Getting a job teaching English is easier than you might think

You are probably aware that “teaching English” is a huge industry almost the world around, and also that it’s the most popular profession of those who work abroad while traveling. Until you actually make your way around the world, particularly through Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, you might assume that skilled English teachers must be everywhere already, but this definitely isn’t the case.

I’ve never taught English or even thought much about it, but it does sound far easier to get into than I had assumed based on listening to an interview with John Bardos recently on the Tokyo Podcast. John, it seems, moved to Japan over 10 years ago with nothing in particular in mind, and accidentally became an English teacher before opening his own successful English-language school.

As someone who’s taught English, started a school, and shifted more of his focus to hiring new English teachers, it was very intersting to hear him admit that almost any native-English speaker can do it. Literally, he said that even in Japan, which is known for its strict rules, that the main qualifications are:

1. Show up on time
2. Practice good hygiene and wear clean clothes
3. Make sure your resume has no spelling or grammatical errors

That’s it! It’s true that many English schools require a TEFL certificate or perhaps even a degree, but many do not. Without a certificate you’ll be working in the casual market, but you also have the option of giving private lessons that are often more lucrative financially.

When you see a lot of the backpacker types roaming around the cheaper parts of the world it’s clear that many of them will struggle with one or two of the items on the above list, but for anyone who is serious about trying it seems that the door is wide open.

The salaries for English teachers are almost always such that a person who works often and lives a modest lifestyle can actually save money and still live with most Western conveniences. It may not seem fair, but in countries where young locals are lucky to earn US$50 per month, an English teacher might make US$800 a month or more, which is plenty to live well and save up at the same time.

You can find out about how all of this works and where are the best places to look for jobs on John’s YouCanTeachEnglish.com website.

A quick story to illustrate how much English teachers are needed

For better or for worse, English is the undisputed “world language” now, so almost any human can communicate with almost any other by learning English in addition to their native tongue. Those of us lucky enough to be native in English have a huge advantage that we can go just about anywhere without learning another language, and we can actually make money teaching English while there as well.

Before spending years in Asia (and Latin America) it was easy to assume that with half a billion native English speakers on the planet, that potential teachers were overflowing every corner of the world already, but that’s not the case at all.

It hit home one time last year in Vietnam. I’d rented a motorbike in the touristy beach town of Nha Trang for some joyriding. I had a flat tire over a mile from the edge of town and I pulled into a little parking lot in front of a restaurant. Within two minutes there was a young man who stopped what he was doing to start accessing my tire and then begin repairing it.

Less than 10 minutes later there were 5 fellows, all around 20 years old, including one that pulled up with a tool kit, and my tire was in the process of being patched. None spoke even a bit of English as far as I could tell, and I certainly didn’t speak any Vietnamese, but it was obvious to all what needed to happen and I was thrilled that they were there to help.

I knew that I’d offer to pay for this help no matter what, so I was a bit nervous over how to sort that part out with no common language. Then it turned out the new patch wasn’t holding water and the group needed to tell me something so they got a younger sister from inside to try to speak to me.

They explained it to her and she then tried to translate that into English for me, but I honestly didn’t even recognize what she was saying as English, much less the words themselves. After a few frustrating attempts she got a pen and a pad of paper and she wrote out what she was trying to say. Amazingly, it was all written and spelled in perfect grammatical English on the paper.

She was certainly a star student in her English class, but I’d bet anything that her teacher was a native Vietnamese speaker. As a result she probably gets straight As on her tests, yet can’t be understood in real life at all when speaking.

This illustrates the need for native-English speakers everywhere they are able to go. With the same amount of effort this girl could work the front desk of a fancy tourist hotel in Nha Trang, probably making 5 or 10 times the normal local wages for local jobs, but without the right teacher she’s not in the running.

Even if you’ve never thought about being a teacher in any other form, you can actually make a big difference in the lives of people elsewhere by teaching English for anywhere between 6 months and 2 years like so many other travelers. And from the sound of it, the process might be easier than you’d think.

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