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051 Which job, which school? · bit of a Rambler

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
0:03
Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
0:07
Speaker 1: And today I want to share some pertinent information about
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Speaker 1: looking for an ESL job teaching English as a second language,
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Speaker 1: because I talk about it all the time. It's the
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Speaker 1: easiest way for a native English speaker to get out
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Speaker 1: of financial debt, start traveling, have so much free time.
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Speaker 1: And I haven't mentioned yet how to get the job,
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Speaker 1: what you should be looking for, what eligibility you need,
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Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So I'm going to go
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Speaker 1: over that today. Eligibility good place to start. Language level
0:44
Speaker 1: native speakers are preferred, not required. So if you're a
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Speaker 1: native speaker, you have the job. If you are a
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Speaker 1: fluent speaker in English and at your second tongue, you're good.
0:59
Speaker 1: And if you have a little bit of an accent,
1:01
Speaker 1: like really slight, you're still good. Degree an associate's degree
1:08
Speaker 1: or a bachelor's degree are fine. If you don't have one,
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Speaker 1: you can still get a job in the countries with
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Speaker 1: a higher demand and a less discerning industry like China,
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Speaker 1: so you don't really need a degree. If you have
1:24
Speaker 1: a degree, good, it helps your age. They generally take
1:29
Speaker 1: anyone up to like sixty, and if you're a young
1:33
Speaker 1: looking sixty you can be a teacher as well. They
1:37
Speaker 1: will hire male teachers and are even more enthusiastic about
1:42
Speaker 1: female teachers because there are less female teachers. And then
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Speaker 1: there is the certificates, so you can get different ESL certificates,
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Speaker 1: and I strongly recommend Teaching English as a Foreign Language
1:56
Speaker 1: or TEFEL to EFL because it's very very easy to get.
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Speaker 1: It does provide some good information, it's fast, you can
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Speaker 1: get it in a weekend if you completely dedicate yourself
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Speaker 1: to that. You can take it online and it lasts
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Speaker 1: for your entire lifetime. I still have my TEFOL certificate
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Speaker 1: that I got, and I mentioned the TEFL certificate last
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Speaker 1: in terms of eligibility because if you have a TEFIL certificate, degree,
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Speaker 1: age and gender become a lot less important, and all
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Speaker 1: other qualifications, whether you're in the country or not, how
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Speaker 1: much experience you have, all every other guideline of eligibility
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Speaker 1: become less important if you have an internationally accredited TEFIL certificate.
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Speaker 1: So if you do decide to get the TEFL certificate,
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Speaker 1: which I recommend, TEFL Full Circle has constant group on sales.
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Speaker 1: You can get it as low as thirty bucks, dedicate
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Speaker 1: as much time as you want to pursuing it. It's
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Speaker 1: a few pdf tests PDFs to read that have all
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Speaker 1: the information for those tests in them. Once you complete
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Speaker 1: the course, you have your lifetime internationally accredited teaching English
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Speaker 1: as a Foreign Language certificate, which is worth more, far
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Speaker 1: more than the amount of money you're paying for it,
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Speaker 1: because once you have it, you basically have a voucher
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Speaker 1: for instantly accessing higher pay for fewer hours in ESL jobs,
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Speaker 1: in a global industry that is stronger than ever. It's
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Speaker 1: huge still teaching English, and you don't need to learn
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Speaker 1: any new skills, so eligibility that certificate trumps all the
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Speaker 1: other ones. The thing is, this industry depends on your
3:44
Speaker 1: level of English. I think a lot of native English
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Speaker 1: speakers may not realize that English is a skill just
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Speaker 1: like any other trained ability. You practiced English, you got
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Speaker 1: good at it, or good enough if you're a native speaker.
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Speaker 1: I did it and realize that English was a skill,
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Speaker 1: and I certainly didn't realize that English was a marketable
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Speaker 1: skill until I was utilizing that skill to make a
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Speaker 1: great living while traveling. So for native English speakers it
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Speaker 1: is a skill that you have been practicing your whole life.
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Speaker 1: It's not that there are no required skill sets for
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Speaker 1: becoming an English teacher. People who never spoke English cannot
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Speaker 1: teach English as a foreign language. You're lucky enough if
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Speaker 1: you're a native English speaker or you've been practicing in
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Speaker 1: a long time to have spent so much time dedicated
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Speaker 1: to the skill of English speaking. If you have that
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Speaker 1: extremely marketable skill, then you're eligible to receive all the
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Speaker 1: benefits of pay, time off traveling that come with the
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Speaker 1: skill of speaking English natively or fluently and sometimes almost fluently. Honestly,
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Speaker 1: all right, So if you're listening to this and you're
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Speaker 1: a native English speaker, you're eligible. So how do we
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Speaker 1: get a job? What should we look for when we're
5:05
Speaker 1: looking for the ESL job. If you literally type English
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Speaker 1: teaching jobs in country, English teaching jobs in China, English
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Speaker 1: teaching jobs in France, English teaching jobs in Blah, there
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Speaker 1: will be a couple crappy results and a whole bunch
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Speaker 1: of real job listings. Those job listings will usually connect
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Speaker 1: you directly with the school. You email them, they email
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Speaker 1: you back. And let's get into this so you don't
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Speaker 1: need a bachelor's to teach English. It does help, but
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Speaker 1: especially if you have the TEFL certificate, you're good. Oh
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Speaker 1: and of course, especially depending on the country. I'll expect
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Speaker 1: Japan to be more strict about a four year degree,
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Speaker 1: but not China or anywhere in Southeast Asia. Basically, the
5:53
Speaker 1: TEFL certificate is so important that if you have a
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Speaker 1: bachelor's or in associates, it doesn't make a difference. You
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Speaker 1: have that TEFL certificate. If you're side by side with
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Speaker 1: someone who has a four year and you have a
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Speaker 1: two year, maybe the school choose them, but maybe not.
