BootsnAll Travel Community

I was reading on one of the other posts in this forum about people saying you should get a certificate. Is this really important?

I have heard that you can get a job basically off the street teaching english in certain countries - Japan and South Korea as examples. I was thinking about going to South Korea to teach english in the near future. I will be finishing my Bachelors first and figured that would give me an advantage - but do you think it necessary to actually get a certificate?

One other question, not really related but... what are the best countries to teach english? I know Japan and South Korea are the most talked about. Is there less known places that are also very good? I am thinking mainly I want to go somewhere in Asia and experience a culture I have never seen before.

Any thoughts/comments much appreciated!

Is it really important to get a certificate? Yes.

Do you need one to get a job in Korea or Japan? No.

Then why is it important? So you have some skill at teaching.

It's only fair that you have some knowledge of how to teach. Your students will pay, what for them, is a LOT OF MONEY to sit in your class. Wouldn't it be nice if you knew how to deliver what they paid for?

I'm not sure about Japan, but you can get paid a lot more in South Korea with a TEFL certificate. Aside from that you should do a course because it is fairly difficult to deliver good lessons without any training.

I spent 18 months teaching in China over 2005/06 and had a ball.

I got the feeling that as long as you spoke English and were still breathing that you would be snapped up in most parts of China outside of the big capitals.

I did do a 5 day TESOL course which gave me not only some great ideas that I used, but some good contacts and a bit of confidence, but the certificate was never asked for at the schools I taught at nor by the police organising my papers to stay there.

If you have a degree, then you can command more money and teach at better cities and universities (like Shanghai) than I did without one.

I lived in a poor rural city so it was a real eye opener but the friendliness of the locals and absolutely fantastic and cheap food was the highlite.

I'm going to second TedKarma on the fact that it's good to get some training. You can see a lengthier version of my reasons why here and here and in much of the tefl logue in the link in my signature.

Granted, a one month course is not going to make you the best teacher ever, but it makes a big difference. There is a difference between a teacher who has undergone training and teaching practice and someone who is hired for "still breathing" - if you don't feel compelled to do it for the people who pay money to take classes, do it for yourself: it can even be hard after just the course, but you won't be the only English teacher they have had...for many people it will get pretty uncomfortable to stand in front of a group of people and not really know what to do...and your students realize that.

i used to be in your shoes last fall before i left to teach abroad. i was debating whether of not to get my TEFL certificate before starting. the country i was looking at to teach in was south korea where having a TEFL is not required, although i mostly wanted to do the TEFL course just to get more confidence. in the end i decided to skip the TEFL course, save the money (since it is costly), and try teaching on my own. the first couple weeks were truly a baptism by fire but i acclimated quickly to the classroom environment. i love my life here in korea and the school i work for is really great. best of luck to you with your teaching endevours.

quote:

Originally posted by TedKarma:
It's only fair that you have some knowledge of how to teach. Your students will pay, what for them, is a LOT OF MONEY to sit in your class. Wouldn't it be nice if you knew how to deliver what they paid for?

I'd say you can't argue with TK's quote above.

Certificate courses can give you the background you need to step into the classroom. I started teaching just yanked of a hostel in Istanbul when at a point when I didn't even have enough money to get back to Paris to borrow from my friends. After a year of just trying to figure it out, I decided to take a course to broaden my future prospects. Though I had been doing reasonably well in the classroom, I really had no idea why I was doing anything. Fortunately I already had a good grasp on English grammar having recently taken a class on it. The course really helped me figure out how to take that existing knowledge and best exploit in the classroom.

Also, if you have any thoughts about teaching as a career, sooner or later someone's going to ask you for a certificate. Teaching experience is often only counted if it's post-certificate.

Very important.

I draw your attention to the loads of answers to this question on other pages of this forum - they say the same thing. If you have any sense, and are genuinely concerned about your host country and their students, then you'll do some kind of TEFL course. As Ted has said many times before, you don't have to do the most expensive ones to get the skills required to do a competent job in the classroom.

In most cases, even in places where they are not used to native speakers of English, students are very quick to recognise when a teacher is 'muddling through', i.e. they don't really know what they are doing. As Ted says, in the vast majority of cases they have paid a great deal of money to be taught by a native speaker.


Ten years ago it was still possible in some cases to work as a teacher in a language school without a TEFL Cert. of some kind in Poland. My girlfriend and fiancee, who is Polish, and a fluent speaker of English now, attended a school with an unqualified teacher then. She sums it up perfectly: "oh, I've never returned to that language school because the teaching was crap."

