 Hi! Welcome! Hello! Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon, wherever you are. Thanks so much for tuning in. My name is Linda. This week, back with another live session for ITTT, which stands for International Teflentesal Training. So thank you so much for joining me today. It is 10.15 a.m. in South Korea where I am. And yeah, today we're going to talk about the biggest misconceptions about teaching English. So those are those things that we at ITTT kind of get asked a lot or people what I read on forums. I do a lot of Tefl research. So when I dive deep into the forums where people talk about teaching English abroad, I come across these misconceptions all the time. And today I want to take this opportunity to sort of debunk them and let you guys know what is true, what is not true, what's really going on in the Tefl world. And yeah, thank you so much for being here today. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. We are live on YouTube and we're live on Facebook at the same time. So you're already here. You have nothing to lose. We go live every week. And we also share a lot of other great content on our Facebook page, on YouTube, on other social media platforms, but especially our Facebook page is filled with new stuff every day that can be anything from teaching material that you can use in your classroom, also job offers, and other things, videos, just little tidbits and help resources, helpful resources and job offers and all things teaching abroad, online, Tefl TESOL, what have you, all of that good stuff is on there. So please give it a like, a follow, subscribe, since you're already here. You can also find my personal Instagram at Linnigo's East, which you can see down here. If you want to ask a question more direct to me, not in front of everybody during this live, feel free to reach out to me. And yeah, also before we get into it, I would really, really, really like to know where you are watching from right now. Where are you watching from? I am, like I said, in South Korea. I've been here almost seven years now. Time goes by so fast. And spring is right around the corner. My favorite time in South Korea because of all the cherry blossoms. So I'm super excited for that. Today is a little bit rainy, but we need the rain for all the blossoms to bloom hopefully next week and the week after. So that's what's happening here in Korea. How about you guys? Where are you watching from today? And what time is it? And maybe also a little bit about your Tefl background. Are you already Tefl certified? Are you currently taking a course maybe? Are you thinking about it? What is your situation? Let me know in the comments. And yeah, just, or maybe just a hi. That would be great too. A hello. So that would be fun too. And then we can get into it. Like I said today, we're going to cover the biggest misconceptions about teaching English. And I'm actually going to cover eight misconceptions. Excuse me. I'm going to go into it. I have my mic here. And we're going to go into it. Eight different misconceptions. We're going to look at them. We're going to debunk them. And I'm going to tell you exactly what the situation is. What is, why they're not true, why they are true. Let's see. But that's what's happening today. While I'm waiting for you guys to let me know where you're watching from, I'm just going to introduce myself real quick for anybody who has not seen me before. Maybe this is your first time joining. Thank you so much. My name is Linda and I am a travel writer and content creator under the name Linda Goes East. You can find my personal website at lindegoseast.com. This is where I kind of share fun things about living in Asia, in Korea. Before that, I also lived in China. So you're going to find content about that. So if you're interested specifically in East Asia in China or in Korea, I highly recommend you check that out. And like I said, I'm also on social media at lindegoseast.com. You can reach out to me there. I'm originally from Germany and the US. My mom is German. My dad is American, but I've been based in South Korea for the past almost seven years. And before that, I also lived in China and I taught English in China. And I've also been teaching English in Korea. And I have also been working as a Teflon marketing professional for ITTT for the past probably six years full time. And then before that, also a little bit. And ITTT stands for International Teflon Teflon Training. You can find us online at tefloncourse.net and also on Instagram at International Teflon Training. We are a leading Teflon Teflon course provider worldwide. So yeah, that's what's happening. And I know that some of you watching are already certified. Some of you may not be at no problem. We are actually having a 30% off opportunity today during this live session. So what you can do is you can scan this QR code that you see right now with your phone, just with your camera, you can hold it, you can scan the QR code, and then it will lead you directly to the application page. Oh, you can't see that now. It's blurry. Anyway, try for yourself. You can scan it. It will lead you to the application page. You can fill out your application and you get 30% off. It even says it here. You'll see congratulations. You're being granted a 30% discount on every online course and on every in-class course deposit. So you'll see that there. If that does not work for you, fret not. We also have a direct link, a discount link that I'm going to share with you now in the comments, which looks like this. There you go. And you can copy and paste this link and then it will lead you to the exact same application page and you can fill out your application there and also get a 30% discount. So yeah, if that does not work for you, maybe there's some issues, let me know. I'll help you