Teaching English South America vs. Asia ?

Really?? Firstly, not having a degree will disqualify you for most countries as degrees are increasingly necessary for work visas. Secondly, more and more schools only want people who have complete a TEFL training course and are "certified". And while there are definitely many non-native English teachers out there, they are in the minority as part of the selling point of many schools is "we have native speakers".

So here's a question for you. If you owned a language school, and you had 50 applicants for 1 position, would you even bother with a non-native English speaking applicant with no experience, no degree and no teaching qualification?

Yes, really!
For which countries do i need a univeristy degree to get a working visa (e.g. Cambodia seems to be quite easy)?
And I m going to do a TEFL course, forgot that to mention.

Here comes your answer.
If his English is fluent, yes why not? And I think everyone started from scratch .. thats why i m asking for countries where its easier to get a job with this background and where its impossible.
Cheers

Bibabuzeman - you are right that your written English is almost perfect. And you are right that everyone has to start somewhere... but fluffy_bunny's point still stands. When I started from "scratch" in the TEFL world, I had a degree, a TEFL course AND I am a native speaker... so you can see, not everyone is starting from the same position. Additionally, the fact that I am British and was looking for work in Europe meant that no visa was required.

Even so, no schools would give me work as I had no experience! In a city popular with young expats, there will always be someone with more experience/qualifications than you. So I put posters up around town, and began teaching freelance. I continued to do this for two years, and the first year I barely earned enough money to live, let alone save. It was hard.

TEFL has a high turnover and low demands - you will almost certainly get a job. Whether you get one that allows you to save, that is in a nice city, and that is in your choice of country is a different matter. When you are truly starting from scratch, you have to take what you can get, as I learned. As far as I know, schools in South America are less worried about qualifications and experience. They are also less worried about paying their staff a living wage, so the possibility of saving is unlikely. The fact that people even PAY to "volunteer" as teachers there has devalued this career choice there considerably.

South Korea, Japan and China have better salaries - and in some cases take teachers without qualifications, but you may have to compromise on the location.

Get the best TEFL qualification you can (don't even think about rocking up with an online/weekend course certificate), start networking and do as much research as you can... it's your best chance of landing a half decent job. Good luck!

Another tip - I have never got an advertised job. I normally pull up the Yellow Pages and email every school before term starts. Or, if I'm already in the country, walk around hand-delivering CVs. Every school is looking for new staff at the beginning of each school year, so you know there will be vacancies to be filled.

In Cambodia, a degree is needed for a work visa. As a matter of fact, you just buy the work visa on arrival without any additional supporting documentation.

China is unclear as to work visa requirements. I have known non-natives with non experience to get hired. And i have know natives without degrees to get work visas. But it seems each places is different. Your struggle will be getting an interview in the first place.

Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan all require degrees. So even if you were native, with a certification and experience, you couldn't legally work there.

South America, you are unlikely to make enough money to pay the bills. They do not pay flights, rarely included accommodation and more often than not you need to sot out your own visa.

ESL is an increasingly competitive field with people now beginning to specialize with degrees with Master's of TEFL. With British and American youth having difficulties finding work at home, they're heading overseas to teach English to pad a resume. THis has flooded the market. It's certainly not impossible to find work, i've worked with a few non-natives in my time. The TEFL Cert. (if it's a good one) is an advantage. But you most certainly face an uphill battle.

Yeah, that's what happens when you travel for so long. And worse, you did it when you're really young!

I'm wondering where you're getting the money to "head back out again". But be that as it may, your best bet is to get experience teaching. The quickest step would be to get a teaching cert. depending on what you want to do.

The above mentioned of salaries in the Americas is correct. I'm here in Mexico City, which is probably one of the most "prosperous" cities for language teaching salaries in N. Latin America. The schools here (as of 3 years ago when I arrived) only paid 40-60 pesos an hour. A few offered 80. You can't live on that and even if you got lucky, certainly can't save anything. In Central America you might make $2-3 an hour. I've seen these rates on davescafe. You could give private classes a try, lots do, but without the knowledge of the grammar, it wouldn't be easy.

I worked in Vietnam for a few months, which was under the table. If you get out of Hanoi or HCMC, it's not difficult to get work because most of the "teachers" stay in those cities. The other cities have lots of schools and with the ambitious little Viets needing English, a native speaker could probably get a job. However, you're not native, and in Vietnam that could be a big problem. + you'll have to do border runs every 3 months.

Here in Honduras, you'd be working for $350 a month pay plus a place to live. Incredibly, there seem to be no shortage of applicants to work here, mainly from the USA. My girlfriend who works in a school in a village here tells me that this year, the school has tightened up the application process and from now only is only going to accept teachers with an actual teaching degree. For $350 a month salary!

You won't get a job in South Korea because to legally work there, you need an E-2 visa, and these are only available to native speakers (from Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa) who have a 4 year degree.

#3 has some good suggestions, but it will be hard for you. Best of luck!

I'm pretty sure that you don't have to be a native English speaker. Bibabuzemann's English seems excellent.

I haven't read the other responses properly but if you are considering South America, just keep in mind that most South Americans do not speak any English. This is good if you already speak some Spanish and want the immersion experience but it is really hard if you don't speak any Spanish. As a tourist, it shouldn't put you off but it is something to think about if you want to live there for some time.

Such is the over-supply of native qualified speakers, some schools are actually picky over the accent too, with Canadian/American being particularly popular ones to have.

Could you not teach German?