Topic: Is TEFL a Career?

[Uncle Che]

So what the deal? Do you think TEFL is a career or is is just a job to pay the bills and tide you over until you find something better? What do you think?

[Mods-Rockers]

It all boils down to one simple word: Pension!

[bomha]

Teaching EFL is a job, an occupation.  If you do anything long enough, you have a career in it.

Yes, you can teach EFL or ESL or TOELLKU (don't ask) until you're too old to reach the whiteboard or Power Point controls.  You may not have a pension.  You may love it or hate it.  But somewhere, a classroom full of Machimas or Umbklodas or Xldotzkys will exist, if you're willing to freeze in Mongolia or sweat in the Amazon.

But if we're thinking long range, like 30 more years and retiring in comfort on the pension or savings based upon the money we saved (whilst we supported our family or girlfriends), nope.  Nope.

[Guy Courchesne]

I guess it depends on what career means to you.  For me, career means simply 'that to which you choose to dedicate yourself as a field'.  Career isn't tied to a specific location, company, or school.

Career is also what you put into it.  If you put nothing into a field, or yourself, then wherever you work is a job.

For me, TEFL is a career, though that's a little broad.  Developing and exercising my field of study and doing it through the filter of TEFL is what my career really is.

[Krungsri]

People do make a career out of TESOL.  I've managed in a work life of 40 years to cobble together 30+ years of teaching, admin and consultancy in TESOL in my home country and two other countries and have been able to raise a family with a good standard of living and education doing so.  I think you have to keep up with the study though to get and keep the kind of jobs you want.  Proven competence is obviously necessary, but in my experience, if you're looking for advancement in your career, employers rightly or wrongly also look for evidence of "keeping up with the field" academically.  Fortunately there are plenty of good distance mode courses available now for people abroad and some local English-medium courses, too.  Not everyone likes to study, but to have multiple options within a career field you probably need to do some.  I guess it just depends on what you're looking for.

[Pibthong]

   "Pension" is the central point, it seems to me also Mods-Rockers and to everyone else. I'm teaching TEFL/TESL abroad while on pension from my own government due to having had a previous career. Presently, I think of myself as being in yet another, new, career-capping career.

   But the new career of TEFL/TESL presents uncertainty at best concerning pension. In Korea, where I taught in the program sponsored by the Ministry of Education, we foreign teachers automatically went into the teacher pension program. When I left Korea I got a return, lump-sum payment for my regular contribution each payday to the teacher pension system. In Thailand--in Thailand--what pension?!?

   Does a native speaker of English get a pension benefit teaching English in Mexico, or in China etc? I know several people in their 30s, university grads, whose only career is teaching TEFL/TESL abroad where there are few pension programs for such native speakers of English. These educators like it, but I'd think that once they reach age 40 or so, they'll start thinking pension and settle back into their native countries where they'll enter a pension program. So the question might be, what constitutes a "career" in the teaching of TEFL/TESL?
 
   So I don't yet quite know how I'd vote on the question...

[Uncle Che]

I think could comment on the pension in Mexico, I do know one school I taught at paid into various programs that would theoretcially allow a teacher to buy a house under a government loan program and it had a pension plan of some sort. Like I said, Guy would know more on that.

One thing I do know, with my teacher id in Mexico, I could get discounts on bus tickets, get discounts on museum and park entrance fees. What do foreign teachers get in Thailand? Double prices and treated like a tourist.

[Mods-Rockers]

Actually Che I have often found that showing a WP or a school ID card will get you Thau rate at most attractions outside BKK and a few inside. having a Thai wife helps there with the lnaguage, but I have managed it myself on a few occasions. But pensions here forget unless you are going private and then you need a big paycheck to make the payments. I am personally in the same boat as Pibthong, pensions is enough to live on, wifes income doubles that, and then I get paid to work as well which is beer money and pays for my studies and travel.

I have to disagree with Pibthong at teh age people should start to think about pensions, quite frankly 40 is too late and 30 is cutting it fine, well it is if you want to eat more than baked beans in your retirement or would that be sticky rice here?

[Guy Courchesne]

You're right Che, there is a government program called INFONAVIT (dunno what it stands for), whereby the fund will lend against contributions both a teacher and employer make, towards the purchase of  home.

Private schools outside of the government plan will sometimes offer a private pension fund, while working within the government system, there is a regular state pension.  In Mexico, it is difficult to cut an employee (to make redundant - I love this British form of saying it).  The law strongly favours the employee, who must be 'liquidated' (recibir su liquidacion), meaning they receive X amount of pesos for each year served.

