Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Times Educational Supplement.
The Guardian.
In the education section of
The Independent.
The EL Gazette.
You could also check out the various 'blacklists' that have appeared on the internet in re-
cent years. These list schools to avoid or watch out for. These are informal sites run by
people with experience of TEFL teaching. They should be a good place to find out about
language schools around the world and whether or not it's worth your time pursuing a va-
cancy there.
The most popular destinations for TEFL teachers are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand
and, of course, Europe. As the EU grows, so does the demand for English teachers, and the
advantage of securing a job within the EU is that the UK is a member. This will give you
some protection and should involve far less paperwork than if you applied to work further
afield.
In China, you are more likely to find work in a private school, rather than the state schools
system, as the latter is controlled by the Department of Education in Beijing.
Hong Kong is an obvious choice as it was once a British Colony and English is a second
language for nearly everyone there. The added advantage for those with no Chinese lan-
guage skills is that all the road signs, public transport and government information are in
English as well as Chinese and most of the shops, agencies and essential services (such as
police, doctors
etc
) employ English speakers.
There is also a daily English language newspaper,
The South China Morning Post
and
it
may
well
be
worth
checking
their
online
jobs
section
for
vacancies:
If you want to take your skills and use them in Japan you should check out
www.jet-
foreign language teaching in schools. You do have to have a Bachelor's degree to qualify
though.
The
Japan
Times
(which
is
online)
also
lists
job
vacancies
in
English:
There is a great demand for English speakers in Thailand and so if you are taking your
gap
in that country, and wish to earn money whilst there, TEFL could well be the answer,