6:08
Speaker 1: Someone asked me about tattoos and piercings. Half of our
6:12
Speaker 1: teachers at our schools had tattoos and piercings, and it
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Speaker 1: was not an issue. Dress nicely, treat the school and
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Speaker 1: students respectfully, you're good. Experience is another great reason to teach,
6:25
Speaker 1: because every month you teach raises your potential salary at
6:31
Speaker 1: the next school you teach at. You're going to be
6:34
Speaker 1: saving money gaining experience. If you sign up for a
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Speaker 1: school an extra year, you usually get a signing bonus
6:42
Speaker 1: and they pay for your plane tickets and a bunch
6:45
Speaker 1: of other benefits. Again, you don't need experience. They will
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Speaker 1: hire someone who's never taught at all and train you
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Speaker 1: at the school. But if you have one or two
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Speaker 1: years of experience under your belt, then you will get
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Speaker 1: the job and you can immediately ask for the highest salary.
7:00
Speaker 1: They'll usually offer a range and you'll get it because
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Speaker 1: you have experience in an extremely in demand market. And
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Speaker 1: when I say in demand, I just want to reiterate.
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Speaker 1: There are literally thousands of current open English teaching jobs
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Speaker 1: available too native speakers in just China right now, just
7:20
Speaker 1: that one country, which yeah, it has a lot of
7:22
Speaker 1: people like so of course there's going to be a
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Speaker 1: few job openings, but these aren't a few. These are
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Speaker 1: thousands today. There are thousands of listings for English teachers
7:32
Speaker 1: in China, and you can go to Thailand, you can
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Speaker 1: go teach English. Vietnam, go and teach English, India, go
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Speaker 1: and teach English. Anywhere in Southeast Asia has jobs waiting
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Speaker 1: for you right now, and you can go over there
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Speaker 1: tomorrow in a plane if you have your VSA. I
7:49
Speaker 1: guess if the country requires it. Most of them are
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Speaker 1: visa on arrival and get that job, so they are available.
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Speaker 1: The market is still desperate for English teachers, I guess
8:01
Speaker 1: is a good word for it. I was going to say,
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Speaker 1: like demanding or clamoring. They want English teachers, and there
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Speaker 1: are plenty thousands, literally thousands of positions open right now.
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Speaker 1: While Asia and Southeast Asia have the most jobs with
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Speaker 1: the highest pay and the lowest cost of living altogether,
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Speaker 1: usually there are still thousands of jobs across Eastern and
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Speaker 1: Western Europe, Central America, South America, throughout Africa, all over
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Speaker 1: the world with comparable pay and benefits certainly much higher
8:35
Speaker 1: than the cost of living and whatever non English speaking
8:38
Speaker 1: country you want to teach in. As soon as I
8:41
Speaker 1: got my first paycheck after my first month working in
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Speaker 1: a school, I was just like, Okay, if I ever
8:48
Speaker 1: need money again, I'll do this. I work half the hours.
8:51
Speaker 1: I make way more than minimum wage. In the US,
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Speaker 1: I surpassed the requisite skill as a native English speaker,
9:00
Speaker 1: being more per month than I would in half a
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Speaker 1: year if I was working in the States. And it's fun.
9:05
Speaker 1: It's a good job. You're doing a good thing helping
9:07
Speaker 1: these students. It feels good to help them reach their potential.
9:14
Speaker 1: English is a very useful skill to have internationally. It
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Speaker 1: is very much the international business cultural social skill by
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Speaker 1: which people communicate. That's just the state of the world
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Speaker 1: right now. In one hundred years, might be Chinese, might
9:29
Speaker 1: be French. Right now it's English. So this is a
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Speaker 1: useful skill that you are teaching your students. Okay, you
9:37
Speaker 1: speak English, you're qualified. You did a quick Google search.
9:42
Speaker 1: You found the thousands of results I'm talking about, or
9:45
Speaker 1: let's say dozens. If you're only searching for one city
9:49
Speaker 1: in a country, which school do you pick? Now there,
9:53
Speaker 1: I'm going to get into this in detail, but there
9:56
Speaker 1: are some barebones guidelines to follow. So here is a
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Speaker 1: basic comparison between what I consider good schools and shady schools.
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Speaker 1: Good school they don't have a lot of typos in
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Speaker 1: their advertisement, an s at the end of some words
10:15
Speaker 1: where they shouldn't be fine. But if they're using the
10:17
Speaker 1: completely wrong word and it just sounds weird, not worth it,
10:23
Speaker 1: they don't care enough to put up a good advertisement.