Of course, you may be in a place where there is no competition and maybe the novelty of a native speaker is enough to sustain you. You may be in a place where just talking with a native speaker is considered enough. But even that requires some skills. Have you ever tried to run a conversation class for a few months? You have to remind yourself that though teaching is fun, it's also serious, even if you only intend to do it for a short while or to supplement your travels.

As Kate says, a TEFL course will not make you the best teacher ever, but it will give you the skills for what is, after all, a serious job and needs to be handled as such.

Thank you all for the responses. I am definitely looking into getting a TEFL certificate then. I know the local college here offers Teaching English as a Second Language. Is that the best way to go (I think it is expensive though)? Or is an online course good? What is about average cost to take the course?

Thanks again for all the great help!

To find the course that is best for you, you'll probably have to do some research on your own - there's not one uniform answer.

Typically, courses that have at least 100 hours of instruction and include at least 6 of actualy teaching practice (per trainee) are considered to meet standards for being internationally recognized. But again, this is something you need to investigate before you take the course.

The Celta, which is probably the "most expensive" but also most uniformly widely recognized can be around $1500 in different locations for a month long full time intensive course, sometimes including accommodation. This may seem expensive, but it is also expensive to spend money on a course that doesn't give you any practical skills or teaching practice, and won't be recognized in the place you want to teach.

Not needed and not necessary in South Korea. You will not get payed more if you have a TEFL at a hogwon. I don't know about the school system. You can make a lot of money here in South Korea depending on how well you save. Great country.

quote:

Originally posted by yourfinesthour:
Not needed and not necessary in South Korea. You will not get payed more if you have a TEFL at a hogwon. I don't know about the school system. You can make a lot of money here in South Korea depending on how well you save. Great country.

Not meaning to be too difficult, but this post pretty much speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Don't forget to think about what your students need.

Get some training.

Say, if i have a Masters in Education/Literacy, do i need a TEFL certificate?

Well, to get a job, you won't need a TEFL certificate with your MA. Hell, with an MA (or MS for that matter) in any subject, you can get a well-paid university job in Japan teaching EFL.

The question to ask yourself is whether you know how to teach English as a foreign language to students who don't speak English. If your MA in education had some sort of practical hands-on element, you're probably fine without doing a cert course. If, on the other hand, you did your MA via distance learning, it would behoove you to do a course. There's a huge difference between what you learn in books and what you do in the classroom.

I've been thinking about teaching English in Korea but hesitating. Today I started the final part of the process. Can't wait to start.

Don't hesitate, you won't regret it. Sure, there is a lot of adjustment involved, but leaving the US to teach overseas for 9 years was one of the best decisions I've ever made. There are a number of experienced teachers on these boards who can help you out and don't forget the TEFLlogue.

Also, look around Dave's for more info and inspiration.

quote:

I've been thinking about teaching English in Korea but hesitating. Today I started the final part of the process. Can't wait to start.

I've spent a total of six years in Korea - two different tours of duty so to speak . . .

I loved it. Make friends and be sure you have a good time. It is easy to save US$1000-1200 a month or more without trying.

DON'T get fixated on working ONLY in Seoul as so many people do. In fact - the better jobs are outside Seoul since everyone wants to work there (Geez I don't know why).

Korea has a great public transportation system and it is cheap and easy to get into Seoul on the weekends to shop for Western foods and have a hamburger or other familiar foods and have a fun weekend.

Almost everywhere is within a two-hour bus ride from either Pusan, Seoul or Taejon - and life in smaller cities is much less stressful - and they are much happier to have you.

Just to pile on, getting a TEFL certificate is definitely a good idea if you're new to teaching English.

Best places to work are completely dependent on you and what you want to accomplish. If saving money is goal #1, then Korea, Taiwan and the Middle East are probably your top spots. If a certain lifestyle is more important, well then you can pretty much pick.

The best part about teaching English is that you can literally live and work almost anywhere in the world. The possibilities are really up to you.

I worked as an English teacher for two years in job!

Had to jobs one was teaching business English and one teaching English to Junior High School, Elementary School, and Kindergarten.

I got both jobs without a TEFL certificate!

But it does help to have a good resume when you apply for a job!

So I did tutoring at University, and many years of business experiense!

Having TEFL might help but showing a good resume, a university degree, and confidence is a most for getting an English teaching job in Japan!

Unless you look like Brad Pit!

The majority of employers in countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan require you to have a BA or University degree of some sort. I'm not saying that you can't get a teaching job in these countries withouth a degree but the opportunities would appear to be rather slim. More importantly, you will not get the same benefits that a teacher with a Uni degree will get. Therefore for those who don't have a Uni degree you are better off getting a TEFL Certificate. Whilst the money and coditions are not as good as Korea, Taiwan and Japan there are a great deal of jobs available in China, Indonesia.