Best Places To Teach English Abroad

Earn money while travelling, get some brilliant working experience, immerse yourself in an exotic culture, improve people’s lives, have a blast. There aren’t a whole lot of reasons not to teach English abroad on your travels.
A good TEFL (or TESL or TESOL or ESL) course lasts up to a month and, thanks to the Asian boom and a perfect economic timing, teaching jobs are now easier to find than ever. And here are some of the best places to go do it:
Laos & Cambodia

Both Laos and its next-door neighbour have a very friendly and hospitable attitude towards strangers, which combined with combined with their rich cultural heritage and beautiful landscapes make them a unique place to live and work. Recently a number of opportunities have popped up in institutes, universities and bilingual schools in the larger cities, such as Ventiane and Phnom Penh, which pay well, but often part time: an average salary lands between US$7-13 an hour. Many TEFL teachers choose to volunteer in the countryside, where the experience can be even more rewarding.
Hong Kong

On the other end of scale, there’s Hong Kong. The massive cosmopolis offers some of the highest-paid TEFL jobs (freelancing alone can earn between US$25-75 an hour), since learning English is on everybody’s bucket list. If you can keep up with the city’s speed, you’ll find a number of opportunities through the British Council and the Government’s native English-teacher (NET) programmes. Glass towers, eclectic dim suns, dragon boats – and a nifty chance to pick up some Cantonese.
Vietnam

Thanks to the country’s expanding tourism industry, demand for English here is sky-rocketing. A good school or university in Ho Chi Minh City or atmospheric pagoda-filled Hanoi will generally pay between US$15-25 an hour. Jobs are easy to find, even with a tourist visa, and schools will often sponsor their teachers to obtain a working visa. Money goes a long way here, so you can easily beat the cost of living and even save up for another trip. Watch out for those motorcycles.
By Sarah Morland