Living overseas.

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Cotchin 9 said:
So you do the course in a city, like Prague? Then start teaching?
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You can. Or you can do it in an English speaking country. The institute you do your course with then usually helps you to get a job. I did my course in the UK before getting a job in Russia. I did my course in the 90s so any info I could give you would probably be outdated. That website that I posted has discussion forums where you can ask questions and get advice about conditions and salaries etc. There are some great jobs out there but there are a lot of scummy ones too so make sure you do your research. Europe on the whole is pretty good. Asia has a lot more crappy jobs. I ended up doing a midnight run from a job in Korea. I then went to Taiwan and got a great job and had an awesome two years in Taiwan.
 
I did my TEFL through i-to-i. It's pretty competitive for teaching jobs these days so if you're able to get a CELTA rather than a TEFL or TESOL it will vastly improve your chances of getting a better paid gig at a respectable language school.
 
raskolnikov said:
You can. Or you can do it in an English speaking country. The institute you do your course with then usually helps you to get a job. I did my course in the UK before getting a job in Russia. I did my course in the 90s so any info I could give you would probably be outdated. That website that I posted has discussion forums where you can ask questions and get advice about conditions and salaries etc. There are some great jobs out there but there are a lot of scummy ones too so make sure you do your research. Europe on the whole is pretty good. Asia has a lot more crappy jobs. I ended up doing a midnight run from a job in Korea. I then went to Taiwan and got a great job and had an awesome two years in Taiwan.
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That's interesting! I'm currently five months into a teaching gig in South Korea and have heard plenty of stories of the infamous midnight run. I don't dislike Korea, but I can definitely see it wouldn't agree with some people - the workplace culture is draconian by Aussie standards, for instance. I'd love to hear more if you're willing to expand?
 

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DrVanNostrand said:
That's interesting! I'm currently five months into a teaching gig in South Korea and have heard plenty of stories of the infamous midnight run. I don't dislike Korea, but I can definitely see it wouldn't agree with some people - the workplace culture is draconian by Aussie standards, for instance. I'd love to hear more if you're willing to expand?
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I actually didn't mind South Korea. If I had a job that I liked I probably would have even liked it a lot. I was in Pusan. The job however sucked. I was in a hagwan teaching kids after school. Kids didn't take it seriously. It was basically an after school baby sitting service. A lot of teachers didn't mind it because they were in Korea to live it up and party every night. A job was the means of doing that . Even though I'm not adverse to partying it wasn't my reason for being in Korea. Taiwan was a proper teaching job where I actually felt like I was teaching. The hagwan in Korea wanted entertainers more than teachers . The school and parents were happy as long as the students were having fun. I tried to teach the kids and basically got hauled over the coals because my classes weren't fun.
 
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raskolnikov said:
I actually didn't mind South Korea. If I had a job that I liked I probably would have even liked it a lot. I was in Pusan. The job however sucked. I was in a hagwan teaching kids after school. Kids didn't take it seriously. It was basically an after school baby sitting service. A lot of teachers didn't mind it because they were in Korea to live it up and party every night. A job was the means of doing that . Even though I'm not adverse to partying it wasn't my reason for being in Korea. Taiwan was a proper teaching job where I actually felt like I was teaching. The hagwan in Korea wanted entertainers more than teachers . The school and parents were happy as long as the students were having fun. I tried to teach the kids and basically got hauled over the coals because my classes weren't fun.
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Ahh, thanks for that. You're not wrong, I've heard lots of about dodgy hagwons where babysitting comes first and education a distant second. I got pretty lucky with my hagwon, given I'm a first year teacher and had no idea what I was doing when looking for a job. My school is fairly serious with ridiculous importance placed upon the students' test scores, but then again, there's also sizeable bonuses based on how fun the students perceive our classes to be. It definitely makes you feel restricted when it comes to discipline or being serious about imparting knowledge.

Busan was actually my first choice, but I ended up in Incheon. I'm not going to do a second year when my contract expires, but would definitely consider coming back to Korea in the future to teach at a public school. The profit-at-all-costs mentality and lack of benefits at a hagwon would drive me nuts if I did it again.
 
Munich said:
I'd check out this http://berlinstartupjobs.com/

That's where I found my job and everyone is working in a startup in Berlin! Good companies to work for are Wooga and Lieferheld.

Stay away from Zalando!

I won't tell you my company as I quit not long ago and I think they're douchebags :p

Anybody with IT dev skills or game development etc etc will get a job in a second in Berlin, no German required.
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Applied for a couple through here. What are the chances?
 
raskolnikov said:
When you finish uni do a one month TEFL/TESOL course and the world is your oyster. I lived in Russia teaching English for four years. If you want to explore Europe somewhere like Budapest or Prague would be great to live in.
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Hey mate. I've just signed up for a TEFL course in late March in Melbourne. After two years, hopefully this might lead me somewhere to living overseas eventually. Does anyone who has done similar have any experiences of the course/job prospects? Cheers
 
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