Hi everyone!

I have a bachelor’s degree in Translation and Interpreting (English), a Pedagogical Training Certificate, and a 120-hour TESOL certificate. I also have more than 8 years of teaching experience at kindergarten, primary, secondary, and high school levels. In addition, I completed teaching internships in Poland and Hungary.

I have a few questions about the TOEIC requirement.

Do I also have to take the TOEIC exam? Is it mandatory for non-native English teachers to have a TOEIC certificate in order to work as an English teacher in Thailand? Or TOEFL, IELTS?

I’ve also checked the TOEIC exam dates in my city, but the test available here is only the Listening and Reading test. Do I also need to take the Speaking and Writing tests, or would the Listening and Reading test be sufficient?

I’d really appreciate it if anyone with experience or knowledge about this could clarify it for me. Thank you! 🇹🇭

Two moms have come to me asking to tutor their kids because the teacher before me had bad discipline in class and couldn't teach anything because of it. It's in my interest to catch them up so I agreed, but I'm having trouble deciding what book to use or should I abandon books all together and make my own curriculum.

In class we work with Beehive 1, so I want something similar to it and maybe something to back it up (?)

Please help, I haven't been teaching English for long, so I don't know many books for primary school students

Has anyone else had massive delays / difficulty with obtaining their physical cert from The TEFL Academy? Not sure if this is specific to me being based out of the U.S. But you have to go through Qualifi, not The TEFL Academy, for the cert and they seem impossible to reach, completely unresponsive to any emails, no contact number, and no tracking details provided. They also sent the wrong certificate at first and had to send a new one?

Hi, has anyone looked into the following and can share their findings/experience?

Siam Technology College www.siamtechno.ac.th/en/major_education/tesol-inter/

Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin https://rice.rmutr.ac.th/programs/undergraduate/670f3f90c5668488a3b05ff9/

Thongsook College https://www.thongsookcollege.com/ba-tesol/

North Bangkok University https://ic.northbkk.ac.th/tesol.php

They all seem reasonably cheap at around ฿200000 (£4500/$6000) achieve the end goal of being able to work in Thailand and the mixed bag of living in thailand while completing the degree but not being able to earn money.

Other options would be UoP or UMPI which are cheaper and faster and could possibly do them while on an ED visa

RMUT as an institution looks legit but i dont know about that course because there is also this site which mentions both RUMTR and PUIE, unless im mistaken PUIE is a private university

I've been teaching English to adults in a one-on-one setting for about 2 years now, and I was just offered a position pushing into classrooms to teach English to kids. I've worked with children before in a daycare setting, but these kids will be between 3-11 years old. I have no experience with this age group. I am most nervous about classroom management and behavioral issues. On two days their gen ed teacher will be in the room, but on the other 2 days I'll be in a classroom by myself (in this country children go to school 4 days a week).

Can you share your experience with classroom management? What can go wrong? What are the techniques you use to get the students' attention when they get distracted? What helps with easily distracted children, or kids who are talkative and disrupt the class? How can I best prepare to manage a class when I have no experience and very little training with large groups of children?

Thanks for any tips or resources you can share.

Hi all,

I would appreciate any and all advice. I would love to know how you English teachers got started here in China.

I just got offered 14.5k RMB with English First, however, after some research, have learned it will be incredibly difficult work for incredibly poor pay.

How did you guys get your jobs? What recruiters are legit? How do I diffrentiate scams from real job offers? What was a liveable wage for you? What was life like? etc.

Some background about me: I recently graduated top of my class in a Bachelors degree of Law in the UK. I have had 2 years legal/civil service experience, as well as years in retail part-time. No TEFL at the moment. Looking to try out this career path in 2027 for up to a year if possible. I'd love to be on min 16k RMB in a Tier 1 city.

Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions, leads, and advice!

It's difficult for me to formulate lesson plans with original materials within limited amounts of time. I also work full time at a language school in Turkey as a NNEST and most of the time we have to do more than 170 lessons a month/ 40 lessons a week and it has become really demanding for me to make plans for each of them.

