Teaching EFL/ESL is a wonderful chance to immerse yourself in a new culture, learn a new language, and even travel in a new part of the world. EFL also has the perk of being a job you can find in almost any country, with so many options, how do you choose which country to teach in? Here are a few factors to keep in mind, when looking at your options.
Visas
One of the most important, exacerbating, and boring considerations are visas, aka your ability to live and work in a country legally. No matter which country you choose, you will need to acquire a visa or combination of visas to live and work in the country long term and this can be far more complicated than it sounds. Many Asian countries have specific visas designated for EFL teachers, they tend to require the same documents, and are often handled by the school itself which makes things easier for you. If you want to teach in Europe as an American, you are going to have a harder time, job preference is given to EU citizens, so the school would need to prove you are more qualified than a candidate holding an EU passport to offer you a job. Additionally, most schools require that you have a visa before they offer you a contract, but you need a contract to apply for the visa. Latin America is a mixed bag, in some countries there are designated visas for language teachers, or it is relatively easy to apply for a work visa. Latin America is also friendly to non-native English speakers who are EFL teachers when compared to Asia, where it can be next to impossible to get a visa as an EFL teacher. Whichever countries you are considering, make sure you research the visa requirements thoroughly, and check with your school on how it will be handled. While I do know people who have worked under the table and over-stayed on tourist visas, this is not a path I recommend.
Salary
Another top consideration I hear among EFL teachers is salary, of course we all want to be
well paid, or as you become more experienced, paid for the skills and abilities you bring to the classroom. Asia and the Middle East are the parts of the world that offer the highest salaries. While the Middle East often offers the highest salaries, they also require higher standards of education for teachers and there are often trade-offs in living conditions due to the massive cultural differences, especially for women. Asia also offers higher salaries, however, the highest salaries are often offered at private language schools that teach kindergarten. University professors are usually well compensated, but adult EFL teachers seem to be underpaid and overworked in comparison. Some Asian countries such as Korea also have very stagnant salaries, there has been no real increase in many years, but
schools often want better qualified teachers and longer working hours. This is one of the main reasons I’m not currently teaching in Korea, despite how much I loved living there. Europe and Latin America tend to pay less, however most teachers working at language schools are allowed to tutor or do other freelance work on the side. University teachers tend to make a comfortable salary and come language schools supplement salaries with a yearly flight allowance to allow teachers to travel or visit their families. In the digital age, there are no shortage of options (as long as you have reliable WiFi) in how you supplement your income as a teacher, just make sure it’s allowed on your visa. Online teaching is kind of a grey area as far as being allowable on visas in some countries, if you teach in one of those countries, it’s best to just keep quiet about doing it.
Cost of Living
Hand-in-hand with salary is cost of living, what are your expenses going to be? What kind of lifestyle do you want to maintain? Researching what the average cost of living (rent, wifi, food, transportation, etc.) is a must before moving to a new country and can be helpful in making the decision on what country will be a good fit. In Asia it is common to either have housing provided or to receive a monetary supplement to pay for your housing, but you are responsible for utilities and WiFi etc. In most other parts of the world you will most likely have to pay for your own housing plus utilities, this comes at a variety of price points depending on if you have roommates, what part of the city you live in and how many amenities you want to have. Food costs can vary in different countries, in China, Thailand and Vietnam it is often cheaper to eat out for your meals rather than cooking your own food. However, if you’re vegetarian like me, or vegan, you may find it harder to eat out and find you need a larger budget for food so that you can cook at home. Bigger and the more "in demand" cities often have a higher cost of living compared to smaller cities or rural locations. If you’re hoping to travel a lot, you want to take a job that provides a salary that allows for that, or the ability to work a side job.
Workload
The workload you can expect also varies by country and school type. As a university instructor I have always had what I consider a light workload compared to when I worked at a private language school. Different countries have different cultural norms as far as what is expected from employees in regards to how many hours you work and the intensity of your workload. In many Asian countries, it is normal to work long hours compared to western and Latin American countries. Do you enjoy planning your own lessons and creating materials? This can mean working more hours when compared to working for a school where the curriculum is pre-planned. This can be more school specific rather than country specific, but in general in Asia pre-planned curriculum and lessons are more standard outside of universities.
