Great Places to Teach English
By NomadicMatt | Published: February 24, 2010
Every year thousands of people leave their home to travel and teach English overseas. They go to experience a new culture, work overseas, put off getting a “real” job, and earn lots of money doing it. Sometimes they are just backpackers who ran out of money and are looking for an easy job that can get them back on the road quick. Whatever your reason is, here are many places around the world to teach English. If you are looking for a place to go, here are the top ten places to teach English overseas:
Korea – Korea is one of the best, if not the best, places to go teach English. Jobs are abundant, the pay is great, and you get awesome benefits such as a completion bonus, free housing, and airfare reimbursement. A lot of recent college graduates are attracted to teaching here because of the money and the benefits. Korean culture is a hard culture to get into but the country is filled with a lot of young people making it a great place for those looking to work overseas, make money, and have a lot of fun doing it.
Japan – Japan’s great culture and food as well as its reputation for good jobs means it also attracts a lot of people looking to teach. Though the fat years of teaching in Japan are over, people willing to stay at least a year can earn a lot of money. You don’t get as many perks as you might in Korea but teaching here is still an amazing experience. The cost of living can eat up a lot of your salary, especially if you live in Tokyo, but the amazing culture more than makes up for it. No one ever walks away disappointed.
The Middle East – The Middle East lures many teachers in for one reason: the salary packages. There isn’t much to do in this part of the world and some of the societies can be very restrictive but Middle Eastern countries offer incredibly large salaries, lots of benefits, and no taxes. A teacher here can walk away with around $50,000. However, this is no place for the recent college graduate. Countries here want certified and experienced teachers. No teaching degree means no job. Most of the teachers here are older, more settled, and have families. You don’t move here for a wild and crazy adventure but you’ll get live in a very unique part of the world and make a lot of money doing it.
Thailand – Thailand attracts lots of young people and new teachers with its cheap cost of living, great weather, tropical beaches, and party atmosphere. Most of the language school teachers are ex-travelers looking to save for future travels. Or travelers who thought they were doing that and ended up never leaving after marrying a Thai or just falling in love with the country. The pay in Thailand isn’t great. Unless you teach right in Bangkok or at an international school, you won’t earn much money but people don’t come here for the money. They come here for the atmosphere, the nightlife, the beaches, and the destination. Thailand won’t make you rich but no one ever walks away wishing they never came or without a massive hangover.
China – China is the rising star of the ESL world. Its continued rise on the world stage keeps attracting more and more interested people looking to figure out what the middle kingdom is all about. Jobs here can be very hit or miss. In the countryside and, at most schools, you’ll only get paid a small amount. However, in places like Beijing and Shanghai, you can find excellent paying jobs, especially if you have experience or teach business. But the money isn’t why you should come here- it’s the absolute cultural shock you’ll experience. China is the brave new world and there’s nothing like it on Earth.
Mexico – Mexico is a popular destination for Americans. It’s close, it’s not that “foreign” and it’s warm. Most of the jobs can be found in Mexico City where Mexico’s upper class hires teachers for their students. However, you can also find small language schools and government schools that hire teachers. Riches won’t be found here but if you are interested in Latin American culture, friendly people, mouth watering food, and feisty approach to life, Mexico is where it is at.
Central Asia – Central Asia is one of those places you hear very little about and know about even less. That makes it one of the most exotic places to teach English. Forget about money and benefits- you get none. Coming here is all about stepping into the past and exploring one of the most rustic and friendly areas on Earth. No matter what country you pick in the region, you’ll be stepping into a world devoid of most modern conveniences, which isn’t necessarily bad thing.
Prague – Teaching jobs in Europe are hard to get. EU visa rules make it difficult to just pick up, fly over, and find a job. Luckily, Prague doesn’t have all those complications. You can find a lot of ESL jobs at language schools. Again, forget about pay- you won’t make money like you do in Asia or the Middle East. But you are in Prague and a stone’s throw away from everywhere in Europe. Prague is a hip city with an outgoing and lively population. You’ll never be bored and if you are, you’re doing something wrong.
Argentina – Argentina is where most ESL teachers go to find work and in particular Buenos Aires. Famous for wine, beef, and beautiful women, Argentina lures native speakers looking to experience that fiery South American culture in a “not as dangerous as Brazil” way. If salsa dancing, good beef, wine, and a culture that places heavy value on siestas is your idea of a good time, then Argentina is where you want to teach.
Teaching English was a very rewarding experience for me. Even though it wasn’t always the most glamorous work, I had a lot of fun teaching overseas. While there is an opportunity to teach wherever English isn’t the native language, these ten destinations draw the biggest crowds, pay the best, or offer the best perks.
