Short term contracts? Advice needed.

[Kate25]

Hi all,

I need some advice from anyone with experience!

I am a 26 y/o female from Australia with a BA degree who is inexperienced as far as travelling goes (short trip to Vanuatu).
I am interested in teaching English overseas but given my lack of experience, I am a little hesitant in committing to a year long contract. I was wondering if anyone could provide me advice on the existence / availability of 3 to 6 month contracts. I am open to all locations, however I am probably least interested in Japan although I would consider it.

I suppose ultimately I would love to 'work my around the world' for 1 to 2 years (taking on a few different postings in different regions).

I am unsure if this is unrealistic and would love your advice.

I don't have a large budget and so would really need a job that would allow me to save a little money (perhaps enough to travel a little after the contract and to get me settled in a new place).

You may well be chuckling at my naivety at this point- if so please feel free to tell me!

Thanks very much for your time in reading this rather long post, and in advance for any advice you may be able to provide.

Kate

[gfell]

G'day Kate!

Most short-term teaching contracts start in the summer months in Asia. Korea, Taiwan and China have more short-term teaching contracts available than Japan, so am sure this is good news to you.

Don't expect to get a 1-year visa though if you are only teaching for a few months. Not many schools wont want to go through the whole visa process with you if you are only staying for a few months.

Korea would be your best option as you can easily apply a working-holiday visa. Taiwan or China unfortunately don't offer working-holiday visas.

If you are between the age of 18 and 30 and a passport holder from Australia, New Zealand, Canada or Japan, you can then apply a working holiday visa for South Korea.

Suggestion

May I suggest teaching for a year in Korea and using that as your base to travel to Asian countries over the period of 1 year? This would make most sense to me. Heaps of countries in Asia that you can easily access from South Korea:

• Laos
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Japan
• China
• Taiwan
• Malaysia

and the list goes on...

Then if you have enjoyed that 1 year, you could always teach for another year but this time in Europe and use Europe as your base.

[Kate25]

Hi there gfell,

Thank you so much for the information - very helpful! I have taken your advice and am going to have a look at South Korea.

After speaking to a couple of former ESL teachers last night who had 6 mth contracts in China and actually found them too short - I think I am now more open to a year long contract.

One more question for you if possible.... should I take on a one year contract and find I am really unhappy / homesick / ???? what would be the worst case scenario if I had to come home early?

[gfell]

Worst case scenario if you were to break a 1-year contract is:

• you would lose your completion bonus (if there was one) and
• the school and you would be departing on bad terms

If you have never lived overseas before and never experienced first-hand a different culture to your own, then most likely you will become homesick in the first few months. Try to find foreign friends and if you have one, take over a laptop with you so that you can still communicate with friends and family back home.

[sutton]

Dear Kate

For reasons different to yours I have spent the last couple of months looking for possible short term teaching work in Japan. The only company I found was Westgate Corporation, based in Tokyo. Have a look on their website because there are a couple of options available... but there are prerequisites. At the moment I am trying to get information from anyone who has worked for them.

Hope this helps in some way with regards to Japan. Good Luck.