Teach English Abroad;
No Experience Required
by Sarah E. Needleman

Before heading to Taiwan to teach English, Matthew Topalian hardly spoke a word of Chinese and he'd never taught a class. But last March the government major was nearing graduation from Stanford University and couldn't decide what to do next. One afternoon, Topalian happened upon a poster on campus advertising for a company seeking college graduates to teach English in Taiwan. His interest piqued, he went home, got online and immediately e-mailed an application. A phone interview followed, and he was hired shortly thereafter.

"That was when I started to really think, do I want to go to Asia? I had never been there. I had never really been away from home for longer than 10 days. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be a teacher," he says. But then it dawned on him. "Why not?" Last Aug. 4, Topalian found himself seated on an airplane bound for Taiwan.

College graduates are in demand to teach English abroad, even if they don't have teaching credentials or speak the host country's language. Opportunities include temporary or full-time work for companies that staff English-language schools or as private tutors.

Why English? "It's the language of business," says Troy Peden, editor of GoAbroad.com (http://www.goabroad.com/), a Web site that lists information and employment opportunities for English teachers working abroad. "Students want to learn from native speakers" because they want to hear how it's naturally spoken, he says.

Peden says the need for English teachers is on the rise. China, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan hire the most to teach English to a range of students such as housewives, corporate executives, kindergarteners and college students. The most lucrative opportunities can be found in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Peden says. But some countries prefer to hire teachers with accents native to the countries they do the most business with. In Mexico, American teachers are preferred; in Europe, British teachers are favored.

Christie Bray, recruitment coordinator for the Hess Educational Organization (http://www.hess.com.tw/), a Taipei, Taiwan-based organization comprised of English-language schools of various levels, says the demand for English teachers there reflects the local government's strict policies. Until last year, English was taught only at the junior-high level in Taiwan public schools. Now it's a required subject at the elementary level as well. However, most teachers have classes with 45 to 50 students that meet once a week for 50 minutes, she says. "This presents a big challenge for them, especially for teaching speaking skills. They have less than one minute per child per class for individual speaking practice." It's therefore common for students to take classes through organizations such as Hess or be taught by private tutors, Bray says.

Hess operates one of the largest English-teaching school systems in Taiwan. The company currently employs about 350 teachers in locations throughout Taiwan, up from 220 in 2000. It expects to hire about 250 more teachers by the end of 2002 to help staff the 12 new language schools and 13 kindergartens that the company opened in 2001.

Hess teachers work 20 to 24 hours weekly over six days, on average. They sign one-year contracts, which give them 14 days of unpaid vacation time and up to seven days of unpaid sick leave during the year. Starting salaries for Hess teachers are about $15 per hour and are paid monthly, says Bray. Health-insurance fees, which average $7 a month, are automatically deducted from teachers' salaries and cover doctor, hospital, pharmaceutical and dental bills.

Hess doesn't pay for its teachers' airfare to Taiwan, but it does cover hotel accommodations throughout a one-month training period and helps teachers to find permanent housing. "Most teachers live in shared apartments, some live alone and a few live with local students or families," Bray says. "Housing is cheap and plentiful in Taiwan."

The training period also is considered a trial for new teachers. "During the first month of teaching, they can choose to leave if they're not happy. They just need to give us seven days' notice," Bray says.

Requirements for teaching English in foreign countries vary, but most schools don't demand teaching credentials or knowledge of the host country's language. They prefer that teachers speak English at all times and provide a course curriculum for them to follow. "It was very structured," says John Mahnke, a 1994 Colgate University graduate who taught English in China for six months in 1996 through Hess. "You'd have a planned lesson provided by the company. They'd also give you workbooks, grammar books and homework assignments."

Another company that recruits English teachers is Washington, D.C.-based Alliances Abroad (http://www.alliancesabroad.com/home/home.html), which matches teachers with positions at schools in China, Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Mexico. The company filled about 125 teaching positions in 2001.

Lauren Stone, vice president of global business development for Alliances, says the terms of employment vary among host countries. Mexico provides its teachers with housing in addition to a salary. In Spain, teachers live with their host families in exchange for 15 unpaid hours a week of English lessons. In Spain and China, teachers can stay for as little as a month whereas most other countries hire teachers for an entire school year, she says.

Alliances doesn't pay for its teachers' airfare and charges them a fee for its services, which include job placement and continuing support. The expense is worth every penny, Stone says. "With a quick search [on the Internet] you can probably find a job on your own, but you have to be very careful of what you get." In some instances, she says teachers were settled into housing conditions that were a far cry from their descriptions. "We don't just put our teachers in a position and leave. We're not so much a placement service as we are an exchange program," she says.

Topalian, who's employed by Hess, says his work experience abroad has steered him toward a teaching career. "I've decided that when I return to America, I'll get a teaching certificate and become a teacher, hopefully for kindergarten students," he says. "Every day I go into my kindergarten class and see my students' development and happiness, and I realize how much I love teaching."

Tutoring

Last spring, Jay Frank of Hillsborough, N.J., was getting ready to travel to Taiwan to study Chinese and Kung Fu at the Center for Chinese Language and Culture Studies (http://www.mtc.ntnu.edu.tw/scholarships.html) in Taipei. The May 2001 Rutgers University graduate had received a scholarship to study there from the U.S. Department of Education. But since the stipend wouldn't cover his living expenses, he needed to find employment before leaving.

Frank contacted a professor who teaches in Rutgers University's East Asia department, who then connected him with a family in Taiwan seeking a private tutor. Frank mailed the family his resume and then had a lengthy phone interview with them. He was hired and in September, he left for Taiwan.

At first, Frank says the experience was challenging. "It was hard getting adjusted to a new culture. Even trying to eat lunch was difficult. When I got here I had no clue what the menu said." Other obstacles Franks says he faced upfront included getting accustomed to a city he describes as overcrowded and polluted and being frequently approached by curious natives inquiring about his background.

Frank tutors a 13-year-old eight hours a week during evenings at his student's home for about $35 an hour. Getting the two off to a productive start wasn't difficult because the student's father speaks fluent English. When tutoring, Frank doesn't follow a structured curriculum. Instead, he buys grammar and vocabulary books and creates lessons. He also devises homework assignments such as one requiring daily journal entries using five to 10 of the new words the student has learned.

Since lessons began, Frank's student has developed a fairly strong command for the English language, he says. Likewise, Frank can now hold in-depth conversations in Chinese, although he also credits his personal studies for enhancing his abilities. In addition, the overseas adventure has helped him mature. "I'm a bit less naïve than when I graduated college," he says.

Ms. Needleman is associate editor of CollegeJournal.com.