Related Posts
Japan’s demand for English teachers is almost nothing these days with all the foreigners wanting to get a piece of the action. And I noticed you wrote “Korea.” Is that north or south? Hehe.
@dave The damand is still pretty high in Korea.
For anyone thinking of teaching English somewhere, I would advise to contact people who are there now to know what you are getting into. I can say that I have been in Korea for almost a year now teaching and have not really enjoyed much of it, other than the money. I wish someone would have given me some honest feedback about it before going.
Kyle-
What would you say has cntributed to your negative experience?
Interested to get the sccop.
A.J.
It would be kind of a long answer, as there are many things. The crux of it is that I feel like we get very little respect from anyone. At school, I feel like an English monkey who is put in front of people to show my English skills. Outside of school, I feel as if people are extremely rude and uninviting. With that said, I have made a lot of money which will fund future adventures…
Do you have any specific recommendations for companies or programs to use, particularly for Prague or Buenos Aires? I visited Prague over the summer, and would absolutely love to live there for a while–I had never thought of trying to teach English! And Argentina is at the top of my list to see.
Christine, a great place to start asking these questions (not just about Prague or Buenos Aires) is on the international job forums @ Dave’s ESL Cafe. Lots of chatter about schools, placement firms, employment climate, etc…
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/
And no, I don’t work for them — but I do do a lot of advising of students here at the UW-Madison who are looking to work abroad.
On Monday we leave the UK forever and plan to travel for as long as possible. When the money gets low teaching English seems one of the best options. Top of my list is Taiwan – it seems like you can save as well as in Korea & Japan but it’s a warmer climate and it’s better for vegetarians! I’m also interested in Latin America but not sure how likely a Brit is to get a job in Mexico.
I wasn’t a huge fan of teaching in Taiwan. It’s mostly little kids and I’m not the most child friendly person in the world. But you can get paid pretty good. If you are really interested in Taiwan, talk to Carrie over at myseveralworlds.com
Dunno about teaching English, but Taiwanese people are in my opinion the nicest in the world. You will feel helped and embraced by them. At the same time, there are many things to do, and has good transportation, so you would get to see a lot. Tropical in the south (beaches) mild weather in the north. I loved it!
federico
maitravelsite dot com
Hong Kong teachers salaries are among the highest in the world especially for a qualified teacher with plenty of experience. Many International schools offer a housing allowance also.
In Argentina an ESL teacher barely makes enough to cover rent, food and beer
Great tips Matt! Not quite the “top ten” places that I would personally choose, but you sell them well.
This opens up doors of opportunities for them for other places with “big crows, good pay and perks” right next door.
Just two concerns:
Remember that your blog would be popular in many places including the UK & Ireland, so for those readers (quite a lot, I’d imagine) there is no EU visa issue
I don’t remember reading about your travels to Brazil. I’d be interested to hear why you consider Brazil to be “dangerous”, it’s quite a sweeping statement. I’d say Rio can be quite tricky but Brazil as a whole (remember that it’s the 5th largest country in the world) is safer than most countries I’ve been to, and frankly that definitely includes the states
I don’t consider Brazil dangerous. The quotation marks imply sarcasm at a commonly held belief. Well, that was the intent.
Thanks for that Matt, very glad to hear it was sarcastic! I read the quotation marks as classifying “not as dangerous as Brazil” as being one lumped description (in the same way as hyphens would). Sorry for the undeserved accusation!
I’m sure you know how much I love that place and will defend it to the death!! 
Cheers – sorry I’ll miss you on your return to Thailand! You can find me in Europe over the next 6 or so months and that Couchsurfing offer remains open!! (Where to be revealed!) I’ll be out for my final weekend in Bangkok soon. We can hope that someone will convince me to go to Cheap Charlies, but I can’t promise it
I am currently teaching English in China and there are a lot of extra perks that you didn’t mention Matt, like airfare reimbursement, travel bonus, phone, water and heat paid for, free chinese lessons. And of course apt, and salary. All of those are standard in a contract today.
I would also like to point out that travelers shouldn’t use teaching as a way to make a “quick buck” as they travel around. (I’m afraid all too many people use it as an easy way to score with college chicks as well.)
It is a real job and you are teaching real kids who will make assumptions about westerners and western culture based solely on you. Plus, they pay a lot of money to go to school and you will be wasting everyones time if you show up to class late, talk about yourself and just show movies. (Which many teachers do sadly.)
So teaching should only be done if you have a serious interest in it, and not just because your broke.
“and not just because your broke.”
It’s you’re. Good teaching.
Uh-oh it’s the grammar police! Ha ha!
And no, I don’t teach grammar, so don’t fear for my students. (I am a product of the American public school system after all, so of course I’m terrible at it.)
