Hello,
Looking for opinions on the best path forward for getting back in the game and making a career abroad.
Long story short, I had been teaching abroad since 2012 and came back in the summer of 2018 to help take care of my mother who was diagnosed with cancer. She’s now cancer free and I would like to not only get my life back abroad (I absolutely loath and detest everything about “living” in the USA) but build a solid career too.
*About me*
• American
• Mid 30’s
• Male
• Goals: Career & Money i.e. highest salary
• Total teaching experience abroad: 6 years
**Thailand**: Two years experience teaching at a private university school: All levels M1-M6, including adult classes for Thai teachers.
Also moonlighted a part-time gig for a company that assessed the English proficiency levels of Thai teachers for school rehire.
**Japan**: Four years experience teaching at an Eikaiwa 英会話教室 (English conversation school) teaching all levels from preschool to adult. Became the head teacher there and managed English teaching staff while continuing teaching at all levels.
With that being said, what do you guys think is the best path forward based on my profile? I keep vacillating between getting an MA or just getting a CELTA.
The MA is appealing for many reasons but carving out 2 years worth of time is just… ah… lol… I mean, I will if it’s the best course of action given my circumstances but I’d much rather go broad sooner than later. A compromise I see would be an online MA in TESOL which can be completed in a year (think Birmingham).
However, is there still the stigma of having an online degree like there was in the past? (it makes me very trepidatious). Despite what some may think, there is a very real (at-least there was during my time) bias against online degrees vs. a brick and mortar education i.e. if an employer has the resumes/CV’s of two candidates side by side and one has their post graduate attained online and the other is completed via brick and mortar; that employer is choosing the latter.
Alternatively, coupled with my experience, the CELTA seems quite appealing time-wise (it also ticks a lot of resume boxes) but not sure it carries the same weight/”prestige” factor of an MA (I’m almost certain it doesn’t but would love to be corrected).
Moreover, when I really consider it and for example, by looking at job advertisements for say a country like China; it seems I could attain a fairly high salary even based on experience alone i.e. without any of the aforementioned but I know this will most likely limit me in the long-run (career opportunities, life trajectory abroad etc.)
What are your thoughts?
If MA is the way, what is the most advantageous overall and in relation to my goals/countries of choice: MA TESOL or MEd? Also, if you believe an online/distance learning MA in TESOL is a viable option, which online school/program is the best?
13 comments
If you are serious about teaching as a career, you need the MA. Your eikaiwa experience, including that as a head teacher, means jack and shit, as it only qualifies you to continue working in eikaiwa.
If what you want to be is a professional eikaiwa teacher, then you are already there – you don’t any further qualifications. All you need is your “four year degree in anything” and a pulse. All you need do is apply at ECC, Berlitz, or Nova, and begin to work you way back up to the “head teacher” position. And congrats, you be an Engrish teachur!
If, on the other hand, you want to be a teacher rather than just playing at being a teacher, get the MA, get published, and get a direct hire position at a school or a university.
Having worked in Japan before, you should already know what the market is like – outside of direct hire by schools and universities, there really aren’t any contexts where qualifications are needed. Japan is an amateur’s market, and always will be, and the pay is commensurate with that.
As for where to do an MA, I can’t really help you there. But you should know that the only work you can currently get in Japan is as an ALT or in eikaiwa, and the salaries are so low that it’s going to be very very difficult to make enough money to pay for that degree, and finding the time to study and write also won’t be easy while working full time.
And if you do come back and work in eikaiwa, you may find your ambition to do a degree slipping away. First because there is no impetus at all to get qualifications or further develop professional skills – they are neither wanted nor needed in that context. It’s also very difficult to develop skills in an eikaiwa teaching context, since most of them dictate to you how to teach and won’t allow you to use your lessons to experiment with different methods. You’ll find yourself becoming more and more frustrated, until you either quit eikaiwa or quit the degree.
Honestly? If I were you, I’d stay put, get the MA, and teach in the US or perhaps the EU.
I got my MA online through Birmingham and I’m working at universities now, so it’s definitely viable. However I’m not sure where you got the 1 year from – I think that’s only for if you actually study there. The online course is 2.5 years at the minimum. There are shorter courses, I think Coventry is 1.5 years but it’s a fair bit lower in quality as I understand.
I have no idea if there’s bias against online degrees, but I mean I got work with mine so it can’t be that bad.
I mean, if one of your goals is money, then I honestly wouldn’t advise working in Japan. Salaries have been dropping, and it’s been getting harder and harder to get tenure at schools/universities.
There are still well paid positions at universities and private schools, but competition is tough, especially for the best positions. If you do aim for university work, you’d best have at least an MA.
That said, if my main goal was earning money/having a great career (while still working in education), I’d move back home to Europe. Japan won’t make you rich.
Get the MA in Ed. That’s what I’m doing. I want to be a real teacher in an international school not a tape recorder.
Masters, teaching license and experience for international school. PhD and published papers for reliable uni work.
OP If you’re looking at the U.K. Birmingham, not Alabama then I can tell you that there are online alternatives. Bham might have some prestige but:
University of Nottingham offers similar options (MA Tesol / applied linguistics / combined).
The University of Sunderland has a cheaper, but still fully credited MA online (18 months). It is quite heavily subscribed and only has an intake in Autumn.
