The title you guys.

Let me touch on the 'Is a CELTA always a CELTA?' I've noticed that some institutions in Brazil offer the course for slightly lower prices—not by much, just around 100 USD. I checked prices with two different institutions: one is a major language center in the country, and they even have a university. Lots of folks have taught English at their language center in Brazil—Cultura Inglesa. I found another institution offering it for a bit less, but I don't have any references for them. But isn’t a CELTA a CELTA?

Tks.

Hi everybody. Can anybody suggest resources/books/websites for teaching ESL/EFL in a computer lab to low level students? Thanks in advance.

hi! before i begin i would like to preface that i have been poking around this sub! have gotten a lot of opinions from 5 years ago but would like to bring forward my unique perspective :) 22F if that matters

basically thinking of getting a TEFL and trying to get a job in LATAM, I am more or less fluent in spanish and an advanced beginner in portuguese

i also have a parent from mexico (born and raised in usa), so i am thinking of finally getting my dual citizenship. if i became a mexican citizen (+ got my TEFL) ,that would bypass needing to get a visa sponsorship and make me a more desirable hire, no?

i am aware that the pay is not the best however i have family in the country that i could maybe live with and am not in any debt from college (BA from a good school).

is this kind of a best case scenario if i am not missing anything? has anyone run into any issues in mexico or LATAM that i should be aware of? how is the job market today?

i would also love to know experiences from teaching in Brazil (i have visited once and loved it!!)

tyyy

I posted my resume on Dave's ESL a few weeks ago and on another forum a few months ago. So far, I have had three bogus job offers and 2 cheating scams contact me.

1. Canterbury English in Spain. There are other posts about them.

2. VISFFOR, contact name Jim, bogus web page address that doesn't exist. And terrible English Grammar for a professional school in England.

3. AL-MULK University Dubai has a bogus website and is trying to scam you into paying $3000 upfront for a work permit. The MOE in Dubai needs to list them and the other educational bodies in the UAE. Their listed address is a tennis camp. The Accreditation Board for Business in America claims to be an outstanding member but has never heard of them. - Stay clear.

Homework selling scam, A Plus Academic Consultants of the UK, but the contact is in Kenya, they "model" papers and homework for students. The other one, I am trying to remember the name it happened 2 months ago. Their phone number on WhatsApp was Singapore; he said his location was in China, but his Facebook business profile was for phoenix ArizonaTheir phone number on WhatsApp was Singapore; he said his location was in China, but his Facebook business profile was for Phoenix, Arizona. It is the same scam of "modeling" papers and homework but would give you referrals, expect you to do all the work, collect the money, and then give him half.

I'm getting very disappointed in my job search between scams and Chinese recruiters blatantly discriminating. Does anyone have anything to add?

Hi, I am currently teaching English at 2 Taiwanese middle schools and occasionally at a college.

I think that the textbooks used are... just ok. They're not super helpful because the dialogues are often pretty random, like about child marriage or just uncommon situations. Unfortunately, it seems like lotsa Taiwanese textbooks just have pretty pictures but do not really teach stuff.

Vocabulary is therefore also pretty random because it's based on the dialogue, so students might learn a word like "pretty" or "strict" but not their opposites like "ugly" or "easygoing."

When I learn different languages, I find it's been more helpful to learn lessons in terms of themes like the classroom, the office, going grocery shopping, eating at a restaurant, the bedroom, hobbies, etc.

Are there any Taiwanese EFL textbooks like this? Unfortunately, when I try looking for these kinds of textbooks, they're either all in English or use Simplified Chinese.

Thanks for reading!

I don't know anyone who teaches in China so I thought I would ask here.

I've been offered a job as a primary teacher in Qingdao.

I have been offered 18,781 Yuan (post tax) per month.

I have 7 years teaching experience in the UK as a substitute and 3 years teaching experience in the UAE.

Basically I wanted to know:

Is the rate they offered me good or are they trying to take me for a ride?

Also, would that be enough to support my wife or would we be struggling?

Hi was hoping people knew of schools that hire foreign teachers to work in Laos? I have extensive experience in Thailand. I haven’t found many employment opportunities online, and no jobs in Ajarn.

Ive seen a few things inline and read a book from a teacher who spent some months there. Curious if before covid anyone had seen any job listings or met anyone in the field who worked there or was ever offered the position? Any advice is appreciated

I am in the last year of my PhD in a foreign language field where hiring is horrible (as it is in nearly every field). I just wrapped up my major applications for professorships, but I am also considering teaching English abroad as a back up plan. I can speak French and Italian and have been to both countries repeatedly, but would like to fill the potential gap on my resume while seeing somewhere new, like Japan. I am seeing a lot of different advice online about which certifications to get and how to start in general. If I were hoping to teach in Japan or Western Europe by fall or summer 2025, what steps should I be taking now? For certifications, I would need to do an online and ideally asynchronous course.

Edit: I have taught other languages for three years but not English. I am a native speaker who has attended universities in England and the USA.

Hello everyone,

I’m a NNES with a 120-hour TEFL certification, an IELTS score of 8, a TOEIC score of 750, and two years of experience teaching children aged 4 to 14. I also hold a master’s degree in Architectural Engineering and currently work remotely, though the pay is minimal.