10:25
Speaker 1: They probably don't care enough to take care of their
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Speaker 1: school students or teachers. A twenty five hundred dollars USD
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Speaker 1: monthly salary if you're looking for normal pay or in
10:37
Speaker 1: the eventure just looking to travel without spending money, and
10:41
Speaker 1: you have an impoverished country in mind that you really
10:44
Speaker 1: want to go to, you should still expect fifteen hundred
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Speaker 1: USD monthly, which I know sounds low, but many of
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Speaker 1: the Southeast Asian countries will be less than five hundred
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Speaker 1: dollars a month in cost of living like everything, entertainment, food,
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Speaker 1: your apartment, all util everything. So you'll still be saving
11:05
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars US a month. And that is just
11:08
Speaker 1: about the minimum fifteen hundred us that you should be
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Speaker 1: accepting in pretty much any country. There's a couple that
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Speaker 1: offer one thousand USD jobs. If you really want to
11:19
Speaker 1: go to that country and you want that specific job,
11:23
Speaker 1: you can take it. You'll still have enough money. You'll
11:25
Speaker 1: still be saving a few hundred a month. But China
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Speaker 1: is basically starting at twenty five hundred a month now,
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Speaker 1: plus extra benefits like housing and reimbursement and flight tickets.
11:39
Speaker 1: So if you have no college degree, if you have
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Speaker 1: no tefel certificate, if you have zero experience, then I
11:47
Speaker 1: would say you can accept fifteen hundred per month if
11:51
Speaker 1: you specifically want to live in one of the countries
11:54
Speaker 1: that offer a lower pay, because they will generally also
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Speaker 1: have an a company lower cost of living. But if pay
12:03
Speaker 1: is any sort of consideration, then there's no reason to
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Speaker 1: accept fifteen hundred because there are so many other jobs
12:09
Speaker 1: offering twenty five hundred, four thousand more per month. It's
12:14
Speaker 1: wild how much Saudi Arabia offers English teachers. Visa costs
12:19
Speaker 1: and transportation should either be paid for or reimbursed at
12:23
Speaker 1: the end of your teaching term, usually one year. Maximum
12:27
Speaker 1: thirty hour work week, and that's not that common, at
12:31
Speaker 1: least in China. It's a twenty five hour work week
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Speaker 1: is considered maximum, as in twenty five scheduled teaching hours.
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Speaker 1: The school should have a functional, ready to use curriculum
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Speaker 1: and clear detailed professional expectations. So it doesn't say we
12:49
Speaker 1: want you to teach and take care of the kids. Oh,
12:53
Speaker 1: what does that mean exactly? No, it should say twenty
12:57
Speaker 1: five hour in classroom teaching work week maximum, something like that,
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Speaker 1: so you know exactly what you are expected and exactly
13:05
Speaker 1: the line at which you're contractually fulfilling your responsibilities. Now,
13:11
Speaker 1: maybe they don't make those very clear in the advertisement,
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Speaker 1: So during your interview ask them if they respond promptly
13:17
Speaker 1: and give you the details and it's very clear. Good.
13:20
Speaker 1: If not, then they don't have clearly defined teacher responsibilities
13:24
Speaker 1: that you can rely on, and don't go to that school. Okay,
13:30
Speaker 1: those are the good things you should be looking for
13:32
Speaker 1: in these advertisements or when you contact the school. Minimal
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Speaker 1: typos in the advertisement. It should sound like a good advertisement.
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Speaker 1: Twenty five hundred USD per month minimum if your pay
13:45
Speaker 1: is more important to you than the country you go to,
13:48
Speaker 1: which is a perfectly valid reason to start teaching English
13:51
Speaker 1: to get out of debt or start saving money. If
13:54
Speaker 1: you're just doing it to travel, then you can safely
13:57
Speaker 1: accept the salary in an impoverished country and you'll still
14:04
Speaker 1: be making far above the cost of living, even if
14:07
Speaker 1: the pay is lower than other developed countries. Visa costs,
14:13
Speaker 1: transportation paid for, reimbursed. Maximum thirty hour work week, and
14:17
Speaker 1: that's only for some reason you want that specific job.
14:20
Speaker 1: If you're just looking for any job, I would look
14:22
Speaker 1: for a twenty five hour work week. The school has
14:25
Speaker 1: a functional, easy, ready to use curriculum, and they have
14:28
Speaker 1: a clear, detailed professional list of teaching responsibilities. Okay. Shady schools,
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Speaker 1: clumsy advertisement, slow response time, zero benefits, no benefits outside
14:43
Speaker 1: of your salary, undefined working hours that might be the
14:47
Speaker 1: biggest one. No curriculum ready or they expect you to
14:51
Speaker 1: contribute the curriculum, and vague explanations about their school operation,
14:56
Speaker 1: how things are run, how you will be trained, your
15:00
Speaker 1: visa works. Just if they don't really know the answers
15:04
Speaker 1: to any of your questions, then no. Now looking at
15:09
Speaker 1: good or shady schools. While choosing a school based on
15:12
Speaker 1: these expectations, I recommend all or none. If your school
15:16
Speaker 1: fulfills all of the items in the good list, I
15:19
Speaker 1: strongly recommend starting a job there. That's what you're looking for.
