Teaching in Vietnam

Welcome to the Saigonist Expat Forum! Anyone is welcome to ask and answer questions here and there's no need to create an account.

Ask anything related to living and working in Saigon or Vietnam. All that I ask in return is that you look at the existing topics and try to help others with any information that you know.

23 posts / 0 new
Login to post comments
Last post
January 4, 2013 - 10:32pm
#1
Brett Shearer (not verified)
Teaching in Vietnam

Hi, I am coming to Vietnam from South Africa to teach English. I have a TEFL cert and a year of experience in teaching English as a second language. Will it be hard for me to find work if I do not have a Uni degree? Look forward to your response and thank you! Brett

Top
Tags:
May 24, 2015 - 5:58pm
#2
John (not verified)

Hi , I am moving to Saigon in October and will be bringing in western food over for the expats. You must all have things you miss or find very hard to locate in Vietnam. If you could please email me or reply to this and let me know what you miss. Not fresh or frozen just yet but anything from beans to tampax. I can only help you if you help me bring over what you miss. Many thanks and hope admin do not mind me asking, John

Top
June 6, 2014 - 4:51pm
#3
Anonymous (not verified)

Hello all! AMA English center is looking for four new teachers for our Ha Tinh and Vinh branches. Feel free to write me at [email protected] to inquire.

Top
October 23, 2013 - 5:38am
#4
Anonymous (not verified)

I will be leaving the states November 19th with no job in hand. I will fly into Ho Chi Minh City with hopes of finding a teaching job. I do not have the TEFL; however, I do have a bachelors degree. Will I be able to find a teaching position this late in the year and so close to their holiday? Also, should I buy a bike in Vietnam or bring one with me? I have a very tight budget and I need to possibly secure work soon. Also, does anyone know of any good hostels or hotels.

Top
October 23, 2013 - 5:38am
#5
Anonymous (not verified)

I will be leaving the states November 19th with no job in hand. I will fly into Ho Chi Minh City with hopes of finding a teaching job. I do not have the TEFL; however, I do have a bachelors degree. Will I be able to find a teaching position this late in the year and so close to their holiday? Also, should I buy a bike in Vietnam or bring one with me? I have a very tight budget and I need to possibly secure work soon. Also, does anyone know of any good hostels or hotels.

Top
September 25, 2013 - 10:33pm
#6
Anonymous

do you still teach English? now, i find a teacher to teach me communication, so can you teach me? i'm 19 years old, i'm a sophomore english major. i want study one -one. well could you tell me about tuition? thanks

Top
August 2, 2014 - 5:54pm
(Reply to #16) #7
Richard (not verified)

Hello,
I am an Englishman from the City of Bath, in England.
I live in China at the moment.
I will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City Airport on August 29th 2014.
I am a professional singer, and a qualified English teacher.
I have a special method and I can teach you to speak and understand English very quickly without hard study without boring exercises and without having to translate inside your head.
I can sing to my own music backing tracks or with any band.
You can hear me singing on www.imagicsongs.com/richard
I have been looking for a new lifelong love in China, but without success.
Perhaps I will fall in love in Vietnam?
I will only be in HCMC for one month, then I return to China for two months.
But if I like the life in Vietnam, and especially if I fall in love with a sincere, loving girl, I will return to Vietnam and live there for a while, until we decide where to live.
I am not rich, but I have an income from England, so I don't need to work so hard.
So I am happy to help people to learn English at a price they can afford.
If you have any ideas that will help both of us, please tell me.
Best regards
Richard
[email protected]
Skype:OzzieEnglishman

Top
April 23, 2013 - 7:30am
#8
Anonymous

Hello. I was curious....I am an American that has his bachelor's degree, a state teaching license for English Communication and have taught in middle and high school in America. I also speak Spanish, so I have taught English as a second language before. However, I never pursed a TEFL certification as it did not seem necessary for me. Would the fact that I do not have a TEFL, but I do have a BA Degree and State Teaching License weigh into my chances of teaching English in Vietnam? Thanks. JP

Top
May 14, 2013 - 5:23pm
(Reply to #14) #9
tomo

You may still find it worthwhile to get a certificate like TEFL which you can also do after you've arrived in Vietnam or the region (e.g. you could get it in Cambodia).

Top
February 14, 2013 - 11:38am
#10
Anonymous

Hi,

Just wondering what you spend approx per month, I am moving over to teach in a few weeks and have hardly any savings.

Top
February 14, 2013 - 4:01pm
(Reply to #10) #11
Anonymous

That depends greatly on WHERE you are living, and HOW you live.

Top
February 14, 2013 - 3:57pm
(Reply to #10) #12
Anonymous

That depends greatly on WHERE you are living, and HOW you live.

Top
February 14, 2013 - 3:56pm
(Reply to #10) #13
Anonymous

That depends greatly on WHERE you are living, and HOW you live.

Top
January 27, 2013 - 10:28am
#14
Anonymous

Hi, Could anyone give any more advice please on where to search for teaching English without a degree, I have a TESOL cert, and tutor volunteering one on one in Australia. I am looking to come to Vietnam again in July or August.

Top
January 9, 2013 - 11:31pm
#15
tomo

Slightly harder, but there are a lot of teachers teaching English in Vietnam who don't have university degrees or are otherwise not fully qualified.

