem big on giving lots of support. However, it's not as scary as you think. You'll be nervous for the first class or two, but after that, you'll do fine. If you are teaching kids, they won't care how you teach. They will mostly just want to talk to you in English and ignore the lessons anyway.


You are plenty qualified for some countries, but it's good to check what is expected from a teacher in whatever country you decide on. For Korea, you need a bachelor's degree (which you have) in order to get the visa. They don't care what its in just as long as you have the proof. If you are looking to save some money while still living a pretty good life, I'd recommend Korea. My apartment was paid for, so no rent to worry about. Taxes are pretty low, and bonus, when you leave, you can take your pension money with you. (It's a bit of a process, but I got almost 8k bonus sent to my bank when I left because of all my years there.) Each month, I was able to send home lots to pay student loans and put into savings, and I still had plenty to buy lots of tech toys and eat out at nice restaurants, etc, whenever I felt like it.
 

Villain

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Thanks for all the responses.

South Korea looks more attractive than China based on what people are saying about pay and expenses.

I definitely want to get the CELTA qualification before I go though. Will try and book that for December, then jet off sometime in January or February.
 

Villain

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Tying off commitments at home is proving to be a bit of a minefield...
 
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nzerinto

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Not sure if you would be interested in Japan, but I taught there for a few years. I was mostly a "freelancer", so would usually meet students in cafes for conversation lessons. Extremely easy "work" - for the most part students just wanted to chat, because they learn all the grammar/rules in school but never actually have a chance to practice it in daily life, so as long as you enjoy chatting with people and have a wide range of interests that you both can discuss, you are perfect for the job.

I didn't have a degree, and didn't have any formal "English teaching" training - it didn't matter - I was a white face that could speak English, ergo, high in demand. Incidentally enough I noted that I got a lot of female students, I think because a lot of them figured it was a good way to "meet" a foreign guy. I met a bunch of English teachers that had only planned on staying a few years, and now have families and stay in Japan permanently, in some cases for this very reason. Suffice to say, I lost a lot of said female students when I mentioned my girlfriend....lol (fiance now).

Anyway, I used http://english.teacher-student.com/english/ a fair amount. They facilitate the whole "meeting" between you and the prospective student (who chooses you based on the profile you create on the site), they take their cut from the student's side of things, and then lessons going forward are paid directly from the student to you. Standard fee was around 4,000 yen per lesson (which would run for an hour), or about $40, but you have to deduct costs for transport and food/drink at the cafes.
 

sle3pyguii

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I'd recommend going through a government program like EPIK or TaLK first for Korea, so you can get situated and stuff first. They allow you to meet other expat teachers and pay for programs like touring the country and stuff, on top of the salary + housing. Then if you want to stay and teach longer, you can start networking out with other expats and teaching centers (called "hagwons").

Just a warning...if you ever decide to get a non-teaching job...it'll be hard to transition. So if you decide you want to switch careers out of teaching, do it ASAP because the longer you stay, the more pigeonholed your experience will be.

But then again...seeing how you're on this forum, you'll probably have a side project you'll be funding with your teaching money.

If you have any questions about Korea, just message me.
 

Leo Hendrix

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I can't give any real concrete advice as I'm not a teacher, but I am looking for private tutoring gigs and part-time gigs at franchises that teach english, called Buxibans here in Taiwan or private owned schools that will accept me or train me as I have no experience.
But have you done any research on Taiwan? Living costs are quite low and can even be lower, especially for rent if you teach out of Taipei. As others noted get a full-time position with part-time hours, I think a lot are 20 to 30 hours max, so you will have a lot of time to work on your fastlane.
In fact I have one idea for a fastlane in incubation just by being here and seeing the needs here.
Anyway check google, as well as check facebook for pages or websites if your interested to teach in Taiwan.
PM me and I can send you links to pages that I know of and facebook pages too.
 
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<blockquote>This will be an improvement in my current living situation, will allow me to start saving, and give me time to develop my online business.</blockquote> - So you wanna escape the RR, scrape some money together before moving to another full time job.

A few of my friends teach in China. They're not the brightest sparks, so it can't be too hard.

I've lived in SE.Asia for two years.

If you can pull in $800-$1200 a month with a simple online business, you can get by quite nicely here /in China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc

Good spot to check out is nomadlist.io for ideas on places to escape the rat race (if that's your objective).
 

Villain

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@nzerinto - That's nuts! If I were to graduate from my current degree (which I'm not planning on btw), my entry pay would be about half what you were making per hour. And that is with 4 years of intense study and training :|

@sle3pyguii - I like the idea of having everything taken care of for me, so I might end up applying to EPIK etc. Thanks for the heads up about being pigeon holed, and yes I do plan on going fastlane. Part of the idea of doing this is that I will have the free time and disposable cash to make something happen business wise. It would be much more difficult to get something off the ground at home.

@Leo Hendrix - I hadn't really considered Taiwan. I have heard lots of good things about SK, and the pay is good so I think I am pretty set on going there.

@coffeen - I don't even have a full time job at the moment...I'm currently a student living with my parents. I would have trouble getting any decent job here hence why I am looking overseas. I've taken a gap year but really don't plan on returning to school. The plan is to take advantage of the lower living costs of a developing country while working on an online business, and never need to return to a job. Nice link btw.
 

nzerinto

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Forgot to mention. If you preferred going the more stable route and getting a TA job (in Japan), then a lot of people I knew had signed up for the JET program (http://www.jetprogramme.org/) - you might find it useful to check out.
 
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Gale4rc

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Wait, so I can literally go get a job in China teaching english knowing no Chinese whatsoever and get paid to live over seas while I work on whatever I want ?
 

sle3pyguii

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Wait, so I can literally go get a job in China teaching english knowing no Chinese whatsoever and get paid to live over seas while I work on whatever I want ?

Yes. Some places even prefer if you don't know it so the students get the "full language immersion", whereas if you know Chinese, you might get frustrated by the language barrier with your kids and speak to them in half Chinese, half English...but that would break the experience for the kids.

I was in an overseas program called TaLK, which is for South Korea. I literally worked 4 hours a day, had my rent and utilities paid for, and got a living stipend of roughly $3000 a month.
 

Gale4rc

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Yes. Some places even prefer if you don't know it so the students get the "full language immersion", whereas if you know Chinese, you might get frustrated by the language barrier with your kids and speak to them in half Chinese, half English...but that would break the experience for the kids.

I was in an overseas program called TaLK, which is for South Korea. I literally worked 4 hours a day, had my rent and utilities paid for, and got a living stipend of roughly $3000 a month.

This sounds amazing !
 
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splok

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Oh and as a further bonus, in SK the taxes are pretty low and when you leave, you get 1 month of bonus pay for each full year that you've worked, which basically offsets the witholdings. You effectively clear whatever your monthly salary is. SK is generally considered one of the more profitable places to teach. The cost of living there isn't very bad considering that your rent is covered.

Also consider that the organizations like EPIK are basically middlemen and you are not their priority. You can likely get a better deal by dealing directly with the schools yourself, which isn't nearly as daunting as it sounds once you give it a try. Of course, do plenty of research so you know what to expect: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/ is a great place to start
 
D

Deleted17784

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Go for it man... I've never been to China and I'm not a teacher... But I've been in South East Asia for a while and I know plenty of teachers. I have no qualifications and I've been offered several jobs.

My friend teaches in Saigon, Vietnam only on the weekends and pulls in around $1,000 a month. You can live comfortably on that amount out here. Also, it's a great life experience and you have PLENTY of time to grind on other projects. Book the flight! Good Luck!
 

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