James Soller had an article a few months back on where to go to teach English abroad. I’ve been teaching in Asia for more than seven years now, so I want to give my perspective. As much as I’ve enjoyed my time doing this, there are a lot of things to watch out for, and evaluating the bad is just as important as the good.
Before I that, I want to second his advice of getting a TEFL (and not an online one). Get a Celta, they’re the best recognized out there and any other one you get costs nearly as much. I’ll also recommend where: Ho Chi Minh City, it’s cheaper but the actual course is the same anywhere you go.
Don’t take it with no experience. Get any job you can and teach before you start your course. Do it for half a year to a year. It will be stressful, but when you take the TEFL course, you’ll get much more from it.
South Korea
I started in South Korea, teaching in a public school. I hated it. Classes were huge, I was given virtually no training or books to use, my co-teacher and principal were bitches, and at least half the class would scream at me while I tried to teach. Korea has a bad reputation amongst English teachers, and the Koreans work hard to earn that reputation.
They’re perpetually angry, demanding, and have a reputation for not paying you. I’ll admit the country has advantages. It’s first world and the pay is good. If you’re in the Seoul area, there are things to see, good public transport, and other foreigners around. I was there in 2007, and I don’t think it’s changed enormously since then.
Japan
After that, I wanted to work in Japan. Japan’s cool, right? It is a cool place, but not easy to work in. The English job market is old and therefore developed. Those who have jobs there don’t want to give them up. The number of positions aren’t increasing either, for demographic reasons. If you look online, most places require you to already be in Japan or even already have a work visa. Some don’t, but they usually have other requirements.
If you have special credentials, give it a try. One big disadvantage is the amount of money you need to start living there. It can be a few or even several thousand dollars. No school gives you an apartment, and the key money is huge. You’ll have to fly in and survive by yourself until your first paycheck.
Taiwan
I worked in Kaohsiung for a year (2008) and absolutely loved the place. Taiwanese people are friendly and polite, everything is cheap but of good quality. The countryside is beautiful and easily accessible from the city, and the city itself is pleasant. There’s a surprising amount to explore on the island.
When I lived there first, it was easy to find work. With everything being real cheap, life was easy. No experience no qualifications ESL work has somewhat dried up though. When I went back to visit a year ago I saw almost no young English teachers like before.
Like anywhere, there is some work available. Most of the work is in the north these days, around Taipei. Years ago I met Canadians who entered on a tourist visa and overstayed it by years just working illegally. I met others who went to some public school in a small town, the principal was just happy to have any foreign teacher there and he wouldn’t get too agitated about proper paperwork.
Vietnam
In 2009 I moved to Vietnam. I stayed for over four years. When I arrived jobs were everywhere, paying a shockingly high wage despite how poor the country was, and things were cheap. Visas were easy too. If mine was about to expire, I’d just hand it into my school three days beforehand and tell them to get me a new six-month visa, the cost was deducted from my salary.
Those days are over though. Around Tet New Year (it always happens then), the authorities decided there were too many foreigners making money. So overnight, with no warning, prices on visas went up and regulations went way up. I had to go through a long, expensive process of getting my degree notarized, getting a criminal background check, and more just to get a work visa.
Many, many teachers had to leave. Others had to make visa runs to Cambodia every couple months. Jobs are still there, but foreign teachers flooded in and the economy had some problems, so the golden age is over.
You can also run a side hustle in Vietnam. I was an extra in a movie (pays shit), I’ve met people who buy shoes and clothing made in ‘Nam and sell them on eBay overseas. I know a guy who makes salsa. You can start a restaurant.
This was also my first time living in a third world country. For those of you who haven’t before, you can’t totally understand it until you live there. Rivers of motorbikes flowing down the street, making sudden turns, tailgating, driving on the sidewalk. The only thing the police do over there is pull people over to fish for bribes.
Bathrooms can be vile. Don’t talk on your phone when you walk down the road! You’ll get mugged. If you rent a room, the owner will feel comfortable just poking around your place when you’re not there.
There’s a lot of things I miss too. It’s a crazy place. For meeting girls, Vietnam’s hard to beat. They’re beautiful, horny (yet interested in marriage), and love foreigners. I didn’t have the same success at all with women in China.
China
I’m currently in China. It’s quite different from Vietnam. The infrastructure is much better, roads are wider, and buildings are taller. The people are more disgusting though. They smoke and spit everywhere (everywhere!), and their children shit and piss everywhere. People also seem less inviting to foreigners (although friends tell me people are much friendlier in the North). Not that I’d gotten any negative reactions, but no one is interested.
In Taiwan and ‘Nam it was easier to make friends with locals. Recently the internet got worse too. You’ve heard of the great firewall of China. They don’t just block Facebook and Youtube, any foreign website gets throttled. The job market is different too, more stable. Salaried full time work is the standard instead of by-the-hour part time work. There are ESL centers like anywhere else in Asia, but a big advantage is that you can teach subjects instead of just English.
Private bilingual schools that replace regular public schools abound. Kids don’t come here evenings and weekends just for English. It’s half in English, half in Chinese during regular weekday hours. Last year I taught a wonderful first grade class in a school like that. I spent half the day doing English, math, and art with them.
My Chinese co-teacher assisted when I taught and also taught them classes in Chinese. Now I’m teaching A-level physics in an international section of a public school. It’s much more satisfying teaching in a real school than playing hangman on evenings and weekends.
When looking for a job in China, location matters. Check www.aqicn.org to find out how bad air pollution is. Chinese “cities” will almost always include a fair amount of land that you and I would not consider urban. A better translation would be “county.” You could be far away from anywhere interesting.
Unfortunately, for those of you overseas, it can be very hard to check this out before you get there. Talk to current teachers. Check it out on Google maps. You should should also consider mobility. How will you get around? If you’re downtown, buses and the subway will get you anywhere. If you’re in a smaller city you can probably buy a motorbike—they can be fun and useful to get around. But bigger cities in China usually ban motorbikes.
So if you’re not in the coolest parts of town, but still technically in a big city, your options are limited. Electric bikes are ubiquitous, but not as fun or useful as a motorbike. I miss my motorbike in Taiwan and ‘Nam.
