Page 11 - ELG1601 Oct Issue 440

2016 ELAsia Pacific Page vii

The virtues of Vietnam

Phil Keegan explains how teaching in Vietnam might not make you rich,

but it can offer you a fantastic standard of living in a fascinating country

eaching English in Vietnam for outpatient cover.
has become increasingly But how does the quality of
Tattractive in the last ten life compare on such a salary?
years. Until quite recently the I used the cost of living com-
majority of EFL teachers in Viet- parison site Numbeo to compare
nam were backpackers looking to Hanoi and Rome. Consumer
earn a bit of pocket money while prices generally are 43 per cent
passing through. They had few lower in Hanoi, rent is 55 per
or no qualifications to teach and cent lower, restaurant prices are
usually weren’t particularly inter- 72 per cent lower, groceries 40
ested in teaching as a profession. per cent lower and taxi fares 90
However, the situation is per cent lower. For wine lov-
now much more professional. ers, not surprisingly, Italy wins
For example, I recently took up easily, with wine costing twice
a position as head of learning as much in Hanoi as in Rome,
experience for Apollo English and Italians have longer paid
Vietnam. We currently employ holidays than the 26 days a year,
over 300 teachers and have Courtesy MM including eleven public holi-
25 centres throughout Viet- days, that our teachers enjoy.
nam. All of our teachers have Apart from that, a salary of
degrees and a teaching cer- CALM AMID THE CHAOS Most people travel around around $1,500 per month in
tificate. We welcome teachers Vietnamese cities in small scooter-type motorbikes Hanoi goes a lot further than it
from all backgrounds and pro- does in Rome and indeed most
vide solid academic support and mode of transport is the motor- those who are really into night- other European or North Ameri-
many professional development bike, mostly small 100–150cc life, Saigon is probably the place can cities, which means teachers
opportunities. scooter-type bikes. There are to be. Hanoi is more sedate but can have a good standard of liv-
The Vietnamese understand millions of them in a constant has more of an art and culture ing in Vietnam and save money,
the importance of learning stream of what first appears to feel to it. as well as getting excellent
English in the 21st century and be chaotic competition with As a rule, no one gets rich from teaching experience in a fasci-
many parents are keen to invest each other. No one pays much teaching, and in some places nating country and culture.
in their children’s future by attention to road rules and cross- being a teacher is extremely I am grateful to my colleague
sending them on English ing the road is initially quite poorly paid. Trying to live on an Sabrina Devitt at Apollo English
courses from a young age. terrifying. But there is a trick to EFL salary in London for exam- Vietnam for her suggestions and
Apollo aims to do more than it – you have to walk out into the ple is miserable. I looked at job insights in the writing of this
teach English. We also promote stream of bikes and taxis, which websites to compare the sala- article. n
the idea of global citizenship, magically flow around you (as ries on offer in various places
the belief that people need not long as you keep a steady pace around the world and converted Phil Keegan is head of
only confidence in communi- and don’t stop or turn back). everything to US dollars for learning experience at Apollo
cating effectively in English but Although it is difficult to see at convenience sake. In Germany English Vietnam. He has
also to understand and respect first, there is a sort of system at and France salaries seem to previously worked as a teacher,
other cultures and peoples and work on the roads, and in the be $1,900–2,100 per month, teacher trainer and academic
care for the environment. weeks I have been here miracu- in Poland around $750 and in manager in the UK, the US,
Teaching Vietnamese students lously I have not witnessed a Italy $1,300–1,500 (net – Ed), Germany, France, Austria,
can be very rewarding. Teachers single accident or seen a single which is similar to initial gross Turkey, Slovenia and Malaysia.
have high status here, and stu- incident of road rage. salaries in Vietnam, which has a He is a Celta and online Delta
dents tend to be respectful and There is a great food culture roughly 12 per cent tax rate. In tutor and he has published over
hardworking. here (although there are often Italy teachers normally make a twenty articles in various
For someone new to Asia, items on the menu that are a contribution from their salary teaching journals around the
living and working in Vietnam bit shocking to Western eyes for health care, while in Viet- world. He is the author of In
can take a bit of getting used – I won’t elaborate), and in the nam our teachers are covered for My Opinion (2009) which was
to. The traffic, for example, is cities you can get any kind of inpatient hospital treatment and published by Prolingua
quite a challenge. The main Western food and drink. For can take out their own insurance Associates in the USA

China – reinventing the wheel?

Melanie Butler isn’t convinced that one-to-one smart-phone learning
is enough to meet the People’s Republic urgent need for EL teachers

s the market for English as every English-speaking country the second-biggest market in the after school and after work.
a foreign language in China in the world, based on OECD world – according to Ambient. Dropout rates will also increase.
Idifferent from that in other statistics. What’s more, given The new big thing, accord- In the adult market at least, sign-
countries – or is it just bigger? the typical teacher turnover for ing to reports, is self-paced ing up for language lessons is a
It is certainly big. According EFL, they will need to do that one-to-one tuition, increasingly little like signing up for a gym
to a 2015 report there are 50,000 every two years. delivered by mobile phone. – you start off by going but your
language schools in the country. So what can they do instead? There are 62 million subscrib- attendance drops off over time.
India is big too. I don’t think Well the first thing they tried ers to such services. If they are This is fine, if like most gyms
anybody has the numbers for was self-paced e-learning, in all one-to-one studying for one you get the student to pay up
Indian language schools, but as other words high-tech self- hour a week, they will need two front. However, if the students
English is the second language study, but after a period of rapid million tutors teaching 30 hours can pay as they go, as some pro-
of the country, India has enough growth the market has fallen a week, even if students are viders are promising, then a lot of
local teachers to meet its needs. sharply, not only in China but allocated specific times slots. companies are likely to go bust.
China doesn’t. It needs to around the world. The 2015 This is doable if the teachers How do we know this?
import around 500,000 teachers Ambient report puts this down used include those from large Because the exact same model
to cover the private language to commoditisation and increas- second-language countries like has existed for many years. It’s
school sector. Following the ing competition, but it may be the Philippines – though unless called telephone teaching, and
new Chinese regulations on for- just that, as other EFL markets they are well-enough paid and the economics of doing it don’t
eign teachers (reported in last have found, it doesn’t work for paid for waiting time between change just because your lan-
month’s Gazette), it only wants most learners. The empirical teaching calls, teacher churn will dline has turned into a mobile.
native-speaker graduates with evidence is that dropout rates remain an enormous problem. And as for not understanding the
a Tefl certificate or two years’ are very high: only 7 per cent of If, as most of the provid- ‘gig economy’, the telephone
teaching experience. adult foreign language learners ers seem to promise, students schools tried not paying teachers
Good luck with that one. To completed a 150-hour self-study can log on and find a tutor on when students didn’t phone in.
reach the figure of 500,000 the course, a research study by demand, the figure for teachers The teachers just left.
Chinese will need to recruit one Maryland University found. Of needed will rise dramatically Whether you’re Chinese or
in every two hundred graduates course the learners were Ameri- since the majority of students Czech, the economics of lan-
aged between 20 and 32 from cans, not Chinese, but the US is will do this in the peak hours guage teaching doesn’t change. n

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