Be A “Mex-Pat” - Teach English Mexico

If you want to, you can go and teach in a crowded, high paced city in Asia where your apartment will be so small you have to go outside to turn around. Or… you can teach English Mexico and have a little more space to breath in. English teachers are increasingly choosing to be “Mex-pats.”

What On Earth Is A Mex-Pat?

Well, you’ve heard of “ex-pats,” right? Lots of people decide to leave their home country and settle somewhere else permanently. We won’t ask any nosy questions; suffice it to say that they like the weather so much they decide never to return.

A Mex-pat is one of thousands each year who go to Mexico and decide to never come back. Why would anyone do that? Because, Mexico has a rich culture, a more slow-paced lifestyle, delicious food and it is a cheap place to live. Of course, everybody has their own reasons too.

Where Do You Wanna Go?

Mexico is a huge country and there are many different places where you can teach. The place most teachers pick for their first job is Mexico City. It’s a bustling, hectic big city, but it’s also a city with an amazing cultural heritage. Most importantly, it’s a city with lots of teaching opportunities.

When you are first going to Mexico, it may be best to secure a job before you go. However, if you do this, you will have fewer options and it may be tougher than just going in person. Often, companies that hire from overseas offer good pay, benefits and support for their teachers. After you’ve been in Mexico a while and you know the lay of the land, you can get a job at a smaller school.

Mexico City is also a great sampling of what Mexico has to offer. After you’ve been there a while, you can decide if maybe you’d like to head to a smaller town or another region of Mexico. Once you’re living there, more options will open up.

Reasons Why Mexico Is A Great Place To Teach

- It’s close. If you live in Mexico, it’s just a quick plane trip to get home for a visit. You won’t be all the way across the world. Also, it’s cheap to call home, and you don’t usually have to worry about time differences. In Mexico, you can teach abroad and still feel close to home.

- It’s beautiful. Everybody knows that Mexico has great beaches and resorts for tourists. But, Mexico also has lots of natural beauty, like rivers, mountains and deserts. It’s a huge country and, like the United States, has many different climates that you can enjoy year round.

- The People Are Friendly. You will be amazed at how warm and friendly Mexican people are. Your students will invite you to their weddings, take you out, and want to spend as much time as possible with you. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding a social life in Mexico.

One more reason why the living is easy in Mexico - the language is easy. Spanish may seem tough to you if you don’t speak any, but try comparing it to Japanese, Korean or Thai! Trust me, you’ll be speaking Spanish like a native in no time.

Mexico is a popular destination for teachers who want to do more than make money. They want to have a good time and enjoy the lifestyle a bit more, and Mexico is a great choice.

Be A Stay At Home English Teacher - Teach English Online

Nowadays, it’s possible to teach English to people in foreign countries without ever leaving the safety and comfort of your desk. This may sound unusual, but for people who teach English online, it’s just another day at the office.

Actually, online English is great for students who don’t have a chance to talk to real live native speakers. In countries such as Korea, China, Egypt or Saudi Arabia there aren’t many westerners. Especially in remote areas, it may be impossible to find someone to practice their English with.

Teaching English online used to be more of a hassle than it is now. It used to involve long-distance phone calls, and the costs of running these companies made them pretty unprofitable. Now, however, with free communication services such as Skype, the world of online English teaching has come of age. Skype is a free service where you can talk to anyone in the world through your internet connection. If your computer has the right specifications, you can even see them so that you are chatting face to face.

There are as many different styles of online teaching as there are companies. Some services allow you to log on whenever it’s convenient for you, and others have set class times. Some provide online materials or software for you to use, and with others you are largely on your own.

It sounds great, but it’s not all fun and games. There are some problems English teachers encounter when they start teaching English online.

- Scheduling. So, you want to teach from your comfy home in the US to students all over the world. The only problem is that there’s a time difference. Unless you’re a night owl or an early riser, it might be hard to schedule your lessons with your students.

- Pay. Although there are increasingly more online teaching opportunities, they just don’t pay as well as the regular classroom. It’s hard to make a full time teaching schedule unless you work for one of the big companies.