Hi Becky
I’m planning to go to Shanghai, China in August. Any advice about finding a job? I’m afraid I’ll choose the wrong school.
‘They go to … put off getting a “real” job, and earn lots of money doing it.’
They’ll be disappointed, then. TEFL is very definitely a real job, with potentially long hours and an awful lot of responsibility. Once you factor in lesson planning and marking, the money is also pretty dire, in common with the rest of the teaching profession. I’m currently working in southern Italy, and earning the equivalent of just over £400 sterling per month. That’s about half of what I earned for my first secretarial job in London, in 1997.
However, on the upside, it can be tremendously rewarding and a lot of fun. I often find myself doubled over with laughter at things my students have said to me; teenagers, for all their unpredictability, are entertaining company an awful lot of the time.
It’s not such a real job in many parts of Asia!
Another perk for teachers in China is the positively decadent amount of vacation time. In addition to a summer break for most of July and August, you’ll also get an extended Chinese New Year break. At my school this year, this meant another two full months of holiday for January and February. And while the salaries aren’t huge, they are more than enough to do *plenty* of travel in the Asia region during your downtime.
It sounds as if the bar is fairly low so that most any traveler can find this kind of position, is that the case? Or are there baseline requirements most outfits look for?
Good article and interesting topic.
Sadly, yes you’ll probably find that pretty much anyone with English as a native language can get a job teaching EFL. The decent schools usually require a minimum of a degree and a year’s teaching experience, as well as a TEFL qualification, but there are plenty of cowboys out there who’ll take anyone who turns up.
I taught for 3 months in Paris (the exact length of the work visa) and will hesitantly qualify it as a great experience. This was 2001 so the visa rules may be different now, but I recall having a pretty easy time getting one.
It was however an exhausting way to make a living, didn’t pay much more than the cost of living and the French bureaucracy seemed always to be nipping at my heels but I surely wouldn’t undo the experience. I’ll remember it forever. I’d never taught before but was nonetheless given the job faster than I could fill out the form.
I’m in Japan with the JET Program and I would suggest anyone who is at all interested in teaching in Japan to try it out. We found my girlfriend a job in a small city so I’m pretty sure a lot of people could find good jobs in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, etc.
If you have a friend living in the country, go and stay with them and see if you can put some feelers out to the after school companies. You’ll have 3 months if you’re an American and they may even sponsor a Visa for you. A lot of them are in need of foreign English speakers and would love to hire.
Great post!
Austin @ Foreigner’s Finances
Rome is another place where you can work as an English teacher. My sister did this for over two years, she said it was a great experience – plus she always got expensive perfumes and gifts from the rich parents of her students ;P
My wife and I just finished a year of teaching in South Korea. We have no regrets. Why?
In the past year, we’ve visited five new countries, tried all kinds of food (I just had kangaroo for lunch), and saved a nice chunk of change.
Given the garbage U.S. economy, we might just stick around another year.
I had kangaroo for dinner! How delicious is it?
Hey Matt,
I taught English in Chiang Mai, Thailand for 18 months (amazing experience) but what I would really recommend for some quick cash is to work on an English camp in Korea, they run at xmas and in summer – 8 weeks or something, $4k AUD, free food and accommodation. I was running low on cash after travelling for so long, nipped over to Seoul for a spot of teaching, 2 months later my bank account was replenished and my journey continued! (and it still continuing now….)
For sure. Those winter camps are lucrative. Great money.
Ideas for my next life!
I would add France to this list. The French Embassy in the U.S. has all the info you need. They take a lot of Americans, even ones who don’t really speak French. You’re there to speak English, after all. It pays enough to survive, you only work 12 hours per week (classtime, that is, more with prep), and you get to live in France! Wine, food, history, natural beauty, easy travel to other European locales…
Great list, Matt. Thanks for the mention. Here’s my two cents on Taiwan:
I’ve been here for four years and I think it’s a great place to live and teach. The cost of living is low and the pay is excellent. There’s plenty of opportunity to save. My youngest students in Taiwan are 13 years old, so I can’t comment on teaching younger students, but I have plenty of friends who teach younger students and seem very happy to do so. Teaching in Taiwan, however, isn’t limited to kindergartens. There are plenty of schools that have students age 8 and up. There are also opportunities for teaching adult and business English classes as well.
I never saw those opportunities in Taiwan. There were a few but it mostly seemed like it was younger students. Maybe you have to be there a while before the adult classes appear!
Good comments. I would take the stand that 9 of 10 people I talk to either dislike or hate Korea. I’d also agree with beck about the perks of China. I work with a lot of people who have worked in a lot of ESL places for a long time and the packages in Chinese (1st, 2nd tier at least) cities can’t be beat. And if you’re in the country side I dare you to find something to spend your pay check on.
