My country continues to pi** me off. The reps argue SOOO much and they keep making these stupid bills. Fricking reps..

Can you be more specific?

Unless you can give some details, there's no point-of-discussion here, and this post might have well just been an entry for a blog or a social-media service.

You should try living elsewhere for a while. It gives some context. I like it here in China, but I miss being able to do things like read signs and talk to people.

"stupid bills" Sopa, PIPA, that other sopa...stupid arguing canidates...they can't make a good economy plan etc.Sadly I can't since my dad retired and we're saving up for college. It would be awesome to live in some place like China or some european country.

Yep, there's no bullcrap in the Euro Zone, and all the countries have good economic plans in place....

You can't right now.

When you finish college you can get yourself a teaching certificate fairly quickly and live wherever you want. If you choose the right location the certification can pay itself off fairly quickly.

If you have any idea that you want to do it, I'd recommend doing it pretty quickly when you finish college so you can spend a few years on it before you start to feel the urge to settle down. I may go there on my way home and see about getting a job.

Also, I'd like to go to the UK and teach them how to speak proper English. :-P

Cor blimey ! Wash yer gob out, marra - deek, there's nowt else they'd be chuffed about. ☺

I agree. Even a lot of just the entry level jobs usually need just a bachelor's degree and a TESOL certificate (the basic type which usually takes about a month (or even less), though the full year ones are preferable in some cases). There are a few pitfalls - for instance, in Korea (among other places), you need to watch out for bad employers looking to exploit ignorant foreigners - but if you're up for the challenge of living in a country with a radically different culture and language, it's something I'd recommend.

*Cynical hat on*

Unless you're 23 / American / female / blonde / blue eyes / C+ cup it's a PitA to get semi decent jobs teaching English... BUT I'M NOT BITTER! :P

And if anyone knows anywhere in Japan hiring... I need a job - done Korea and China - have CELTA ($3000 - what a rip when most places don't differentiate it from a $100 online course ><) will travel! :P

*POST MAY (or may not) BE TONGUE IN CHEEK! :P

It's not any better anywhere else, the problems you are seeing are part of the dualistic nature of the concept of Leadership in human beings. You want your leaders to be someone whom you can trust, but by default you can never fully trust someone who actively seeks out power over others. You want a leader who is knowledgeable about everything that is important to you, and so does everyone around you. The old adage "Jack of all trades, master of none" shows itself here as you get legislation written to affect change in a field that the drafters don't fully understand, while anyone knowledgeable in that field is automatically barred from the procces as they are called "influence peddler", "insider" or "lobbyist." You want a leader who will do what is right as opposed to what is popular, yet leaders are chosen by popularity and are removed from power when they do what is not popular.

As to the infighting, well many will tell you its about Right or Left, many more will tell you its Right vs Wrong, both of these I feel are a bit short sighted. I like to sum it up as empty vs full. Take an 8oz glass and pour into it 4oz of water, is it half empty or half full? What if how you answered determined political ideology? In a way it does. How you perceive an issue impacts how you determine the solution. If everyone can agree that the proverbial glass cannot remain at half capacity then one group will propose to empty the water while the otherside will want to add more water. Who is "right"? Is there any way to compromise? Is one group "smarter" for thier solution? Is one inherently evil because of thiers? When the lawmakers are arguing over ideas it is because each sees something slightly different when looking at the same thing, they might as well be arguing over whos favorite color is the best.

This has been going on for hundreds of years, it will keep going on for hundreds more. Don't let it get to you.

It depends a bit on what country, but that largely applies to China. Having the TESOL or similar, a college degree and 2 years work history is mandatory for the Z-visa which is really the one you want to have. However, if one's just looking for experience one can usually get an F visa for cultural exchange. Pay is questionable, but you can legitimately get a stipend to cover living expenses.