out with that. But yeah, this is a great opportunity to kind of get started with TEFL and TESOL. Or if you're already certified, you can get a specialized TEFL course. You can also take a TESOL diploma to kind of just build upon your already existing certification and knowledge. That's also always a good idea. And we have Juliana here. Hi Juliana, watching from Illinois, 819. All right. Yeah, you changed your time, right? You told me. And yes, today is St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, March 17th, right? It's already March 18th here, but in a lot of countries it's still St. Patrick's Day. True. I should have worn something green. Oh no, I missed my opportunity. That would have been so fun. Oh well. Is anybody doing anything fun for St. Patrick's Day? Juliana, are you doing anything fun? Are you out? Anyway, good. So yeah, please don't forget to like and subscribe and also make sure you check out this discount if you are interested in getting a TEFL certificate. That would be really, really good. Yes. Yes, you are out and celebrating. All right. Very cool. Nice. Okay, so back to today's topic. So like I said, we're going to talk about the biggest misconceptions about teaching English. Eight misconceptions I'm going to mention today and we're kind of going to debunk them. Oh, Brett is in the house as well. I'll be going to bed early for fun. All right. Yeah, that's my kind of fun as well. That's when you know you're old. Right? Yeah. All right, perfect. I see a lot of you guys are here. Awesome. Okay. Nice. Then let's jump in and kind of the first thing I want to mention, and I know that some of you guys already know this, but this is something just that we just get asked a lot. So I just want to mention that in the beginning, the difference between TEFL and TSOL. So TEFL and TSOL, the training actually that you receive at ITTT, you can choose between TEFL or TSOL, but the course, the training that you receive is exactly the same. So TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and TEFL and TSOL is Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. And so these two things actually mean the same thing when it comes to teaching, when it comes to TEFL or TSOL course, the training is the same. The only difference is that the term TEFL is more commonly used within the UK and Europe. So over there, people just call it TEFL. Whereas in North America, Australia, New Zealand, people tend to say TSOL more. So that's the only difference. So when you sign up for a TEFL course with ITTT, you can actually choose whether your certificate says TEFL or TSOL. And there's no difference there. It's totally up to you, your preference, whether you just prefer the term TEFL or you prefer the term TSOL, but the two things just mean the same thing. All right. Right. We have Daniel here. Hello, Daniel. How are you doing? Thanks for being here. Okay. So that's the first thing because we kind of get this ass a lot. Hey, what's the difference between TEFL and TSOL? Should I take a TEFL course? Should I take a TSOL course? What's going on? The two things are the same. So it's up to you, whatever term you prefer. That's what you can choose, but the training is the same. That right up the bat. So that is no misconception. It's just in the beginning, I just wanted to mention that so that we're all on the same page here. Daniel says, I am good teacher and you, I am very good. Thank you. I'm doing great today. Thanks so much for being here. Good to see you. All right. Then we are jumping into our very first misconception of the day. The misconception number one about teaching English is it's really hard to find a job teaching English abroad. It's really hard. We have Aldana here today. Hi from Argentina. Hey. All right. So first misconception, it's really hard to find a job teaching English abroad. In my opinion, if you really want to go and teach English abroad, anyone can do it. Okay. Anyone can do it because the demand is really, really high. And it's true. It's not super. It's not the easiest thing in the world, of course. And maybe you want to go to a country or a place. You have set your mind on a certain location. Maybe that doesn't work out. So you need to be a little bit more flexible, but it is not super, super hard actually to go and teach abroad because the demand for English language instruction around the world is huge and it still continues to be huge, even though everything that happened in the past two years or two and a half years, two years, three years. How long has it been? I have no idea. Two years over two years. Anyway, so there are about two billion people in the world speaking and learning English according to the British council. So those are all potential students of yours. That's a huge number. And it's only increasing further. You have some of the biggest players here that I named, the biggest players sort of in the EFL, ESL industry, you might want to remember those for when you're applying for jobs. Those are language schools, language, English class, English lesson providers that are constantly hiring teachers all around the world. So we have burlitz languages. We have EF education first. We have in Lingua International. I actually attended in Lingua in Germany when I went to school years ago, over 10 years ago to become a, what's the term, international foreign language correspondent. I did that training at an in Lingua school. So they are very big, especially in Europe, I feel like. Then we have Pearson English language teaching, okay, Panda and VIP kids. So those are some of the biggest players in the EFL industry. They are always hiring and they are, they tend to be very, they are, all of them are very renowned and reputable. So if you're looking for a job and you see one of those names, you might want to apply because they're