15:23
Speaker 1: If your school has any of the vices on the
15:26
Speaker 1: shady list, then keep looking. I know that sounds extreme,
15:31
Speaker 1: but there are so many good job opportunities for English
15:35
Speaker 1: teachers out there that there's really no reason to give.
15:39
Speaker 1: Oh maybe it's okay the time of day, or maybe
15:42
Speaker 1: it won't be so bad after I teach there a
15:44
Speaker 1: few months, if you want to join the school and
15:47
Speaker 1: you want to commit years of your life helping them
15:50
Speaker 1: build up a school. Of course, there are circumstances where
15:54
Speaker 1: a new school or an inexperienced school will have these problems.
15:57
Speaker 1: And if you've done the research and want to get
15:59
Speaker 1: into that great But for most people who just are
16:04
Speaker 1: trying to earn money or just want to start a
16:08
Speaker 1: saye fulfilling career, a satisfying teaching job, just do all
16:13
Speaker 1: or none. If they have all that good stuff, I said, great,
16:16
Speaker 1: that's what you want. If they are not answering your questions,
16:20
Speaker 1: or if they're unclear, or if they don't have curriculum
16:23
Speaker 1: in their school, or if they don't say exactly how
16:26
Speaker 1: many working hours and agree to an absolute maximum so
16:30
Speaker 1: you have undefined working hours, then no, it's not worth
16:35
Speaker 1: the back and forth negotiating you might have to do.
16:38
Speaker 1: It's not worth any of the trouble you have to
16:40
Speaker 1: go to because there are so many other jobs waiting
16:44
Speaker 1: for you, eager for you to start teaching at their
16:47
Speaker 1: school or organization. Now, the easiest and safest way to
16:52
Speaker 1: choose your school and understand what you're getting into is
16:54
Speaker 1: to visit the country that you think you want to
16:57
Speaker 1: teach in. Visit the country as a tourist and walk
17:01
Speaker 1: into the schools in person. You can sign up with
17:05
Speaker 1: the school right there. You can see if the coworkers
17:08
Speaker 1: jibe with you, You see if the benefits. You can
17:11
Speaker 1: ask the other teachers about the school We're all pretty
17:16
Speaker 1: honest about the schools we work at. If you find
17:19
Speaker 1: a school you like, chances are they are looking for
17:22
Speaker 1: another teacher, they'll hire you and arranger working visa for you.
17:26
Speaker 1: Many schools are only interested in teachers who are already
17:30
Speaker 1: in the country or will arrive within a month maybe
17:33
Speaker 1: two at the most. So if you're already in the country,
17:35
Speaker 1: you have a huge bargaining chip during salary and benefit negotiation.
17:40
Speaker 1: Because it's a business like any other, and it's a
17:42
Speaker 1: lot of young teachers, so there's a high turnover rate.
17:44
Speaker 1: People who will teach a year or two and then leave,
17:46
Speaker 1: so they always need new teachers. Chances are very high
17:50
Speaker 1: that if that school is hiring, it's because they need
17:52
Speaker 1: a teacher immediately. If you are in the country at
17:55
Speaker 1: the school talking to them, you're going to be hired
17:59
Speaker 1: over a more or qualified candidate who isn't in the
18:01
Speaker 1: country yet. I want to present China as an example.
18:06
Speaker 1: If you decide to fly to China on a tourist visa,
18:09
Speaker 1: you can literally walk door to door into any building
18:13
Speaker 1: with the word English or Yingyu English and Chinese or
18:17
Speaker 1: Shuetiao school and ask if they are hiring, If you
18:21
Speaker 1: did that, walked around to ten random schools on a
18:24
Speaker 1: random block in Beijing that you showed up at. It's
18:28
Speaker 1: hard for me to imagine you would not get a
18:30
Speaker 1: job that day. I get stopped on the street by
18:34
Speaker 1: people just because I don't look Chinese, and they ask,
18:37
Speaker 1: can you speak English? We have the school over here,
18:40
Speaker 1: and then they give me their business card that's regular
18:43
Speaker 1: and I'm not even I could be eating at a table.
18:46
Speaker 1: It's very common to get job offers if you don't
18:48
Speaker 1: look Chinese and speak English. You know, I want to
18:52
Speaker 1: mention this real quick. If you speak French or Spanish
18:55
Speaker 1: or other foreign languages, look for that language teaching. If
18:58
Speaker 1: you don't speak English and someone's translating this for you,
19:01
Speaker 1: they also have foreign language teachers. So if your English
19:06
Speaker 1: is not that great but you're listening to this and
19:08
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, Spanish is my first language, they don't
19:12
Speaker 1: have thousands of openings, but they do have dozens of
19:15
Speaker 1: openings for Spanish teachers. We had one in my school
19:18
Speaker 1: and we were we only had one hundred and fifty students.
