10 Truths About Teaching English
An FAQ About A Fascinating Industry
Thinking about teaching English? I bet you have a lot of questions.
The most pressing one is where to start. The hardest part of any project is getting started. This article is the teaching English FAQ to get you on a plane to a foreign land. We will answer the questions everyone has about certification and such. But this article is all about the cold, hard truth.
The truth about safety. The truth about what it takes to get hired. The truth about teaching English.
1. The World is Safer than you Think
We are human, we like to protect ourselves. That’s why we perceive the foreign as something fraught with risk. When you think about it that way, it’s easy to see why people use fear of change as a justification for staying put. Well, if you’re reading this message, I know that you also fear missing out on life. That means you have a decision to make. You need a crash course in opportunity cost.
2. Opportunity Cost
You have some college under your belt, so you are probably familiar with opportunity cost. It is the simple concept of knowing what you’re missing out on by making one decision over another. If I eat the burger, I’m missing out on the nutrients of the salad. If I eat the salad, I miss out on the greasy goodness of the burger. Easy. Here’s the truth about that:
3. Teaching English is a Great Investment
The only reason you would choose the cookie-cutter internship over the far-out travel experience is because you want stability. But where does stability come from? Sure, money is important for keeping stress in check, but you can make good money teaching. What’s the difference between making 10K or 40k a year if the cost of living is four times more expensive in the 40k place? You are investing in an enriching experience and usually breaking even or better. That’s what they call a bargain, my friend.
4. What makes things stable?
Stability is about being well-rounded and upright. But working somewhere you don’t want to be is crippling. It sucks the fun out of a third of your life. Is that really how you want to live? I don’t mean to pass this off as judgment, but let me make the case for the stability that working abroad provides.
Not only are you living out some of your dreams. You are also preparing yourself for the future. Every successful person I have ever met understands people. Traveling is the ultimate crash course in understanding the complex diversity of human motivation. I promise you will return home a more knowledgeable, well-rounded person.
Well-rounded is good. Well-rounded is stable.
5. How do I Get Started?
Well, you’re off to a good start if you have managed to brush off a little bit of fear. The next question is certification and it’s one that goes back again to opportunity cost. TEFL courses are expensive and there are a lot of options. Do you even need a TEFL course to achieve your goal? It depends on the goal.
Many teachers before you have gotten jobs abroad without certification. There are a million ways to travel on the cheap nowadays. Why not head down to your destination country and see what the landscape is like? You can rent a cheap room on AirBnb or stay in a hostel while you see what the country is like. Many institutes just want native English speakers that are in the country. That’s a safe bet for them. On the other hand, it can be a pain finding jobs without a certificate in other countries.
If you decide you need one after spending some time in the country, you can get certified online and go get your job. It shouldn’t take you long and at least you’re not going through it thinking, “Do I really need all this?”
Being comfortable with a little uncertainty can save you time and money. Isn’t it worth figuring out what’s right for you before making a life-changing decision?
6. Time Off is a Luxury
Depending on where you decide to teach, your schedule won’t be as lax as you expect it to be. Teaching English schedules are often split into a morning and evening shift, which means a large break in between. Those breaks should be your culture sponge. Go out and eat in the central markets. Look for the nooks and crannies. Absorb your surroundings and write about them as often as possible.
Just keep in mind that your weekend traveling will be bookended by work shifts unless you manage to get time off. While I was in Peru, I was only able to visit about half of the places I wanted to because my work schedule was so demanding. Honestly, I don’t regret my decisions because my work taught me so much about myself. One thing I quickly observed was that I was in a new world when it came to work culture.
7. Employers Can Be Demanding
Many of these institutions are scrapping hard to keep their heads above water. They will require you to work odd hours, take clients all over the city regardless if it is convenient for you, and sometimes they won’t even pay you. That’s why you should be diligent in finding the job you want.
You’d be surprised how much money you can make if you have the luxury of time. There are international schools in desperate need of native English speakers because it’s a competitive advantage they can report to potential clients, in this case affluent parents. These are big selling points for them, so keep your eyes peeled for these opportunities.
8. Job-finding Assistance is Largely a Fallacy
This is huge. All TEFL certification providers must promise you this to remain competitive. But is it false advertising? Let’s just say it’s often a check their asses can’t cash.
My TEFL certificate company just wasted my time acting like they could help. Their help was basically pointing me to different job boards and having me wade through the shit. And that’s exactly what a lot of those jobs are: A damn sewer full of shitty, fake jobs.
I got so upset and anxious that I just started researching on my own after a couple of months of waiting to hear back from them. I found a job in two weeks. A great job that led to myriad opportunities which would change the course of my early 20s.
9. Take Initiative in Finding Jobs
The only way to be confident about the big move is to do things yourself. At the very least, look for blogs about teaching in your desired country, research possible jobs wherever you can, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from a third party. There are job boards out there which will help you find a job like TeachAway, but it is still up to you to qualify or disqualify those opportunities.
You will regret your next six months of work if you don’t play an active role in finding a job. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to get on the ground as quickly as possible, start asking questions and meeting people. I know this sounds risky, but it’s truly not if you have any savings at all. Just think about it as an open-ended vacation. A worst-case scenario is you going back home because you didn’t quite like what you saw. Isn’t that better than feeling trapped in a country or job that someone else chose for you?
10. You Will Come Back an All-star
People who travel the right way are my kind of folks. They take risks. They ask questions. They know how to deal with a little bit of chaos. The only thing certain about the future is that it will be chaotic. People will lose jobs to automation. Only those comfortable with change will be ready to meet the inevitable challenges.
Life is all about trying to stay level throughout all the peaks and valleys it presents. Teaching English and traveling prepare you for what’s ahead. Whether your goal is to beef up your resume, get a rich travel experience, or make this a career, the experience will unlock many doors. Just do it on your terms.
Conclusion
What is there to conclude? That traveling and working abroad are awesome decisions? I don’t know, but I hope you found this report informative. If I can leave you with one thing, it’s the last sentence of tip #10:
Travel on your own terms. It’s the only way to take control of your future.
Good luck!