pretty good employers as well for English teachers all around the world. Then we have certain government funded programs that are also always looking for people. We have the Epic program in South Korea. We have the Jet program in Japan, and also other programs like the Taepiff program that's in France. We have the Net Scheme in Hong Kong. And there's many other programs actually that you can also apply to, to find an English teaching position. So there are certain countries in the world that have implemented these government funded programs to attract foreign English teachers into their schools in their country. So those are really, really great and they hire every year. So those are good places to start with, especially if this is your first time going abroad to teach. Those are always really good because they tend to have a very clear like structure. They have a lot of support for new teachers. So it's really, really great. And another thing I wanted to mention that kind of shows the big demand is that 50% of the teachers abroad, they stay for a second year and the other 50% are moving on. So there's always 50%. There's a huge turnover each year, which is a revolving door of job openings for you, right? So you always have access to new jobs every year. So this is why if you really want to go abroad, you can definitely find a job. Depending on obviously your background as well, that there are a lot of key factors and we're going to go into that as well. But if there's someone who's really determined to go abroad, you're definitely going to be able to do it. So it's not really that hard. I've met many people along my journey in China, in Korea who have had no previous experience, nothing whatsoever. They just kind of some of them just kind of applied because I don't know out of fun and they got the job and they are in China or in Korea or in Japan or wherever they are. So if you are determined, you can definitely make it. That was misconception number one. Let's move on to the next one, which is number two, you need a degree to teach English abroad. That's also misconception. Not always. Actually, there are a lot of places, a lot of countries where you can actually teach without a degree. Believe it or not, it's not impossible to find a teaching position abroad without a degree. Yeah, Aldana, she says, I think anyone can find that job. Yes, absolutely. It might not be in your preferred place, right? We all have this dream destination. Maybe you can't go there yet. Maybe you need to go somewhere else first and then get teaching experience and then after a couple of years, you can go there. But you can definitely find a teaching position if you are looking for one. All right, first off, let's look at the requirements for teaching English. So they vary from place to place. There are no set requirements, no set list, like this is what you need. Most of the time, what we see is that we need a four-year degree is often required, but not always, right? So there's still a lot of places and that's going to be on the next slide. A lot of places where you can teach without having a four-year degree. If you have a four-year degree, obviously your options will be bigger and better. You have more options to choose from. If you don't have a degree, it's more limited, but it's not impossible. And Trams here is asking degree in which subject. So normally it actually, and that's what it says here on my slide. It doesn't have to be in the field of education. It doesn't have to be in English. Usually it doesn't even matter what field, what major you have a degree in. As long as you have completed four years of university and have a bachelor's degree, you're good to go. For example, me, I have a bachelor's in management. So also not language, not teaching, nothing like that, but that is still accepted. Obviously, if you have a bachelor's degree in teaching, in English, that's going to be a huge plus for employers, right? But it's typically not required. Then some other requirements we often see are teaching experience. However, it depends on where you want to go. So like in the Middle East, for example, which is a highly competitive region for English teachers because it's so it's full of really great opportunities and tax-free, super high salaries, the highest in the world. That's why a lot of people want to go there. Their requirements are higher. So typically in this region, you will need teaching experience, but other places like Korea where I am, Asia in general, you're not going to need any teaching experience. You can do this right after college, right after wherever without any teaching experience. Next point is native or non-native English speakers. And this is also going to be a misconception later. So I'm not going to talk too much about it. And another requirement for teaching English abroad would be that you are adaptable to new situations, obviously, and you are eager to learn new things. All right. Hey, Mikey. How are you doing? Mikey says maybe it depends on the school. It also depends on the school for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. The schools, they can make their own regulations and they are free to hire who they want, obviously. So these are some great places where you can actually teach without a degree, especially Southeast Asia and Latin America. So if you look here, Southeast Asia, especially places like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos are great for people without a degree. Also Latin America, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay are great. And also actually in Europe, you can make it in Spain, in Italy, the Czech Republic and also in Russia without a degree. Now also sometimes regulations, they change. Visa regulations change. So maybe it will change in the future. Always keep an eye out on