Thailand
I never worked in Thailand, only visited. It’s a beautiful and exciting place, and the women are easy—but consider the negatives. Thailand is a nation of thieves. All the people you see online talking about it being a paradise on earth don’t mention the non-stop scamming and harassment there.
The golden age for jobs in Thailand ended a decade ago. Thailand is full of teachers who have been there for ages and will work for anything, since most places pay peanuts. However, if you’re not just some backpacker and you have serious teaching credentials, you can get good work there.
General Advice
If possible, contact the job directly instead of a recruiter. The recruiter is a middleman who provides little real value but has incentives to lie. Some are good, but generally, try to find a school yourself. In China, echinacities.com is an excellent site for that. They have China news and guides too.
Seriousteachers.com is great for China and other countries. Dave’s ESL is the classic site, specializing in Korea but also China, the Middle East, and anywhere. Websites can be very country-specific. In Taiwan, tealit.com is a good place. Japan has their own sites as well: www.ohayosensei.com. Eslteachersboard.com is a great site, not only do they have jobs, but they also have forums for people to say which schools are good or bad. Other job boards tend to be heavily censored.
Online reviews will provide valuable clues, but are not perfect. People are far more likely to post something negative than positive. Some of the people who go out of their way to post seem halfway crazy, or just intensely angry about something. I’ve read reviews for schools that I had worked for and been amazed. Try to find recent reviews. Schools can change, and it might even be a different school with the same name. Even schools that have branches may have wildly different working conditions.
The job hunt can vary a surprising amount by country. In some places (South Korea) it’s almost impossible to get a job by visiting on a tourist visa and then visiting schools in person and changing your visa in country. This is by design, the Koreans got sick of backpacker teachers. In other places (Vietnam), the opposite is true, a few schools advertise online, but most don’t.
You have to go there in person and apply, oftentimes doing a demo. The last few years have seen regulations tighten up everywhere. China has gone this way. If you arrive on a tourist visa and get a job, you have to leave the country, or at least go to Hong Kong, to get a work visa.
Arriving on a tourist visa and looking for jobs on foot can cost you serious time and money, but you have the advantage of being able to check things out before you get there. There are more than a few scammers and bad bosses out there. Being able to talk to current teachers away from prying ears is a huge plus.
If you must find your first job online though, ask for three current foreign teachers’ emails and phone numbers. If they refuse or the contact info seems suspicious, you just saved yourself some serious trouble. I visited a school in Guangzhou that I was all but certain I’d sign with. I went there and even slept a night in the school dorms.
Then, I looked at the contract they gave me. It was different than the one they sent over the internet, with the monthly salary much lower. I asked my recruiter if there was some mix up. She got back to me and said that the school could find teachers for less money now. They felt no need to tell me this before I visited the place. Stories like this abound. Yet China’s still where the jobs are, so it’s hard to avoid the country altogether.
So happy trails, good luck, and stay vigilant in your hunt so that you can be happy in your work.
Read More: How Teaching English In China Can Improve Your Game
“There’s a lot of things I miss too. It’s a crazy place. For meeting girls, Vietnam’s hard to beat. They’re beautiful, horny (yet interested in marriage), and love foreigners. I didn’t have the same success at all with women in China.”
Let me guess: the girl would say “me love you long time” and you would correct them to say it properly and wondered why you were not scoring so much.
Just kidding. Good article.
English speaking dudes are pretty low on the totem pole in asia. Only do it if you have ZERO other marketable skills because the pay is low (was good a long time ago). If you have finance, or technology as a background you can get paid far more money, even a US wage with free housing, school and US sized apartment particularity if hired by a foreign subsidiary of a US company.
Women treat those guys the same way. In Japan for example, foreigners working at Goldman Sachs in Roppongi have a lot more going for them than some japanese cartoon lovin’ tool teaching english at Aeon or as a JET.
Honestly, most japense women are going to get married by age 25 to a japanese male so their family doesn’t disown them. You’re just there for entertainment purposes while they run wild in their youth before they get trapped in a loveless marriage. There’s really nothing holding you you back from cleaning up there, if you learn a small amount of japanese. The big challenge is returning to your home country with no marketable skills. It works if you have a family business to join back home, or you’re ok starting a new career as a real estate broker, something like that. Be thinking of re-entry.
Less marriage and reproduction is happening in Japan. Check the stats.
Obviously he doesn’t know much about the ‘salary man’. Either their women leave the country or the women marry a Westerner.
If they don’t get married then they’re stuck at home being supported by their father. So if they aren’t engaged by 25, then the family used to go into arranged marriage mode. That deadline has been pushed to 30 more recently. There’s huge societal pressure to conform. The wall is real there. International marriage is getting more common, can be an escape option for non-conforming women, but its not as simple like in other cultures. Just use all that to your advantage. Dating a foreigner can be kind of rebellious for them, makes you different and interesting. You’ve got to understand how conformist that culture is, and as a foreigner you give them tremendous freedom to break the unwritten and unspoken rules of japanese culture when they are around you. Because you’re clueless and don’t know the rules anyway, and if you did you probably wouldn’t care. This is disturbing and exciting to them in ways you can’t imagine. You go in a totally different category for dating. You’re counter-culture just by showing up.
Sure, but japanese men went full mangina mode after WW2. These chicks go to bars and pay hundreds of dollars to bartenders just to talk to them. It’s like strippers in reverse. #winning
As a foreigner in japan you don’t compete against japanese men. You are in a different category. Japanese women like you because you don’t remind them of their boss or their father. Don’t even think about competing with the local men. They aren’t threatened by you, surprisingly. They often say things like japanese women are crazy about foreign guys, and shrug it off because they assume foreigners are short term and will leave in a few years. Japanese male friends will even use you as a wing man to hit on chicks. That’s the best because then you appear pre-screened and they translate for you.
They aren’t afraid because they’ve gone MGTOW full bore. Why should I work 80 hours a week for an unappreciative woman? They know the whites are there to bag and tag… and they have no desire to marry. So why SHOULD they care? One might argue to continue their lineage but that seems less and less important as technology provides surrogate females.
