Aspiring ESL teacher...think you can help me out?

Question

I'm strongly interested in TEFL in East Asia, in particular China and Japan. I'm still an undergraduate, so I'm deciding on what foreign language to pursue; I'm debating between Chinese and Japanese. I would love to teach in either country, but I'm not sure how much language proficiency would be needed. Also, I don't know which has a better job outlook. I think I'll be able to study both Chinese and Japanese in the future, but for now, I just want to focus on one. Do you have any suggestions (preferably from experience)? Do you have any tips on making such a decision? Thanks.

Answer 1

Study Japanese...there are more job opportunities for teaching English there...

Answer 2

I would suggest that you study Japanese. There is a great market for ESL teachers here. After that you can get onto the JET programme and that will get you into the country. If you don't like JET, then it is easier to find another job here if you are already in.

Having a competency in Japanese will make you far more attractive to prospective employers.

Answer 3

There are zillions of jobs in China... but what language to learn? Mandarin or Wu or Cantonese or Min...

One thing to remember is that you don't have to speak a single word of your students' language in order to teach them English. In fact, sometimes it's better not to since that means all communication in the classroom takes place in English which is good for them!