I'm a fresh graduate with a CELTA qualification and was hoping for some advice on pursuing TEFL roles. My main reasons for doing TEFL are that I'm not sure what I want to do as a long term career yet and the job market in the UK for grads is rubbish, so was hoping to gain some life experience living abroad whilst I figure out my longer term plans (which if I enjoy teaching English could mean pursuing a career in education).
That said, I'm pretty torn on what country and role to choose. Whilst at uni I did a year abroad in Osaka and had an amazing experience, and was originally planning on going to Japan to teach. But after doing some research, it seems that desirable entry-level positions are somewhat scarce outside of the JET programme, which wouldn't start for 11 months and requires me to be in the UK for interviews, so doesn't work well with my timeline. It's also competitive and far from guaranteed. My backup option is doing Eikaiwa teaching. I've done my research on which companies to avoid, and I've decided I'll only go this route if I get accepted by the more reputed of the large eikaiwa chains, which seem to offer fairly liveable hours, wage, holidays etc. It's not absolutely ideal ( antisocial hours, might be a bit draining at times without a great wage to make up for it), but for just a year or so, getting some baseline experience, in my top choice country, I'm definitely considering it.
That said, I've looked at other options, and China jumped out as a place with more solid entry-level opportunities. It seems that even in a university teaching role that's 16 hours a week with long holidays, I could probs still have more disposable income than teaching eikaiwa in Japan given the lower cost of living and free accomm. And school teaching in China, the salary is even better. Obviously if all else outside the job was equal, China looks like the better option. But for me I'm not sure. Whilst N4-level Japanese is nothing to write home about, it feels like a far better base than starting to learn Mandarin from scratch (I would be looking to learn the language of wherever I end up). I've heard China can be a harder place to live than Japan for various reasons, and I'm definitely more attached to Japan due to my great experience living there for a year, and would be willing to take a less desirable job compared to China to live there…but I'm not sure how to weigh up destination vs. job.
It's tough to weigh up, especially without any experience of the industry. I was hoping for some insight from people with experience. And perhaps there are options I haven't considered?
by Artistic_Plastic_712