The wingman thing was huge, though even when not acting as a wingman I was tossing girls left and right to friends. Japanese girls would approach me far more often than I’ve ever been approached in the US.
Japan got nuked twice. That tends to kill off masculine tendencies pretty quickly.
The stats are grim; 2013 was the first year they sold more old people diapers than baby diapers.
Demography is destiny.
Well, with their husbands working 80 hours a week it’s no wonder. The men are too exhausted to have sex. If they do manage to have kids, the kids won’t even recognize the father. They might see him on a Sunday and be like, “Mommy, who’s that?” And she’ll be like, “Oh that’s you’re dad.”
Kid: How long has he lived here?
There is a Japanese TV show that shows group dating. It’s where single men and women are brought together and at the end the men pick which women they like the best and will date. (There are 10 men for 30 women).
My female friends were complaining about this and why it wasn’t equal. I pointed out because the men who participate in this have to have a steady salary. No paycheck? No chance.
The women don’t. Many of them are covered in brand names and barely make enough to finance their fashion. They want a husband (slave) to finance their lifestyles and help them leave their parents’ home.
Since there are only so many men who have a decent salary, a lot of Japanese women get left out in the cold. More and more Japanese men that they call “grass-eaters” simply refuse to marry all together. They avoid dating, hook-ups and involvement with the opposite gender all together.
You can see the Japanese women who’ve made it if you go to coffee shops on weekdays. They meet with the other wives to talk about what brand name they bought or piano class they enrolled their kid in.
Meanwhile, the husband is working like a dog. But to be fair, Japanese women will make sure he has breakfast and dinner every day. The house will always be clean. They will take care of the majority of the housework without question. They will never leave the house without looking their best.
The idea of running quickly to the convenience store in their sweatpoints is mortifying to most Japanese women. And most will keep themselves in great shape.
But that won’t matter because after the first kid is born the sex will usually stop. He’ll just have to rely on Japan’s prominent sex industry.
Learn the language and customs, it changes everything. Don’t hang out with other foreigners if you can avoid it, it’s a crutch. It’s not a hard spoken language to learn.
I don’t know how long you have lived in Japan but this is a very accurate assessment of the dating market.
I have lived in Japan for about five years working for a trade company and I can pretty much confirm everything you wrote.
Because I am outside the English teaching miasma and have fluent Japanese, I get treated like a Japanese guy in most dating situations. If you are an English teacher and have mediocre Japanese, the hookups you get will be disillusioned girls who expect a Disney romance, world adventure with you (they are good for short term). If you are in my situation you get the girls like you stated in your comment ; working part-time or unenthusiastically full-time, just enough to finance their brand shopping sprees. You would think these girls come from well off families until you date them and get a glimpse of their personal life and realize that they are mid 20’s living at home spending all their paychecks on clothes. They are looking for the guy to finance that shopping passion after marriage.
If you can stomach a women like that, go-ahead and marry her, but have fun with your non-existent sex life after kids.
Yeah watch out for the long-term life with an Asian, in Asia, particularly. You now have Asian in-laws. Depending on the girl’s age you will be shuttling off to weddings constantly, dropping a C-note as a gift each time. Sexless marriages aren’t even discussed as an issue. It’s just a given. The best bet for marriage with an Asia is;
-stay fit,
-get your retirement sorted, separate and hidden
-marry a taller type 30-33 year old Chinese girl when you’re 55, if you want a girl with a bit of education/income.
-or marry a taller 20 year old Chinese hick when you’re 55 and dominate hard from the start and live a life of pure physical attraction for as long as possible.. The 25 year old dudes marrying the 25 year old Koreans or Japanese are really in for it from what I’ve seen. Yeah, a few glamorous years with a babe but then the praying mantis emerges. They will spend like crazy and once they understand their sexual power they will wield it like a nuclear bomb over your head. Many of them have only seen marriage as pure war. The Disney stuff was not really what their minds formed around. You will also get a glimpse into some world class solipsism. You are their white arm-piece for them to wield in making their own statements against their own culture and their own families. Yeah that’s worst case scenario stuff but also quite common. Better than a fat girl though.
I say ‘taller’ a few times because smallish Asian babes really kind of disappear on you. When the curves, features peak at 20, it can be amazing but then they seem to all morph into one identical small Asian female prototype. The ones who maintain some appeal are almost always taller.
My point is more along the lines that there are far better jobs to have in Asia (and Japan in particular) in terms of pay and job satisfaction and long term development than teaching english. If you stay mostly in the Ex-pat community there is some derision towards english teachers.
If you’re just there to bang chicks then yeah its a bit different (though they smell the money if you’re working in the Mori tower), but might as well bang chicks, make decent money and have some life plans.
Its freaking easy to hook up in Tokyo. If you speak a lot of Japanese, DON’T SPEAK JAPANESE (or pretend to speak only a little). It can be more of a turn off or you’re expected to understand cultural norms. If you’re looking to score, flaunt and use your gaijin card.
You will also find that you get discount admission to some clubs. Years ago space lab yellow was half price for honkeys.
Would you say you have to have a finance/tech background to find decent work in Asia or does being educated and being a native English speaker give you some extra pull in their market?
Agreed. But those are hard jobs to find. American companies with operations in Japan want to localize the staff to gain maximum market access. Japanese companies with operations in the US want to keep you in the US office to interface with Americans. That’s why the teacher job works so well for short term gig.They’re always hiring. You get a living wage. That’s about it. You just think about it as an adventure, like aussies who often do that walk about thing between school and career. I’m not saying the experience can make a man alpha, but it can give you a different confidence that you sense instantly when you return home, and you start interfacing with your male friends who spent the last 3 years struggling with a social environment dominated by obese bitch face. You actually don’t even have think about finding women there. Its a non-issue. Not much of the social dynamics blogged here would even be relevant there.
Clark,
For those wanting to work outside of English Teaching in Asia they must have marketable skills that make them more attractive then recruits from the domestic labor market. In 2nd tier countries even more so because the domestic labor market offers much cheaper labor.