Another problem with payment is currency. Services like Paypal deal in US dollars, and charge high fees for money transfers. It may be difficult to get the payments from your students.

- Technical Problems. Teaching online requires a very reliable computer system. You may have to do some troubleshooting, and there will be times when your system is down for some reason.

Teaching English online is probably best done as a part-time job for extra money. If you are already teaching English and have a good computer set-up, you may consider moonlighting with online teaching. It saves you the trouble of having to run around and teach private lessons in different places. It’s also great for those who are staying home and taking care of kids.

All of the major teaching English job websites have sections for online teaching jobs. Get online and check a few out. If you contact them for more information, they can tell you what kind of technological stuff you need to get started.

4 Great Things About Korea!

Of all the teaching opportunities Asia has to offer, Korea is probably the best. Of course, those “Teach English Korea” job ads always dress it up and make it sound good. But, there are 4 things that Korea has really going for it.

You Can Save Money

I don’t know if you’ve heard already, but it’s not so easy to make money teaching in Japan anymore. Why is that? Because it’s insanely expensive to live there. On the other hand, in countries like China and Thailand, you can live like a king WHILE THERE, but it’s tough to save because the currency is so low.

Korea is a great place to save money. The economy is on the rise, and the Won is a contender in the world economy. Unlike Japan, you can have a good time in Korea, go sightseeing, do it up and party all you want, and you can still go home with a bundle of cash. Ask any English teacher whose been in Asia and they’ll tell you that Korea is the best place to save money.

The Food Is Fantastic

Korean food is amazing, especially if you like a little spice. They have a chili called “kimchee” that they put on just about everything. And, there are more varieties of kimchee than you can imagine. It’s a little like all the different kinds of salsa in Mexico.

If you’re a meat eater, Korea will provide you with all the slabs of animal you can put away. If you’re a vegetarian or healthy type, you’ll love the variety of fresh vegetables Korea has to offer. Even if you live in a big city, lots of the food comes straight from the surrounding farmlands. It’s fresh and tasty!

Make Lots Of Friends!

Koreans are very friendly, outgoing and warm. There aren’t many foreigners living in Korea, so you may find yourself the center of attention everywhere you go. Some foreign teachers get fawned over! You’ll also have lots of opportunities to socialize and learn more about Korea. Of all the Asian countries where you can teach, Korea is probably the easiest to make friends in. Ask anybody who’s been there.

Sightseeing Opportunities

There is lots to see in Korea if you can get out of the city. Korea has a unique history, being situated on the edge of China and Russia. It is a country that’s not visited by tourists as much as China and Japan, so you can see lots of things that nobody you know has seen.

Because your living expenses will be pretty low, you’ll have lots of extra money to throw around on trips around the country. Just make sure your company allows some vacation time. Still, there are weekend trips you can take to get out and see everything and be back to work on Monday.

Korea is a great opportunity for English teachers. Sign on with a company for a year contract and see how it treats you!

Teach English As A Foreign Language Without Spending Years Your Life In School

What if you want to teach English as a foreign language, but you don’t want to go to Graduate school and spend time and money on a TEFL program? Maybe you’d like to test the waters before you dive in, and see if teaching is for you, before you make a major investment.

There was a time when you could travel the world and get paid well to be an English teacher just by being a native speaker of English. Just because you were born in the US, Australia or another English speaking country, and you are a fluent English speaker, you could get all kinds of high paying jobs teaching English overseas.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it used to be. First off, there is more and more competition for those jobs, especially the ones that pay well. Plus, certain destinations draw more applicants than others. Want to teach in France? So does everybody else! If you have no qualifications or experience, you may find yourself having to lower your standards a little.

For the most part, English schools require their teachers to have a Bachelors Degree in something or other. This is pretty standard. There are some countries, such as Mexico or Brazil, where you can get a teaching job without a college degree, but your choices would be pretty limited. Most countries have visa regulations requiring that you have a 4-year college degree.