19:22
Speaker 1: So it's not just English. I'm talking about English because
19:25
Speaker 1: it's the most in demand language, but you can check
19:28
Speaker 1: for jobs teaching your native language, and there are jobs
19:31
Speaker 1: available for most major languages. So this will make it
19:36
Speaker 1: very tempting for you to take the first job you're offered,
19:39
Speaker 1: because none of the offers are going to be terrible,
19:42
Speaker 1: and you'll probably be used to the job application process
19:45
Speaker 1: of the Western world. Wear anything less than a master's
19:48
Speaker 1: degree is as valuable as toilet paper. That might even
19:51
Speaker 1: be PhD. Now, I don't know. I know master students
19:53
Speaker 1: who regret staying in school, but that's what I'm used to.
19:57
Speaker 1: Bachelor's people basically like shrugging and say, so what instead?
20:02
Speaker 1: You speak English natively, especially you have that tevil certificate.
20:06
Speaker 1: They want you, They want you at their school, and
20:09
Speaker 1: a lot of different schools want so you can just
20:12
Speaker 1: grab the first job that sounds good to you. It's
20:14
Speaker 1: not even a bad idea as long as you know
20:16
Speaker 1: exactly what you're looking for and they have provided clear
20:20
Speaker 1: details on the benefits and salary you get. But if
20:24
Speaker 1: you have a couple days look around, listen to a
20:27
Speaker 1: few offers. First, I would say, even with no experience teaching,
20:32
Speaker 1: no certificate, and no degree, you should expect about two
20:36
Speaker 1: thousand dollars USD. If you are applying in a country
20:39
Speaker 1: like China, in addition to all visa costs and travel
20:42
Speaker 1: costs to and from your home country. Contracts are usually
20:45
Speaker 1: six months to a year. You can negotiate that they
20:50
Speaker 1: can include housing or not. Maybe two hundred bucks so
20:54
Speaker 1: they'll pay for like half of your housing each month.
20:57
Speaker 1: It really depends on where you're signing up for. But
21:00
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. If you look around, you'll very
21:02
Speaker 1: quickly see that you have a range of options to
21:05
Speaker 1: choose from. Maybe some of them want you to stay
21:09
Speaker 1: in the office for office hours where you just sit
21:11
Speaker 1: in the school between teaching, and they'll give you a
21:14
Speaker 1: housing allowance. But the guys who just say come in
21:17
Speaker 1: for two hours and then leave, they won't give you
21:19
Speaker 1: a housing allowance. So how much is your time worth
21:21
Speaker 1: to you? So it's worth looking at multiple offers, and
21:26
Speaker 1: if you apply for multiple schools, you will receive multiple offers.
21:31
Speaker 1: A school willing to provide you with a work visa,
21:34
Speaker 1: that's a pretty big stamp of approval for me. You
21:37
Speaker 1: should look at them because if they're upfront saying yes,
21:41
Speaker 1: we will arrange your visa for you, it is kind
21:44
Speaker 1: of a pain in the butt for a business to
21:45
Speaker 1: do that for someone, so it means they're committed to
21:49
Speaker 1: the school. They're trying to make things work, so that
21:53
Speaker 1: will generally extend to all other parts of the school.
21:56
Speaker 1: If you have something some demand, you want to start
21:59
Speaker 1: at a higher pay, they will probably accommodate you more
22:03
Speaker 1: than a school who wants you to figure out your
22:06
Speaker 1: own visa. Everything will be much more convenient, and if
22:09
Speaker 1: you have a valid visa, obviously you don't have to
22:12
Speaker 1: do visa runs and all of the problems that could
22:17
Speaker 1: come up if you don't have a visa. There's so
22:19
Speaker 1: many jobs, find the one offering to help you get
22:22
Speaker 1: your work visa. As far as teaching materials are concerned,
22:28
Speaker 1: all of the curriculum and teaching materials you will be
22:30
Speaker 1: using in your school should be provided by the school
22:34
Speaker 1: and instantly available and ready to use. There are so
22:38
Speaker 1: many new English schools starting up all the time, and
22:42
Speaker 1: they start without curriculum. Sometimes sometimes people start fake schools,
22:46
Speaker 1: collect a few thousand intuition and then literally run out
22:50
Speaker 1: of town, like leave the town. So if you're going
22:52
Speaker 1: to be fired, it's likely there will be no warning
22:56
Speaker 1: and that the fateful day will occur the day before
22:58
Speaker 1: you should be paid for a month of war work.
23:00
Speaker 1: Parents might organize a campaign because they just have a
23:03
Speaker 1: personal problem with someone who started the school. Anything can
23:06
Speaker 1: happen with the school, so again it's a good reason
23:11
Speaker 1: to just go for the school that is, on its face,
23:13
Speaker 1: very clear, very direct, very prompt with their answers. There
23:17
Speaker 1: are other teachers that have been working there for a while.
23:20
Speaker 1: What you see is what you get kind of thing.
23:23
Speaker 1: Go with all of the things in the good section.
23:25
Speaker 1: If there's anything on the shady section, bear in mind
23:28
Speaker 1: that that translates to your job at the school, how
23:32
Speaker 1: you are being paid and receiving benefits from the school,
23:35
Speaker 1: how you'll be treated, and how your concerns will be
23:38
Speaker 1: addressed at the school. If they can't give you clear
23:41
Speaker 1: answers about the curriculum, they probably also won't give you
23:44
Speaker 1: clear answers about any of your other concerns. If they're
23:47
Speaker 1: not really concerned about a scheduling error that gives you
23:50
Speaker 1: extra hours you didn't agree to work, they're probably not
23:54
Speaker 1: going to be very concerned about paying you on time either.
