Vigile Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Me exit USA in 2003. Me salary abroad is less than $83000 per year - Oh yeah, hoss, a hell of a hell of a lot less than 83 grand. Therefore no tax to the eternal empire of swindle and scams. Ha! Chew on that bloodthirsty US freaking all-war-all-the-time-machine. You'll get me cash outa me cold dead hands. Piss off and Twist on it cops, soldiers, rednecks, morons and other and sundry ultra-violent overprivileged racist pukes who want me to subsidize their guns. No corporate welfare coming out of my a$$ for GM, Monsanto, Ford, Goldman Sachs or whoever else is donating without limit to the republican party. My advice to you is that I hear the ex-pat life in Costa Rica or Belize is darn good. I'm getting into college so that I can hopefully someday enjoy being an expat. Thanks for the suggestions! I was thinking Thailand for a number of reasons. Is it great there? Going to try to get into college to become certified to teach ESL. I was also looking at South America but being that I'm gay, that can be a quite a bit problematic. It's up to you, and I'm fully in support of getting a higher education, but getting a degree to teach ESL is overkill. Not one school in 100 will ask you to produce your degree and college won't help you teach English; not even a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 It's up to you, and I'm fully in support of getting a higher education, but getting a degree to teach ESL is overkill. Not one school in 100 will ask you to produce your degree and college won't help you teach English; not even a little. Or at least I'll need a way to learn Thai. If someone could teach me instead, that would be even better. I thought I'd need a certification. I'd just learn Thai and get it and try to go there. Stay there until I'm able to become a citizen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 It's up to you, and I'm fully in support of getting a higher education, but getting a degree to teach ESL is overkill. Not one school in 100 will ask you to produce your degree and college won't help you teach English; not even a little. Or at least I'll need a way to learn Thai. If someone could teach me instead, that would be even better. I thought I'd need a certification. I'd just learn Thai and get it and try to go there. Stay there until I'm able to become a citizen. Well, you'll have to do with this what you want, but the reality is, the school will want you to "tell them" you have certification. I spent a month and several thousand dollars doing this and then I learned that it was a complete waste of time and money when I went to work for a school in Italy. The school had their own system, their own books, etc... And, they never checked to see if I had a TEFL or a degree. This is common btw. Bottom line, this is just one of those things in life you have to decide if the principle is more important than the practicality. Telling a white lie and saying you have a cert, that is useless anyway doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Might be to you. Dunno. You also don't need to speak the local language to teach English. Being a native speaker and someone with a reasonable amount of intelligence is enough. I doubt any school will require you to speak Thai. All of this said, if you want to teach in China, Korea, Japan, Saudi, and perhaps one or two other countries, you will need to prove to the government that you have a degree in order to get a work visa. In Thailand, the visa system is so fast and loose and there are so many different ways to get a visa, I'm confident you won't have a problem -- Cambodia is even easier, but I don't know if you can earn a living there as they are also quite a lot poorer. Wester might have more to say on this as he's spent a lot more time there than I, but I spent 6 months there last year and easily obtained visas and met tons of westerners who got visas in various different ways. Thai culture is super laid back, and just being a native speaker with a pulse is likely all you need to get a teaching job there; especially if you are flexible about where you will live. I know an Australian guy who has been teaching in Chiang Mai for the past 6 years and he just loves it. He makes enough to travel around SE Asia on vacation and live a decent life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 It's up to you, and I'm fully in support of getting a higher education, but getting a degree to teach ESL is overkill. Not one school in 100 will ask you to produce your degree and college won't help you teach English; not even a little. Or at least I'll need a way to learn Thai. If someone could teach me instead, that would be even better. I thought I'd need a certification. I'd just learn Thai and get it and try to go there. Stay there until I'm able to become a citizen. Well, you'll have to do with this what you want, but the reality is, the school will want you to "tell them" you have certification. I spent a month and several thousand dollars doing this and then I learned that it was a complete waste of time and money when I went to work for a school in Italy. The school had their own system, their own books, etc... And, they never checked to see if I had a TEFL or a degree. This is common btw. Bottom line, this is just one of those things in life you have to decide if the principle is more important than the practicality. Telling a white lie and saying you have a cert, that is useless anyway doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Might be to you. Dunno. You also don't need to speak the local language to teach