If you want to work outside English teaching the main requirements are what you most likely have already figured :
1.) Fluency of native language : Many companies and sectors you will be looking for jobs in boast numerous laborers who have good English. You have native English and cultural knowledge of Western countries which can make you more attractive (especially in business). However, without the language skills, you offer no reason to a company to higher you over a domestic offering (especially when considering the work the company has to do in order to ensure your legal residence, which is difficult to acquire outside of English Teaching and Finance).
2.) Marketable skills : The language is the first barrier for most jobs (outside high finance in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai and in those areas you better be boasting an MBA from a reputable western business school to have a chance). The best and most employable sectors are IT and Engineering. If you have a degree in either and can speak passable native language you will find work, with Engineering offering the most varied and attractive positions. There are of course, other sectors, such as trade, sales, business. These jobs are more accessible. I work in Sales / Acquisitions for a trade company and found my way in through networking, language, and charming the bosses of the company. Sales/Trade/Business etc is more accessible because you can get started without a specific degree (i.e. finance, engineering). However, you will need to have a higher language level to network properly, charm, and present yourself as a viable salesmen, trader, etc.
Engineering / IT are easiest to get jobs in with lower language proficiency, have rewarding / well paying options, and command respect from the locals. Business and Sales requires networking of a high level, more independent self-salesmanship, and high language proficiency but can also offer interesting opportunities, especially after you break through the initial barrier. Once you are in that field in Asia, its much easier to spring board around because you have the language, the experience and the image.
Trying to find work from a western country is difficult unless you apply directly to, for example, Goldman Sachs Tokyo. If you have what you think are marketable skills and want to go independent and sink or swim, you can move over and start looking. As much as I dislike English teaching, it is a good opportunity to get to Asia originally, start networking, and then move on. However, I cannot stress enough how temporary this must be. The longer you stay in English teaching the worse it gets for moving on. If you teach for more than 2 years it will become nigh impossible to find something outside of that sector as you will be branded as a English teacher. The same for moving back home. However, when used as only a springboard to get the working Visa and to set up shop, it can be quite useful.
As for the pros and cons of the areas, I think the OP detailed them adequately, but you will never really understand or know how you mix with the country until you are there.
That’s about all, I could spend hours writing about tips and experiences but I end it there
Hey this is exactly the response I was looking for.
Thank you very much.
My personal motivation for English Teaching abroad is that I want to travel and experience a new culture while saving a bit of money. Also, I’m in the midst of a career switch and what I need is a reasonably secure and comfortable lifestyle from which I can learn new skills that are complementary to my current credentials. I’m planning on staying for a year.
Cheers.
What are the prospects for a 28 year old with a degree in electrical and electronic engineering in Asia? Considering leaving Western Europe and going somewhere else.
The best options would be finding contract work at a big (Engineering / Procurement / Construction) company like Mitsubishi Heavy or Samsung in the petrochemical industry. I sell to these companies and they often have contract work on project for mechanical and electrical engineers. Korea is a big one as they employ the most foreigners on contract work from what I have seen. For example, when they are handling the EPC for an Oil Refinery in Pakistan and need more workers, they hire contract engineers for the project design and procurement from other countries. It is a good way to segway in and start in Asia.
If planning only for a year teaching English is a great option. It will allow you to do exactly what you stated above and you will have a fun time doing it.
It is really hard to judge how you will like a culture until you are actually there but I would choose a country you have the most interest in.
Be careful as it is really easy to fall into it for more than a year which can have an effect on future job changes unless you are already a teacher. It is a cushy job and its hard to walk away from a year abroad, not giving a fuck about anything but yourself, back to a 9 – 5 office in the states or something.
I’ve had job offers in Japan in both engineering and IP work and lived cumulatively in Tokyo for about 18 months (though no longer live there). A number of my friends are employed at Goldman Sachs Tokyo in IT and formerly in translation. Other friends work in technical translation, various video game companies, japanese branches of onlines sales companies and other IT companies.
To answer your questions, it depends on what you term as decent. Having such a background will get more you lucrative work that you can make an actual career out of.
In Tokyo you can get work in the nightlife industry and english job recruiting industry with minimal language skills and at better pay than the eikaiwa (english language instructor) route. You can work in overseas sales for various japan based retailers as well.
You have to have something more to offer than the local talent to get seriously looked at. It is a hassle to hire foreigners due to visa requirements (housing is another issue) and the FACTA banking law (applies to overseas bank accounts). That being said if you can get a job in Tokyo doing eikaiwa its easier to branch off into other work if you are already there. Other friends of mine with IT backgrounds showed up on a VWP visa and just pounded doors and used classifieds to find work in the IT industry.
With respect to the engineering world, look for positions where you work as a facilitator/liaison for international teams. There is plenty of work in this environment as you will have US based teams coodinating with Japanese based teams. If you have the langauge ability, you can then use this as a springboard into normal engineering work. Other good routes if you have an engineering degree is work as a patent agent with USPTO registration and handle overseas filings back into the US.
IT in particular is a great way to find work in asia. Its pretty funny that Japan is known for high technology but has pretty poor levels of IT implementation and understanding. There is plenty of work out there requiring relatively minimal Japanese knowledge (JLPT level 3 or less).
If you have finance skills, you can work in an entirely english bubble, strangely you may find the same in some IT departments for large US based corporations. Of course if you can pull a job for GS, HSBC etc in the US, you can probably get a job there too, though friends of mine have transferred offices to the Tokyo office.
If you have language ability but lack the technical/financial route look into translation in the following areas: finance, patents and pharmaceuticals. Those areas have the highest per character translation rates, though some of the prices have dropped thanks to cheaper Indian sub-continent based translation.
Thats a pretty good point, staying there long term will limit you if you ever decide to return stateside.
Living overseas in some Asian, Latin or European babeland will make coming home an outright comedy of women who overrate themselves and men who have no idea of what they are truly worth. You have guys in the top 1% internationally getting drinks dumped on their shirt for saying hello in bars by women who are in the lowest 5% internationally. Neither side has any clue as to who they are.
