Teaching, Travelling & Building a Career in Asia: Jack’s TEFL Story

Sure! I came across the TEFL Institute of Ireland somewhat by accident. It was the middle of the first covid lockdown and I had just finished my final exams for university when an ad popped up for their TEFL courses. I had been interested in TEFL teaching for a while as I had met a TEFL teacher when I was travelling in Spain a few years previously. I had also tutored English during my Erasmus year in France and really enjoyed it so when I saw the ad I figured what better time to get it done than when I’m stuck at home anyway! 

I purchased the 300-Hour TEFL bundle and jumped right in. The course was really easy to follow and nicely spaced out, with good support. I can’t remember exactly but I think it took me about six or eight weeks to complete. Once I finished the course, the real difficult part was deciding where I wanted to go and so I pretty much started applying everywhere I could think of.

My initial job searching wasn’t going very well truth be told. As I said, I wasn’t very specific on location but I knew I wanted to go to Asia as I had planned to travel the region before covid happened. I had applied to jobs in Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, even the Middle East but hadn’t heard much response. The most promising prospect was a job in Chongqing, China but this was in early 2021 so it was peak uncertainty for travel meaning the job kept getting delayed and eventually ended up cancelled. Feeling a bit disheartened, I went back to the TEFL Institute of Ireland to see if there was anything they could do to help, as they had their own jobs board advertised on the website. They told me they were facing similar issues with jobs in China but that they had an upcoming internship opportunity in Thailand which was reopening at the time and assured me they could get me out there and working in a matter of months. 

They were true to their word and in a shockingly quick turnaround I had a job lined up, visa sorted, and was researching flights to Bangkok.

Taking the job in Thailand was easily the most pivotal decision I’ve ever made in my life. While I was there I learned to ride a motorcycle, travelled the length and breadth of the country and completed my scuba diving certifications; both of which have resulted in incredible trips around the rest of Asia. 

Over the past four-ish years I’ve been to 13 different countries across East and South East Asia. I’ve trekked Everest base camp in Nepal, driven the length of Vietnam, slept in treehouses in Laos, dived some of the world’s best underwater sites in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and more. I’ve been to almost every province of China and skied the legendary powder of Japan. None of this would have been possible if I hadn’t taken the leap to start teaching abroad.

Most importantly though, my TEFL internship was a turning point for my career. My undergraduate degree was business and law and even during university I was very unsure about it and what I would do after. I very quickly fell in love with teaching and realized that this is what I should be doing and I’m still teaching four years later. Since my TEFL teaching in Thailand I’ve moved to China and furthered my qualifications and I now have a pretty solid teaching career in a prestigious international school, something I didn’t even fathom was possible back when I was first considering TEFL.

Yes and no. I’ve always been quite independent and had done a lot of solo travel before I started teaching but it definitely made me appreciate slow travel more. Previously, I had been so caught up in ‘ticking off countries’ that I would rush through destinations, just visiting highlights and moving on. Living and working in rural Thailand showed me that even the lesser known locations have so much to offer and I became much more interested in seeing how the local people live and interacting with locals along the way. 

As I said earlier, it was during my time in Thailand that I also fell in love with riding motorcycles and diving, so this has definitely become a focal point of my travels. I took an amazing three week road trip through Sri Lanka, and have done several road trips in China, including driving through the phenomenal areas of Guiyang and Western Sichuan along the road Tibet. As I write this I’m even on a six week motorcycle trip across Indonesia which has been a dream come true.

I do think that living and teaching in Asia has made me more conscious of my travel footprint too. It could be just down to maturing with age too but I’m far more aware of learning about local customs and cultural differences as I travel than I would have previously. It’s fascinating to see the differences, and even more so the similarities, between how people go about their life no matter where we’re from.

It’s honestly so difficult to choose. Everywhere has been so different and has so much to offer. I am probably biased towards China as it’s where I’ve spent the most time and where I’ve travelled the most extensively but it truly is such an incredible country. Every city and every province feel so different, with such variety in food, traditional clothing and culture, history etc. There’s so much to the country that we never hear of back home and I could spend years trying to understand it all.

