How Do I Get A Job Teaching English In Asia?

I’ve heard Rosetta Stone is a great program for teaching foreign languages. I’m not sure if they have an Asian to English but it’d be worth a look. It’s what the military uses to teach new languages.

I think the first thing you need to do is to decide where in Asia you’d like to teach English. Asia is a big place and there are many different countries that approach this in different ways.

Some places to starts:
1. Japan: Check out the JET Program http://www.jetprogramme.org/ It is legit and supported by the Japanese govt. I think you can actually make some decent money in this program.

2. Peace Corps: Teaching English is one of the primary projects of many Peace Corps volunteers. Peace Corps sends volunteers to many places in Asia, including Thailand, China, etc. The other nice thing about the Peace Corps is that you get room/board paid for during the 2 year program and they give you ~$7k after the program. Also, they provide you with world class langauge training, so you walk away from the program fluent in a language.

3. “Other” Be very leery of random “teach english in country xxx” programs that you find on the Internet. Many of these have the potential to be scams. There are many horror stories of people going to countries and the experience isn’t what it was represented to being/have their passports taken/etc. The best approach here is to try to find a friend or a friend of a friend that has done the program prior to going.

4. Just go to the country and evaluate the opportunities from the ground level. Many large cities, such as Shanghai, is Asian countries have pretty small expat communities. If you go there and network a bit, there are many foreigners that are already on the ground that might be able to help direct you to opportunities. This is a bit more risky in the sense that you won’t have anything nailed down prior to leaving, but if you pick the right city, there is lots of demand for English teachers. Having lived in Asia before, I’d recommend that you stick to a bigger city, which tend to be much more “liveable” than random places out in the countryside that are hundreds of miles from big cities.

I hope this helps :)