that and always kind of check. I recommend checking out job offers, even if you're not ready to apply right now, look up job offers and see what kind of requirements they have so that you know what either what you still need to get or if you need to maybe change your preferred destination. But these are countries where you can teach without a degree, a four-year bachelor degree. So this was misconception number two. You need a degree to teach abroad. You don't if you want to teach in these countries. Juliano. Hi. Fausan also. Hello. Good to see you all. How are you all doing? Great. All right. Now we're moving on to misconception number three. Let's take a look what that is. That is Tefal or teaching English abroad or as a foreign language doesn't pay well. That's a misconception. So there's no fixed Tefal salary, right? Like a global salary. Like this is what you'll make when you teach Tefal. It depends on where you are, right? What company you work for, how much experience you've had previously, your qualifications, what type of school you go to, where you are, etc. But it is a misconception. Tefal doesn't pay well is not true. You can actually make a lot of bank teaching English as a foreign language. So let's take a look. These are the places with the highest Tefal salaries in the world. So looking at, if you want to go to Southeast Asia, you can earn up to 1500 US dollars, which maybe doesn't sound like much, but consider that the cost of living in this area is very low. So you're not going to have a lot of expenses when it comes to rent or food or transportation or anything like that. So you can actually still live a very comfortable lifestyle. East Asia, so that is China, Japan, South Korea, and sometimes also Taiwan is kind of included in that. Here you can make between 2000 and 2500 US dollars for new teachers and then up to 3000 for those with experience. Cost of living in East Asia is higher than Southeast Asia, but still lower compared to Europe or North America. So you're still going to be able to save a lot of your paycheck. And in East Asia, what also you need to keep in mind is that schools in East Asia typically have a lot of benefits for their teachers. So that includes paid housing, paid airfare, round trip. If you stay longer, then you can also typically get like once a year a free flight home. What else? We have pension schemes, we have insurance, all of these things. You have end of contract bonuses, renewal bonuses. There's a lot of extra benefits for teaching in East Asia. And especially the paid housing will help you so much with your salary. So you can actually save a lot more or spend a lot more living in East Asia. Then we have the Middle East, which is the highest paying region when it comes to teaching English abroad. So here you can actually make between 3000 and 5000 a month tax free. So you don't have to pay any income tax there. So that's a really good point. And this is really where I think the misconception is very clear that TEFL pays very well, especially in the Middle East. And that's why also this region is highly competitive actually. And the requirements are a little bit higher than other places. Then we have Latin America, where it's kind of the lowest among the lowest in the world actually. So here you make between 500 and 1200. And then we have Europe, where it varies a lot because there are so many countries. So between 700 and 2400 a month really depends. So typically if you want to make a lot of money, if you want to be able to save a lot of money, most people head to the Middle East or East Asia. Those are the two biggest ones. If you're all about the money, obviously, if you're all about the experience, if you're like, hey, I really want to go to Peru and live there for a year, go for it. Go for it. All right, we have Faozan asking, is the life cutting or is it just me? Oh, I hope it's okay for everybody. Let me know. I hope it's not a bad connection. Let me know. Maybe it's just my voice today. I still have a little bit of a sore throat, but all right. Yeah, Mikey's saying Linda here in Taiwan, we have a lot of benefits. Yes, absolutely. What are your benefits at your school? Let me know. That'd be cool. And we have Abdullah here. Hi, Linda. Baraka. Oh, Baraka. Is that your name? Watching from Sudan. Oh, Baraka. Cool. How are you doing? From Sudan. Welcome, welcome. Awesome. Okay. So these are the places and the salaries. So as you can see, Tefl doesn't pay well. It's definitely misconception. It always depends on where you want to go, where you are teaching. So Middle East is number one when it comes to highest Tefl salaries. So if you're all about the money, head to the Middle East. Number two is East Asia, and then sort of Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe. Europe is tricky because as you can see, the salaries aren't that high, but the cost of living is extremely high. So, all right. Fosanzas know your voice is cool. As usual, Linda, it might be my connection. Thank you. All right. So this was misconception number three, I believe, with Tefl doesn't pay well. Moving on. Oh, excuse me. We still have one more slide. So these are actually the highest salaries by country for teaching Asia abroad. I forgot I had this slide as well for you guys. These are the top 10 countries where you can earn the most money. Well, maybe if you're, if you want to read more about this, you can pause here. If you're watching the replay, you can take a screenshot, but this is what it looks like. So as you can see, many countries in the Middle East are in this list and in East Asia. And then we also have Hong Kong and teaching online. But this is what it looks like currently. Obviously, things are changing, but in general, this is the list of the places where the salaries are the highest in the world for English