Just wanted to put something out there about Korea as I have been here for just over a year and I have signed my new contract which means I’m here until 2011. Personally I love Korea. The way that they conduct business can sometimes be frustrating and you can never get the simple answer you want it has to go to several people before anything happens. With this in mind I’ve taken to asking for things I need that much earlier so when they finally give me my answer it’s not to late. Public school are the best place to work if you want more holiday’s and like working 9 – 5pm. If you prefer to saty up late partying and like sleeping in the morning’s then Hagwans are maybe better for you as you usually start around 2pm until 9 or 10pm in the evening. You can however be asked to work half day’s on Saturdays if this is written into your contract. As for the people and their culture it can take a bit of getting used to. They can be rude and pushy but after a while that seem’s to amuse you rather than get you mad! I have made lot’s of young Korean friends and get on well with all of the Korean teachers at my school. The money is good, the housing is small but perfectly ok and the country is beautiful. Anything more I can tell people just ask I’d be happy to give you any info I can x
Hi hillrob,
Thanks for all the information but I do have one more question. what would you say is the average age of English teachers in Korea? I am thinking of applying to teach over there but I am still undecided because I hear a lot of bad stories and then some few good ones
I started out teaching in Taiwan. I only stayed for 3 months. I didn’t want to teach 2 and 3 year olds, and that seemed to be where all the jobs were. I made some very good friends in Taiwan and visit twice a year. I think a lot of things have improved over the years. However, I am not interested in going back there to teach.
I’ve been in Korea since 2001. Korea is not the easiest place to live. For me, it’s a life style choice. After I was here for a few years I upgraded my skills. I now have a Masters degree and teach at the university level. I also teach outside of Seoul, a conscious choice, and have a lot of time off. I like teaching, but I’m at a point in my life where I want more time to do the things I love…..travel and photography. I now travel 5 months of the year. If I had to live in Korea 12 months out of the year, I would shoot myself. Fifteen weeks at a time is great. There’s a lot to see and do here if you make the effort.
Great blog Matt! Among the countries on the list , I guess Thailand has the cheapest cost of living so even if the pay there is not that big, you will still enjoy the experience immensely.
I would add that people who are interested in teaching in Europe and think about teaching in Prague should also consider the smaller cities in the Czech Republic. Prague is an amazing city, but there are lots of expats there already, so people might prefer to work in Olomouc or one of the other great places in that beautiful country.
Private tutoring is also an option to make some extra money outside your teaching salary, but I found that you should really brush up on your knowledge of grammar rules, especially those that are troublesome for non-native speakers since they are so different from what native speakers have trouble with. Buy some good ESL grammar reference books (Azar is a good one).
My time teaching abroad left me feeling unprepared and under-trained. it’s not easy work but definitely a great experience.
hey nice list, good for beginners who havnt a clue about teaching, interesting for the english teacher too. i haveto say you forgot vietnam! for money it beats china and korea hands down, i live very comfortably and save a couple of hundred a week. if you have a little experience the 25hr work week at $40hr is right around the corner, tax free too. actually its propably best vietnam isnt on your list, the place will be flooded with native speakers in no time.
I have enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. It strikes me that how one feels about living in ANY country is VERY subjective.
I have a question: does anyone know where is the best place to apply for a job if you are 60? Or what countries/schools would be most accepting of an “old” American?
I taught in Japan for a year back when I was 50, but no one seems interested in hiring me now.
Thanks!
Nice work going over some teaching options that are out there…I worked in Korea and Japan for a few years (mostly in Seoul) before moving back to the states and going to grad school to get a teaching degree (social studies)…. When I applied for teaching jobs here in the USA after grad school many school districts who had Asian residents were interested my experience in Asia, and this experience was one of the factors that helped me land my current teaching job. In addituion to the fun-money-travel-culture aspects of working overseas, these jobs can help you in the future if you are interested in teaching as a career and want somethig to set you apart from the rest of the pack when applying for jobs in good school districts.
what do you mean “not as dangerous as Brazil”? Argentina is much worse, just don’t get as much attention.
Great article. I am looking for a teaching job abroad (my first job abroad) but I have run into a few problems being a non white native american. I had a recruiter from korea tell me he wouldn’t be able to find me a job and I’ve read that it is much harder for non whites. I am wondering if you guys would know any countries that wouldn’t be to diffcult to find a teaching job in. My first choice is japan but I am not having luck. Not really due to prejudices moreso due to timing. Most programs I see are for feb march next year and I was hoping to leave soon..thailand was my second choice but I’ve heard the racism there is really bad. I am ready to moveon since I need a change in my life and the economy here is really bad right now. I have a degree and a tesol certifcate but its from a online class. Any help would be appericated.