How To Teach English Abroad (worry free!) in 10 Easy Steps
An insider's step-by-step plan for the best way to start your adventure abroad
Do you want to teach English abroad but you have anxiety around everything that’s involved?
Teaching English abroad takes a lot of courage and little bit of crazy. It can feel daunting thinking about all the steps you should take in order to actually do it.
That’s why I’ve created a 10-step checklist to help you save time, make better decisions, and see things aren’t as scary as they might seem. So let’s jump into it.
1. Write Down Your Deal Breakers
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There a some things that you just can’t and won’t put up with, right? So before you start applying to every job in sight, it is best to get a grasp on what those things are so you will know right away if a job is right for you.
For me, a deal breaker is not getting two days off in a row. Training centers are notorious for scheduling nonconsecutive days off because they work around the students’ free time.
Having two separate days off becomes taxing on the body and cuts into your social life. Remember that part of teaching English abroad is to explore and make new friends, not to be stuck at work all day, every day.
If you want that life, you should just stay home.
Think about why you want to leave your current job. Is there anything going on that you won’t put up with in your new position? Jot those things down.
Keep in mind that anything you experience that is unpleasant in your own country will be twice as unpleasant in a foreign one. So make sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure even before you’ve started.
2. Get Certified
(OR MAKE SURE YOUR CERTIFICATION IS UP-TO-DATE)
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I can’t stress this enough. Get your English as a second language teaching certification or make sure the one you have is sufficient.
If you’re not certified. . .
Try as much as you can to attend an English training course in person. The experience you get compared to learning online is invaluable.
Being able to interact with your trainers and classmates adds to your growth as a teacher and just isn’t the same as sitting alone with your computer hammering out theory and reports.
Not to say you can’t learn that way, but you gain much more value from your course if you do it in person.
If you really can’t do your course in person, I would suggest finding an online version that has a teaching practicum. It’s imperative you get some sort of classroom experience before you go abroad to teach.
A rookie mistake is to think that because English is your native language, teaching it will be a breeze. Take it from me, you will crash and burn in your first month if you haven’t had a chance to practice what it’s actually like to teach.
If you’re already certified. . .
Be sure your certification meets international standards, which is a minimum of 100 course hours. Beyond that, it would be best to have a teaching practicum of six hours or more.
While not all schools will require you to meet these standards, keep in mind that rules change- and very fast.
From one year to the next, countries will change the requirements for visa entry in a heartbeat. I have met teachers who were forced to go back home to get aligned with new visa regulations and it cost them a lot of time and money.
When you can, try to get ahead and have what you need before you leave.
3. Job Hunt With This In Mind
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When you start looking for English teaching jobs abroad, it’s important to be mindful of the following:
Don’t be desperate.
Desperate people have a bad odor. Being excited is one thing, but being desperate is a bad thing.
Remember that this is an adventure of a lifetime so it doesn’t need to feel like a desperate corporate climb. Relax and let your personality shine.
If you appear too desperate here’s what will happen.
The recruiter will low-ball your salary offer, cutting it by 20-40%. I know this because I’ve seen it happen several times.
They’ll also add duties in your contract that you most likely won’t get paid for. These could include demo classes, marketing events, and traveling to clients’ homes.
Ultimately, schools who are looking to hire ESL teachers are businesses. So know your worth then add interest.
Only apply to credible schools.
Year-after-year, I see aspiring teachers make the costly mistake of applying to dodgy, cowboy schools.
I’ve realized it’s because they don’t know how to spot a good school from a bad one so I’ve outlined a few questions to internalize as you apply to English teaching jobs abroad.
Does the school have a website?
It takes a few bucks to buy a domain and set up a website. So if your school doesn’t have one, it’s safe to say they are running a very lean business.
This is bad news on many fronts. If the school is too cheap to get a website going, what are their salaries like? Do they pay on time? How do they market to prospective students and keep business (and money) coming in?
Are there other foreigners who work there?
If this is your first time to live and work abroad, I would advise against going with a “startup” school where you’ll be their first foreign hire.
It could go well, but too many things can go terribly wrong - mainly in dealing with your visa.
Visas are not something you want to play around with. You want people who are knowledgeable about visa processes to ensure you have the right documents and that everything is legit.
