Hi Joann,

I spent three months teaching in Hanoi, Vietnam. For a girl who'd never been outside Europe before, and for someone who was just starting their teaching career, it was something of a baptism of fire! That said, for the most part, the students were lovely, and it turned out to be an amazing experience. Vietnam is a beautiful country, but as a long term proposition, well, it's not for me at all.

Tips? Bring medicine and lots of it! Cold and flu remedies are non-existent; Immodium Plus is essential (sorry TMI I know!), as are headache tabs, but make sure they don't contain any illegal substances such as Codeine (so no Solpadeine Max - boo hiss!). Bring lots of DEET, and, if you intend to travel inland, malaria tabs. Word to the wise: Tampons are completely unavailable. Just so you know.

Portugal was more to my liking. As pathetic as it sounds, I'm just more comfortable living in Europe. The cost of living is ridiculously cheap, which meant I could save lots. Or spend it travelling - Portugal is a surprisingly beautiful country so I did lots of sightseeing there. I also managed trips to Spain and Italy, and I am currently blowing my last month's wage on three weeks in Scandinavia! It's a hard life, I know!  :)

Feel free to ask me any more Qs.

Briona

Hi i was a bit nervous paying for the course too but after my first module I was hooked! It does get a bit repetitive but the notes are easy to understand and if you're used to college asignments the checkpoints are fine. I find just doing a little bit a day stops you getting bored. Also googling images of Thailand motivates me to get the course done!! When are you thinking of going?

The CELTA course is predominately for people who want to make a full time career out of teaching abroad, whereas TEFL can be good if you just want to teach for a couple of years. So like you said doing the most cost effective course will be fine for now. There are still loads of employers in Vietnam that accept just a TEFL qualification and a degree.

The weekend course is actually a really great weekend, I know it seems like a really long weekend. But you don't really even notice when you're there. Where are you taking the classroom course? You'll have a great time, let me know how you find it!

I'm doing a Business & Management degree, just a year to go now! Yeah I'm doing my TEFL course at the minute, I've done the weekend course, the Grammar Awareness Module and some of the online course. It really does teach you a lot about English grammar and I found out how little I knew about grammar!

Laura

O wow laura ! Thanks so much for the info ! Haha great I can start adding people and getting into the swing of the network now thanks ! I know exactly how you feel this time last year I had just finished my degree, its such a result to do it and then to be free again, its taken me the year to adjust to normal again and pay off my debts etc so its perfect timing for me now discovering the tefl and all the wonderful things I can see it will bring into my life into our lives even -) ! and the degree is the exta feather in the cap to compliment our teaching experience ! I am hearing alot at the moment though that they prefer to have the intensive CELTA qualification in Vietnam so thanks so much for the links for people from the online course that are over there as its hard to know which certificate to go for as apparently in Japan the CELTA is not so valued as the online tefl ! SO i'm just going with the cost effective choice for now and can hopefully work with what I have ! My weekend course is next weekend yippee ! thats fairly intense very long days ! haha GULP ! So guess the hard work starts from now really ! I am looking forward though and think it will be fun especially with the support and network on here ! What degree are you doing? Are you training to be an english teacher anyway? Think this course will be good for my english as I actually have no clue of punctuation etc so it will handy to understand my own language better ! Ok laura thanks agin -) Chat soon Lovely

Hey again,

You can add people as friends just under the photo and where it says 'My details'. You won't be able to see it on mine as we are already friends :-)

Laura

Hey,

India, Cambodia and Vietnam sounds like a great travel plan! I would love to go to all those countries! You do right having a month or so to settle down and get used to the culture. Yeah you will definately have enough qualifications to find a good job. A degree will really help too, as a lot of countries require you to have one in order to be able to obtain a visa. You may want to chat to these members who are teaching in Vietnam and they'll be able to give you lots of advice about finding work there:

http://www.tefl-chalkboard.com/sarah86, http://www.tefl-chalkboard.com/whiteroseabroad and http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-chalkboard/briona

I haven't actally taught abroad yet, I'm still at university. Im working at i-to-i for a year as an intern, then hoping to do a bit of travelling and teaching once I've graduated. I'm hoping to teach in Thailand then do a bit of travelling around Asia and South America! I just really want to be abroad now to be honest, but better finish off my degree!

Hope you enjoy the course! When are you doing your classroom course?

Laura

Hay Laura thanks for the message ! O GOSH dunno where to begin with the whole experience i want to go EVERYWHERE !! Haha... Think the plan has evolved now to going traveling in India Cambodia for a month or 2 from december then make my way to Vietnam to teach there! I found a lovely website about vietnam and think it might be more my style than Thailand which i would love to visit of course but cant imagine living there for some reason !? I'm just starting my online course nowdoing the 140 hrs and I have a 2.2 degree in fashion design and i'l have basic french so i'm hoping thats enough skills under my belt to get a good enough job! Was just going to apply straight away for a job after the course but think it might be a bit intense to arrive into tropical climate and start working so maybe a month or two to aclimatise might be the wiset move and obviously the most fun -) Where have you gone to teach do you love it? and stories or advice for a new girl? I'm really excited and sooo grateful to have an aim thanks again for the message chat soon -) xoxo jo

Hey,

Welcome to Chalkboard. That's great you're looking into doing the Thailand internship, what has interested you to Thailand?

You may want to have a chat to this member who is currently on the May teach in Thailand internship and will be able to give you lots of help and advice:

http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-chalkboard/bkramer88

I hope you enjoy the site and feel free to ask me any questions you have :-)