teachers at the moment. Okay. Then misconception number four, and this is an interesting one, you need to speak another language. So we always get this question. For example, people who want to teach English in Spain. Hey, do I need to be able to speak Spanish to teach English in Spain? Or do I need to be able to speak Chinese in order to teach English in China? And the answer is no, you do not need to speak another language besides English in order to teach English abroad. However, obviously, if you do need, if you do know the language of the country that you're moving to, it's a huge bonus. You're going to be able to communicate better with your employer, with your coworkers, and just in your everyday daily life, maybe also a little bit with your students. But in general, in my experience, you are hired as an English teacher and they only expect you to speak English at my school that I taught at in Korea. And I think also in China, actually, they had this thing called EOP, English only policy. So you were actually only allowed, allowed to speak to your students in English, so that it kind of creates this immersive English environment. So there was no expectation towards me whatsoever to be able to speak their language, even though I did take language classes, because I always, I'm super interested in languages. So I would always anyway, recommend learning the language of the country that you're moving to. But that's another thing. But it's not required to do that. Now some job offers, when you're looking at job offers, some will say that you need to be able to speak that language, but that's very rare. Depends on the school. Or also, I know that the teaching program in France, they actually have that as a requirement, I think you need at least B2, level B2 in French, to be able to do that program. But that's just for France. So in general, you do not need to speak another language. All right, and we have Mikey here telling us about his benefits of teaching English in Taiwan. So I just want to share that with everybody here in the comments. And he says benefits are accommodation, attendance bonus, this is cool. So if you're not sick, I guess, excuse me, end of contract and renewal contract bonus, free lunch. Oh, we had that too yet, my school free lunch, paid, paid unpaid leave, paid leave, I guess paid like holidays and national holidays, provide of lesson plans, plus when incorporating or do more class activities during your lessons. Okay. That is cool. I like that. How about your flights? Did you also get free flights? Curious to know about that. But yeah, that's awesome. And this is kind of what we see a lot in East Asia. That's why East Asia is very popular. So again, that is China, Japan and South Korea and Taiwan. Yes, free flights also. Very cool. All right. Nice. All right, Eli says, oh, hi, Eli. Good to see you again. Can you ask if Mikey is okay telling us which company or school they are speaking of? I mean, Mikey, if you want to share what school you're working at, feel free. If you don't want to share that, maybe you and Eli can have a talk privately. That's totally up to you. Awesome. All right. Oh, and Mikey is Taiwan open for international travel. Just very curious. I really want to visit again. And now there is no quarantine in Korea anymore in three days starting from March 21st on Monday. So I'm looking for vacation options in Asia. Anyway, that's another thing. All right. This was misconception number four. I don't have a second slide for this because the answer is just no, you don't need to be able to speak the other language in most cases. Sometimes you need to, but then it'll be clearly stated in the job offer, but that's really rare. Yeah. Eli says, Taiwan is top of my list right now for working. Awesome. I love Taiwan. I've only spent a week there, but it was so great. And I really want to go back. And um, if I wasn't married and kind of tied to Korea, I would probably also move to Taiwan. Oh, so I was on why my studies won't complete. Why I'm tired of just dreaming of a Middle East position and finish it, finish it. You can do it. We're all rooting for you. All right. Good. Let's have a look at misconception number five, what that is. Okay. Biggest misconception about teaching English, number five, you have to teach kids. You have to teach children. That is also not true. Even though, depending on where you go, like a lot of times in Asia, many schools, they actually are targeted towards children. So yes, teaching children is a large part of TEFL and EFL. But if you absolutely don't want to teach children, you can also find positions where you teach maybe older children. So high schoolers or university students or also just adults. They're also these positions. So that's not something you absolutely need to do. At ITTT, we actually kind of divide TEFL into three areas. So one is young learners that is teaching children kids. One is business English and the other one is teaching online, even though you can also teach children online, obviously. But those are our specialization courses that we offer in those three fields. So those are kind of the three main fields nowadays. When it comes to TEFLs, I just wanted to put that slide in. If you're interested in, especially maybe you really don't want to teach children, maybe get this business English course additionally, depending on where you go, there will be more positions at schools targeted at children. But you can definitely still find positions for schools targeted at adults or kind of business English. So if you have a specialization like this, it will greatly help you and enhance your chances. But from what I've heard and experienced, so places like Mexico and kind of Latin America, those places are mostly targeted at older people. Well, not children, like adults and business