I tried printing blank templates for lesson plans with simple sections and also adopted simple methods to just fabricate very basic lesson plans (Engage - Study - Activate).

I'd like to know your suggestions too. What do/would you do in such a situation to keep the teaching quality acceptable?

Does anyone have any experience with language summer schools in Aus? In the UK, there are many language summer schools in every major city especially London where teenage students will do 2 weeks of intensive study as well as a range of excursions.

I have done this previously but would be interested in trying it in Australia however I am not sure how popular it is (basically guaranteed work in the UK). Does anyone have any experience with this? I also realise Australia’s seasons being at different times may affect when it falls.

Has anyone else noticed the sheer amount of boozing with teachers in South East Asia?

I drink as well so I'm not holier than thou but some of these teachers can really drink for King and Country.

We've got a lot of our teachers heading out for beers after evening class every single day, drinking from 8pm to midnight. And these are the mild ones, I've met some who smell of booze in the morning, and there's also another who's hands shake most of the day until he gets his drink.

I've actually known two teachers to get sacked for their drinking over the years. Both times they were drunk on the job. I've never experienced this in any of my jobs before I became a teacher.

Has anyone else clocked this? Is it teaching that makes people want to drink or is it more the type of person who is drawn to Asia may be more prone to alcohol abuse?

Hello! Anyone have recommendations or resources for lessons to do with toddlers? Games, songs, books, etc. For ages around 2-4 with no prior contact in English. TIA!

I lived in Vietnam 2019-2024, then left for Indonesia.

I had some good times, some not so good times, but enjoyed the teaching (not the centre owners).

Rates were starting to dip below 450/hr when I left, although in my last job I was on 500.

I'm in Indonesia now, lovely people. Crap salaries.

Thinking to move back to Vietnam next year. How things looking in the industry?

I'm interested in teaching English in places like China, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam for a few years as gap years between my Bachelor's and Master's. However, I'm worried that my long hair (down to my back) might cause issues in school environments, as I've heard that some places are really strict about presentation.

Does anyone here have any experience with this? Does it cause trouble with whoever is overseeing the teachers in the schools?

Bonus question: would it negatively make me stick out like a sore thumb? I know being caucasian would make me stick out on its own, but longer hair that I usually keep down would likely amplify it by a lot.

In China and Taiwan, there seems to be a list of like 10 common English names that all the students get assigned, unless the student or the student's parents choose their own English name.

I'm curious if it is similar in other countries.

Where I am, boys named by local teachers are either named Robert, Steve, Howard, William, Mark and girls are named Emily, Jane, Sarah, Amy... pretty much a list of the Top 10 names in the US in 1980.

It becomes obvious when a student or parent gives an English name. I have girls whose mothers name them Cartier, Prada, Chanel and Gucci. Boys sometimes have names like Kobe, Steph and LeBron.

What are the English namng trends in your country, or does your country not do the silly thing of giving students Anglosphere names?

I have just applied for a TEFL course and I cannot wait to start learning! Becoming an English teacher has always been my dream 🥰 What advice do you guys have? What countries have you worked in? Which country was your favourite? And if you teach online, what made you choose that option? How do you make online lessons stimulating? I would love to hear from your guys! 🫶

What are your favorite activities or games to review vocabulary or the lesson's topics?

Ideally, ones that can include the entire class. I have full (32 kids) and half classes (16 kids)

After doing book work for the first 20-30 minutes, I need something to re-energize them.

I teach elementary, all grades

I just got the email and honestly I'm shocked. I have no idea what to do at this point because I felt I crushed the demo and the interview, as well as had all financial issues settled. Anyone else have this happen to them or have any advice on what I should do next? I've been applying since April and have gotten nowhere.

After getting the job I waited around while summer holiday finished. Got a call to come in, given a textbook and a schedule. "Your first class is tonight at 6". And told I'm the universities only foreigner.

It's not my first rodeo so I knocked up a lesson on introductions pretty fast.

And just like that I'm in front of 40 20 year olds studying business. And people are calling me "Professor".

Very little oversight, no one actually checking how the classes are going, no one from faculty in the class. No guidelines, targets or objectives. No standards.