Does the recruiter speak a decent level of English?
Typically, a school will appoint the person with the best English to be the point of contact for all new hires. So how is their English? Are you having a hard time communicating?
If so, this could be as good as it gets. Then you have to wonder, if you run into some real issues, who will you be able to lean on, should something go horribly awry? Will this person be able to help you?
Keep an open mind about location.
When you think about teaching English abroad, I know all you can dream about is whatever fairytale you’ve orchestrated in your head.
The incredible food and culture of Spain. The luscious Japanese flora and fauna. The massive salaries of the UAE. It all sounds amazing.
But when you move abroad, there are many other factors you must consider when making your decision.
For example, are you from the UK? If not, chances are you’re not stepping foot in Spain as an ESL teacher unless you’ve got some serious connections. It’s almost unheard of for Spanish companies to fork over visas for non-European teachers.
Do you want to travel to lots of different countries while you’re abroad? If so, you should remember that to get anywhere from Japan is a plane ride and tickets aren’t necessarily cheap.
Are you sensitive to heat? If so, the UAE - even with its huge salaries - is not a place you’d have a good time.
Have realistic expectations and be open to going somewhere you wouldn’t have ordinarily chosen.
Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan
I spent a year in Kyrgyzstan’s capital city of Bishkek. It was an amazing experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
Most people can’t point to Kyrgyzstan on a map, so I’m always honored to be spokeswoman for this wonderful country.
4. Avoid These Kinds of Employers
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When you’re looking to teach English abroad, there are some employers you should genuinely avoid, such as:
Ones that use two-line descriptors in job adverts.
Quality employers will want to find quality ESL teachers.
On adverts, employers should be able to give a general outline of the school, duties, and responsibilities as well as background requirements of the prospective teacher, which is impossible to do in a couple of sentences.
My advice is, if the school won’t take the time to introduce the job properly, then you shouldn’t waste your time applying.
Those that outline specifically how you should look.
If you see an ad that says something like “Need a European-looking teacher’ to teach . . . “ run for the hills.
33 Students per classroom?!
I know it may seem like an advantage if you are European looking, but there are two things you should consider when you entertain these kinds of employers.
First, you are contributing to continued, systematic racism based on absolutely nothing. There are no studies that suggest that someone who has white features is a better or more effective teacher than anyone who does not.
There are ignorant parents who have never traveled outside their country and associate white people with the West and dark people with countries whose native language is not English. That is why schools claim to make this request.
This actually hurts their students because of who is chosen to teach; non-native speaking whites with very thick accents and bad grammar over trained, native English speakers.
Second, if you actually consider what it means to hire someone solely based on his or her looks, you’d know that your work will always be undermined by your looks.
A company that cares more about how you look than how well you teach will not reward your efforts. Their business relies solely on you being the monkey at the front of the class.
I have friends who went this route thinking it would be easier, but in the end, didn't last longer than a month because the work was meaningless and demeaning.
URGENCY!!!
I want to make it clear that not every company who is urgently looking for a teacher is bad. Things happen and people sometimes break contract, leaving schools in desperate positions.
That being said, you should question why someone would leave in the middle of their contract. In these situations it’s important to proceed with caution.
Just. . . no.
Though, a much bigger problem with applying to schools looking for teachers to start immediately is that you won’t have much time to get acclimated.
You will be thrust into the classroom within days of arriving which isn’t the most pleasant experience, especially if this is your first time teaching ESL.
5. Save
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You don’t need to have thousands and thousands saved up before going to teach English abroad, but you should have some sort of emergency fund. You should have enough to buy a one-way ticket home if you needed to.
Save money over time.
Veteran disclaimer: Don’t be in too much of a hurry to leave if things do go badly.
My first two years in China were not great. And my first four months were hell. Anyone could’ve easily gone home having faced the bullshit I went through, but I stayed.
I would attribute my staying mostly to the fact that I was too proud to leave, so it wasn’t a noble act.
But had I not had any savings, I wouldn’t have been able to get through those first four months.
I was sent out of the country a few times because my job hadn’t secured the right visa for me and refused to pay for my trips to Hong Kong.
But I pushed through and stayed for over eight years and because of that, I met my husband and have a lifetime of unbelievable stories to tell.