Thailand is of course very special to me too. I absolutely loved living there and the people are some of the friendliest in the world. Like China, there’s so much to see, from pristine beaches in the South to lush jungle in the North and crowded cities like Bangkok. And I think the food speaks for itself. Just about everybody knows that Thai food is some of the best in the world, but living there gave me a chance to get to know so many dishes that people miss on a short trip. Khao Soi is still my all time favourite food, even after visiting so many other world class culinary destinations.

That being said, I think Nepal deserves an honorable mention. It was so different to anywhere else I’d been and trekking through the Himalayas and across glaciers to Annapurna base camp and Everest base camp is easily one of my fondest memories. The scenery is genuinely breathtaking (although so is the altitude so hard to say which was more influential). It’s also surprisingly cheap considering what it has to offer. I think the rules have changed since I was there but I did all my trekking without a guide so was spending barely anything day by day. I’d love to go back and visit again.

Too many to count! I’ve touched on a few above but specifically from teaching I think what stands out to me is how much I’ve been able to immerse myself in the different cultures and really get to know the people from Thailand and China. Through the schools you get involved in local festivals, invited to weddings, asked to join for dinners and home-cooked meals, and make lifelong friends. It’s been so fulfilling to get to know the students and see them progress too. 

I would say it’s that things have a way of working themselves out and learning to kind of go with the flow. Whether it’s my original job search or my initial struggles living in China; the first year was very difficult with language and cultural barriers, things never quite pan out how you expect them to but so often end up better than expected. 

Also I think you can’t really plan too far ahead. I remember I initially had this great ‘five year plan’ where I thought I would be in Asia for twelve to eighteen months, jump ship to South America for a year, leap across to the Middle East and be back home by the time I turn thirty. I’m almost thirty now and I haven’t even finished in Asia! Opportunities and challenges just sort of crop up along the way and you need to be adaptable to really make the best of it.

It wouldn’t be specific to my internship in Thailand but with life in general I would say to enjoy the moments while you’re in them. I have a bad habit of always looking to the next adventure and constantly planning what’s next and then only realizing how good something was after the fact. I still wrestle with this now and I have to often remind myself how far I’ve come and to look at how much I’ve achieved already. Mar a duirt an seanfhocal; “is glás iad na cnoic I bhfad uainn”.

Right now I’m in a hammock on a beach in rural Indonesia so my days are pretty slow but that’s far from typical! My usual days are a lot more “normal” lately. Teaching in the international school is a lot more work than my TEFL teaching was, with responsibilities like extra curriculars, parent meetings, and results focus. I live near the school so I don’t have to get up too early but my usual day starts around 8:15 and I’m in the classroom until 16:30. Depending on the day I usually have things to do after whether it be clubs and sports, corrections, or supervised study. It’s a lot of work but it’s very rewarding and it feels like a step in the right direction as to career progression. I also have a great group of colleagues to lean on and we regularly go for dinners, drinks, or out for activities on the weekends.

It sounds a bit strange to say I’m grateful for more work but after several years of moving constantly and life feeling like a massive extended holiday it’s nice to slow down for a while and feel somewhat settled. It feels a lot more like I really live here now rather than that I’m just visiting.

Absolutely! I’ve touched on a lot of it earlier but I never would have expected to be where I am now if I hadn’t started with TEFL teaching. My entire career and life trajectory is a result of that decision and being based in Asia has given me the chance to visit so many more places than I ever thought I would and even to discover so many I had never known about previously.

Where do I even start? In the short term I have a trip booked to India in a few weeks which I’m super excited about and then my parents will come to visit China for Christmas and I can’t wait to show them around.

Looking a bit further afield I am really eager to explore more of central Asia and the dream is to take my motorcycle from China on a massive road trip through the stans and further eastwards.

I still hope to make it to South America eventually too. When I eventually finish up in China, whenever that may be, I hope to move out that way and teach there for a while before thinking about settling somewhere long term. As I’ve said though, it’s been my experience that planning too far ahead rarely works out that way so we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens.

I think it’s a no-brainer to take the chance. You’ve really nothing to lose. I know people who came out for a year, taught and travelled, had an amazing time and then returned home and went right back to where they were but with a bank of life experience. Then there are those like me for whom TEFL teaching completely transformed their life and never went back. But I don’t think I know anyone who ever returned regretting it. At the end of the day there will always be more time to build a career, save for a house, or whatever else you fear you’ll fall behind on by taking a year or two out to travel and teach abroad but you can never get back the time you have in your twenties to explore the world.