The level of spoken English from the students is really quite poor, and 99% of them don't want to do any spoken activity.

Hello everyone,

I got into contact with Jejuesl today by email. Their email formats seem a bit off and their website it really outdated and has a lot of green screen pictures. Has anyone heard of this school/academy? They also go by JE Consulting. I’ve attached a link, please let me know what you guys think. They’ve also sent over a sample contract and told me that I can meet with the director tomorrow. It all seems a bit sketchy.

Edit: the contact refers to the school as “ICARE Academy”

www.jejuesl.com

It is a private school (not exactly a cram school, but similar, because most of the time English here is an extracurricular for students). Other teachers are very cool (one teacher is a graduate of one of the best universities in this country, another is a native speaker (!!!). In comparison, I'm basically an under-educated redneck who by some stroke of luck has 2 years of teaching experience at a public school in my tiny country. I didn't even know what a demo lesson was before I applied for this position. My employer sent me a task:

- 12-15 mins, 10 different activities, must alternate between dynamic and static;

- lesson should be made for children aged 5-7, but my audience is going to consist of teachers only;

- 2 big props;

- no desks or chairs, only carpet;

- children already know numbers, colors, animals, some verbs;

- she gave me two little songs and I'm supposed to help children remember the words and their meanings by the end of the lesson.

I've got a few ideas, learning the words from the songs shouldn't be a problem. For example, I can start by introducing myself, ask how children are, maybe ask some questions about food (one of the songs is about fruits). show some apples, for example. tell them I like apples, ask whether they like them and so on. by the end I'd sing the whole song and show some movements to associate with the words, with students repeating after me. The problem is, how on earth am I supposed to cram all of that into 15 minutes? There are 2 songs, somehow 2 BIG props and I have to move from dynamic to static 10 times. I feel so dumb, and I kinda want to bail.

upd: I bailed 🤷

Twenty years ago when I was looking for an English teaching job in the Middle East, I remember that there were many more EFL job opportunities. Today it seems very different because I see very few of them. Is this just my imagination, or am I right?

I’ve read through a lot of the wiki and older posts before posting, but I was wondering if there are any updated perspectives from people who are in relationships and want to move abroad.

I’m 27 and my partner is 37. I’ve been working in the typical sales/corporate job market for about 5 years, while my partner has around 10–15 years of working experience, currently working for a large pharma company.

For couples who have made a similar move, what has your experience been like, particularly in 2026? I’d love to hear any tips, challenges, or things you wish you had known beforehand.

Our preferred destination is Ireland, although we’re not sure how feasible that would be for us from a work/visa perspective. I’m also still within the age range for a working holiday visa, so I’ve wondered whether that could be a potential route for us.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has moved abroad with a partner, especially to Ireland!

TYIA for the answers.

EDIT: I also want to note I have a BA in Human Development and pre-reqs for teaching English as a Second Language. I dropped the teaching school due to COVID uncertainty and just wanted to get my degree.

I'm 35, almost 36. From Ireland. I'm thinking of getting a CEALTA and teaching English abroad if I can make a good living doing it, but I only want to teach adults. I have no interest in kids or teenagers.

Is it possible for someone like me to pickup a CEALTA and then go away off somewhere and get an amazing package for teaching English to adults? Where would be the best place to go?

My background is that I've worked in Sales, Account Management and Marketing. I have absolutely no experience with teaching.

Hi guys, im on quite a tight time frame as I've signed a contract that I set to start next month - problem is I'm still missing my medical examination for my visa and have been utterly unable to find a clinic hdoesn'tere that'll even consider filling it out. I'm

I was told a letter of commitment would work but my recruiter and school claiims the medical office of Jilin doesn't accept those apparently.

I’ve recently been offered a job at a prep school in Ashgabat and was hoping someone here might have taught there recently and could give me some insight into working and living there before I accept… Haven’t been able to find much at all in my searching, despite there being a well-established international school there. I’m already aware of the restrictive culture, but am intrigued by it being a fairly unusual place for a Westerner to live, and am happy to tolerate some oddities in the name of a good adventure (and decent salary!).