Asian person teaching ESL

[Rice60640]

I heard rumors that it would be difficult to find a job teaching ESL if you are a person of Asian (Chinese) decent. Would this also be true if the person speaks and writes at a native level? Also, would it be better to be TEFL certified in Thailand or in the USA? Thanks!

[culicine]

There will be no problem. I would guess that half or more of teachers in schools here would be non-native speakers, and many of them do not communicate at native speaker level. However, most schools will offer you a salary that will be lower than that of your fellow native speaker colleague. I'd say it would be better to do a TEFL here as you would get to know how to teach local students and get a feeling for the culture at the same time. No problem doing it in the US if that is convenient though. If you do it here, try not to get one of those 'deals' where the telf course is part of an agency. You will be farmed out to a school at a much lower salary than if you were employed directly. However, you might find that convenient if you are not bothered to look for a job directly, and do not play to stay in Thailand more than a couple of years.

[culicine]

There will be no problem. I would guess that half or more of teachers in schools here would be non-native speakers, and many of them do not communicate at native speaker level. However, most schools will offer you a salary that will be lower than that of your fellow native speaker colleague. I'd say it would be better to do a TEFL here as you would get to know how to teach local students and get a feeling for the culture at the same time. No problem doing it in the US if that is convenient though. If you do it here, try not to get one of those 'deals' where the telf course is part of an agency. You will be farmed out to a school at a much lower salary than if you were employed directly. However, you might find that convenient if you are not bothered to look for a job directly, and do not play to stay in Thailand more than a couple of years.

[doontp]

I teach here in Thailand....what passport you have holds most of the weight. I'm half thai/american....dual citizen. raised in the US. I get the same salary as other native speakers. my first language is English.

[doontp]

I got my TEFL in the US

[zeichen]

As others have stated, you will have no issues from good schools. Some of the crappy ones that market miss young hip white girls as the best way to learn English, won't hire you but you wouldn't want to work there anyway.

Save money and don't bother with a TEFL. There are a lot of ways to self study the majority of what is taught and then my other recommendation would be to do some substitute teaching during the school year before coming over.

I recommend taking a TEFL course if you are really planning to make a career of it, but if it is just for a short period of time its not worth the cost. If your motivation to take the course is because of insecurity or lack of ability to teach and knowledge of EFL in general, then yes take it.

Take the CELTA or Trinity TESOL. Don't waste time or money on local homegrown Thai TEFL courses.