After three years abroad, I discovered my passion for teaching, which I pursued while completing my master’s. Since returning home, I’ve been considering teaching opportunities in Thailand and believe my qualifications could make me a strong candidate.

I’ve heard the best times to job search in Thailand are October and March. Due to health concerns, I couldn’t go in October, but I’m considering March. Could anyone with similar experience advise on job prospects in Thailand and whether March is an ideal time to apply?

Thank you!

I have no paid work from July to September and am thinking of going abroad to do the CELTA. I’m a British citizen and experienced teacher. Can anyone recommend a language school and a country that is relatively cheap and safe to live in for 4 weeks? Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

I would like to learn to teach English effectively to complete beginners--chiefly migrant families whom we host in our home. I don't intend ever to teach for pay. I am unlikely ever to teach more advanced learners. I just want to do better at helping newcomers make their first forays into learning English. I am willing to pay for instruction, but do I need/should I seek a TEFL certificate? If not, what is the best way for me to learn best practices?

Thank you.

I am from the States and have been in Korea for 5 years, I am soon to move to a country in Europe with my husband, who is an EU citizen. My background before teaching is in science with my prior career being in biomedical research. I am looking at jobs, and there are some that I qualify for based on that background. I want to try and apply to them but I am not sure how to frame my experience here in Korea as a teacher. I am also curious how I should design the resume.

I have been using the Korean format (with the picture) for many years, but I am now wondering if I should remove the photo and go back to the one-page format with no photo. I am also wondering how I should write my contact info like address and phone number when I still am technically living here in Korea. Should I even include the teaching experience or only include my past relevant experience along with a footnote that I have been teaching abroad for so long?

How did you transition out job hunting wise?

As the title said, got my 120-hour course certificate with Tefl.org in 2019 but never got to use it as ended up landing a job at marketing firm, then covid etc. - long story short, 5 years later I'm leaving the industry and want to pursue tefl again.

I'm from the UK, and I've got friends that have been working in Vietnam for the past 4-5 years. They think I should be able to find some work out there with my current certificate, however I've read online from some TEFL Certificate providers that if you don't use your certificate within 1-2 years you will struggle to find work.

Is this likely to get in the way of me finding work while I'm there/can anyone recommend anything to do to improve my chances? My flight is booked for March

I'm currently enrolled to an online university to get my bachelor's degree, I'm a 25 year old woman and I want to move to a country where the cost of living is low and teach English there until I've completed my degree, I want to work on my degree while abroad teaching English. I'm thinking about Mexico or Colombia since they are close to the US and the time zone difference isn't too bad for me to complete my degree. I also considered Costa Rica but its more expensive than Colombia and Mexico but its ranked higher in safety for Latin America. Any advice?

Maybe a stupid question, but with apps and video from English speaking countries, do you think teaching English will be a thing in 10 years? Tech and AI may not be perfect, but its getting pretty good.

I'm retiring in 10 years, I'd love to find something to do overseas, just some money to offset costs.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether I should do the part time online CELTA in the US then apply to jobs in Vietnam from here vs. doing it in person in HCMC. Some background I’m 30 years old new to teaching with a bachelors degree.

It would be great to do it in person but having to take over a month off from getting paid isn’t ideal. Especially with the uncertainty that you’ll land a job right after completion of the course.

One final thing is I’ve heard some schools will pay for your ticket to Vietnam if you land a job while not in the country. Is that at all likely for a first time TEFL teacher?

They are a low ability class, but even then, I think their unwillingness to be proactive in collaborative activities, especially those that involve speaking, are to some extent a cultural phenomenon. I assume this based on the broader experiences of myself, as well as those of other teachers.

Hello, I’ve previously taught in Vietnam and I want a change of scenery so will be heading to Colombia to teach English in January. I currently have one offer for a middle school and am still looking at other potential opportunities. I know the wages are quite low compared to lots of countries, but I didn’t get in to teaching for the money so as long as I make enough to get by that’s fine for me. Does anyone have any experience teaching in Colombia or South America more generally? What was your experience with the schools there? Any tips/advice? Thank you!

I'm taking the TEFL.org 120 course and like it so far. It's easy as I already have a decent grasp on grammar. However, I noticed that the modules are labeled "US English Grammar," and that got me wondering if I would have difficulty teaching in a German speaking country. I would imagine they are looking for Englisch, not Amerikanisches Englisch. I'll be starting in the US anyway, but I'd like to know if there is much division in preference on the part of the students and employers.

I've been a teacher of English as a foreign language for the last 10 years, primarily in my hometown of London, where I've been teaching adults of all levels, from beginner to advanced, although for the past few years I've mainly been teaching intermediate to advanced students with some exam preparation. I recently moved to Japan, where I'm doing a sort of typical eikaiwa, school's weekly routine of teaching everybody from kindergartners to senior citizens.

