Hey guys! thanks heaps !! woo hoo  I feel so excited!!

please keep me posted! I spoke to the TESOL lady today and am going to do this!!!

Keep me updated. thanks so much xox

Go for it!!  I have only just turned 40 and I am ready to go...everything is pretty much packed up and I am taking Katie's advice as far as going to Southern China.  I have now passed my 120 hours and I am ready to rock and roll! I have been sending out my resume to all sorts of places, fingers crossed.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Hi from one 50yo to another!! I figure I'm now onto my "new" life cycle - I'm going to do what makes me happy, I'm not going to work and get no job satisfaction, I'm going to see more of the world and experience new and different cultures.....I could go on but I think you get the picture.

Don't let age be an excuse. I started teaching in China 6 months ago and I LOVE it. The students are fantastic, so eager to learn, so helpful and friendly. I did not speak any Chinese when I arrived and "lo and behold" of course I end up in a city (3.8m) off the tourist trail where no English is spoken!! A disaster...not on your life.....all my students love to take me shopping...and now they are wondering how I can get such good bargains without speaking the language!! I keep telling them that when it comes to $$ language is no barrier and I've had years of haggling practice!! Mind you I do like the fact I get local price not foreigner price as they all know me in the city now - the blonde hair tends to stand out!!

I chose the south of China mainly because I hate cold weather - mind you its a bit chilly here now but then it is the middle of winter!! Pollution is not too bad, I've been told by those in larger cities that it is a problem for them so I guess the bigger the city the greater the pollution problem.

Course wise I did a combined face-to-face and online course which I found very useful. The face-to-face component was great as we got to practice teaching and get feedback which was really useful.

I'm about to move onto my second contract in China...this time I'm heading to Nanjing in Eastern China about 2 hours from Shanghai. Its a bigger city (6.5m) but plenty of cultural history and things to do!! I'm looking forward to my new adventure - who knows what might happen and more to the point all the new experiences will be a blast.

Feel freee to send me any questions that I can help youwith

Cheers,Katie.

Hi ya, all I would say is, go for it, if it is on your mind and you are considering it, go for it....... don't hold back, I did the online version and advised that a bachelor is not always required, if you have one, then great, but there are options out there and if it is adventure you want, you have to do it. Good luck and keep us posted.

Paul

Hey,

Welcome to Chalkboard. Great to see you're thinking of teaching abroad. Where abouts would you like to go?

To get you started on the site you may want to take a look at our groups to get a good idea of what teaching in different places is like:

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

Enjoy the site and feel free to ask me any questions you have :-)

hi, anyone who has hit mid life and taken off Oversea's to teach english?

its been my dream for a while just keep being taken off track but oh not any longer!  Places of interest? Is China very polluted? or is that mainly Beijing? Ive just returned from bali/ the gili islands, i loved the gili's. any comments would be appreciated.  thanks