While this is the bare minimum, it helps to have experience or qualifications. To get a good job teaching, a postgraduate degree is not necessary unless you are going for a university job.

So, with a 4-year degree and a little elbow grease, you can still make yourself an attractive candidate for teaching jobs. Here are a few things you can do;

- Get some experience. Wherever you live, there are opportunities to volunteer to teach English. Places like your local library or community center may offer English lessons, and they are always looking for somebody to teach. You may be turned off by the idea of volunteering, but if you play your cards right, you might be able to find something that pays as well. A little teaching experience goes a long way, and it will look great on your resume.

- Get a TESOL certificate. There are all kinds of inexpensive, short-term TESOL certification programs. You can get a certificate in as little as one month, and you can do it online. Even a short-term program will give you some valuable skills and also look good to prospective employers. Just make sure that the program you choose is legitimate and offers a real certificate. Do a little research and make sure they’re reputable.

- Take what you can get and job hunt when you get there. You can always get the first job that comes along, and keep job hunting once you get over there. A big company will often offer housing and visa sponsorship. You can always work for a while, get used to living there, gain some valuable experience, and keep your eyes peeled for something better. Many small schools don’t hire outside of the countries, so you have much more opportunity if you are already there. A little teaching experience will put you way ahead of the newbies.

Of course it helps to have a postgraduate degree and lots of teaching experience, but if you’re like me and you just want to get it started ASAP, there are ways to do it. Once you have taught for a while, you can always head back to school for another degree and give your teaching career a boost.

Prepare Yourself For Culture Shock

If you teach English China, you may find yourself suffering from one of the pitfalls of English teaching abroad - Culture Shock. Culture shock is not some theory made up by sociologists. It’s a very real situation, and the adverse side effects can be serious.

Culture Shock 101

Culture shock occurs when you find yourself immersed in a cultural environment that’s different than your own. At first, you are disoriented. Nothing seems to work right, everything is confusing, and you don’t know what’s going on. Pretty soon you’re very, very tired, and often people who suffer from culture shock end up by blaming the country and hating it.

Of course, whenever you find yourself in a foreign country, you are shocked by how different it is. But, this is not what culture shock is. Culture shock is basically a mental condition, including anxiety and depression, and it doesn’t go away overnight.

China is a great country to teach in, but many people find it impossible to live there because of the culture shock they experience. They can never get over the condition, and eventually they start to hate it and count the days before they can go home.

Here are some things you can expect to be very different in China:

Don’t Sit Down! - By modern, western standards, China is a fairly polluted country and the cities are quite dirty. It is common to see people spitting on sidewalks or littering. This is fairly normal.

Standards of cleanliness differ from one country to another. For example, in Japan, anything that has been outside is considered dirty, and people take precautions to make everything that enters the house clean. Differing standards of cleanliness can make a foreign resident uncomfortable and can increase culture shock.

Everything Gets Banned - China is rapidly modernizing and increasing their demand for western goods and services. You may be impressed when you land in China and see towering skyscrapers everywhere.

But, you have to remember that China is a very conservative country. Anything considered politically subversive is banned. Also, lots of western entertainment and fashions have been targets by the government.

Freedom is one of the biggest factors in culture shock. It is really hard to live somewhere where you feel like you have to follow strict new rules. But, this is part of the modern culture of China.

Are We Going To Eat THAT? - Probably the number 1 cause of culture shock is food. If you go abroad to teach English, you should definitely check out what the people eat. Can you handle eating strange and unusual food every day that you are there?

Chinese people eat lots of things that we would never dream of eating. It may be a big turn-off, or it may be an opportunity to try some new things! Much of it depends on how adventurous you are, but keep in mind that you’ll have to get used to the cuisine.

China is a wonderful country to teach English in, and many people come away with very positive experiences. Most find the Chinese to be friendly, and teaching in China to be a great experience. Just keep an eye on your mental state, and try to identify culture shock before it takes over.