professionals. So if you go there, you're more likely to teach adults versus when you go to Asia. A lot of times it is schools for children. However, I also came across many positions in Asia where you teach actually adults. And one of the schools that I worked for in China, we had students of all ages. So I was teaching children, but I was also teaching adults. So it's a mix. You don't only need to teach children when you teach English abroad. So that is definitely misconception. All right. Is it loading? Okay, there we go. Number six of the biggest misconceptions about teaching English. Tefliz only for young people. No, absolutely not. No, we actually at ITTT have a lot of older people taking our courses because they really want a change in their career. Or even they are already retired, but they are looking for something different in their retirement. And they take the course and they move to teach English abroad. So this is really absolutely wrong to say that Tefliz is only for young people. There are actually a lot of schools that are actively looking for older teachers, especially when it comes to teaching business English, or also older students. For teaching children, a lot of times they hire younger teachers because they think younger teachers have more energy. But also not every school is like that. But there are no age restrictions when it comes to teaching abroad. Sometimes there are, depending on the country, where for example, in I believe in China, there is a retirement age of 60. So if you're over 60, it might be difficult to find a job in China. Things like that. But there are no official limits. So if you are older and you're thinking about teaching English abroad, it's definitely something you can do. And many schools are looking for more mature teachers. They're kind of tired of the young college grads who just want to go abroad to kind of party and live their life, live it up. So there are a lot of schools kind of are looking for older teachers, what I'm trying to say. And so definitely a misconception. It's not true that TEFL is only for young people. So don't worry. Don't think that. Okay, then we have number seven. You don't need a TEFL qualification if you're a native speaker. Yep. That is also that maybe was true literally like 20 or 30 years ago, where all it took was being from America or being from the UK, you could go abroad and you could just walk into a school and get hired a bit extreme. But maybe 30 years ago, that's what it was like today. The competition is super fierce. A lot of people are getting certified. A lot of people want to go abroad and teach. It's not something super rare or something super special that people do. It's very common these days. So the competition is fierce. So you need to step it up even as a native English speaker. You need to get TEFL certified. You need to do everything you can to kind of stand out from the crowd, get extra certifications like the specializations that I showed you earlier or language skills or anything. Being an English native speaker is not everything anymore. It's not enough. So this is definitely true. So yeah. Sorry to burst people's bubbles here maybe, but you do need to get TEFL or T-cell certified to make it abroad and stand out from the crowd these days for sure. It's getting tougher and tougher, which is good because I mean, I think schools have realized that just being a native speaker doesn't mean you're also a good teacher, which I mean, it's just ridiculous to think that in the first place. But that's what schools thought years ago. They just hire a native speaker, give them like the textbooks, and then they just figure it out. They know what to do. They know how to teach. It's not the case, right? I think schools have figured that out by now. And they're like, no, actually, we need certified people. So that's definitely a trend we're seeing. Even though there aren't certainly countries and places where a TEFL or T-cell certificate is not our official requirement to get a work visa, but then we have employers still definitely requesting it, or it's just a huge plus if you do have one. And for yourself, you just want to be the best teacher possible for your students, right? So that's why I think having a TEFL certificate is very important. And now we have the last one. Biggest misconception, number eight, you have to be a native English speaker to teach English. Also not true. Yes, there are many places where native speakers are obviously preferred, right? But I think that also things have changed a lot in recent years and schools have realized how much of an asset non-native English speakers can actually beat because contrary to native English speakers, non-native English teachers, they have actually gone through the English learning process themselves. And I think this experience is just something that you cannot, it's so valuable. And I think this is just the biggest asset of any non-native English speaker. And that's what really makes them stand out from native English speakers. And that's why I think more schools are definitely hiring native English speakers. Some countries have not yet caught up with that in terms of visa regulations. And there's actually something going on at the moment in South Korea. I just talk a lot about South Korea because I live here and I know most like the most stuff I know about EFL and stuff is Korea and China and East Asia. But there's this thing at the moment happening in South Korea, where so teachers coming to South Korea, they get an E2 visa. And this visa is only for English teachers and a requirement to get this visa is that you need to be a citizen. You need to be a passport holder from one of seven countries. And these are all English speaking countries. So that's Canada, America, Ireland, the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. So