The University of Leicester has similar options.
All of these are accredited U.K. Universities and the prestige is second really to publications.
As a standard you need 3 to be employed by a Japanese University, but higher tier now sometimes require 6 or a PhD.
Of those mentioned Nottingham probably noses in front of Birmingham in terms of reputation (last I looked). I can say anecdotally online degrees are not an obstacle to a lot of Universities. I know a former Eikawa teacher, British council project’ worker now working at a decent University on Contract.
The main things you need to have are: The MA with publications, Japanese N2, examples of your own materials and knowledge of curriculum design or implementation.
In addition to that any specialized experience teaching particular academic fields would be a plus and entry point for part time work, experience outside of teaching an Eikawa- high school students, vocational college or University adjunct teaching.
It could also well be necessary to already be in the country when you are applying.
If you can start the MA without the CELTA, I think it makes the latter redundant. Certainly any edu degrees of licenses will.
Having lived in Japan for almost 30 years and going through various stages of teaching, including EFL teacher training nationally and owning both an English Language/Conversation School in Tokyo, I can share my own experience and opinion on this topic.
CTEFLA (Cambridge/RSA) or Trinity are both great immersion courses with practical application from the go. Great for traveling and teaching short term. MA in Ed is very useful overall but if really interested in TESOL then get it in TESOL. Online is fine. It’s almost 2022 in the midst of a global pandemic, so online is the new norm.
If you are looking for stability long term then PhD.
I have more comments but this should suffice for now.
If you’re really in it just for the money, get your teaching credential and work in an international school somewhere in the Middle East.
I have multiple TEFL certificates including CELTA.I probably learned more from my CELTA course than I did from either of my degrees. However, only once ever was CELTA the deciding factor in getting me hired somewhere.
Either masters will at least get your foot in the door at colleges & universities all over Asia and many other places besides. Though you will often hit the “needs X years experience” wall.
Beyond that keep in mind that working in the uni market means you will constantly have the need to be getting peer reviewed publications, even many part-time jobs now want you to have at least published something in the last few years.
Many uni teachers* in Japan spend their entire career working multiple part-time jobs nowadays, and I’d imagine things are going that way in many other nations too.(*all subjects, not just English, not just gaijin, locals too)
As far as Japan goes, to be blunt, forget about tenure.
If you already had:
PR and/or a Japanese spouse
N2
PhD
You’d be in with a fair chance. However, by the time you’ve got all the above, the goal posts will already have moved and you’ll no longer be qualified for most tenure spots. Not sure how the tenure scene is in other countries.
It doesn’t matter how long a degree at any level takes, because that time is going to pass whether you do the course or not, so just go with the one that genuinely fills you with the most joy.
CELTA is pretty much meaningless in Japan. The MA allows you to apply for uni part-time work.
> Goals: Career & Money i.e. highest salary
Honestly? Put your money towards a full 3-4 year professional degree then.
IMO your best case scenario with EFL in Japan is doing a M. TESOL, publishing a heap of articles and earning ~500k a month as a contracted EFL lecturer at some uni (with zero progression and year-by-year contract discussions). This kinda salary seems huge when you’re on 215-250k a month but it’s really not.
Not trying to sledge EFL/ESL work but having done it and moved on, I don’t think it’s bad to see it as a stepping stone to your next stage in life (where you’ll earn a LOT more and develop…etc if you put a bit of work into it).
I remember returning to Australia, realising all my friends were on 1,000,000+ yen a month (with free universal healthcare, lotsa leave & upwards of 12% on top of that going into a retirement fund) and owned houses…etc. I was applying for some pretty junior, ~500,000 yen a month jobs (getting rejected many times) and thinking ‘fuuuuck, I’m gonna be set for life with this job!!!’ To get a foot in the door (while levering my M. TESOL to teach ESL at Aussie tech colleges, job centres, prisons…etc) I went back to uni and did a law degree (only took 3 years). Everything’s grown from there. I got a decent gig (while studying), found a wife earning that (more), bought a little apartment… kept it while buying a nice family home together, started investing…etc (while seeing career/salary growth).
I’m no millionaire but if you want cash and career growth, I think chasing unicorn ESL jobs in Japan will ultimately be disappointing. It’s not a particularly high-paid profession, but it’s a lot of fun for a gap year (or maybe something else if you have a grand plan). A distinct feature is zero career progression, however. Like I have a M. TESOL and scored some decent EFL jobs with it in Japan, but all of them ended up with my manager saying ‘we can give you 10,000 extra a year because you’re such a hard worker! How about that?’ My first few years were the best few years as living overseas was loooots of fun, I was earning plenty for my social life and work felt new/exciting. To me the most successful way to do EFL is to enjoy those years and pick the right time to bail (while making solid plans for your future).
Like other people said the CELTA is a good course but for you, it will have 0 impact on your job prospects. About the MA TESOL, so many people have online MAs and PhDs that it is no problem. In fact, no one really cares where your degree is from so just get the degree and get working as soon as possible. Then you can work your way up in the university teaching world by publishing, presenting, learning Japanese, and getting a Ph.D. It is getting more competitive but it is still doable. The other route of a B.Ed/K-12 teaching license is a different story but that takes more time in your home country before you can start traveling around. If I had to go back I think I might have gone that way.