CELTA & TEFL

China: If salary is not a factor, then you won't need anything. You'd be working illegally, but most teachers in China work illegally (to work legally you need a residence permit, which requires some sort of qualification).

Your age would not be a problem, although lack of experience might be. The most important thing to remember with low grade English teaching jobs in China is to keep the customer satisfied. By which I mean that if the students complain about you, you're out.

Lack of a degree is a problem. In Korea, try the TALK.go.kr programme. In China, well, you could teach there with no degree. The Phillipines, honestly, not too sure about teaching there, many people actually leave and go to other countries such as Korea and China to work. For Indonesia, you could also work there with no degree. However, the long and short of it is that eventually, you should get a degree as it'll help with visa reqs.

Without a degree, you won't get a legal work visa for South Korea, CELTA or not.

Considering the high percentage of near-native or native English speakers in the Philippines, it will exceptionally difficult to get a visa without substantial qualification AND experience.

Neither China nor Indonesia require degrees. A CELTA may help secure a better job with better pay, but it isn't a legal requirement.

yes, the OP CAN work in Korea without a degree. Look at the TALK programme. It says you need to be in an undergrad programme and have two years under your belt OR an AA. fluffy_bunny, before you give out info, you'd better double check.
Go to www.talk.go.kr
go to eligibility

Still don't believe me? Go to the FAQ and go to page 2, and click on visa. You can get an E2, F2, or F4. E2 is a legal work visa.

First of all F2 is a spousal visa and F4 s for Koreans overseas.

Personally i have never heard of the Talk programme, but i am not delusional to believe i know every programme out there. But i do find it rather strange how every other visa issuing agent, including the ministry of foreign affairs says you need a copy of your DEGREE for an E2 visa. This would lead me to believe that Let's Talk is a scam. Unless you have personally used this scholarship programme, it would be advisable to NOT recommend stuff you simply Googled quoting eligibility for visas OP would never qualify for.

http://gbr.mofat.go.kr/eng/index.jsp
http://www.efl-law.com/coming.php
http://www.esljobproject.com/esl_info/visa_korea.html
http://www.asia-pacific-connections.com/visa_issuance.html
http://www.koreainsider.com/korea-visa/korea-visa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_South_Korea

shall i give you more?

I'm fully aware of what F2 and F4 are. And F5. Though, you're wrong. F2 isn't just a spousal visa. It's also a point system visa. Meaning that people NOT married to Korean can get it. The point system was integrated in Feb this year. You're not in Korea. So please don't comment on the laws if you're not here.

TALK is not a scam, it's been featured in the newspaper here. It's equivilant to GEPIK, EPIK, and SMOE. Call kimmi. I did. They confirmed TALK. Go to Dave's. they'll confirm it. Or the embassy. They'll confirm it. Look at the website, it's a dot go , which means, that the govt sponsors it!

If you've been to Korea to work, you'll know that visa stuff changes ALL the time, take the lovely laws they passed three years ago, then this July, and again this fall.

No matter, TALK it legit. Just because you haven't HEARD of something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I can goggle just as easily as you can. Check out the Korean Times article
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/117_70760.html

or UCLA
http://www.international.ucla.edu/asia/events/showevent.asp?eventid=6788

Or these below
http://business.auburn.edu/students/internationalprograms/talk_program.cfm
http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/_Academics/StudyAbroad/Korea_TALK_Program.html
http://iic.edu/talkandepikprogram_eng.htm
http://orgs.unt.edu/ksa/content/talk-korea-program
http://www.csupomona.edu/~international/study_abroad/talkprogram.shtml
http://knol.google.com/k/efl-and-esl-english-reform-in-south-korea#
http://oseeglobal.org/en/content/epik-vs-talk
http://www.gapwork.com/article13012014072009.shtml
http://www.kyunghee.edu/international07_01.php

Mass conspiracy? Hardly. Just admit that you're wrong.

Edited by: naturegirlskc

Every Korean government indicator states that a degree is required for E2 sponsorship. It has been that way for years. It has been the only consistant factor. Since when do you have to be in a country to understand that?

Of note, from the links YOU provided http://www.csupomona.edu/~international/study_abroad/talkprogram.shtml states Meet the criteria of eligibility for D-2 visa set forth by the Korean Immigration Authority. That's D2, not E2.

http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/_Academics/StudyAbroad/Korea_TALK_Program.html states meet the criteria of eligibility for the D2 (Study Abroad)

http://www.csupomona.edu/~international/study_abroad/talkprogram.shtml states Meet the criteria of eligibility for D-2 visa set forth by the Korean Immigration Authority

And those are just the first three i looked at. So it seems that only the "expert" government site of TALK.go.kr is the one who made the mistake saying they can sponsor E2 visa with an incomplete degree. TALK is a study abroad programme for enrolled students (or graduates who wish to apply who would qualify for the E2) Completely irrelevant to OP's needs and not even remotely what you think it is. Still feel like arguing the point?

You're wrong. Here's info from the consulates. I suppose these expert opinions are wrong as well.

from the CHicago consulate
http://www.chicagoconsulate.org/en/sub06/sub06_01.php
and if you follow their link, you're taken to the www.talk.go.kr website that I told you about in the first place!

Toronto Consulate
http://www.koreanconsulate.on.ca/en/?b_id=86&c_id=370&mnu=a01b08
How are the scholars selected?
Receiving the Invitation, E-2 visa and Airplane ticket

Sorry, my expert opinion trumps your dot edu sites. And yes, I'll continue to argue the point. Are you even a teacher? in KOrea? Please don't give advice about something you have no idea what you're tlaking about. Im sure you know about travelling, but as to working in Korea, that's a whole other kettle of fish.

FYI, you're misquoting, this site
http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/_Academics/StudyAbroad/Korea_TALK_Program.html states that you have to meet ONE of three criteria

■meet the criteria of eligibility for the D2 (Study Abroad), the E2(Foreign Language Instructor), or the F4(Overseas Korean)

As for the others, what can I say, perfect example of why you should go directly to the source: www.talk.go.kr to find out about how fast Kimmi changes.

Edited by: naturegirlskc