only if you are from one of those countries are you able to actually teach in South Korea. And there what is this case at the moment where a school really wants to hire this teacher from Nigeria, where English is an official language, it's their first language. But they cannot hire him because he's not from one of those seven countries. He's from Nigeria. Nigeria is not on the list. So they're currently in talks of kind of changing this law or this regulation, so that maybe in the future, more people can actually come to Korea to be English teachers, not just people from those seven countries. So that's just something that's happening. So that's a case in South Korea. There are many other countries where they actually really don't care about native or non-native. They just look at obviously your English skills. I think this is very important for non-native English teachers that you do have an English proficiency test of some sort, some kind of certificate, a Teflon, IELTS, a TOEIC, I don't know, any of those things are great. And here are some countries where you can actually teach as a non-native. And that's especially the places in Southeast Asia are great in Latin America, but also in Europe are possible. So Southeast Asia, we have Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos. Those are all very non-native teacher friendly. And also in Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. And in Europe, it's more difficult for sure, but Turkey is open. Also the Czech Republic actually forgot to put that in. And also if you are an EU passport holder, you are free to work anywhere in Europe. And you can also find a job in other countries in the EU. So this is what is going on for non-native English teachers. And I'm just looking at this comment here from Juliano, who says a friend of mine who is 65 has just submitted to Tefl completely misconception about age. So that was the previous misconception. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Age is just the number. Absolutely misconception. Why not? I would actually love to do that when I retired. Just go to a bunch of different countries, teach, even just volunteer teach. That'd be great. Eli saying Latin America really seems really open to non-native speakers. And I read a lot about teachers easily supplementing income with some online work, cost of living is really low too. Yes, that's awesome. Great. Absolutely. I think that's definitely a reason why they are so open to people, non-native English speakers and also people without a degree because the salaries are so low. And a lot of people just probably prefer going to the Middle East or East Asia. But it's not all about the money. And yeah, a lot of people who just really love Latin America and want to experience the different countries there, they move there. And then like you said, they can implement their income with online work. So that is really, really great. That's awesome. Okay, I think these were all the misconceptions for today. Good. So I just want to show you this real quick, how you can find ITTT. If you don't know yet how to get in touch with us, this is how you can do it. You can also go to teflcourse.net. There'll be contact information or you can reach out to us via these social platforms. So Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You can also reach out to me here on Instagram, at Linda goes East. And then we are going to open up Q&A now. And you can still scan this QR code to get 30% off your tefl or TESOL course. You can still do that. And I'm going to share the discount link again in the in the comment section. So if you can't scan it, you can just click on this link that will work as well. Let me just put that in there. Okay, it looks like this. So you just copy paste this link. You get 30% off your tefl course. And Eli added something to his comments. So for example, I was watching a YouTube video of an expat easily living well on 500 US a month in Ecuador. That's awesome. Yeah, love that. That's really awesome. Great. Perfect. Okay. And now Q&A is open. You can ask me your questions about Tefl TESOL, about teaching English abroad, about living in Korea, whatever is on your mind now is your time to do so. I'll still be online a couple of minutes. So feel free to ask or maybe if something wasn't clear today during my slides, during this presentation, let me know. I'm here to answer all of your questions. All right. Really glad to see your comments for sure. So thank you so much for being so active and adding your own experience here. Like your friend, your friend's experience, your own experience, Mikey telling us about his jobs benefits. So that's really helpful to all of us if we can all share our experience and what we've heard and what we've read. That's really, really great. So thank you so much for that. Yeah. Let me know if there are any open questions on your side or any other comments you would like to make super open to that. Let me know. Always love learning from you guys as well. And don't forget 30% off your Tefl course. If you're already Tefl certified, you can get a specialization course or a TESOL diploma course to kind of boost your resume. That's also always a great idea. Just throwing it out there. All right. Aldana asks, how long did you teach English? I am actually still teaching English, not full time. So in China, I was teaching full time at a language school for about a year. And then my first year in South Korea, I was teaching full time as a teacher. And then I transitioned into work for ITTT while still teaching different projects, just not full time on the side. That's also great about living in South Korea. I literally get like job offers every week. I get like a message because I'm registered at one of the sites for teachers with my phone number. And