23:57
Speaker 1: On the other hand, if there are teachers who have
23:59
Speaker 1: been there for a couple of years and they're like, yeah,
24:01
Speaker 1: they've always paid me on time. That's a pretty good
24:04
Speaker 1: endorsement versus oh, yeah, you're new also, and there's five
24:08
Speaker 1: new teachers working at this place. It's not a hostel, like,
24:13
Speaker 1: they shouldn't be turning over all of their teachers at
24:17
Speaker 1: the same time. So find out exactly what is going on.
24:21
Speaker 1: If they want you to create the curriculum, something is
24:24
Speaker 1: wrong with that school. Something's not going correctly at the school.
24:28
Speaker 1: Unless you were hired specifically to create curriculum, then you
24:33
Speaker 1: shouldn't be creating curriculum for the school. If you are
24:37
Speaker 1: hired as a teacher, that is your job being in
24:40
Speaker 1: the classroom teaching English to the students, nothing more and
24:44
Speaker 1: nothing less. A lot of schools will ask their teachers, oh,
24:48
Speaker 1: can you also do this? Just say no, because that's
24:51
Speaker 1: not what you sign up for. If you're very clear
24:54
Speaker 1: when you are getting hired, and especially if you have
24:57
Speaker 1: a contract that lists your job responsibilities, every time they
25:00
Speaker 1: ask you for something else, say no, this is my job.
25:05
Speaker 1: These are my job things. Obviously, if it's a small thing,
25:07
Speaker 1: hand me the book, yes, sure, But if they're putting
25:10
Speaker 1: extra job responsibilities that you did not agree to when
25:14
Speaker 1: you sign up for the school, then don't do them.
25:17
Speaker 1: They aren't going to push because they know you can
25:19
Speaker 1: get a job anywhere else. They'll try to get you
25:22
Speaker 1: to do more work. If you're going to give them
25:24
Speaker 1: free work, they will take it, because of course they
25:28
Speaker 1: want work done. In any situation, in any country, if
25:31
Speaker 1: you offer someone free work, or if you agree to
25:35
Speaker 1: give someone free work when they ask for it, they
25:38
Speaker 1: will take it. And that's great for the school or
25:40
Speaker 1: company you're working at, but it's not great for you.
25:43
Speaker 1: And there's no reason you should be giving away your
25:45
Speaker 1: time and work for free. If they want to add
25:49
Speaker 1: extra job responsibilities, ask for extra pay, or just refuse
25:52
Speaker 1: to do the extra job responsibilities that aren't in your
25:55
Speaker 1: contract or in a less formal teaching setting, whatever responsibilities
25:59
Speaker 1: were or not in your initial agreement. And like I said,
26:03
Speaker 1: it should be twenty five hours a week that you
26:05
Speaker 1: are teaching English in the classroom. That doesn't include the
26:09
Speaker 1: ten minute breaks every class that there will be, and
26:11
Speaker 1: that doesn't include the fifteen minute prep time that there
26:14
Speaker 1: will be. So it should be forty five minute sessions
26:17
Speaker 1: of actual teaching with fifteen minutes of prep time and
26:20
Speaker 1: a ten minute break in the middle. So if you're
26:23
Speaker 1: teaching six hours, you're actually teaching three and a half hours.
26:26
Speaker 1: If you add in all those break times that are
26:28
Speaker 1: inherent and should be there, you should expect to work
26:31
Speaker 1: four to eight hours each day on Saturday and Sunday,
26:36
Speaker 1: and then four to eight hours over the rest of
26:38
Speaker 1: the week. So if you have a really busy school,
26:41
Speaker 1: they'll need teachers Saturday and Sunday when the kids are
26:43
Speaker 1: out of regular classes, and you might work eight hours
26:47
Speaker 1: that day, but really that's only about five hours in
26:50
Speaker 1: total with all those breaks I just mentioned, and then
26:52
Speaker 1: another eight hours five hours actual teaching on Sunday, and
26:56
Speaker 1: then Monday through Friday you might work one hour a
26:59
Speaker 1: day day or at the busiest school, I can think
27:03
Speaker 1: of two hours a day, or four hours on Tuesday,
27:06
Speaker 1: four hours on Thursday, something like that. That would be
27:09
Speaker 1: a twenty four hour working week. Saturday and Sunday full
27:14
Speaker 1: work days, and then two days during the weekday and
27:16
Speaker 1: then you have three days off. It's just as common
27:20
Speaker 1: to work less and get four days off a week.
27:23
Speaker 1: That's another thing you can see if you want to
27:25
Speaker 1: work short term, if you only want to work ten
27:27
Speaker 1: hours a week or twenty hours a week. Schools need
27:31
Speaker 1: different hours from their teachers, so you can find one
27:34
Speaker 1: that only needs you a couple days a week. If
27:36
Speaker 1: you just want to do that, you'll still earn enough
27:38
Speaker 1: money to stay there. If the traveling is more important
27:41
Speaker 1: than saving money, then you can just work ten hours
27:43
Speaker 1: a week a couple days a week, and spend the
27:45
Speaker 1: rest of your time traveling and having a good time.
