Everything You Need to Know to Start Teaching Abroad

Teaching Abroad, or Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is nothing new to my generation, but it was a bit foreign to me. I’d heard stories that sounded unreal. How were young adults traveling and living this life that looked like a wanderlust paradise? They must be trust fund babies, right? Wrong.

After quite a bit of research, I found that TEFL can earn a substantial amount of money depending on your location, qualifications, and the overall benefits that you negotiate.

And I don’t mean benefits as in medical, although that is a benefit, I’m talking…free housing, flight reimbursement, and meal allowance! Whaaaatttt? Yes! In some cases, nearly all the money you are making is yours to travel, play, save…whatever your little heart desires. This isn’t true for all schools and definitely not all countries but there are so many opportunities out there that the possibilities are pretty endless.

For many, myself included, TEFL can seem completely overwhelming. But where do you even begin?

Location Location Location

First of all, you need to narrow it down to location. This can be one of the hardest decisions because there are endless countries and cities to choose from. My family hosted a Japanese foreign exchange student when I was younger, so I’ve always been quite fascinated with the Asian culture. The differences in culture, language, and cuisine really enticed me. I wanted to try something completely different, therefore choosing Asia was quite simple for me.

Narrowing down the country and even further to the city, well, that part took me months. For that, I advise checking out this TEFL country chart provided by the International TEFL Academy. It’s categorized by region and then by country, so once you select a general region, you can weigh some of the basic benefits using this chart.

Choosing a city is completely based on your personal preference and the type of experience you are looking for. If you live in a small town, I suggest you try a big city and vice versa.

Research

Look up job postings in the region you select and see the differences in offers. This will give you an idea of what’s available. Dave’s ESL Café is a great starting point for research and job boards but it’s by no means the only one. It’s very easy to connect with a recruiter, ask them questions, and see what offers are out there. Be extremely specific and direct with your wants and needs. Even if you aren’t ready to pull the trigger, just getting some general questions out of the way is great to narrow down your search.

Weigh the pros and cons 

Decide what benefits are important to you and what you are willing to be flexible on. This part will most likely change as you continue your research and even during interviews.

Personally, I was looking for housing to be provided. The process of moving abroad and diving into a new culture, city, country, and life was already overwhelming enough for me.

Fortunately for me, this narrowed it down pretty quickly. China and South Korea are the only countries that are pretty well known for offering housing accommodations in Asia. I ended up choosing China and I spent months researching cities. I was interviewing and still didn’t quite know exactly what city I wanted to be in. Job offers were coming in from Beijing, Nanjing, Huzhou, and cities I had never even heard of! I was extremely open-minded. My final decision was made through a process of elimination. Weighing the pay and benefits at each school as well as the teaching days and hours, the school’s resources, the age of students I would be teaching, what the city has to offer, seasons, lifestyle, and ease of travel.

Know what you need

Through research, you will see what jobs are looking for and depending on the country there will be a few requirements. My post about Preparing to Move and Work Abroad will help you prepare for employer requirements. Since I have a Bachelor’s Degree (in Fashion Marketing of all things) and am a United States citizen, I easily found jobs in China with these two things. However, as with any job, the more you have, the more you can ask for and the better prepared you are.

The jobs with the benefits I was looking for, all required 2 years of teaching experience or a TEFL certification. I clearly did not have any teaching experience whatsoever, so here I was again, researching schools.

Where to get your TEFL Certification

This is overwhelming. There are SO many companies that offer various experiences with the end result being a TEFL certification. Don’t get overwhelmed! There are three main options for TEFL certifications:

Option 1. Taking an in-class course

Option 2. Taking an online course

Option 3. Study abroad in the country of your choice to receive your TEFL and find a job after in your new country

Choosing which option suits your needs could narrow down your search for schools, as some options, such as study abroad, aren’t offered by every TEFL course. Online courses are probably the most common and nearly every school offers them.

Once you’ve decided on the type of course that suits your needs, I would suggest doing some Google searches. I Googled “online TEFL certification” and “online TEFL course” sorting through website after website and reading countless blogs of peers’ experiences.

What it came down to for me was my initial first impression of their website. The main things that appealed to me were how user-friendly it was, how professional it looked, and what it provided to me without having to interact with someone. I prefer to do my research and gather information before engaging with a “sales representative”. From this search, I filled out a couple of “contact me” forms on the top websites I had selected and waited.

Here are 5 Benefits of Enrolling in an Online TEFL Course!

Ask questions

It’s your future, what do you want?

The first school that contacted me, is the school I chose. The International TEFL Academy (ITA) stood out to me because it offered numerous resources including in-depth country charts and profiles, articles, and blogs written by advisors and alumni, pictures, FAQs, and much more. Honestly, with this wealth of information readily available on their website, I didn’t have as many questions when my ITA advisor, Felicia, called me that evening.

Prepare some questions to ask… Ask to speak to an advisor or alumni who has taught in the country you’re considering. What can you expect out of the course? What resources are available after you complete your course? How much is this course going to cost? Because let’s be serious, that’s the most important question for many of us! Ask for special offers or promotions, you never know!

My process happened so fast, literally within 3 days. I found ITA, received a call from my advisor, and the next day applied for the course, which would then start the following week. It was a whirlwind! For me, part of the urgency came down to a promotional deadline to save $400…SOLD!

Prepare for sacrifices

Investing in yourself and making shit happen, doesn’t come without sacrifices. Finally going through with it, pulling the trigger, and saying yes, was so freeing. I wasn’t even in China yet and I already felt freer than I had felt in months…maybe even years.

That was until I realized, I have tests, papers, homework, discussions, projects…WOW, shit just got real. With deadlines on Friday and Sunday nights, the teensy bit of social life I was holding onto, slowly slipped out of my reach. I wasn’t always able to go to happy hour or Sunday Funday. I had to make sacrifices and pick and choose what was important. The course material wasn’t hard by any means. The hardest part for me was learning to prioritize my time around school again after being done for 5 years.

One of the hardest parts was making these sacrifices and running myself into the ground with pure exhaustion, while most people around me didn’t have any clue why until the very end. It’s all worth it, though, I promise. You can sleep when you’re dead, right? Or on the 15-hour flight to China.

Take the leap into your future 

So many people ask me if the course is worth it, to that, I say yes!!! Do you speak English? Yes. But do you know how to teach a non-native speaker English? Hell no! This course teaches various techniques. Learning to teach young learners, adult learners as well as everything in between encompassing teaching and living abroad.

I received my TEFL certification from the International TEFL Academy in June 2016. I couldn’t be happier with the entire process, I highly recommend ITA! If you are in or near Chicago, they offer on-site classes but if you are anywhere else in the world, go for the online course. All of their staff have lived and worked abroad teaching English, so they are very well suited to answer any questions you may have on the experience. If you haven’t already picked a destination, they can help you solidify one based on your needs. If you already know your location you’ll automatically be assigned a team familiar with your country. Your advisors will work with you throughout your course, and even after, to ensure you have all that is necessary to apply for jobs and figure out what the heck to do when you actually land the job!

Want to sign up with the International TEFL Academy? Save money here!

If you have any interest in teaching abroad or have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me a DM. I’d be more than happy to help!

Check out more posts about moving abroad and living in Shanghai below!

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