Ameircan men are treated like shit by american women. American men are resigned to think that’s just the way it is in life, or there must be something wrong with them as men. No other culture in history has ever given women more privileges, and in no other culture are men so disrespected by women.
If the economy is booming in that asian country you’re in, its possible to use the english teaching work to network your way into an entry level position with a multi-national company. It requires at least intermediate language skills or higher, and a strong personal intro from somebody they value. It can be done. Be ready to grind long hours 6 days / week. You won’t get an expat pay package because they hired you locally. You won’t be able to bang the females at work, because they will tell all the other women about it. They all talk about the foreign guy when he’s not around, bank on that. You will have more social opportunity to bang women as an english teacher, especially if you’re outside the big capital city where foreigners aren’t such a commodity.
Hey I appreciate that you gave me such a informative response. Exactly the info I was looking for.
Cheers mate.
Both of you are way off base. Speaking more Japanese is desirable to get better results with women in the countryside particularly. And Japanese women under the age of 30 today are actually NOT getting married at all. Please read the news or talk to a recently emigrated Japanese person in the States for accurate information!
My experience was the opposite in Tokyo. Speaking Japanese got me far less results than speaking as little as possible at least in the club scene. The same advice was given to me by long term residents in that scene as well. I didn’t change my approach or anything else other than what language I was speaking. (This was more true for Roppongi than say Shibuya).
I would speculate that women wanted to practice/show off their English or were specifically looking for a fling. Presumably if you are looking for something long term it would be different.
Of course, I did have my Japanese speaking ability tested in order to get admission into some private clubs.
Absolutely learning japanese, or any language, is a huge social advantage for a male in asia. But some guys get intimidated by that, and the fact is they are required to study english in most asian countries and they want to practice “conversation” not reading and writing, so you can still have fun.
I don’t know why it has to be thought of as temporary any more than any other job is. I have an accounting degree and looked into big 4 jobs in Russia. Auditors in Russia are getting paid less than English teachers. Almost no American without connections is getting a high paid job in the financial services industry in one of these emerging markets. You better have a daddy or uncle that works in Goldman sachs. Applying for overseas jobs on the internet is especially wortless.
I see some of these English teachers are saving 10 grand a year in east Asia and upwards of 25 grand in the middle east. Save as much as possible and invest in index funds and watch your wealth grow. When you return you can buy a house and get a job doing what you want to do instead of having to go the bullshit “secure” route of a soul sucking office career. Work at seaworld. Fuck it. If you’re smart and know how to budget it’s really not a bad deal and the ESL market is not going to dry up anytime soon. English is the official dominant language of the world now.
Teaching english in the places where you can actually make money is not a bad plan for a young single college graduate.
I wouldn’t let this guy dismiss ESL as a long term plan so quick. If you can save $10k a year in China or South Korea then you’re doing better than 95% of your American and Canadian colleagues who are just racking up even more debt and living the same xerox life as every other dumb bastard around them, and you’ll probably working less than half as hard.
That’s what I was thinking. I’m planning on putting a bit of education on my resume
And this seems like the best possible deal. Glad someone else is thinking along the same lines as me.
Yeah I think I’m in a similar boat. I am graduating this spring with an accounting degree and I have 3 internships on my resume now but I think if I had to do any of the things I did in those internships as a career I would literally go insane. Doing taxes was actually the most fulfilling thing out of all of them.. Imagine that. What it’s come down to for me is either 1.) getting a government job where I only have to work 40 hours a week or 2.) getting the fuck out of the U.S.
I think the ESL thing is better from entrepreneurial perspective than just being an accountant too. Who knows who or what you’ll run into out there on the other side of the world that could land you into something totally different from teaching english or anything you’re used to back at home anyway? One of the guys I met at my last internship, while I was working for a manufacturing plant.. don’t get me wrong, great guy, has an excellent level of proficiency at what he does, but he’s in his fucking 60s now still sitting in a cubicle waiting for death. I promised myself to not become that guy.
So a buddy of mine went all the way and got his CA. Now he works for a financial software company called profix.
Accounting seems like miserable work unless your personality is set for it. But it could open up doors in unexpected places.
If you can combine business skills with computer skills for example I bet that is a solid foundation.
I plan to do the ESL thing because there is decent quality of life out east for teachers. Perfect opportunity to build more skills on my own time… Not to mention hget experience in the education field.
I think your thinking makes sense so long as you don’t get too comfort bale while abroad. Always be learning new shit. If accounting ain’t your thing, don’t become that guy in his 60s. I know guys like that… I’d rather be homeless on the coast.
Strive for financial freedom but never chase statuses or getting rich to appease others. I hate to get biblical, but the book of Ecclesiastes is a very sort but insightful read about trying to find fulfilment in money and status.
Most people that teach ESL only do it for a year or so. Few stay in it longer than that. The figure$ can look good to some, but there is more to it than that.
Why do they leave? They don’t like it, or they only intended to stay for a year in the first place? It seems to me if it makes you happy, why would you ever return to what you left behind?
Japanese dudes had a special term for that, Christmas cakes because after the 26th, no one wants them.
A lot of 30 year old Japanese, Korean and Chinese women are sitting ducks for a guy in his fifties who is financially sorted and has stayed in the weight room. That’s about the only marriage option that has any remote semblance of a payoff from a male perspective.
That’s an extremely depressing and incorrect way of thinking. Unless you’re looking to become a wage slave for your whole life, then none of that should be a worry.
I concur. I was talking to one guy here about that, and he is looking in to doing the latter. The difference is, he is really good at language. He is/has learning/learned both. He also looks like a Japanese Rocker from the Gorillaz. He is a white guy. He is educated, and does IT/fashion and several others. Including Manga and Anime. Basically, he is a Japanese dude in a white guys body.
I still don’t feel he will have much of a chance there. I hope and pray he avoids the Yakuza.
He’ll do alright and he’ll have his niche. really, if you’re White, you’re going to do better anywhere in Asia than you would in your native country, even if you know nothing of game, have no applicable knowledge, and are out of shape. Yeah, you might not slay, but you can still get laid on a regular basis.
