My sister chose to interview me for a college paper. Since I wrote all this stuff out anyway, and it’s a lot of the things that I think people are interested in about teaching abroad, I figured I might as well use it for a blog post. Great questions, Emily!
1.) What steps did you have to take before going to Vietnam? Classes, applications, etc.
After teaching for 10 months in China, I decided to get an ESL teaching certificate before doing that job again. Having a certificate would give me access to better jobs and maybe I would actually have some idea what I was doing. A co-teacher of mine in China told me that the CELTA certificate was the most widely-known, rigorous, prestigious, and expensive of these certs. There are seemingly endless TEFL courses available in the world, some online, some in person, some in foreign countries and some in the US. They range from 3 hours to 190. The cheaper, shorter, easier options aren’t as valuable but can get you a job at lots of less-reputable schools. I decided to go all-out and try to take what, after extensive (excessive) research, I hoped to be the best option available, though opinions vary on whether the CELTA is actually worth it over cheaper choices.
My course lasted four weeks in Chicago. It cost about 2,795 dollars for the course and I also had to pay around 1200 for lodging while I was there. It was a good experience and I feel I became a more confident teacher. However, the course mainly focuses on teaching adults, which I did not end up doing and thus do not use a lot of what I learned. However, in some vague way, I feel it did improve my teaching ability and certainly my confidence, which is a lot of what ESL teaching is.
After the course, I lazily began my job search. The website from my course had a job section that I mainly used. A person can select the country they want to work in and see which jobs are available there, or just look at which jobs were posted most recently. I was originally leaning towards Japan, but I had heard lots of good things about Vietnam, and these positive reports from co-workers and travelers had lodged in my consciousness like slow-blooming seeds. I did a lot of research on different countries to live and work in, and applied for jobs in Poland, Prague, Japan, Indonesia, Columbia, Vietnam, and more. Though I was offered a lot of the jobs I applied for (after sending in my resume, doing a skype interview and sometimes filling out some more application forms), I found the jobs I was offered in Vietnam stood out because of their comparatively low hours and good salary. The salary was about $1800 a month, which is good in the ESL world, where one is generally living in countries that have a very cheap cost-of-living compared to the US and western Europe.
Between two jobs in Vietnam, I chose the one with higher salary and pre-planned lessons. Planning lessons every day with very little guidance or materials from the school had been a big source of stress for me in China. The application process was generally conducted with foreigners, and was very laid-back. I put off accepting for a while as I tried to make a final decision, and by the time I decided I wanted the job it took about two weeks for the company to reply because the main hiring manager was, as I later learned, on a bit of a crazy vacation in Cambodia. However, when he came back he said the job offer was still on the table and I could fly down later that week. After some debating, I did so.
The company helped me get my tourist visa, which lasts a year. They needed to send me a letter of invitation to the country. I “rented” a return flight ticket through a website for $10 in order to circumvent the country’s requirement that any foreigner entering needs a return to get a visa. However, I did not end up needing it.
Now, I am technically working illegally as I wait to receive my work visa/residence permit. I’ve gotten my CELTA and college degrees notarized at the American embassy, I’ve gotten a local health check to ensure I’m not bringing the country any horrendous diseases, I got my new permanent address verified at the local police station (after a month of waiting because the Sergeant was “on vacation;” actually, this is generally because the police are attempting to demand a bribe but the landlord refuses) and now I just need to go get a “local” background check done, which may also require a bribe but hopefully not.
2.) What is the biggest challenge you’ve come across since being there? How have you worked to overcome it?
The biggest challenge for me is the teaching itself. I’m naturally very introverted and it’s hard to entertain a group of fifteen kids for an hour and a half at a time, to keep them interested. However, having the lessons planned has allowed me to focus on developing my classroom personality and the teaching has gotten more bearable, sometimes even fun. I still get nervous before work, and this can be hard as I work in the evenings (generally about 4:30 to 8:45) and so I sometimes feel a sort of nervousness/dread throughout the day as my shift approaches.
However, the low amount of hours, opportunity for adventure and new experience, and ability to live pretty well (living in a poor country as a westerner is like using a cheat-code to instantly become upper-middle class) have made me determined to get the hang of this sort of job. I’ve stuck with it, realizing that as long as you show up for work and are relatively sober and clean, and still fulfill the local image of a “foreigner,” it’s pretty hard to get fired.
Compared with the teaching, other challenges are not so bad. When I first arrived my goal was mainly to eat and survive. Now I’m continually learning new things, places, words, foods, and cultural details that make my life feel like it’s in an on-going, satisfyingly gradual state of improvement.
3.) What skills or personality traits do you have that you believe help you in your job?
I definitely think not being picky, being generally relaxed and flexible, open to new experience and unexpected occurrence, not easily frightened, and kindness/compassion for others have all helped me greatly. I enjoy floating through each day like a leaf on the wind. Foreigners who have strong, specific ideas about things tend to complain all the time and be unhappy. I’m just glad to be alive and to have time to pursue the things I want to. Life becomes more like being in a dream or surreal story.
4.) What is the biggest takeaway or life lesson you’ve learned from being abroad?
That there really are lots of different, valid ways to live life, and “conventional wisdom,” common sense, and some aspects of morality all change from place to place. A person shouldn’t get hung up on the “right way” to live, and shouldn’t be afraid to pursue the life they want and keep learning from it.
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