27:48
Speaker 1: As for the mechanics of your day, like how everything
27:51
Speaker 1: will work while you're in the country you're teaching in,
27:54
Speaker 1: ask as many specific questions as you have during the
27:57
Speaker 1: wrap up of your interview. It can be your first
28:00
Speaker 1: interview with the school. Have a list of questions prepared.
28:04
Speaker 1: Take it from this podcast and just ask all of
28:07
Speaker 1: those good things about the school. Do you offer benefits?
28:10
Speaker 1: What is your pay range? Do you offer flight reimbursements?
28:14
Speaker 1: Will you help me get my work visa? Do you
28:17
Speaker 1: have a provided curriculum that teachers can use? Can I
28:21
Speaker 1: speak to one of the current teachers at your school?
28:24
Speaker 1: Ask everything you can to make sure you feel comfortable
28:27
Speaker 1: with the school that you're signing up to teach at.
28:30
Speaker 1: Write down everything that they answer you You can ask
28:34
Speaker 1: them again in a follow up interview and see if
28:36
Speaker 1: they give you the same answers. Be very confident and
28:39
Speaker 1: be very specific in what you are looking for, both
28:44
Speaker 1: as benefits and what you're looking for the school to provide.
28:47
Speaker 1: If you're looking for housing, tell them you are looking
28:50
Speaker 1: for a school with housing. If they don't have it,
28:52
Speaker 1: then you can go to the next one. And if
28:55
Speaker 1: they're vague about it, then that should be a red flag.
28:58
Speaker 1: But as long as your inter viewer seems honest provide
29:02
Speaker 1: you with definite answers and figures concerning your pay, benefits, visa, process, curriculum, housing,
29:09
Speaker 1: you don't really have anything to worry about. If they're
29:11
Speaker 1: telling you directly and flatly, this is what you get.
29:17
Speaker 1: These are the terms of our work contract. Things are
29:21
Speaker 1: looking good. That should be a safe school. It's when
29:24
Speaker 1: you start getting vague answers or your concerns are dismissed. Oh,
29:28
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about that. We take care
29:30
Speaker 1: of that. Okay, How do you take care of that?
29:33
Speaker 1: How exactly do you help me get my work visa?
29:36
Speaker 1: How exactly is the curriculum provided? Which curriculum am I using?
29:41
Speaker 1: What are my teaching materials? Is there an assistant in
29:44
Speaker 1: the class. Oh, don't worry about our kids are so good.
29:47
Speaker 1: Is there a teaching assistant in the class which I
29:51
Speaker 1: didn't mention. Most schools will have a teaching assistant in
29:54
Speaker 1: class to translate between you or the kids that the
29:56
Speaker 1: kids need to go to the bathroom, or if one
29:58
Speaker 1: kid is having trouble and you're having trouble explaining particular concept,
30:02
Speaker 1: the teaching assistant can help explain to the student. And
30:06
Speaker 1: if you need something, then you can tell to the
30:08
Speaker 1: English speaking teaching assistant and they can help you with
30:11
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Bear in mind that all of these
30:14
Speaker 1: risks of a bad school, or even if you sign
30:17
Speaker 1: a whole contract get over there. I've never heard of
30:20
Speaker 1: this happening, and for some reason, you don't get to
30:22
Speaker 1: work at the school or the school shuts down. If
30:26
Speaker 1: you're there, you will be immediately offered another position at
30:29
Speaker 1: one of the thousands of other English teaching schools. So
30:33
Speaker 1: if you want to start traveling and saving money and
30:37
Speaker 1: EESL sounds like a good way to do that for you.
30:40
Speaker 1: You like the idea of teaching, or you're willing to
30:42
Speaker 1: learn to teach, and mostly you just want to save
30:44
Speaker 1: money and travel, then follow these guidelines. I gave, choose
30:51
Speaker 1: the best school that sounds the best to you, and
30:54
Speaker 1: then even if it doesn't work, there are many many
30:57
Speaker 1: other jobs and many other schools willing to hire you.
31:01
Speaker 1: So you just have that in your back pocket. You
31:03
Speaker 1: do the best you can to find the best situation
31:05
Speaker 1: for you, but even if for whatever reason it doesn't work,
31:09
Speaker 1: you have all of the other schools waiting to hire you.
