Question about Teaching Abroad

[lemonsama]

How I have been lurking and planning from the shadows on this short time for awhile and wanted some advice from the ever wise members of this forum. So I want to teach English abroad and what it boils down to is a bachelors degree of any kind and to be a native English speaker. I realize this may be a shot in the dark but I wanted to know if anyone had done this with a degree from the big three and whether there was any problems with using these degrees in such a manner. As I noticed the websites often say "The main requirements are an apostilled degree from a four-year university" and I was wondering if anyone had any troubles with accomplishing a degree in less than the regular four years? Not even for this specific situation but even just employers or other university showing concern over these degrees achieved in such a short period of time. This is more info on what a apostilled degree is How to get an apostille for your degree Thanks!!!

[sanantone]

The Big 3 are regionally accredited schools. Their regional accreditors are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and CHEA. I have no doubt that they will be apostilled by a state's Secretary of State. Charter Oak and Thomas Edison are also public colleges in Connecticut and New Jersey, respectively. Excelsior is a former public college in New York.

[Photog]

Where are you thinking of teaching?

The majority of countries require a bachelors degree for visa purposes.
There is a chance that some countries may require a degree in a related subject, humanities, English, liberal arts, and psychology is also usually accepted. Indonesia is being very strict on teachers at the moment.

Top international schools require a degree, teaching licence from home country, and often experience. This is where the best jobs are. Pay is excellent, holiday, benefits, flights, medical, help with accommodation and transport.

Lower level schools require a degree and a teaching cert like a CELTA. Pay is often very good, and still with some of the benefits.

Language schools usually require a degree and a teaching cert like a CELTA.

Some language schools will take a degree only, but the pay is usually less.

Poor language schools will accept anyone that is a native speaker. Pay is low, hours are long, and you are pretty much on your own. These jobs were once filled by backpacker types, now they are attracting people wanting to escape from the poor economy back home.


If you are looking to just travel, and get experience, then the best option is a degree and CELTA. You can usually do the CELTA in the country you wish to travel. Most people get their first job by the end of the course.

I work with a lot of teachers and international schools as a football (soccer) coach. I've been all over the place, and ended up settling in Indonesia (my wife is from Borneo). One of my favourite places to teach was Mexico City, awesome city, awesome people, and very friendly for new teachers to get a start in.

Just to add: often schools have difficulty getting good science and math teachers. There are lots of English teachers around but sometimes a shortage of high school science and math.

[lemonsama]

Thanks Sanatone for your answer. On an unrelated note I spent a lot of time look at your Wiki degree plans they where very helpful!

[lemonsama]

Photog,
I'm thinking of starting out in South Korea, one of the reasons a bachelors degree is so important to me is this requirement and I actually enjoy English and similar classes of a non math focus. My plan is still in the works as I am still researching and figuring out the best path for me is. I made the mistae in the past of letting other people influence me to do what they think is best and rushing into things so I am taking my time. Right now the rough draft is for a liberal arts degree quite possibly from Excelsior as the tuition estimate was lower then TESC and some kind of CELTA/TELF/TESLO Certifiction. From what I saw when doing some research was that a job in South Korea has a lot of pros and is recommended by some TELF teaches abroad as a good country to start in Asia and looks like an interesting place. The Benefits Of Teaching English In Korea - Free Airfare And Housing, I figure a year there save some money, gain experience and see where the wind takes me so to speak. If you have any advice or recommendations on books, blogs, sites or anything else that you think would help me figure things out I would be extremely grateful!

[Photog]

Have a look around the forum, especially Sanantone's posts, about TESC degrees because there are ways to get the cost right down.

From everyone I have talked to over the years, the CELTA is the gold standard cert to have, and Cambridge is a big player in the world of English. The CELTA is the most expensive course, but you will usually recover the cost in first year of teaching because your starting salary will by higher with a CELTA. The CELTA is also good if you want to move on to different countries later because it is accepted everywhere in the world. If you do a random TEFL course somewhere it might not be recognized in another country.

The most important part of the teaching courses, TEFL, TESOL, CELTA etc. is that they are 100+ hours with usually 20 hours of observed teaching practice. You can get online courses in TEFL but most employers prefer the proper course to be done.

CELTA courses are held in many countries, the British Council is a good place to check out and courses are available in South Korea. Another option is to complete your course in another country and save money. Courses and costs are usually cheaper in Vietnam, or Thailand. Take a month holiday in South Asia and complete the course before heading off to South Korea.

Have a look at https://www.epik.go.kr/index.do under the job description heading. It will give you an idea of salaries, important when negotiating with an employer or looking a job ads. Most places in South Korea follow roughly the same as Epik salary standard.