Cultural Differences
Along with workload, cultural differences in the workplace are another aspect to consider. Issues like management, hierarchy structures, extracurricular work activities and expectations of foreign workers can come up. In Asia, you quite often have to play the office politics game for things like promotions and contract renewal, and it’s a good bit different from office politics in the US and I imagine other countries as well. Conflicts between management and teachers over cultural differences are very common and seem to be more prevalent in Asia, than in Europe or Latin America. Conflicts are common not just between management and foreign teachers, but also between foreign teachers and co-teachers or the other English teachers (who aren't foreigners). I've been lucky to always have good relationships with my co-teachers and the other teachers in the foreign language department, but that wasn't always the norm at the schools where I worked. At the language school where I worked in Korea, the management at one of our branches actively worked to create division between the foreign teachers and
Korean teachers, they leveraged cultural differences to help them do this. At the second branch, the management did not work to create this division and the teachers worked really well together and even spent time together socially. In the Middle East cultural issues especially around women can be pretty prevalent and there may even be certain standards and behaviors stipulated in the contract that female teachers or foreign teachers in general are required to follow. Some topics may be considered culturally taboo to talk about, or even forbidden, and while these may be left up to the teacher's best judgment, it is sometimes best to leave controversial topics either completely out of the classroom, or wait until the students request them. Even if students want to talk about a sensitive topic, I would run it by management before and get the okay, if there is a complaint about it you want to have covered all your bases. When I worked in China my contract specifically stated topics that I was not allowed to talk about in and out of the classroom, with students, or even other teachers.
Side jobs
Are you hoping to tutor or have a second job to supplement your income? Do you already have a creative or teaching job online? Depending on the country, your visa may not allow you to work more than one job, especially if your main employer sponsors your visa. It’s always possible to work online or under the table, but you risk losing your visa if caught by immigration…depending on the penalties of the country. Working online is a bit of a grey area, most countries don't have clear immigration rules in regards to working online, a lot of the time these jobs are based in different countries from where you are physically working (especially in the realm of online teaching) which means it often doesn't directly violate visa rules, but I would recommend keeping it to yourself anyway. Working as a creative is also a bit of a grey area that visa rules haven't quite kept up with. While you are physically in one location where you are creating content, you are most likely getting paid and taxed on that income in your home country. Keeping any work you do as a creative may be harder to keep under wraps, I'd still recommend not being super vocal about it in your workplace or to your co-workers.
Country Infrastructure, Development & Economy
It’s not a super exciting topic, but you should consider the country’s infrastructure, level of development and economic situation. If you’ve lived in a developed country your whole life, you may not enjoy living in a rural, developing country as it can be very challenging to adapt to. It may sound okay, but once you’re actually living on the side of a mountain, in a food desert, with rolling blackouts, you may find that you underestimated what you want to adapt to. How challenging do you want it to be to get around the country? While traveling around some countries is easy and accessible, even in some less developed countries, it can be really challenging in others. Partner that with a remote location and it can lead to feeling isolated, especially if there is no expat community to connect with. Do you want access to shopping malls, western restaurants, hair salons and other creature comforts similar to what you can
find at home? Poor infrastructure can also mean poor internet connection, even countries with decent infrastructure can have sketchy internet, when I lived in China my internet went out all the time or was really dodgy. This can make it harder to connect with family and friends, work online (if that's something you do) or entertain yourself. Economy, a country with a stronger economy is going to have a population that has more money to spend on education and learning English, this can mean higher salaries and ability to earn extra income from freelance tutoring or side jobs. It can also mean less resentment towards foreigners who are coming into the country, taking jobs and quite often earning more than locals who are teaching English.
These are just a few factors to consider, you may not end up in your “dream” country when you think about it in a more practical way, but that could end up surprising you. When I took my first job teaching ESL/EFL I had job offers in several countries in Asia, none of them were my dream country (Portugal), and after a lot of consideration I chose South Korea. I had many people ask me why I wasn’t going to a “good” country, especially since I had job offers in Thailand, but Korea turned out to be a great choice and a country I fell in love with. At the end of the day it’s your choice and you don’t need to explain your decision to anyone, and if you’re picking a country on what will make you “look cool”, teaching ESL isn’t something I would suggest you do.
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