China is a great place to teach as there are so many oppotunities there, just be sure to look around to find the best school for you and i seriously sugest you think about Beijing as It's such a beautiful city and easy to use as a base to travel from. I ended up in some backwater little town in the middle of nowhere.

Hello! I saw your responses before about thinking about "TEFLing"... I have been giving this serious thought and am considering going for it in the second quarter of next year... Since we seem to be in similar circumstances (curiosity... sharing experience.... etc) I figured I'd write you a bit...

I'm thinking about going to take the TEFL course in China and then finding some work for a year or two...

Hey,

I just graduated from university this July in Philosophy and Religious Studies. I've now moved back to live with my parents until I leave to travel abroad. I'm taking the CELTA course this September and I'll be leaving shortly after that so not long now :P . I'm wanting to travel to India and around there so I can study more about the religions there - that's what really fascinated me on the course. At the moment I just get the odd job in a bar to get some money. I'm preparing for my course by learning English grammar for the first time - not the most exciting part of TEFL I have to say ^^ ! 

Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about living abroad by myself. I've never lived by myself before; I've always shared a house. I think maybe I'd like it but sure loneliness and an empty house could be a problem. 

Dah - I've submitted my application for a visa to India now and so I'm waiting for that. I also went to a doctors about getting vaccines for my trip - so I got to hear about all the things that can kill me abroad - nice. India seems to have all the diseases imaginable - I have a few vaccines but they're so expensive now I'm not a student! But well all the talk about the diseases sure scared me - but I keep telling myself that with enough preparation and research I should be fine.

I think you said before that you will be teaching in September - what will you be doing if you don't mind? I'm going into TEFL partly because I want to work abroad but also because teaching has been a kind of career idea for myself so I'm interested in any kind of teaching at the moment.

What are you doing at the moment? :D 

Hey Hayley - Thanks for adding me!! It's nice to finally get a message that is not from a spammer!! :P do you personally know anybody who has taught English abroad? I know some people indirectly but the trouble I've found is that TEFL abroad can be a very varied experience depending on how it is done. Like it could be done in an internship at a language school, or through something like i-to-i where there will be lots of other i-to-i teachers about or privately. I found it a bit overwhelming when I first started reading into TEFL at all the variety. Also you've got to think of where you could actually live - like when I think about it I kind of think there are lots of interesting and nice places in the world but not many I think I could actually settle down in. Italy would be nice I've thought :P I could thrive on their food :D

Hey Hayley, no problem with the questions :) A load of me mates are gone out to south Korea teaching and they all seem to love it, when it comes to salary, living standards and chance to travel its seems to be the place to go, thats where im planning to move to come Autumn. There’s good opportunities in the Middle East such as Dubai and some of me mates had a good time out there as well. I did the 120 hour course, I had done English teaching in Spain before this so allot on the course was common sense but there were a few tricky bits on the course as well, such as I have a degree in English and im still useless at grammer :) Some part of the course were more tedious than difficult. Best of luck with the teching job in September :)

Hello Hayley - welcome to Chalkboard!

I agree, this summer is a joke with the rain! I've never seen so much rain in the summer...

Good for you though, deciding to get away is a big decision, but we're here to help and advise, and there are plenty of groups on here to help also! Have a look at this one:

http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-chalkboard/groups/91-Newbies

Come and join in :)

Katie