English speaking dudes are low on the totem pole in Japan, but then people like this guy take the cake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2FGgYp6mdk.
dam that guy proves the white god factor has its limits. beta alpha and omega is universal.
since he comes from money he could pull in thailand though. but he really has to work on himself.
You will find a lot of his ilk in Japan. The white factor has its limits. A white guy working for a bank with no Japanese in Tokyo will slay vs an anime geek who studies in hopes of “becoming Japanese.”
i wonder if his kind will eventually give white guys a bad name like nerdy asian and indian men in america.
Look at the state of that guy, mclovin89. I don’t think anything could save that guy.
A lot of his ilk end up in Japan because of the idiotic stereotypes and falsehoods that anime and manga portray to non-Japanese people.
If I were Japanese, I would seriously consider getting some PSAs made and released to non-Japanese people that debunk some of these stereotypes. Many of these socially awkward losers are clearly getting the wrong idea about Japan in general.
What a shame that Japanese whalers haven’t been directed to his room.
I doubt it. He has Brad Pitt and other movie stars to fall back on. For the time being, Asian and Indian guys in the West don’t have many stars to fall back on. Plus, that whole White power dynamic and such, perhaps height, size, etc..
good that theyre messing with him, fuck that guy
Give the fatso a bit of credit. His Japanese is pretty good and it is a bastard of a language to learn. And these guys were throwing a lot of slang at him that isn’t in your average textbook. He obviously has done his homework. I admire that at least.
His Japanese is actually pretty bad. He missed the original question and they had to restate 3 times for him to pick up on just the age question. His answer was also rudimentary “ni-juu ichi” which is just the number. Age requires a counter for years “sai” and alters the word ichi (one) to ni-juu issai” which should be followed by “desu.”
Japanese is super easy to learn to speak, though the writing system is harder for those who don’t know Chinese characters.
Chinese is harder in my opinion due to tones, but word order is the same.
This dude’s japanese is not that impressive.
Of course his Japanese is not impressive. He most likely learned all of it from anime and worst of all, from all that pedo-shit with the maids.
From what I understand, Japanese people HATE anime otakus and ESPECIALLY their foreign equivalents, known as “weaboos.”
That video should be played at all American anime conventions, so they get a good idea of the hostility they will receive in Japan if they act like David there.
If you have those sorts of inclinations, my advice would be to hide them. Same thing to a lesser degree with martial arts.
Being told, “You’re more japanese than me.” is not a complement.
I imagine the Japanese must be sick of all these dumb foreigners trying to ape their culture all the time.
Agreed.
Don’t worry. If I ever end up in Japan as a tourist/visitor, I will not mention anime or manga precisely for that reason. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m “Davido-kun.”
It STILL makes me nauseous watching that video. It’s failure personified.
If you are an English teacher in China, you probably won’t bag your Asian princess because you won’t make enough money to make her parents happy. However, the pay is not really that bad.
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You tend to get something close to $1500 in (Chinese) cash each month, plus a free apartment, plus some sort of food subsidy. I have a fairly sweet deal because I get $1500, a 700 square foot 2-bedroom apartment, complete reimbursement for food and other living expenses (but not booze or restaurants), and even a free electric scooter to zip about on. If I wanted to live like a hermit then I could bank the whole paycheque ($18k in one year) but when I decide to spend money, the cost of living is somewhere between half and a quarter of what it would be in Canada. The whole tax situation is also different.
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In Toronto, to have an apartment like mine, all in, with internet and phone and everything would be almost $1000 a month. Food and other living expenses could run $500 a month or more. So if I had the same deal with $1500 cash in hand, then that would be the equivalent of $36k a year, but it isn’t the equivalent because that is after tax. Take taxes and payroll deductions into account and to live the same lifestyle, I would have to make $50k a year in Toronto, and that doesn’t consider the fact that if I am buying clothes or restaurant dinner or whatever that my cash goes 2 or 3 of 4 times as far.
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In Shanghai, if you can teach AP courses other than English, you have make up to 20,000 RMB a month (about $40k a year USD) and if you have an MBA and other business skills there are some teaching jobs that can pay up to $60k a year. The cost of living is higher but you can still find a reasonable apartment for $500 a month and other things tend to cost half as much.
Essentially, Asia is repulsive and uninviting, with the exception of the Japanese, and you shouldn’t expect to find happiness and prosperity there because they aren’t your people.
That probably changed, I was in shock until I read he was in Korea at 2007, this channel is from foreign teachers in Korea, more recently living there, and they seem to be happy, though I haven’t seen all their videos to be 100% sure
There is still a lot of institutionalized discrimination in Korea as in many Asian countries. One Korean TV network a couple years back did a famous special on foreign men trying to claim how all Western men had AIDS and were essentially pedophiles. Their evidence for this?
Some lady with a pixelated face saying she heard through a friend of a friend that their friend got AIDs from sleeping with a foreigner. Thus ALL foreigners had to have it.
They also described Korean women as gullible infants who were being preyed upon by “evil” Western men. Or if those Korean women really did like dating Western men than they were “whores” and disgraces to their family.
A lot of foreigners were really offended by this “documentary” (I say that loosely because it had no real evidence for any of its claims).
Still I have many friends who live in South Korea and are quite happy there. Like any place it is what it is.
In Japan and Korea, not only is it institutionalized, but discrimination and the denying of basic human rights is not provided for foreigners in the constitution. For example, the articles detailing human rights in Japan strictly say “kokujin” or “countries people” which was upheld in a supreme court decision as only people of the “Japanese race.” This explains why the families five people who died in Japanese immigration in March alone last year can receive no justice.
Taiwanese people are highly civilized and respectful.
Taiwan sounds nice and worth a visit. Is English commonly spoken there?
In Taipei, you won’t have any problem.
Since China cracked down on the internet I am curious how a filipina girl and her friends, all working in Shanghai, can communicate with the world on their Facebook accounts and personal blogs. On top of that their messages are pro-feminist. Does anyone know how this is possible, considering China’s intolerance to freedom of speech?
I think the firewall is much stricter on Chinese-language material.