so I get reached out to almost every week. It's very easy to find something in Korea as an English teacher because the demand is so, so high. So I still teach, I teach English. And I also started teaching German last year, which has also been super fun. I never really considered doing that. But yeah. And I teach online. And I also started, again, started teaching in person now after COVID. So that's also been really fun. Eli says, what site are you registered with? And is it only for South Korea? Yeah. So this one is only for South Korea. It's called Work and Play Korea. I think work, work and play, work and play Korea. Let me check. Yeah, work and play. It's a Korean. It's just for Korea though. So you can actually make a set up a profile there. Here's the link. It's a weird link, but it's, isn't that? Hold on. Oh, I guess they changed the name. It's the work and play. I think it used to have a different name there. And you can set up your profile and then people can actually reach out to you. Not only for teaching jobs, but also, I think, translation or they also have even like acting or something, which is your favorite age to teach. Ooh, this is a tough one, but I, so my first year in Korea, I was teaching at an English kindergarten. We had kindergartners. They were, I taught six year olds, which is actually five year old in Korea. So five, six year olds. And then in the afternoon, we taught elementary. They were up to the third grade or fourth grade for an elementary school. So I really, really like teaching the kindergartners. They were like really my children. I love them so much, but it's also very draining. It's a lot of work, kids, because when you teach kindergartners, you're not only there to teach English, you're also there to teach them how to be decent human beings. So there's a lot of that involved, which, you know, is great, but it's, I mean, it takes a toll on you. It's very demanding. So now I kind of prefer teaching older students. So like high school students or adults, it's just easier because they like the, they really want to be there kind of. It's their own personal decision to learn English or German, whatever you're teaching to be there. But the kids, they're like forced by their, by their parents in a way, or like, it's not their own personal decision to join this course. So sometimes they don't really want to study. They don't want to be there. So that can sometimes be challenging, but it's all good. Like I like teaching all of them, but you know what I mean. Eli's asking, do you know of one for Taiwan? Yes. So there are a lot of sites and hold on. I might have to send you this later. I mentioned a lot of sites for Taiwan in a previous live session I did about teaching English in Asia. I think it was, I can send you that. And there are links to different sites and also Taiwan, but maybe if Mikey knows of some, that would be good. Mikey's there. So maybe he knows of some that I haven't mentioned there. If Mikey's still here, or maybe Eli, reach out to Mikey. I think that'd be a great match and you could, you can have a chat, the two of you. That'd be great. But I can send you that. Yeah. I still have your email address. If you don't hear anything from me, email me. But I'll remember and I'll send you an email right away, right after this. Aldana's asking, can you give a tip for teaching teens? You know, it really depends on like how the kids are. A tip, like what's the issue? Maybe if you explain what the issue is, then maybe I can give you a tip for teaching teens. But that's also we have this course, Teaching English to Young Learners. And teens are part of this group. So if you're kind of struggling with that, I recommend checking out the specialized TEFL course. It's a 50 hour course and it starts at $175 and you can use the 30% off discount. So it'll be actually super cheap and it will really help you with teaching young learners and teens. So I recommend you check that out. Okay. Yeah. You're very welcome. All right. I think I'm going to sign off then. This has been a really, really great session. If there are no more questions. Oh here, Eli. Yeah. Eli says the section on teens in the YL course is really good. I think the most important thing is to remember teens aren't kids anymore. So don't treat them like little kids. Yeah. That's a good point. And see, Eli also took the Young Learners course and found it very helpful. So maybe Aldana, if there's something that you're interested in, maybe that will also help you out with that. Good. Thank you, Eli. It's awesome. It's been a while since I took the Young Learners course, but yeah. Definitely. Cool. Well, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining today. For coming back this week, I'll be here again next week, probably, unless something happens. But no, I should be here. As always, if you have any topic suggestions, what you want me to talk about next time, let me know. And then I'll be able, I might be able to do that for you. Yeah. As always, you can reach out to me directly if you want on Instagram at Linda Goes East. Eli, I'm going to email you. And yeah, thank you so much for joining today, for taking some time out of your day to be here with me. I really, really, really appreciate that. And yeah, again, 30% off if you want to take advantage of that, that'd be great. A great head start, a great incentive for you to start your teaching abroad or teaching online journey. So definitely recommend that. And then, yeah, I hope to see you again next week. And I wish you all a happy, happy, happy weekend. And I think that's it. You can mention everything, right? Don't forget to like and subscribe. Just want to put that out there one more time. All right. And then, yep, that's all. That's all for today. That's it, folks. All right. See you later. Bye, guys. Bye-bye.