My Experience Teaching English in Northern Vietnam: As A 19 Yr Old South African

Mid last year I spent a few months teaching English in Northern Vietnam. I wanted to make this post to share my experiences to anyone interested and also offer advice to those who are considering teaching in Vietnam in the future.

I taught in a small school in Thai Hoa, Nghe An which is about 260km South of Hanoi. There were very few foreigners in the town. I was told that with me there were four foreigners in total. Two who owned a sweets factory and then my Portuguese work college.

This is one of the reasons why I don't really recommend that you get a job in a small Vietnamese town. Things can get very lonely and there really is not much to do. It is also very overwhelming. The people in these towns are not used to foreigners and most treat you like an alien. It sounds funny but once you go there you will understand.

If you do go to one of these towns just prepare to be stared at constantly. By everyone.

People will also shout a lot of stuff at you, try and touch you and you will get ask to take a picture with them almost daily. That last part can be cool for the first week or so but also gets a bit much.

The only thing I really enjoyed about teaching in Thai Hoa, was working with the Vietnamese students. Seeing how they improved every day was a great motivator for me. They are very enthusiastic about learning English, which made my job a lot easier.

I think the best places to teach in Vietnam is in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. They are big city's with lots of other foreigners and a lot of stuff to do. I was in Hanoi for three days before I left Vietnam and it was a completely different experience. I met some cool people, found a vegan restaurant and visited a few tourist attractions. This included the famous Hoan Kiem Lake.

I am so grateful for the experience I got teaching in Vietnam, but I don't think I will do it again in the future. If I do it will not be in a small town for reasons mentioned above.

OK...so that's my experience, now here's the meat about teaching in Vietnam:

The first question people always ask me, is how hard is it to get a teaching job in Vietnam. The answer is...much easier than you could ever have imagined.

If you are a native English speaker over the age of 18 then it is really not difficult to get a job in Vietnam. Although legally and technically speaking you need a bachelors degree to do so, there is such a demand for teachers that most schools will look the other way.

With that said, most schools want you to have a TEFL certificate. Google it up if you don't know what that is. They are not hard to get, but just cost a bit of money. Mine was R5200 (which converts to 422usd at the moment).

There is a Facebook page called Hanoi Massive Jobs where new teaching jobs get posted every 30 minutes or so. Your best bet is to sit on the page and wait for a new job post so that you can apply right away. Some will state that you need a degree, but I will apply even if you do not. Chances are they don't really care.

My advice is to avoid working through an agent. They take money from you wherever they can and many, as in my case, don't even know what they're doing. If you know teaching in Vietnam is what you want to do, then show up and look for a job. It took me, a fresh out of high school 19 year old South African, two weeks to get a job. You can do it to.

Teaching salary's in Vietnam range between $1200-1600usd a month, or $15-25 an hour. This will depend on your qualifications and teaching experience.

Please do not settle for less than this amount. There is a sort of mutual agreement between foreign teachers in Vietnam that this is what you get. If you take less it is not good for the other teachers. There is a demand for teachers in Vietnam so there is also no need to accept less than this.

I really hope this blog post was able to help some of you. I can share some more details if you want and please ask away in the comments if you have any questions about teaching in Asia. I have experience teaching in Vietnam and Thailand, but might be able to offer advice regarding China and Taiwan, because of friends who are teaching there.