Wild Rose Travel

TEFL – Teaching English in Vietnam

August 2019 – January 2020

Towards the end of my final year at university, I got that dreaded “what am I going to do with my life now” fear (which I still have). Being someone that still has no idea where I want my life to go, no “dream” career in mind etc, I tend to live for the moment, be a bit spontaneous and go with the flow..

How did I find TEFL?
The previous year, I had gone on a trip to South Africa and I booked the solo part of the trip solely through STA travel (future me editing and can confirm they have since gone bust – sorry!). My experience with them was amazing, and I have booked all my flights with them since. I knew I wanted to travel some more, and wanted to take a little bit of time away from the pressure of adult life so decided here would be a good place to start when looking for my next adventure. I began under the “volunteer abroad” section, as I had previously volunteered abroad and loved it. However long term this wasn’t really an option, I needed to be earning money to live away (I’m sure any graduates reading this will know you will not be in the strongest financial position straight after graduating!). This led me to the “work abroad” section, where I found lots of teach abroad options, amongst a few others. There was plenty from 3-month placements in Spain, to 6+ month placements all over the world.

You can find similar teaching jobs online here.

A teaching career?
Teaching is something I have never ever been interested in. It is in fact a career I have been previously known to state as “my worst nightmare.” To be completely honest, now almost at the end of my placement, this is something I would probably still stick by! Therefore if you feel the same as me, don’t write it off straight away. Now I had the idea in my head, I did a lot more research around this and found it to be the most popular option for people like me that wanted to travel, but work to earn extra money to do so first. One option of course was to stay at home, work a job for 6-months to earn and then go travelling after that… but where’s the fun in that!?

Side note – in order to teach abroad and qualify with TEFL, you do need an undergraduate degree certificate. There are some options to teach abroad without one e.g., in Thailand, but many of the opportunities do have certain educational requirements.

The decision
I had to make my decision on whether or not I wanted to go ahead pretty quickly. I was going on a girls trip to Bali 2-weeks before the application deadline, meaning I would be unable to apply unless I did it before I went.. this gave me about 1-week to decide. And it was quite a big decision! I spoke to my friends and family and not one person told me not to go for it.. so before I knew it I was on the phone, confirming my details and paying a deposit for the experience of a lifetime! As I said I am very spontaneous and tend to just go with the flow at the time, but if you’re not like me I would recommend looking into this months in advance, and making sure it’s the right decision for you. It’s quite a big deal after all!

The course (120 hour TEFL)
First things first, in order to become a teacher and move across the other side of the world in 3-months’ time, I needed to complete and pass the TEFL course first. This is a 120-hour online course, that simply qualifies you to teach english abroad. This took me around 2-weeks to complete, and gives you tonnes of information from what to teach, how to make it fun, to how to control a class full of 60 kids etc. I had absolutely no teaching experience at all, no experience with kids, nothing. This doesn’t matter, because as long as you are willing to take it all on board and try your best, that’s what matters. After all it isn’t rocket science, you just need the energy (a lot of it!) and the right attitude. Once complete, you are sent a certificate in the post and you’re good to go.

One extra motivation for me was that I wasn’t simply “going travelling.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as that’s what I would have done if I could have afforded it at the time, but I am now returning from travelling with an extra qualification on my CV, a 5-month internship certificate, plus 4.5 months hands on teaching experience. Even though teaching isn’t what I want to go into, every little thing like this helps and can make you stand out from the crowd when going for that job you really do want.

Costs
Obviously something like this doesn’t come free. As explained, I went through STA travel for the initial application. The company I was then re-directed to was Fluent Education, who are responsible for finding teachers and allocating them to certain schools across a variety of destinations. They also provide a 1-week orientation upon arrival in your country, where you’re picked up from the airport, given training, provided with basics needed to get you started and so on. This is also where you meet your fellow teachers on the internship with you. Besides the package price you pay for this, you can expect to pay for:

• Flights
• VISA’s
• Work Permit
• Legalisation of documents

Overall, getting completely set up and up and running to go, I would expect to pay around £800.

Teaching
When the teaching placement begins, you well and truly get thrown in the deep end. After orientation week, you’ve had a few practice activities with your peers and been into a classroom once on a school visit (if that). From this you are then thrown into a classroom of 50-60 Vietnamese kids, and then it’s all down to you. Of course this is very daunting at first, but it’s surprising how quickly you get into the swing of things. Now, it’s almost natural for me to be able to just walk into a class and get going without even thinking twice about what I’m going to be doing next. The schools are huge, and there a hundreds of kids! I taught 30 periods a week, with each period being 40 minutes long. In each period, there are 50-60 kids. This means I teach between 1500-1800 kids per week. So if you think you’ll learn any names at all, forget it. You remember faces and get to know each class roughly, but never in too much detail. There’s just too many of them! I only taught in primary schools, Grades 2-5 (around ages 7-11). This is equivalent to around Year 1 – 6 in the UK school system.

Struggles
One of the biggest struggles with teaching is that the kids don’t speak English. Now that seems like a completely stupid thing to say, but not only are you now someone in a complete new career you’ve never done before, but you’re thrust into schools where there is not one other English speaking person there for guidance. If you get stuck.. you’re simply on your own. You have kids asking you questions in Vietnamese, and not understanding “I only speak English.” You give polite smiles and nods to other teachers in the staff rooms because this is the only communication you can manage. It’s tough, and something that doesn’t really cross your mind until you’re in the middle of it.

As well as this, you are obviously now in a different country, on your own, in a new job, a new apartment etc. This can be daunting, but the main thing to remember is why and how you got here. Everything that led you up to this point was a choice you made. This means even if you don’t always feel like it, you do want to be there. Go with the flow, take each day as it comes and things will work out. If not, that’s okay. At least you gave it a go, that’s more than a lot of people can say!

Summary
Overall, my teaching internship was the experience of a lifetime and 5-months of my life I will never forget. I am so glad I made the decision to come and chase a crazy, random idea I had one day at home. I still can’t believe I can actually call myself a teacher! That’s something I definitely never thought I would say. It’s been crazy – Vietnam is definitely unique! It’s one of those experiences that you can never really, truly put into words unless you are living and experiencing all of it. It’s been HARD work, long hours and tiring days but so worth it. The kids are naughty, SO noisy and cheeky as hell but also some of the smartest and cutest kids you’ll ever meet. And the love and respect they have for you is unbeatable. From getting cheered at every time you walk into a classroom, to getting asked for your autograph, and receiving fan mail, my time as a “celebrity” to these kids has definitely been a blast.

Onto the next adventure.

Suggested read – An expat in Hanoi.