On many TEFL certification sites, ESL recruitment sites, and on some ESL school sites I see teaching ESL touted as “living and working in an exotic location” and “travel the world while earning money”. They talk up the potential perks and play down the actual job aspect. The result is a lot of teachers arrive with expectations of a lot of travel and an exotic lifestyle, they are than greeted with the reality of the situation. It’s a job and everything that goes along with it.
Depending on the country you choose and
your particular school there is a lot of variety in workload, responsibilities, teaching hours and office hours. On average I would expect to teach around 20 hours a week, with additional work hours for grading, prepping etc. This of course isn’t set, my first semester teaching at university I only had 12 teaching hours, I’ve also had a schedule where I taught 30 hours a week for one semester. Some schools have set hours where the teachers need to be in the building and available, other schools don’t. Some schools expect you to create all of your own lesson plans and extra material, some schools have their own curriculum and you just need to review the material before you teach, and some schools have a mix of both. Regardless of workload, the biggest thing to bear in mind is that this IS a job and a professional work environment, and you need to conduct yourself accordingly.
Will you be traveling the world? Sure, on summer and winter vacation, potentially on other
holidays that your school/country has.
However, many language schools run classes year-round and only offer 1-2 weeks off for both summer and winter. They’re still businesses and their goal is to make money, so teachers don’t typically have months off at a time. Just how many other businesses operate. Many schools offer summer camps for students, which means extra teaching hours. In short you won’t spend most of your time popping off to other countries. However, by being in closer proximity to other countries, when you do have time off it is easier to access them. Would I have traveled as much of Asia if I didn’t live here? Probably not. Weekends give you time to explore the city/country you’re living in. Is ESL a workcation? No, but it is a good opportunity to explore a new country and get some work experience.
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