The problem with backpacking around the world is that once you start, you never wanna stop! Unfortunately though, unless you make money online (through travel blogging for instance) then the possibility of traveling long-term seems very remote.
That’s where teaching English can help. Teaching English overseas gives the freedom to live almost anywhere in the world, enough income to live a great lifestyle, and the potential to save money to continue to travel after your contract is up. Sounds perfect huh? Not quite, there are a few issues you may need to resolve and a couple of hoops to jump through if you wanna pursue your dream.
Go through this list to see if you can teach English overseas:
Step 1) Choose a country you wanna live in:
There are jobs available in pretty much every non-native English speaking country in the world (and English speaking countries), so you just need to decide where you would like to live and work. That’s the first step. South Korea, China, Thailand, the Middle-East are some of the most common choices.
Step 2) Research what the legal perquisites are to work in the country you’ve chosen:
Most countries, like South Korea, require you to have a degree to teach English (not necessarily in education, languages or English, your degree can be in anything). If you don’t have a degree you’ll either have to go back to step 1 and choose a more lenient country (China don’t require a degree to teach English for example) or crack on with your degree.
Some countries require a TEFL qualification too, so you may need to organize to take a TEFL course, either online (not great) or face to face (highly recommended). Courses start at $99 for a low-end TEFL, to $1600 for the industry best.
Step 3) Research for jobs online:
You can sort your job out before you come, using websites such as Dave’s ESL, Craig’s List etc. Also, each country with a booming TEFL industry have their own country specific websites (Thailand has ajarn.net etc). Often wealthier countries suchas as Japan and Dubai offer free flights as part of the contract but you need to organize your job from your home country to be applicable.
Step 4) Buy a one-way ticket to the country you want to live and work in:
This is what I did when I taught English in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After you’ve got the required documents to teach in your country of choice, just literally buy your ticket, arrive on a tourist visa and go to the language schools in the city/town you’d like to live in. You can almost be certain, with a good TEFL under your belt, you’ll have a job within a few weeks. This is a ballsy move, but one which often bears the best fruit.
That’s it folks, teaching English is a dream job for people who’d like to travel so get yourself sorted out and start making that dream a reality!
My sister has been successfully followed an online TEFL course, she hopes to aboard next year to start her career as an English teacher. So I will suggest this blog to her because this is truly helpful to her.
That’s great news. Where does she want to travel to?