And you definitely do want to be careful whom you work for regardless of what country. I've definitely seen discrimination while I've been here and for the most part schools don't really know what it takes to teach English. That's why I'll be leaving when I finish my contract at the end of January. I've gotten rather tired of being jerked around for not adequately living up to their stereotypes of a westerner. It definitely is worse if you're a man that isn't in his 20s or old enough to be respected as an elder.
Unfortunately, that's largely correct. The big problems in China come from inertia. It takes so long for the government to put plans into action once they've come up with a plan. It's not that the government is necessarily making mistakes it's that the government is huge and the country is huge. Even with the correct plan it can take many years to put it into place just due to the scale of things.

One of the nice things about being an expat is that you get a bit of context in terms of what things are really like back home.

Well, I don't know about YOUR reps, but mine are at 260+, nyuk nyuk nyuk...

here's some more for you to love:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/4-high-tech-ways-federal-government-spying-private-153556125.html

sorry, i don't know why every time i want to post a link it keeps linking back to this page instead..um, apparently, NOT using the link button makes it work. ok.

At the risk of turning this into a discussion of GOET (GoodOldEnglishTeachers)...

The bulk of my experience is with Korea, but what I've mentioned is from what I've been seeing in some recent job postings for EFL teachers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. With the government program, in Korea (EPiK), the original requirement was a B.A/B.Sc as a bare minimum (they didn't even require teaching experience!). As a result, you could practically get in if you had a half-decent CV and a pulse (and even then I'd wager that they'd hire zombies if they were good looking enough).

Now, they've finally decided to up the bare minimum to a Bachelor's and a TESOL certificate, and be more restrictive in evaluating their applicants (I believe they also want a sample lesson plan too).

I agree totally. I don't know 100% about China or Japan, but in Korea, your safest bet by far is with EPiK, or by getting a job working for a city Metropolitan Office of Education (e.g. the Incheon MOE) or a Provincial Office of Education (POE). There are good jobs out there with the private academies (hagwons, or cram schools in Japan) but you have to do some digging to find them. Even still, with a government job, I know I'm guaranteed to be paid on time, to have the rent paid up, and to get my exit/entrance allowance, in addition to my health coverage, proper taxes processed, and the all-important pension lump sum at the end. That's far more than I can say for private jobs. I can only guess but I suspect the same holds true for China and Japan.

It's the same reason why I wouldn't see myself doing EFL forever in an Asian country, at least, not so far. Even at the best of times, you could still detect the underlying xenophobia (if not outright racism) present by virtue of the fact that you were an outsider. And that's on top of the likelihood that you could get a negative reaction for not fitting in with their image of what a North American foreigner should look like and talk like.

My experience overall was very positive and very warm from my Korean coworkers and the Koreans in my neighbourhood, but there's no escaping the fact that you will never be fully accepted into the matrix of their society. As long as you can take that, anyone can do fine there.


It's somewhat the same in Korea. The only difference is that it's not scale which obstructs effective change, it's an intensely stubborn insistence on adhering to tradition and staying the course, regardless of how inefficient or wrong it may be. I wonder if that's the same in China as well.

Hmm, yes, it was sort of surreal reading the news in my office and seeing the US and Canada seem to all go to hell in a handbasket. The more I'd read the news about the US the more I came to understand and appreciate why more and more educated people from the US are teaching in Asia, and why they don't have any burning desire to go back anytime soon.

It depends, the only bad treatment I've received in China was from the schools and it was very clear to me that it had nothing to do with what I was doing. Having 2 schools ask for me to be moved in the first week and another before I'd even taught a single class clearly had nothing to do with my qualifications or abilities. I'd have to wager that it was my failure to be sufficiently western or my age. I'm 31 which makes me neither old enough nor young enough for what they typically want.

But yeah, being essentially fired over the school's slander was something that makes me feel extremely insecure. And ultimately that's a large part of why I won't be working in China much longer as the schools I've been working in are allegedly some of the best in the country.

But, the Chinese people in general are curious and generally friendly. But yeah, I do see a fair amount of xenophobia, mostly towards the Japanese. But, I think that's partially history and partially just a complete lack of exposure to other racial groups. I'm one of probably less than 10 foreign teachers in northern Hunan province at the time. And there are probably few if any other white people here.