English. Being a native speaker and someone with a reasonable amount of intelligence is enough. I doubt any school will require you to speak Thai. All of this said, if you want to teach in China, Korea, Japan, Saudi, and perhaps one or two other countries, you will need to prove to the government that you have a degree in order to get a work visa. In Thailand, the visa system is so fast and loose and there are so many different ways to get a visa, I'm confident you won't have a problem -- Cambodia is even easier, but I don't know if you can earn a living there as they are also quite a lot poorer. Wester might have more to say on this as he's spent a lot more time there than I, but I spent 6 months there last year and easily obtained visas and met tons of westerners who got visas in various different ways. Thai culture is super laid back, and just being a native speaker with a pulse is likely all you need to get a teaching job there; especially if you are flexible about where you will live. I know an Australian guy who has been teaching in Chiang Mai for the past 6 years and he just loves it. He makes enough to travel around SE Asia on vacation and live a decent life. How do you teach English though there if you don't know any of their languages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 How do you teach English though there if you don't know any of their languages? How do you teach physics if you haven't studied art? When I got my TEFL, one of the requirements was that we refuse to allow those we were teaching to speak in their native tongue during class and that we spoke to them only in English. If you are teaching a true beginner, you just start off by showing them a pen and saying "this is a pen, that is a pen" etc... All in English. It's almost always a distraction to translate for them. They need to learn like a child learns to speak. Translation just adds an extra step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 How do you teach English though there if you don't know any of their languages? How do you teach physics if you haven't studied art? When I got my TEFL, one of the requirements was that we refuse to allow those we were teaching to speak in their native tongue during class and that we spoke to them only in English. If you are teaching a true beginner, you just start off by showing them a pen and saying "this is a pen, that is a pen" etc... All in English. It's almost always a distraction to translate for them. They need to learn like a child learns to speak. Translation just adds an extra step. Interesting way to look at it. How do I travel around and associate with people I can't speak with? And how about introducing myself to the class? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely try to speed up this process, I at least want to be able to communicate with others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConureDelSol Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 I'd like to move somewhere in South America one day so I could work with wild parrots and exotics. I don't know if I'll ever be able to afford to move there though. The whole thing about learning Spanish and possibly Portuguese is another big hurdle for me. High school Spanish wasn't exactly easy for me. America doesn't make it easy to leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 How do you teach English though there if you don't know any of their languages? How do you teach physics if you haven't studied art? When I got my TEFL, one of the requirements was that we refuse to allow those we were teaching to speak in their native tongue during class and that we spoke to them only in English. If you are teaching a true beginner, you just start off by showing them a pen and saying "this is a pen, that is a pen" etc... All in English. It's almost always a distraction to translate for them. They need to learn like a child learns to speak. Translation just adds an extra step. Interesting way to look at it. How do I travel around and associate with people I can't speak with? And how about introducing myself to the class? I'm a complete dumbass, but I've lived in Russia for 8 years and I can barely buy a train ticket in Russian. I'm not recommending not learning a second language. I hate people like me. But seriously, you don't need another language to teach. I'm not telling you anything extreme here. This is a very simple fact. Not sure how I can emphasize this any stronger. How do you introduce yourself? First, you are assuming your class doesn't know any English at all. This is a huge rarity. You will be teaching beginner, intermediate, or advanced students. But, if your students really don't know anything, you point to yourself and say (slowly, enunciating carefully) Hello. I am Babylonian Dream. You'll be surprised. I once taught a class of beginner Italians and in a few weeks we were making plans, in English, to hang out on weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigile Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely try to speed up this process, I at least want to be able to communicate with others. As you should. Don't be a lazy asshole like me and learn the local language. But do it while you're there. Just don't use it as an excuse to not go. Because that's what it is. You have enough hurdles to overcome to do this. Language isn't one of them. I've lived in 6-7 countries over the past 15 years. Of this I know what I'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 You're right though. Thanks!Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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