Please, DON’T Teach English to Travel

US and British citizens, this is mostly for you. I know that you’re bored at home, you’re looking for adventure, and you’re trying to figure out how to use the skills you already have to ditch your home country and see the world. I know it might seem like a natural, obvious choice, but please — DON’T teach English to travel.

As someone who’s been an English teacher abroad for five years, who’s invested thousands of dollars into training, and who’s taught everyone from toddlers to octogenarians, I want to ask you guys to think twice before you hop on the plane to travel Southeast Asia and ‘pick up a little English teaching on the side.’ Native speakers who don’t take the English teaching profession seriously are wreaking massive damage in ways they don’t even realize. There are multiple problems with native speakers thinking they can parachute into a new country and whip up some teaching gigs to sustain their travel lifestyle.

If you think that you’ll teach English to see the world, you’re getting at it in all the wrong ways. You’re putting yourself before students and other teachers. However, it IS possible to teach English to travel, have fun doing it, and be a professional. But I recommend you ask yourself some questions first.

1. Are you actually interested in teaching?

I see way too many people get into teaching English abroad because they think it’s an easy way to capitalize on skills they (might) already have. But they don’t actually enjoy teaching itself. Maybe they don’t enjoy the responsibility of answering questions or the flexibility you need in the classroom or working with dozens of people on a daily basis.

Too many people decide to teach English to travel the world, but once they get into the classroom they’re miserable. Make sure that you actually want to do this job before you get involved!

2. Are you a qualified teacher?

No, a $19 TEFL course you found on Groupon does not make you a qualified teacher. “Any piece of paper” you can print off the Internet will not do. And while we’re at it, if you need to ask a Facebook group what’s the difference between ‘a TEFL’ and a CELTA, we all know you didn’t invest the time to even learn how to use Google. I know there are a lot of acronyms in this game, but you’re someone who wants to teach English!

Yes, it requires a certain amount of privilege to get qualified. I know not everyone has the resources to get a CELTA straight off the bat. For those of us who are doing a career change, it’s not like we’re going to be able to go back to school for a bachelor’s or a master’s. But the ability to speak a language does not automatically make you a good teacher. Invest in learning how to be one before you start.

There are several teaching certification programs that will get your foot in the door — and at the same time, actually give you the skills you need to survive in the classroom. 

3. Do you think that teaching English is speaking practice? (Because it’s not.)

There are loads of websites and apps out there that offer native-speakers a chance to earn some easy money through conversation practice. There’s a market for that – and there’s a need for that. But don’t stand next to a qualified, experienced professional and say that you’re both English teachers. You’re providing communication practice. It’s a useful thing, but it’s something completely different.

4. Do you know that teaching is about the students, not about the teacher?

Native speakers of English are fawned over. Schools see them as a marketing tool, a way to get students in the door, and so employers work hard to add that ‘sparkle’ to their courses.

And just like the language schools themselves, you start to think that you’re the product, not the language learning process. Too many native speakers treat the classroom as a one-person show. Classes end up being a monologue from the teacher, not practice and production for the students. One reason I think this is a huge problem with native speaker teachers is because they might have had little foreign language education themselves — they are not familiar with what needs to happen in the classroom to effectively learn a language.

5. Do you know English? Well enough to teach it?

Worse than seeing someone who doesn’t like teaching go into the classroom is seeing someone who doesn’t know English assume that they can teach it. It makes them a poor resource for students. Native speakers think that one thing they bring is that they speak ‘real English.’ Cool, so maybe your students will end up with the slang you and your buddies in suburban America used in the early 2000s. Is that going to help them do international business or go to university in Europe? Are you actually able to identify your students’ needs and guide them to the language that will help them?

I’m tired of cleaning up these messes anyway. The number of times I’ve heard, “Well my previous teacher said…”

6. Do you recognize your privilege?

The English teaching world is unfairly weighted towards native speakers, even unqualified ones. For decades, the TEFL industry has used them to sell classes. So the jobs – and the resources – go to native speakers, leaving more qualified, more experienced local teachers out of luck.

The systemic inequality in the TEFL industry has created bitterness and resentment among local teachers. How else would you feel if you had ten years’ of experience, an international qualification proving your level of English, and a master’s, only to see the job go to a twenty-two-year-old native speaker who just has an online TEFL certificate? Which feeds directly into the next point…

7. Are you going to make me look bad?

Every time a native-speaking teacher makes a disparaging comment about preparation time or professional development obligations, I wince. Whenever I see local teachers arriving to school hours before a disheveled, potentially hungover native-speaking teacher comes in, I cringe. In the modern reckoning of TEFL industry inequality, professional native-speaking teachers get lumped in with Joe Shmoe in Thailand, who decided he needed to make a few bucks because his partying budget had gotten out of hand.

Part of the drive I had to get my Delta was to earn respect among my local colleagues. I have my weaknesses (damn you, phonemic script), but with multiple qualifications and years of experience, I’m not embarrassed to work alongside professionals. And while the distinction between native-speaking teachers and local teachers isn’t going to go away for a while, especially not until we work out the equality issues, I’d like to see fewer native-speaking teachers dragging our reputation down.

8. Will you enjoy being an expat?

Every time someone back home says, “I’m living vicariously through you!” I have to laugh and tell them about the time I lost hot water for three weeks during Ukraine’s chilly spring. If you teach English to travel, you are actually not on holiday – and expat life is not easy. Being an English teacher abroad is, in many ways, just like life back home. You have all the same routines and challenges as before. You have to grade papers and navigate workplace personality differences. You have to go to the grocery store and figure out what to watch next on Netflix.

But you’re doing it all in a foreign country, in an unfamiliar language, in unknown social circumstances. This can be a blessing and a curse! After the honeymoon phase of expat life, you might experience extreme isolation. You get tired. Barriers become more difficult to break. You avoid doing things because you don’t want to feel uncomfortable. You withdraw.

So you have to be ready to engage with your local community, even in the routines, even in the discomfort, or you might start to resent living abroad. 

9. Are you being selfish?

Remember, even if you decided you wanted to teach English to travel, this isn’t about you! Learning English is an investment and an opportunity for the students. Unlike hobby language learning, English is a necessary requirement for education and work for many people. Once a student learns English, they can significantly improve their life. I know people who haven’t gotten jobs because their English wasn’t ‘good enough.’ There is real risk and reward here.

And native speakers come, without qualifications, knowledge, or experience, and they treat teaching English as little more than a hobby. Something to keep them afloat while they’re living out their dream round-the-world trip. It’s not only a waste of time for the students — it’s a tangible loss of prospects.  

10. Are you just looking for a hot date?

I kid you not, there’s a whole demographic of people who get into English teaching abroad because they have romanticized the idea of being an expat — and the love story that will come with it. The number of expat conversations that I’ve had to suffer through about how beautiful Ukrainian women are is just embarrassing.

Alright, if you’ve made it to the end of this article, I think I owe you a confession — I started teaching English abroad because I wanted to travel. But I thought about all these questions beforehand. I had actually considered teaching before, I loved English, and I was looking to start a sustainable career where I could be a professional. I started by getting my CELTA (and working hard for a Pass A) seven years ago. Since then, I’ve sought out different professional opportunities, I’ve made sure to keep developing, and I’ve completed all three parts of the Delta. So yes, teach English to travel and see the world.

But please do it responsibly.