That makes sense, thank you !
You’re going to want to use a VPN, preferably of the paid variety.
I’m from America (important because I pay online with American plastic – not sure it would work with other places’ cards), and what I did was find a cheap site for a VPN that wasn’t banned (Gotrusted). I signed up for a monthly account (5$ a month). Then I logged on and went and found better VPNs (my favorite is ExpressVPN, second favorite is StrongVPN, I alternate between them both, because even the best don’t always work so well). Then I cancelled Gotrust. I pay good coin for Express (12$ a month) and have a yearly subscription (60$) to Strong, but it’s worth it.
There are easier ways to do it, but the rule is you want to sign up for a VPN before you go to China, because they block most of the websites. Many of the “freePN” services they have in China are atrocious in quality.
Another thing – sites like ROK aren’t banned in China (yet), but even so, you’ll still want a VPN because accessing ANY English language website means going through the firewall, and no matter how fast your internet is, it usually goes very, very, very slow. VPN gets around the firewall, and speeds everything up. In addition to opening up the internet as a whole (youtube, blogspot domains, Facebook, etc.), that’s reason enough to just take the plunge.
There are many different ways to access banned sites, a quick google search will lead you to a few. You can use some hardcore proxies or a program that will make it appear that you are actually online somewhere else in the world instead of China
There are internet based tools which allow you to give the “Great Fire-wall” of China a great big fuck you. In general so long as you don’t criticise the government or the Communist party you should fine in terms of legal trouble. Mind you China and its police is incredibly corrupt so its important to not step on the wrong toes. In terms of general conversations in China its probably best to avoid political and religious issues as Chinese people are often quite sensitive on such issues and bear in mind that from roughly 1850 to 1950 China got the shit kicked out of it by the West (often referred to as the century of humiliation) as well as being shafted by Japan in the 30s and 40s and these topics are still very much a sore issue so should be avoided in terms of general conversation or at the very least it would sensible to follow the idiom of when in Rome…..
What about teaching english in brazil? Is there a job market for that? Are they required to study english in high school? I want to get paid to spend a year in brazil getting my cock sucked by exotic women in thongs.
Women are women everywhere. If you don’t have the frame and the career/real life to back your shit up, you will enjoy getting your cock sucked by nasties desperate for a cock ride out of the country.
Correct to a degree, but I’ll take the nasties of Asia to the fat-nasties of the West any day, especially the shit-tier landwhales that Black men are relegated to.
same here!lol
So the teaching bubble has burst?
Shame. It provided an alternative to people who struggled to find work back in their home nations. Now that so many people want to teach English abroad, it does not surprise me that the teaching market has become oversaturated.
I always wondered what the big hype about teaching English abroad was, since a lot of people I met kept talking about this being a great lifestyle choice and great way of making an income.
I wouldn’t say that. Keep in mind there are thousands of schools, all with different needs and positions. One person’s experience will not be yours. Some companies are great, like the bigger ones. Smaller ones will be more likely to fuck you over
Compared to the 90’s yes it has burst, but the demand is still there.
They hype is being able to live abroad in a country of your choosing and entering an easy job that has no skill requirements besides being born in an English speaking country. You get paid to have a job with virtually no responsibility while you explore the country and game what women you can.
Odd ROK decided to publish this. I’m an English teacher in China. It’s almost 8 AM on Thursday morning here. The life is good, I make an excellent salary and I have loads of disposable income, the job is stable. I’m living more comfortably with my own place and income. I’m living better than I ever before.
When it comes to dating, women are much different here but I’ve found being a foreigner gives you a huge advantage over local men when it comes to meeting women. Chinese women view foreigners as being professional and successful. They know foreigners make more money than the Chinese on average. I make over twice the average salary in my city, for example. The biggest obstacle is the language barrier, but you’d be surprised how many know enough English. Also, Chinese women tend to live with their parents and don’t move out until they get married, so the cultural aspect makes dating different too. Chinese people don’t casually date… they think dating is what people do before getting married. But, there are exceptions, some Chinese women are surprisingly liberal and Western. That said, Chinese women are still much more likely to be virgins into their mid-20s than American women, so there are some benefits.
But I’ve found no matter where you are in the world, standing up straight, making direct eye contact and smiling are the best things anyone can do to get a number (or WeChat contact information). Pic is a 20 year old woman studying to become a makeup artist I met on the bus, she doesn’t speak a word of English but she knew enough for me to get her WeChat info.
Envious of you sir
I have girls on wechat too. It doesn’t mean much.
1. Which city are you in?
2. How much have you got? (pussy, not wechat contacts )
It can lead to something though. Has for me a few times.
Japan used to be the country that I wanted to live in, but now that I am out of my weeaboo phase, the only good things that I can say that would put Japan above other countries are the politeness, cleanliness, and the handful of women that actively seek Black men. (I’ll always have a place in my heart for the Kuni though).
After teaching a stint in China and traveling to Taiwan, Taiwan takes the cake. If I could have an active sex life with decent-looking local ladies, it would be paradise. China is livable, but I’d have to get used to some of the squalor and the cheating (although the moral landscape can be played to my advantage too, to a degree). The money and the püh might just make it worth it though, although the latter can be more of a challenge as there is no low-hanging fruit like there would be in Japan in my case.
Informative article.
Bobby Ologun of Japan is the ultimate game slayer for black dudes in Asia. He kills the system
Yeah, he did contribute to fucking up the game for us in many ways. Is he still relevant?
I heard English teachers overseas don’t get paid a lot. On the flip side, there are interesting experiences and a new atmosphere.
You can still save if you get the right job and play the game right. The average English teacher that worked at my school was making three times as much as the average Chinese worker. Other countries pay better, but have higher standards of living. Taiwan is probably the best deal when it comes to money, at least so I hear.
It’s relative to the cost of living. I don’t make much in US dollars but everything is so outrageously inexpensive here, that I have more disposable income than ever. 2GB of mobile data is $11 USD per month. A decent bicycle is $60. A meal for two at a nice restaurant is less than $20. Even HDTVs are cheap.
You have point. The standards of living there are a bit low.