Maybe my age is showing here, but growing up in Canada, pensions are generally not thought of as the government's or employer's responsibility any longer.  That burden has been shifted to the individual, and I've imported that attitude with me to Mexico so that I'm taking care of my own future.  I'm not signed up for any Mexican government pension schemes at all by the way.

[Pibthong]

   I'm saying in my post that, in my experience, native English speaking teachers who teach EFL/ESL abroad aren't LIKELY to think much about a pension until they are around age 40 or so. Yes, Mods-Rockers, age 40 is a late time to start thinking of one's pension, but the natives I've met abroad don't think much of their pension years during their 20s and 30s. Perhaps some others do, or some know others who do think of a pension at, say, age 28. I haven't met any natives teaching abroad in that age range who think pension.

   I'd be interested, Krungsri, how you managed a pension (and raised  a family) teaching in your home country and in two non-English medium countries...

   And yes, the Bush Administration is trying, without much success, to shift the pension responsibility to the individual from the government. There are private pension programs that complement the government program of a pension pittance. The US Government provides only a small pension income. Those in the US who have only income from the US Government retirement program live in poverty, guaranteed.

   In Korea showing your teacher ID card got just about any liberty one could think of. I got USD$500 worth of Carribbean cigars past Korean customs. Customs officers put the handcuffs back in their belts but only after I'd shown my teacher ID card! (Tuff to get those Cubans, tho! Mexican cigars are the next best for me,) In Thailand my teacher ID card and Baht 300 gets me a coffee at Starbuck's!!! (Same treatment as in the US!)

   Anyway, concerning pensions, good for Mexico and Korea. How about China, Russia etc? Anyone know?

[Mods-Rockers]

Just about aywhere in the EU nowadays and you have no option but to join the government scheme, and the years accrue in one country can be transferred to any other member state. As far as I know he french syste is the most cost effective but the dutch system pays out the most. so work most of your life in france teaching esl then spen your last few working years in the dam teaching esl in a coffee shop and retire sweetly. however rules may have changed in the 5 years i have been out here!

[Speaksoftly]

I think a lot of us just figure we'll work until we drop.  I don't think many of us (in any country) are going to make out like bandits from pensions by the time we're old enough to collect on them.  There will be too many of us.

[Pibthong]

   Speaksoftely, your observation makes me think of Mickey Mantle, the famous mid-20th century star baseball player of the primere franchise in all of baseball, the New York Yankees, who also was famous for his drinking and carousing. Mick looked age 80 when he was 50. Asked about it, Mick said, "If I'd known I wuz gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!"

   The Baby Boomer generation is coming of pension age in the countries most heavily involved in WW II. Even teachers in our respective native countries are concerned about the viability of their pension programs. So, maybe making a career of teaching EFL abroad isn't such a disadvantage. Going to an EU member country sounds good in respect to pensions, but then one has to miss out on the fun of places such as Thailand, China, Zimbabwe etc, to include coups!

   However, I'm still not sure I know how to define a "career" of teaching EFL/ESL abroad. Both bomba and Guy Courtchesne offer some parameters relating to longevity to help in getting a definition of "career." But I could use more precision in defining the term. For example, if one is actively contributing to a pension program, such as in the EU, teaching EFL in a number of EU member states over a period of 10 years, would that be a career? Fifteen years? Thirty years? Teach EFL/ESL in countries without a pension program for teachers, or foreign teachers? Does a career mean we teach until we drop?

[bomha]

Almost world-wide, the only people who can anticipate getting a state pension are those over 40 who already have more than ten years in the system, and expect to stay in it.  As Pibthong mentions, many systems will go broke if they don't decrease benefits before today's younger people retire at age 69 or 73.

It's true that no matter how early a career earner should start saving, most of them will not save, until it's almost too late.  That's true now for many baby boomers.

What if you work for a Thai govt. school, anuban through university level, for thirty years, contributing to their system, and retiring at the mandatory age of 60?  Is it a fixed scale where 30 years of service will get you something like 30% or 45% of your final salary rate?

Career decisions include many things, including pension planning.

[Uncle Che]

Not to mention many of us teachers are stretched to rub two nickels together before we pick up a pay packet at the end of the month, much less save for retirement. People talk about unions for better working conditions and pay, but what about for retirement benefits? I sure wish there was a reputable mutual fund or something that offered easy worldwide access and a decent return on investment.

[Guy Courchesne]

Che, there are lots of investment options out there.  If I can find some dandy ones - at varying levels of risk - in Mexico, you should be able to find something elsewhere?  Real estate is a good option in many places.

I just got into a mutual fund in Mexico this year.  There is a level of risk of course, so you almost need to add 'investment manager' to your list of career options, but there are less risky prospects or investment houses to manage things for you at low cost.