6. Scan and Attest
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Get high-quality scans of your passport, diplomas, and marriage certificates.
Employers who want to hire you will want to make sure your documents are real. It will feel weird sending important documents via email to people you don’t really know, but that’s why it’s important to vet the school before you get to this step.
More and more countries now require you attest your documents before you can apply for a work visa.
Attestation is just a way of notarizing your documents at the state and national level that tell your employer, and their country, that the document is legit.
When I first started teaching in China, many foreigners just photoshopped their degrees and certificates and that was enough to get a visa.
Today, most cities (not all) in China require documents to be attested.
This process can be lengthy and expensive, so you should be prepared for it.
7. Review The Contract
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If you’re not one to get bogged down by all the legalese, this is not the place to skim read, so make an exception.
If I had known this ten years ago before I taught English abroad in China, it could have saved me thousands of dollars.
Your contract should address all the things your potential employer discussed via email or during the interview, so take copious notes.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Make sure, for example, your salary represents a monthly wage rather than an hourly one if salary is what you agreed to.
If you don’t you could find that you’re required to be at work for eight hours per day, but only get paid for four hours since you only teach a total of four hours. Cheeky, right?
Read and re-read your contract and circle any discrepancies you find, big or small, and discuss them with your potential employer.
Don’t be afraid to do this step or worry the employer might pull your contract if you ask too many questions. If they do, then they’re up to something you don’t want a part of anyway.
A good employer will want to make sure their employee feels comfortable with everything before they arrive and will take the time to explain anything that feels uncertain.
8. Research
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When I go on holiday, I don’t like to do too much research about the country beforehand.
I like to arrive and just go with the flow. Doing this allows me to have more positive and memorable experiences.
Moving abroad is not a holiday. It will be your life for a year or so.
Therefore, it is positively important to get to know more about the country you’ll be moving to. And let’s be real, this is the fun part about teaching English abroad; learning about all the different things you’re going to experience.
Is your school providing you with an apartment? If they aren’t, you should look up the cost and payment schedule of the average apartment near your school.
Do thorough research.
In China, for example, you’ll often need to come up with four, sometimes five, months of rent; one month deposit, three months advance rent, and one month’s rent to go to the rental agent.
Most people don’t have that kind of cash lying around, so is your school going to help you pay for this up front?
What’s public transportation like and how much does it cost?
What’s the healthcare system like?
One of my colleagues in Kyrgyzstan was a diabetic and found it impossible to get the right insulin for his type of pump. Insulin isn’t something you can buy a year’s supply of in one go, so he had to fly to Europe to pick some up every few months.
If you have a chronic illness, you should research how easy or difficult it is to treat your illness in that country.
9. Register With The Embassy
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If you’re American, you can register with the STEP program and let the embassy know when you’re arriving and how long you’ll be there. This is just a safety measure that will help if any emergencies should arise in that country.
The program also sends out updates about potential disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks, or other significant matters.
You can also be notified and given instructions on how to vote while abroad.
Most other English-speaking countries have this service. You can download my free guide to Teaching Abroad to get more information about it.
10. Get Your School's Contact Details
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Duh, right? Wrong!
This is such a small detail that it almost always gets overlooked. I don’t mean you should have just their email address either.
What I mean is you should have the school’s phone number, address, and full name of the contact person. You might even need this information to put on the entry card when going through customs.
Aside from that, who is picking you up? Do you know their name and what they look like? Do you have their phone number? Do you know where you’re supposed to meet them?
When I arrived at the Beijing airport in 2008, I had none of this information.
And guess what? The person who was supposed to pick me up was late by at least an hour, but I’m guessing it was longer than that.
I had a friend I had met online that met me at the airport, so I wasn’t totally freaking out, but I would have if I were on my own.
Moral of the story? Be as prepared as you can.
Teaching English abroad is a rewarding experience that you’ll cherish for a lifetime. Done properly, you’ll find yourself in this career for years, and perhaps decades, longer than you anticipated.
However, if you start out on a bad note, it may feel like you’ve made the wrong choice.
This 10-step checklist is here to help you teach English abroad with confidence by addressing issues that could undermine your experience.
Is there anything I forgot? Comment with some of your ideas below.
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