The link you provided is pretty much the standard for all international teachers. The teaching packages are the same for most countries, and all the decent employers will offer most of those benefits. If benefits are missing and pay is low then it's probably a good idea to look elsewhere. Of course you still need to get some experience, but there is no need to accept a terrible package to get it. Some people do just that and they end up going home poor, and exhausted, after six months. Start off right and teaching abroad is the greatest job in the world.

Daves esl cafe always has lots of information. Dave's ESL Cafe
Look under stuff for teachers - there is a section for South Korea and also job forums.

TES is also a good site https://www.tes.co.uk/

Teachaway has an agent in South Korea http://www.teachaway.com/teach-english-korea


I have never been to South Korea personally, but I do have a few SK friends here, 4 pro footballers, a factory owner, 2 restaurant owners. I teach their kids and play futsal with them. They are wonderful people, very friendly, and interesting. They have a few strange cultural habits which exclude foreigners, but not offensive, more interesting to observe.
12 South Korean guys turn up to play football, there are also 5 professional Brazilians there, and 5 English guys.
The Koreans get together in a circle to discuss and find out who is of higher social standing. It is all very polite and they are all happy with the situation. Once they decide, some disappear off, they go to play football on their own. The guys left are higher up in social order and stay to play football with the foreigners.

I know a few teachers here that spent some time living in South Korea and they were very happy living there. One went back this year because he missed it so much.
I have visited Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, all over Indonesia, Borneo, and Malaysia.
South Korea and Japan are pretty much top of the list for teaching. China is a bit more hit and miss with quality of employers. Another teacher friend here lived in Japan for 6 years and loved every minute, but it is hard place to save money, everything is very expensive there. A lot of people go on the Jet Programme to get started in Japan. http://www.jetprogramme.org/

[happydayruth]

Lemonsama, I am not on the back end of this yet, but I just wanted to say that I'm in the process of earning my bachelor's degree for the same reason. I've chosen to go with a BA in English from TESC and then hopefully CELTA training and certs. As part of my degree plan, I've been able to include a few English grammar and linguistic courses, along with the more traditional literature courses. I'm planning on taking the Literacy Instruction in the Public Schools UEXCEL exam as a free elective as well.

Go for it! Best wishes!

[lemonsama]

Thanks for the wishes happy! The best of wishes for you too! Do you mind sharing your plan?

[KayV]

This is a plan based on a former student who wanted to teach abroad. It might be helpful for you, Lemonsama. Note that it has some classes in English, some in psychology, and some with the word "Education" in them, which will be helpful if you decide to teach at a private school or pursue alternative certification in the US. Good luck!

TESC BA Humanities
(for teaching ESL)
I. General Education Requirements
1. CLEP College Composition 6 (or 2 TECEPs)
2. TECEP Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics 3
3. TECEP Technical Writing 3
4. TECEP Computer Concepts and Applications 3
5. CLEP Humanities 6
6. CLEP Social Sciences 6
7. SL Intro to Environmental Science or TECEP Nutrition 3
8. DSST or SL Human/Cultural Geography 3
9. SL Cultural Anthropology 3
10. SL/CLEP Intro to Sociology 3
11. TECEP Environmental Ethics or DSST Ethics 3
12. LIT-205/206-CE American Literature 6
13. DSST ART-166-DE Art of the Western World 3
14. Any General Ed TECEP 3
15. Any General Ed TECEP 3
16. Any General Ed exam 3


II. Area of Study: Humanities (33 credits, 18UL)
A. Literature (12)
1. LIT-208/209-CE English Literature 6
2. LIT-291/292-CE Analyzing and Interpreting Literature 6
B. Communications (12, 9UL)
3. TECEP Public Relations Thought & Practice (COM-210-TE) 3
4. SL Business Communications (COM-300) 3UL
5. Saylor Managerial Communications (COM-373) 3UL
6. Penn Foster Interpersonal Communication (COM-330) 3UL
C. Philosophy (3UL)
7. SL PHI-384 Business Ethics 3UL
D. Religion (3UL)
8. SL or DSST REL-405 Intro to World Religions 3UL
E. Liberal Arts Capstone LIB-495 3UL


III. Free Electives (in which we impress the TEFL recruiter)
1. CLEP Spanish Language 12 using spanishhour.com (any language will look good)
2. SL/CLEP Intro to Psychology 3
3. CLEP Human Growth and Development or DSST Lifespan Psych 3
4. CLEP Intro to Educational Psychology 3
5. DSST Foundations of Education 3
6. UExcel Literacy Instruction in the Elementary School 6
If you don’t want to take the Spanish exam, you could finish those 12 credits with anything, including the no-cost TEEX Cybersecurity series for 6 hours, NFA for 3 hours, and Kaplan PLA for 3 hours.

[thornja1987]

So I am fairly new here, but what exactly is NFA fir 3 credit mentioned in the kast post. And also how do I fing and sign up for thr Kaplan PLA. I can't seem to find anything about it, besides the message boards saying it is free! Haha.