Thinking of moving to Vietnam. Any jobs?

Hi and welcome to the forum. Yes, there are English teaching jobs in Southeast Asia, mostly in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

With a population of 100 million, Vietnam has the highest demand. Unfortunately, the schools' focus is on bu$ine$$ rather than education and virtually none of them enjoy a good reputation. Also, there are very few incentives/benefits offered to teachers. Basically, they want to pay the lowest possible hourly rate and make teachers pay for their own work permits and visas and do a lot of unpaid paperwork and prep. This is another reason there is big demand.

If you're on Facebook, there are several pages/groups dedicated to Vietnam English Teachers' Bad Experiences where you can read lots of complaints and sob stories. Check it out.

Also, you can go to this website to see what kind of jobs are on offer and communicate directly with prospective employers:

https://vietnamteachingjobs.com

Be very cautious though and don't accept any jobs before arriving.

The visa situation is also complicated. I don't think Americans get any visas on arrival, so you probably have to pre-apply for the 3-month tourist visa, which is apparently a bit of a pain.

This is the most recent page of a long sticky thread on the Latest news on visas:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 12&p=8

Hello zoltankaxxar

    Good evening (or whatever time zone, lol).

Morning here for me, as I write. Vietnam is currently +11 hrs EST. Come autumn, when your clocks roll back, it'll be +12 hrs EST.

I am thinking of packing it all up and moving to Vietnam.

Beautiful country, beautiful people. You could choose a worse place to settle in.

I had a friend there who told me that there are there who will hire westerners to teach English, no TEFL necessary. I would like to know if this is a for sure thing.

I'm sorry to tell you that the only "sure thing" about what you've been told is that it is illegal. To legally teach in Vietnam, one must have as a minimum a university degree. ESL certificates (TESOL, TEFL etc.) are not, nor have they ever been, a prerequisite to teaching in Vietnam. When discovered by immigration authorities, people teaching/volunteering/working without the benefit of a valid work permit can expect swift justice possibly including, but not limited to, fines, deportation, and being blacklisted from entering Vietnam again.

There is a post titled "New Foreign English Teachers Requirements Decision 4159/QD-BGDDT" which I strongly encourage you to read.

If so, I would really like to know before I spend the money to move. I have a college education and have operated several businesses here in the States. However, no TEFL.

When you say "college education", do you mean a university degree? I get confused by the conflation, usually by Americans, of the words university and college. The minimum required to be considered to legally teach here is a 4 year university degree, with a major in any subject (resulting in issuance of a B.A., B.Sc. etc).

I don't want to get rich off of this; just want a small place to live in and a little extra to take care of my needs, nothing major. Any input?       -@zoltankaxxar

One can live a comfortable lifestyle on the salary of an ESL teacher in Vietnam. Comfortable, but definitely not opulent.

@jayrozzetti23

Important to mention that one cannot legally work in Vietnam while here on a tourist visa.

    @jayrozzetti23
Important to mention that one cannot legally work in Vietnam while here on a tourist visa.
   

    -@Aidan in HCMC

Correct. However, it is necessary to be in-country in order to search for suitable employment and to see first-hand if life in VN meets one's personal standards.

As mentioned, jobs should not be accepted before arriving, which is also very important.

Is the one-month tourist visa still available? That might be sufficient time to decide to move on to another country.

Is the one-month tourist visa still available? That might be sufficient time to decide to move on to another country.
   

    -@jayrozzetti23

2 tourist evisas available:

90 day single entry $25

90 day multiple entry $50

 
When you say "college education", do you mean a university degree? I get confused by the conflation, usually by Americans, of the words university and college. The minimum required to be considered to legally teach here is a 4 year university degree, with a major in any subject (resulting in issuance of a B.A., B.Sc. etc).


    -@Aidan in HCMC

In the US, a University is an entity that is composed of two or more colleges.  Examples would be a College of Arts and Sciences or a College of Engineering.   University of Cambridge has 31 colleges.  The difference in the US is that the colleges are primarily organized based on academic subjects while the British colleges are distinct for social and historical reasons..   A college that is not organizationally attached to a Ubiversity in the US may still grant 4 year degrees.   Are there no such unaffiliated colleges in the Britis system?

@THIGV,

In the USA, an institution that hands out *only* bachelor's degrees is a college. And *some* colleges give out only 2-year "associate of arts" degrees.

In the USA,  an institution callingl itself a university will hand out master's and doctoral degrees as well as bachelor's degrees. There's a lot of ranking and categorizing: public (government-owned) and private colleges and universities; teacher-training colleges and universities; research universities.

In California where I live now, there's the UC (University of California) system (Berkeley, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, etc. -- all research universities giving PhDs, but also BAs, & MAs) and the California State University system (Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly Humboldt, etc.). The Cal Polys are invested in engineering as well as trainng teachers and nurses, and a whole host of other degrees and credentials. I don't think the Cal State Universities give out doctoral degrees; for that, you have to go to the UC system or go to a place like Stanford, a private university. Google says there are 275,000+ students in the UC system and 450,000 students in the Cal State system (2023).

I cannot speak to Canada or the UK.

I spent 10 of the best years of my life in colleges and universities, all in the USA, all in. Minnesota and California.