Thread: Can teaching in thailand lead to teaching in America/Japan?

Sorry about your dog. Here's something you can do, read all you can about TEF/SL. The Bluffer's guide is a good one. If you use terms from the books and have an idea what they mean you'll have a little more advantage.

You should actually enjoy the government school and learn a lot about Thai culture.. huh! Agahst!! Heaven forbid.. I thought it was all about the dirty green.

The students at this school are angels (although some are lazy or lacking in confidence they are extremely intelligent), it should prove a great experience. Proximity to Khao San is also nice when you first start out here.

I see what others are getting at but I think that a trade off can be had between pay and opportunities. I did 3 months at this school and got a reference which opened doors: the next job I was offered was at CULI. Then again, I had a decent resume prior to coming to Thailand. I now work at a top university in Thailand and one of my colleagues here also worked at the government school in question.

Although I earn monopoly money, being able to say I have a reference from a school which counts Thai royalty amongst its alumni must surely count for something back home. Likewise the university references should lead on to bigger and better things. What kind of job could one land with a degree in Marketing alone in Korea? I'd be interested to know as I know absolutely nothing about this country but from what I can gather about Japan, this kind of profile would only get you a job in one of those 'conversation mills' as a kind of low-grade gimp employed to serve the whims of the Japanese economic powerhouse.

1. What kind of teaching jobs are there?

Japan has jobs for English teachers in many areas. There are the standard ones, of course, such as kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, junior college, technical or trade school, and universities. Japan also has an enormous number of conversation language schools (eikaiwa) which are businesses that offer classes in English conversation. The largest, NOVA has over 250 branches and about 4000 foriegn teachers on its payroll. Other large schools are AEON GEOS, ECC and Berlitz. teachers are paid to give English conversation lessons to paying customers and previous experience or training is not usually a requirement to get a job there.


Cram schools (called juku in Japanese ) also abound, although they don’t specialize in teaching English. Some businesses offer internal programs for their employees to learn English; they may hire teachers on their own, or they may go through recruiting firms to supply them with instructors. Conversation cafes also exist; these arrange for foreign teachers to sit and provide lessons at hourly rates. And, of course, teachers often give lessons on their own in what are called “private lessons”. (These should not be confused with private lessons that some companies offer. Teachers who arrange their own private lessons may teach one or more students that they have acquired from personal advertising initiative, while company-organized private lessons are one-on-one sessions that students may find by contacting a specialized agency.)

Another type of school is a dispatch company which sends English conversation teachers to work in elementary schools as a dispatch teacher. Your employer is a Japanese business but your workplace may be a public Japanese school or even at a university and your salary is paid by the private company

4. Do I need a special teaching certificate or one of those TEFL or TESOL accreditations to get a teaching job?

To get your work visa, no. To get a certain job, the answer is “maybe”. It all depends on the employer.

In some cases, it may be to your advantage to have such training. For example, a person with a background/degree in a field unrelated to teaching or English may benefit from such a program. Also, with the steep competition for jobs, any additional merit such as this may be what’s needed to tip the scales in your favor at the interview. Such teaching qualifications are expensive are quite tiem intensive to complete, so its a good idea to be sure about teaching as a long term career before investing thusands of dollars in a TESOL qualification.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/vi...83c63083d6a7a6

ken wrote:
You don't really know what you're going on about AF mate....do you??? You're just guessing???

No, I'm making a supposition about Korea based on my existing second-hand knowledge of the job market in Japan based on what I have read on the subject and based on what I know the Japanese to be like based on my past studies/ friendships with Japs. I want discuss this because it's actually of personal interest to me too since I am planning to make the move to Japan too one day.

PS the gov school also has links to a major org in japland which i forgot to mention to the OP.

I'm lucky to have you Ken. If I've never told this before then I'm telling you now, before it's too late.

Posted after 2 minutes 57 seconds:

Mate that doesn't really disagree with anything I said LoL...nice try though.

why do you always have to be so contrary?

Might want to get hands on info, rather than just assuming stuff on Dave's is correct

please enlighten me oh small-cocked one.

I worked in Japan for four years and used a one year stint at a Thai bilingual program to get me into a very good Hiroshima school. People back in Canada are fascinated when I tell them I teach in Thailand. I've had job opportunities in Toronto, but the pay just doesn't make it worthwhile. For the cost of living there, the pay is quite mediocre. Getting into Korea, which is the bottom of the barrel in the TEFL world doesn't take any experience at all. It's such a buyers market there. I could go there tomorrow and land a good job. In fact, I just turned down another in Seoul because the quality of life there doesn't attract me.

Your comments are at least primary sources AF, which are a lot more informative than the others--so good on you, mate.

i know this school. i've taught at this school. as long as you do well you'll get an excellent reference

Primary. What do you think I was referring to? Japan? There, I'm primary, mate. And secondary and tertiary. Korea? I'm secondary.

kenneth wrote:
^ Thanks for the insults mate! Appreciated. Yes, I'm a winker with a small cock if it makes you feel better about yourself!

i'm only going by your previous posts chief and that's all i've got to go on after all: you said that you had a maggot cock but that you're substantial foreskin more than made up the difference - you're words ken not mine!

ken wrote:
With a degree in marketting he'll easily be able to get a job teaching in Korea, I doubt it would be that crap (same applies to Japan) if he's got his head reasonably well screwed on (which is far more important generally than working at a 'prestigious' school in Thailand).

ah yes.. references aren't important, i must remember that. it's not all black and white though is it ken. you see in an ideal world you'd have good references, good qualifications and professional training, sufficient experience, good ability and enough of the billy bullls.hit to glue the whole package together. you never know who you will be competing against.

Pleased to see you admit you was guessing though.

not guessing kenneth, supposing; surmising.

Quite good of you!

suck my cock!!

I'll stop being contrary if you stop being wrong and/or talking utter rot and nonsense.

no way. i had a good point and that was that time spent at this gov school is PROVEN to improve your job prospects, maybe not in japland or korea but in thailand, yes siree. add to this the fact that the employer is an affiliate of a respected firm in japan and i think the OP should definitely give it one year at this school - or do you think he'll land a job at a good school in korea.. or will it be in one of those hogwans? hogwash kenneth.. :cake: ( :smile: )

Posted after 4 minutes 55 seconds:

ps flange makes the world go round