Going South - Teach English In South America

With all the demand for English teachers, just about anybody can teach English in South America. Down south, the living is easy, the food is good, people are friendly, and there are tons of teaching jobs. You just have to be prepared and know where to look.

What’s Good About Teaching In South America

In South America, you won’t find as many English teachers as you do in Asia or Europe. In an Asian city like Tokyo or Seoul, you can throw a chopstick in the air and it will probably land on a foreign English teacher. But, this is not so in South America. It might be because people misperceive South America as a dangerous, poor place, and don’t know what wonderful opportunities it offers. This is a good thing for you, however, because it means less competition for those teaching jobs.
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Teach English In Italy - Tips On Getting An ESL Job In Italy

Italy is one of the top destinations for ESL teachers in Europe. If you want to teach English in Italy, you can either picture yourself taking in the sites in Rome or Milan; or, you can picture yourself sipping wine in a tiny village, eating fresh handmade pasta. Either way, Italy is an unforgettable experience, and you may find it impossible to come back.

But first, how do you get there?

Getting A Job

Your best bet for landing a job in Italy is to just head there with all your paperwork, including resumes, certificates, references and so forth. As with most countries, you don’t need teaching qualifications, but they will help a lot. Italy is a pretty tough country to get a teaching job in with only a four-year college degree, but it can be done.
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Teach English Brazil And Gain A Cultural Experience

Brazil is one of the best kept secrets in the English-teaching world. It doesn’t occur to everybody that you can teach English Brazil and make lots of money while having a valuable experience. Many people associate South America with crime and drugs, and fail to see what a rich culture and rewarding experience it is.

Jobs Are Available!

Because it doesn’t often pop to mind to teach English in Brazil, there aren’t a lot of teachers so there is huge demand. This doesn’t mean that you can get a job because you have blue eyes and a nice smile, but it does mean that you stand a better chance of finding a good job than you would elsewhere. There is especially high demand for North American English because of trade agreements with the United States and all the businesses that want to be involved in the international economy.

The best thing you can have to get a job in Brazil is at least a little bit of teaching experience. It’s still pretty tough to land a job if you are fresh out of college with no experience whatsoever. Your choices will be severely limited if you have no qualifications or experience.

The best way to get a job is to physically be in the country, but visa regulations make it tough to job hunt there. Probably the best way to get your foot in the door is to go with a big commercial English school like Wizard. They will offer you competitive pay and get you some experience; then, you can look for something better once you’re there.

Get Out Of The City

The best opportunities for teaching are in the cities. If you want to volunteer, you can get a job teaching kids in the rainforest. But, if you want to make money, there isn’t much of any way around living in the city.

The good thing about this is that there are lots of great weekend getaways that are easily accessible from major cities like Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil, you can live and work in the city and head out of town for day trips or weekends and see some amazing sights.

Learn About The Culture

Brazilians are very friendly to foreigners. You’ll find it easy to make friends and experience Brazilian culture. Sharing cultures is very important to Brazilians, so if you take an active interest in Brazilian culture, you’ll have a much easier time being sociable.

It’s also strongly recommended that you learn the language. In Brazil, unlike the rest of South America, they speak Portuguese. It may be tough to pick up another language, but the rewards will be well worth it. If you take some classes or study on your own before you come a little, it will be much easier to pick up when you are immersed in it.

Brazil is one of those countries that people choose because of the experience, not just the money. It’s great to save money or pay off debts with your teaching income, but remember that experiencing another culture is a big part of it too. So is enjoying yourself!

How To Teach Child English - Overcoming The Tough Stuff

Teaching kids is totally different from teaching adults. Lots of teachers find it frustrating at first, because they don’t know how to teach child English; we may feel that we’re “not good with kids,” or that it’s tough to get through to them.

The best way to learn is through experience. It’s the only way, really. Still, there are a few simple things to keep in mind that will make your kids lessons go a bit more smoothly.

Fun Is Number One

No matter where in the world you are, kids are the same. They have only one objective: Fun. Your adult students are motivated to learn English, but your kids aren’t. They just want to play!
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