31:12
Speaker 1: I also want to say having a bad experience is
31:15
Speaker 1: pretty rare. I knew a lot of teachers in China
31:19
Speaker 1: when I was teaching, and all of those pitfalls I
31:22
Speaker 1: mentioned didn't happen to many of them, except the responsibilities
31:26
Speaker 1: thing that happened a couple times, But they never had
31:29
Speaker 1: a full job just taken away from them after they
31:33
Speaker 1: started a new job. Or most of the schools I
31:35
Speaker 1: interacted with we're trying to hire teachers had their curriculum
31:39
Speaker 1: ready and definite schedules, and paid their teachers on time,
31:42
Speaker 1: So all of the concerns are not going to be
31:47
Speaker 1: very pressing. I just want you to be aware that
31:49
Speaker 1: if they come up, there's another job available. There are
31:53
Speaker 1: other good jobs willing to pay you the same waiting
31:56
Speaker 1: for you to walk through the door. I'll mention the
31:58
Speaker 1: office hours really quick. So they might say it's a
32:01
Speaker 1: forty hour work week. We want you in the office
32:04
Speaker 1: fifteen hours a week for office hours, and then you
32:08
Speaker 1: teach twenty five hours. So when they say that twenty
32:12
Speaker 1: five hours, doesn't include all of those ten minute mid
32:15
Speaker 1: class breaks, and it doesn't include the prep times. So
32:19
Speaker 1: that's probably down to eighteen hours roughly of actual teaching
32:22
Speaker 1: time if you add in all of the breaks. And
32:24
Speaker 1: then fifteen hours of office hours means that if you
32:28
Speaker 1: work two hours, say on Tuesday, you might stay there
32:32
Speaker 1: for six more hours just being in the school. You'll
32:36
Speaker 1: mostly be playing on your phone or your laptop and
32:39
Speaker 1: just waiting until you go home. You can work on
32:43
Speaker 1: your projects, whatever you like to do at the desk
32:45
Speaker 1: they provide. Office hours are kind of normal, but they
32:49
Speaker 1: are not teaching hours. They are simply being in the
32:51
Speaker 1: office for some set amount of time, and it can
32:55
Speaker 1: be for any number of reasons. They might just want
32:58
Speaker 1: foreigners in the school because that looks good. They have
33:02
Speaker 1: foreign people teaching English. Look, there's one right there. Just
33:05
Speaker 1: to ask them what they need office hours for. What
33:08
Speaker 1: your responsibility specifically will be during office hours, and then
33:13
Speaker 1: you'll know what you're getting into. It's usually just so
33:16
Speaker 1: they have teachers there to make it look like a school.
33:20
Speaker 1: I remember very specifically one week I had to cover
33:25
Speaker 1: two other teachers and work a full forty hour week
33:28
Speaker 1: actually teaching, and it was like the worst experience I'd
33:32
Speaker 1: had in years. I couldn't believe I used to work
33:35
Speaker 1: forty hours a week when I didn't need to at all.
33:39
Speaker 1: That whole time, I could have just been working twenty
33:41
Speaker 1: hours a week. So once you're at the school, everything
33:45
Speaker 1: looks good. You start to teach and they get there
33:48
Speaker 1: and you're like, wait, how do I teach? I have
33:52
Speaker 1: a whole episode about A Day in the Life, and
33:55
Speaker 1: it provides a sample schedule and explains minute by minute
33:59
Speaker 1: what it'll look like like to teach one period of English.
34:03
Speaker 1: So go check out A Day in the Life. This
34:05
Speaker 1: episode is just about finding the ESL job and what
34:07
Speaker 1: you should look for in a prospective school, and that's
34:11
Speaker 1: what you're looking for. Schools that are very clear and direct,
34:15
Speaker 1: schools that have the pay and benefits. You're looking for
34:20
Speaker 1: schools that offer training, which will mostly consist of you
34:23
Speaker 1: sitting in on a few English classes to get how
34:25
Speaker 1: the English class works if you've never done it before,
34:28
Speaker 1: or even if you have, it's just easy to see
34:30
Speaker 1: how a class goes at that school. You can sit
34:33
Speaker 1: in on a class or two and you start your job, which,
34:38
Speaker 1: to briefly outline, let's say you have an hour of
34:42
Speaker 1: class scheduled. Class that should be fifteen minutes of prep time,
34:46
Speaker 1: so down to forty five minutes and then five sections,
34:49
Speaker 1: eleven minutes of introduction and textbook, eleven minutes of activity
34:53
Speaker 1: or questioning each other, how are you on? Fine? Thank you?
34:56
Speaker 1: Eleven minutes of break, eleven minutes of textbook, eleven minutes
35:00
Speaker 1: activity or questions. Classes over So, look for a good
35:04
Speaker 1: school that seems like it fits with you. Enjoy it.
35:08
Speaker 1: Sign up for six months at first see if you
35:10
Speaker 1: like what you're doing. You will definitely like the savings
35:14
Speaker 1: you have after a few months. If there's anything else
35:17
Speaker 1: you'd like to know, let me know at bit of
35:20
Speaker 1: a rambler at gmail dot com or all the socials
35:24
Speaker 1: and I will add it to this podcast because I
35:27
Speaker 1: want this to be a comprehensive guide about searching for
35:31
Speaker 1: an ESL job and what's good or bad. What you
35:34
Speaker 1: should be looking for that's good or bad, while reminding
35:38
Speaker 1: any prospective English teacher that the opportunities are there, the
35:42
Speaker 1: jobs are there. They have the skills as a native
35:45
Speaker 1: English speaker to do this job, and it's a fun,
35:48
Speaker 1: rewarding job. If you're thinking about it, I hope you
35:52
Speaker 1: go do it. I loved teaching for years, I really
35:57
Speaker 1: really loved traveling, and I might go back to teaching
35:59
Speaker 1: at at any time. Get my fix of that spiritually
36:02
Speaker 1: rewarding teach a student feeling, have a great day, and
36:06
Speaker 1: I will talk to you on the next one.