Standard of living and cost of living are two separate concepts. You can still get access to good medical and dental care, it’s just slightly more difficult to access than in developed countries. But it’s still totally worth it. Life is too short to spend it all in one country.
Scottie, I am considering doing this but the thing I worry about the most is wasting time teaching English and not establishing myself into a career. Sure it sounds great to travel the world and bang exotic women, but what will I do when I come back to the states? I’m 25 right now and I don’t have much to show for.. I feel like I need to start building wealth and even if I could save $10k a year teaching English in China, I don’t see it being a long term thing. I’ll save $20k in 2 years and come back to the states with no career prospects..
Watch “Sword of the Assassin” on Netflix if you want to see a Vietnamese honey.
awesome read. but veitnam is a 2nd world country,so it could be worse.
i was considering english teaching in japan or korea for a year after i get my degree.thanx for the heads up;it wont be easy as it once was.
Dont you guys realize teaching english has just made it easier to ship US jobs overseas?? Shit, my last company couldnt have shipped billing(and later IT) over to india without a program like this.
I mean its too late to turn the tide now, but cant you see what these programs were originally set up to do?
Yeah, but that’s going to happen anyway so we might as well turn shit to sugar and benefit in it to the extent that we can.
Also, to be honest, at a lot of the English mills in Asia people don’t learn shit. They just want to talk to the cool white guy, maybe slip him some püh on lunch break, or in the rare cases talk about rap and basketball with the token Black guy. I’m exaggerating a bit, but in many cases, education is not emphasized, but rather image. The owners of these schools want people coming back for more and more lessons which means more Yen, RMB, NTD, GookBucks (I think that’s what they are called in Korea), and so forth.
That ship has sailed. They’re all required to study English in secondary school. So parents will pay top dollar to cram their kids, which is real teaching work and challenging and they will fire you if the parents don’t like you. But other teaching is almost entertainment. Business execs who just end up drinking. Bored housewives who want to travel overseas who end up fucking. The sweet spot is the junior college system in Japan. There’s a huge amount of 2 year trade schools that train high school grad for secretary work. These secretary schools are everywhere in big cities in Japan, and they feed the big companies with fresh young “office ladies” who do the back office clerical work. Its like fucking throwing your fishing line into a swimming pool stocked with trout. Its instant strike on the line. You can’t service all the demand, there’s a couple females in every class that will be eye fucking you. Talk about working from an abundance mentality.
I love living in Japan, speaking the language, the convenience of the place, people are so goddamned friendly and I save a fair bit of money despite having a kid and another on the way. Yes, I am a teacher… I mean… instructor. My job is quite satisfying in the sense that my students who start knowing jack-shit can hold pretty decent conversations in English within a year. The problem for me is that I am 35 and want to take my family back to Australia and I don’t have much of an idea of what to expect at my age. I think I worry too much and it will turn out ok, just a big leap…. Any thoughts?
Improve your language and get out of English teaching as fast as possible. The skills are not transferable unless you work as a trainer for one of the large chains and then move to head hunting. Improve your language and find a job in business and leap frog that to a Japanese company that has stations in Australia.
I taught English in Japan about 15 years ago and had a blast. But it’s a young man’s game there is not a lot of future in it. Great if you just want to bum around a bit (or train in my case), because I was making plenty to live off of, with cash to piss away on fun and only working about twenty hours a week. Of course this was before the Japanese economy really went into the shitter.
Very interesting article! Asia is an interesting place to visit.
Yeah. Too bad you’re Black though.
lol yeah but I like Southeast Asia, I like them caramel! Even here in America those girls give us more play than their Northern Asian counterparts, although I dated a few Chinese chicks in the past.
Ah. Well, good luck. Those aren’t my type but enjoy yourself.
Yeah its fun to travel, even here in the states they have different cultural clubs. Love the food and music too lots of fun! Good Luck to you too!
Racist as fuck. Esp East-Asia to Africans
Funniest thing is come to USA or Australia and these uppity sluts have to fuck you and they are bottom of the line when it comes to hookers. Haha esp Koreans.
lol I saw a korean whore and she got pounded hard and I made sure to tell her in Korean she was a fucking whore as I ass fucked that bitch. Best thing I did in my life to degrade stupid bitch from a whore country.
Now I know how to deal with Asian bitches
I had a similar experience teaching in a public school in Korea. I generally feel pretty positive about Taiwan, yet the scooter pollution was too much for me. There are some great spots in the center and south of the island.
I was also bothered by the hawking and spitting in China.
Nice post. The points in this post were totally not justified.
In China, if you want cash, then go to Shanghai; if you want the best living environment, go to Xiamen.
I visited xiamen, wasn’t that impressed. I think some of the cities in the pearl river delta are better, but only if you’re in the main city, not the outskirts. Downtown Hangjhou is good too.
I was only in Xiamen for four days. The air quality was great, it’s a nice looking island city on the ocean, it is comparatively small and yet has a diverse ex-pat community and it’s sub-tropical. I am told it gets uncomfortably warm during the dog days of summer, but it was 20 degrees C and sunny when I was there in February. I’ve heard that Hangzhou and Suzhou are really nice, but I have not explored those cities.
It’s good by chinese standards. Traffic is horrible. Having its own beach is pretty nice though.
Suzhou blows. Worth visiting for a day or two though. Downtown Hangzhou is nice, but don’t venture far outside of it.
So Vietnam is the place for friendly horny chicks – might ditch Japan and go to Vietnam.
I’ve spent 3 years teaching English in China and I loved it! South Korea is still on my bucket list so who knows … 🙂 Agness of http://etramping.com/jobs/.
Only trashy, loser white men will go to Asia to “teach English”.
Everyone knows that all the white men working as English teachers in Asia are nothing more than degenerate sexpats with yellow fever who probably couldn’t get a white girl to notice them back home.
Sadly, white men have privilege in Asia and there are so many self-hating Asian women who will worship anything white. You don’t see this in South America or Africa or the Middle East. Only Asian women are such self-hating whores that will suck the first white cock they see.
No wonder you people are called Cock-Asians.