Top
January 10, 2013 - 12:28pm
(Reply to #3) #16
Anonymous

I've been offered a job teaching English in a Govt run adult learning school, I have no degree or experience, but they want me to be able to speak a bit of VN, if I could do that, I wouldn't be going through their school then.

Top
January 16, 2013 - 4:03pm
(Reply to #4) #17
tomo

Can you say where or which school? Usually, teachers aren't expected to speak any Vietnamese and even encouraged (!) not to. Except for the extreme beginners which can be taught using Vietnamese teachers and recorded media, you should only be using English.

Top
January 26, 2013 - 9:58am
(Reply to #5) #18
Anonymous

Tomo, it's a Adult learning school in Quang Ngai, they have ' Native ' English teachers who they bring in short term, and have to their pay air fares and Hotel etc, etc, but they don't need to speak any VN, it's a friend of my wife's that offered me the job, but at the rate I'm learning VN it's going to take years before I work there.

Top
January 30, 2013 - 12:51am
(Reply to #6) #19
tomo

Again, it's pretty rare for English teachers in Vietnam to speak Vietnamese (unless they are Vietnamese). And if you are using Vietnamese in class then it's kind of a waste of your English abilities, or the school isn't utilizing you properly.

Top
January 31, 2013 - 2:54pm
(Reply to #8) #20
Anonymous

That's what I think also, plus if I can speak reasonable Vietnamese, I'd be wanting a lot more than 10 mil a month.

Top
January 7, 2013 - 2:57pm
#21
Anonymous

Not as hard as some would have you believe...

I have been teaching here for four years now without a degree, though I have TESOL Cert. and Other teaching experience also.

Top
March 18, 2014 - 1:09pm
(Reply to #2) #22
John (not verified)

Doesn't Vietnam require foreigners to have a degree for a work permit?

Top
March 18, 2014 - 9:24pm
(Reply to #19) #23
tomo

Most legitimate routes to most work permits require a university degree and a lot of other paperwork.

Top
‹ Previous topic: Missing PayPal Withdrawal - Do not use PayPal in Vietnam Next topic: Cozy, new renovated, full furnished apartment in district 3 ›
© 2010-2014 Saigonist.

About the author

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.

Where is Saigon?

It's not wrong to wonder where in the world Saigon is.

Saigon is the name of the city now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City. But most people who call Saigon home call their home Saigon and it's mostly tourists who I hear refer to it as Ho Chi Minh City (or Ho Chi Minh Ville for the French).

After the Vietnam/American War ended in 1975, many place names ceased to exist such as Saigon, South Vietnam, and plenty of street names.

Tu Do is now Dong Khoi, Thong Nhat is Le Duan. And Tan Son Nhut Airport is now Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Rue Paul Blanchy has been Hai Ba Trung since the 1950s.

Those who haven't seen Vietnam for decades will be confused not just by the geographical changes but the incredible amount of development and modernization that has since taken place.

Latest Technical Posts

I also post a lot of technical material unrelated to Vietnam that doesn't hit the home page. Starting from November 2015 I am only posting technical articles on my new sub-blog: TECH.saigonist.com

  • Definition of Startup: What isn't a startup? : What is a startup? We're in the middle of a tech boom and it's become fashionable to either work for a startup or to be a startup. But what is a startup? How do you know that company offering you a...
  • My Startup Experiences : I've been involved in start ups for over a decade now. During that time I've worked for companies in varying stage of development. Not all of them were startups. But how can you tell if it is or not...
  • Code Retreat 2012 - Ho Chi Minh City : $(document).ready(function(){ $('.geshifilter').hover(function(){console.log(this);console.log($(this));$(this).css('position', 'relative').css('width', '800px').css('z-index', 1000);}, function...
  • Internet Censorship in Southeast Asian Countries (Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) : Vietnam has been labeled an "enemy of the Internet" by Reporters Without Borders. There have been a lot of cases of bloggers being targeted, harrassed, and arrested. But RSF (Reporters Sans...
  • Using 3G Internet in Cambodia : On my most recent trip to Cambodia I bought a Cambodian SIM card so that I could both make calls and use the Internet on my smartphone. At the Moc Bai/Bavet border are a number of Khmer people (who...
  • MailChimp vs poMMo, Mailman, Phplist - Self-Host or Outsource Your Mailing List? : Use your own mail server or outsource it? Let's say you have a rather large mailing list of a few thousand email addresses and, well, sending it out with GMail is no longer cutting it. What are your...
  • Internet in Vietnam - Good, Bad, Ugly : If you ask Vietnamese officials, you'll hear such hyperbole as "the Internet service development in Vietnam is in no way inferior to developed countries in the world" (Mai Liem Truc, former Deputy...
  • poMMo proBLEMs : poMMo is free open source mailing list management software. It's written in PHP and pretty basic but does give a decent management interface. However, it's no longer maintained. There is a GitHub...
  • Preventing Repetitive Stress Injuries for Programmers and Writers : My situation I'm a career programmer who has suffered from pain in my hands and arms for several years. Like carpal tunnel syndrome, this pain is from damage to tissue (including tendons) caused by...
  • Calling the US for free from foreign countries : Calling US numbers from the US is pretty trivial and nearly free. But calling from another country means either: - paying for long distance from your telephone company - using a phone card to call...

Recent activity in the expat forum...