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May 23, 2012 - 1:59am
#1
Ren (not verified)
Teaching EFL

Hello. I am interested in relocating to Vietnam. I am an English teacher and I have done this work for many years. I am qualified but do not have a degree. I received an email from MEG re English-teaching jobs in the South of Vietnam. The list of cities provided was: Hai Duong, Hai Phong, An Giang, Soc Trang, Cantho, Vinh Long. The hours are up to 25 hours a week, salary 400, 500 or 700 depending on area. Free accommodation, just pay for electricity and water. I was told that it costs around 1 dollar for a meal, 40 cents for an iced coffee. Is this a good deal? My husband and I currently have an income around 1000 dollars for part-time online work and wonder if I would be better off keeping that if we could survuve on that in such places. Thanks

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May 26, 2012 - 8:04am
#2
Anonymous

Hi Ren,
As my opinion, at first, you should determine that you want to live in big city or country side. Big city is active, vibrant, crowded, high level lifestyle but polluted, noisy and not much green space. The country side is not noisy, polluted, they have fresh air, green environment, peace but not excited for the active and young person, there is not much nightlife.

After that, you should choose to stay in the north or south of Vietnam. It's said that living in the south is easier than the north (people said that and i'm living in the south, of course :) ). Big cities in the south are Ho Chi Minh city, Can Tho, the smaller cities is Dong Nai, Binh Duong and then An Giang, Soc Trang, Vinh Long...

I think you can keep your online job, there is no problem if you can handle your time. The internet is very popular in Vietnam now and the quality, bandwidth and speed are good, too.

About the wage for English teaching in Ho Chi Minh city, i'm not sure about that but you can contact some Foreign laguage schools/centers to ask about that. There are many schools/centers, you can search google. By the way, I found a center that supply English teacher for other schools and programs: http://saigonvina.edu.vn/pages/recruiting-teacher.php

Hope this help you,
Quan Phi
Bao Ngoc Hotel
Skype: quan1812
Yahoo: dongquan1812
Mobile: +84 126 468 7799.
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://baongochotel.net

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May 23, 2012 - 10:31pm
#3
tomo

Out of those cities the ones in the South of Vietnam would be An Giang, Soc Trang, Can Tho, and Vinh Long. These are all provinces in the Mekong Delta. Can Tho is the "capital" of the delta and its largest city. Long Xuyen in An Giang has a university where I know some foreigners teach. It would be a very interesting experience to live in those places rather than the big cities of Vietnam. But you would have to realize before committing that you'd be in contact with almost exclusively Vietnamese people, not foreigners.

The prices quoted are about right as they are the prices at the low end even in Ho Chi Minh City.

If you can keep the part time online work I think you should. What kind of work is it?

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May 24, 2012 - 12:20am
(Reply to #2) #4
Anonymous

It is online teaching. I don't really mind where we end up. Is a wage of $4-6.50 per hour + accommodation was a good deal for a teacher in these areas? I am clueless. I have seen wages of $15 per hour, in HCMC, of course. I'm not sure if I could maintain both jobs but it's possible, maybe. Thanks.

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May 25, 2012 - 1:16pm
(Reply to #3) #5
tomo

Those areas probably do not have enough foreigners working to really establish a set going rate. In fact, there are not a lot of jobs there in general. I think the main question is whether you want to live in those places or not. For some people who don't want to live in a city it may be ideal in which case the lower wage would be worthwhile.

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Asian-American expat living in Vietnam over 3 years. I am involved in tech startups and do Drupal consulting. I choose to live in Saigon and Vietnam and I want to see the city and its people reach their true potential.

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