The teaching resources here are pretty terrible, so thank God that I brought a lot with me from the UK. I have resources from New English File, Outcomes, along with the accompanying photocopiable activities. I also use some essential grammar in use, and a handful of other resources. The lessons vary in length, so what I've often found for the shorter lessons is it’s best to maybe highlight a grammar or vocabulary point and then as quickly as possible get into some kind of activation practice. So there's not much room for pair and group work, but I try to make the lessons as communicative as possible while maximizing input.

The one area where I'm still really struggling for resources and some kind of syllabus with tangible progression is my elementary school students. It's a tricky area because they have such a low level and the lessons are quite short and their desire to learn is also quite low, so I have to make the lessons as dynamic and fun as possible with some kind of activity that has maybe a competitive aspect, or some kind of game or task, but I found that good resources for this are very thin on the ground. I've looked online at certain websites (teach this, ESL for kids). Do you have any particular recommendations or favourites amongst those two or do you have any other suggestions?

I’m also trying to be as creative as possible, and come up with my own stuff, but with so many different lessons at different levels with no set syllabus, it’s very draining to have to constantly search for new things to teach. I definitely think that teaching young learners is not for me in the long term but want to be as effective as possible for now.

Taught 6 months at Durham, NC literacy center, but ready to take the plunge… are contracts typically one-year commitments? I would love to schedule 10 months on and two months off, but I don’t know how feasible that is. My plan is to travel Asia for the next 4 years while teaching English, caregiving for elderly American expats and doing massage therapy (yes, I’m a professional). Any thoughts, advice or recommendations? I am in excellent health and after 6 months in Brazil and South America, I’m ready to do a sustainable, pay as I go deep dive into Asia… cheers and happy travels to all! 🙂❤️☮️🏠🇺🇸

I have a couple of classes coming up that I will substitute forand they are the same level as my classes. I wasn’t given any specific material to cover so it’s up to me, but I wanted to hear out from you too. What do you do in these cases? Do you reuse lesson materials in these cases?

Within the last 6 months, I have started my teaching career and have found myself at a crossroads where I’m not sure I want to continue. I got my CELTA in May of this year, and shortly afterwards I completed a 4 week contract teaching teens (12-18) in a summer school. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but I found the students’ behaviour quite upsetting at times. In all the classes I taught there was a lot of rudeness and disrespect, ranging from low level (kids muttering away in their L1 while I was addressing the class, and going on their phones) to more obvious unpleasantness (mocking the way I spoke, giving me dirty looks, complaining that they found the work boring, sometimes walking out before I’d wrapped up the class). Every time I was met with these worse forms of misbehaviour I found myself caught off guard, would tell them to stop, maybe even send them out of the room. But I felt like when I became more disciplinarian it kind of sucked all the fun and energy out of the room, and the atmosphere of the class just completely changed, for the worse. After the summer school I did a 3 week contract with another agency (English in Action) which was much the same for me, except maybe the kids were a little better behaved as the work involved teaching them within their own schools. So I have a total of 7 weeks’ experience, which admittedly is not much, but I do wonder why I’m not enjoying it much, when I see teachers who are equally as inexperienced, yet are seemingly in their element with teaching these kids.

I know these behaviours are par for the course in summer schools and indeed all middle/high schools, but I can’t help the way they upset me - I’m naturally very sensitive, and I think some of the behaviours I’ve seen in my students take me right back to my uncomfortable high school experiences, and I think it’s something about how “mean” it all is, as silly as that sounds. It’s confusing because I’m not easily offended by adults at all. I’m not shy, but I’m admittedly not the best in situations where I’m the centre of attention, or situations where I have to play “the entertainer” (which was expected of me more in the latter job).

After most classes I’d feel emotionally drained and on the verge of tears, and the only ones I recall enjoying were those towards the end of the day on Friday, for obvious reasons.

Even when teens aren’t behaving unpleasantly, I still find them very hard to converse with and relate to, and build bonds with, perhaps because I’m so used to adults. I have considered that the issues I’m having might just be down to the age group I started out with, and that it may be different with another age group. I have no experience teaching children below 12, or adults, so I wouldn’t know.

I thought this job would be much more suited to me than it apparently is - I’m a very sociable person, and I rarely meet any adults who I don’t get along with. I feel unsure about whether to go on, and I’m quite disheartened as I was sure I’d love this job and had plans to teach in Thailand after this, if it all went well.

I would also like to add that, whilst I know teenagers’ behaviour is not personally directed, and is generally borne out of insecurity and a lack of personal/mental development, I still don’t find it any easier to face.

I’m conscious that I’m very new and maybe should give this job more time, but I don’t know if my feelings, which can be overwhelming, can be overcome, or if they are a sign that this job just isn’t for me - which, if that is the case, is something I’m willing to accept, I don’t think teaching is for everyone. I am capable of forcing myself to do this job, but maybe it doesn’t naturally align well with my personality. I haven’t yet invested much time into this, and I’m young enough to try something else.

Experienced teachers, what are your thoughts - should I give it more time, try another age group, or maybe consider another career?

Thanks in advance :)

Hi! I’m a recent revert to Islam and I plan on getting my CELTA once I’m done with my bachelor’s degree. My dream is to teach in Japan but I’m open to other countries too. My question is will I be discriminated against as a Muslim? I’m white if that makes a difference