TESOL teaching

@brianAFSER73 A peculiarity of the Vietnamese ESL market is that it is almost all face to face hiring.  The only exceptions might be those with considerable overseas experience and experienced teachers applying to international schools for general teaching jobs.   Glancing at your other posts may I ask a question:   Are you an ethnic Viet born in the US?   If so that could be part of your problem, especially if you have a Vietnamese family name.   However I do think you could overcome that by coming to Vietnam and just "pounding the pavement."

As far as football, assuming you mean the game in which people actually use their feet , you may be able to find volunteer work but I don't know about paid.   Many of my middle school students played in football leagues after school, but the teams were not associated with the school. 

Also if you are applying in writing, you might want to employ capitalization.

@THIGV

Well now, that's a fairly bold post.

brianAFSER73, I'm also surprised that you have been unable to find something because I had no problem starting teaching for VUS in Sài Gòn .   Moreover, at the time, I only had a TESOL certificate and all of my experience was adult ESL.  If you're still serious about teaching, try getting more experience in the US and investigate teaching various methodologies such as CELTA etc. etc.  In addition, many of the schools use specific textbooks, and as you know Vietnamese think and learn differently.

Good luck

    @THIGVWell now, that's a fairly bold post.        -@Aidan in HCMC

Not sure how that happened but I am typing one handed with my right due to a recent operation on the left.  At least it wasn't ALL CAPS. 

@THIGV

Hello, sorry about that !

We are experiencing some technical issues with quotes and the formatting.

We are trying to fix it.

Regards

Bhavna

@markbruns hey, tks mark. welk my work background was in the business prifessional. did taught ESL at community center to newly arrived immigrants but not much formal accredited curriculum based program. i didn't think schools in vn would  want that much of experience in the education field, otherwise them, german and eastern european would't any offer.

-@brianAFSER73

Why did you change your username?

Why is your English composition so horrible in a thread where you are attempting to argue why you should be hired as an English teacher?

What does bilingual mean?

If I were listening to you right now would your English pronunciation/enunciation skills impress me, or would I hear a heavy accent; the type of accent which any Vietnamese English teacher in Vietnam already brings to the table?

THIGV hit the nail on the head in mentioning the importance of face-to-face  teaching employment searches here.

Unfortunately, anecdotal reports suggest that Caucasian faces do have an advantage in the English teaching job market.

I'm not saying that's right.

Just saying, it's apparently so...

    @markbruns hey, tks mark. welk my work background was in the business prifessional. did taught ESL at community center to newly arrived immigrants but not much formal accredited curriculum based program. i didn't think schools in vn would  want that much of experience in the education field, otherwise them, german and eastern european would't any offer.
   

    -@brianAFSER73

Hopefully no prospective employer is reading this. 

        @markbruns hey, tks mark. welk my work background was in the business prifessional. did taught ESL at community center to newly arrived immigrants but not much formal accredited curriculum based program. i didn't think schools in vn would  want that much of experience in the education field, otherwise them, german and eastern european would't any offer.         -@brianAFSER73

Hopefully no prospective employer is reading this.  -@THIGV

I did has the same thought

@THIGV

hi there, THIGV. thank you for your comment and suggestion. i didn't know there was any negative sentiment coming from school HR toward prospective English teaching job applicant whose ethnicity might be vietnamese american. i thought they would place premium in finding and hiring qualified teacher who is also immersed and fluent in both cultures and languages. after all, isn't it a fact that that 90% of teacher of english at the public  primary and secondary schools level in viet nam are vietnamese whose english is not their everyday spoken language. on the other hand, typically, private western school, usualy hire foreign teacher.

as for my using football as a metaphor as in teaching English. Although i play the sport but i am not certified as a coach, as i am in teaching English. as for capitalized punctuation, i type on my mobil phone tiny keyboard, so it isn't very responsive and proned to prefill word and punctuation.

@markbruns

hey mark, thanks for the comment. i too had ESL teaching experience here in the state, beside college grad level degree. do school there use a specific textbook. that is even better for prospective teacher to teach base on existing curriculum.

@OceanBeach92107

Gee, grammar police. cut me some slack. i am on my mobile phone tiny keyboard,  where my finger straddle over 3 key strokes. btw, oceanbeach, HAVE not has ( that's for 3rd person singular pronoun) proper grammar, native speaker, you 😏

@OceanBeach92107

thanks oceanbeach. as for the forum user name. i have been trying to search and reconnect with long lost members of my foreign exchange student buddies from long ago, hoping expat  active in this forum might recognize me by that user name, hence AFSER and year 1973.

as for teaching job qualification, i am not one of those western backpacker needing spending monies by staying there and teach. i am actually certified as TESOL (teaching English to speaker of other language). as for english accent fluency, i am not as bad as former U.S secretary of state, Henry Kissinger heavy german accent. i wonder how NVN's diplomat could make head or tail of what kissinger wanted to say. 😅. finally, the only solace i take  of your suggestion as constructive and positive was to beat the pavement and meet face to face, to which i concur. tks.

    @THIGVhi there, THIGV. thank you for your comment and suggestion. i didn't know there was any negative sentiment coming from school HR toward prospective English teaching job applicant whose ethnicity might be vietnamese american. i thought they would place premium in finding and hiring qualified teacher who is also immersed and fluent in both cultures and languages. after all, isn't it a fact that that 90% of teacher of english at the public  primary and secondary schools level in viet nam are vietnamese whose english is not their everyday spoken language. on the other hand, typically, private western school, usually hire foreign teacher. as for my using football as a metaphor as in teaching English. Although i play the sport but i am not certified as a coach, as i am in teaching English. as for capitalized punctuation, i type on my mobil phone tiny keyboard, so it isn't very responsive and proned to prefill word and punctuation.         -@brianAFSER73

First you need to understand that English instruction in Vietnam is given in two tracks.  One is in public schools where the English teachers are Vietnamese and their ability ranges from fluent to stilted.  They use the same set of textbooks everywhere from Phú Quốc Island to the border with China and they are not very good.    A few progressive principals may break away and have more advanced students using western published ESL books but most use the state provided texts.

The other track is language centers which are for profit businesses, which provide lessons from preschool to early teen students on weekends and adults and high school students in the evenings.  These range from large national chains (franchise model mostly) to small single location places.  The latter can be hit or miss as far as quality.  I worked at an AMA school which is an oft-criticized chain but my school had an excellent owner who has since broken away and now runs what I am sure is a fine independent center.   Where the prejudice against Vietnamese-Americans (and others) is at the centers and it does not so much come from the school as it does from parents who think incorrectly that their children need blue eyed instructors.   My school had two Vietnamese born instructors.  One was a graduate of Michigan State who has since move on to more lucrative businesses and the other was a young lady, who as far as I know never lived anywhere other than Vietnam but spoke native-sounding English.   Both were employed to teach the most basic level beginners, except the young lady also tutored IELTS writing.   However as noted, the center owner was very progressive.

Where the two tracks intersect is that the centers with a large enough number of teachers contract with the public schools, usually at the district level, to provide instructors.  These teachers typically are used one day a week per class to teach pronunciation and conversation.   Some foreign teachers don't like this work but I did.  We had a break room at the school I taught, where we interacted with the local teachers, particularly those who were striving to improve their teaching.  I was married at the time, but for a few it was a way to meet well educated English speaking Vietnamese women.

I don't think I directly addressed your concerns but understanding the structure may help you understand the problem.  I really think that you will be able to overcome the prejudice against overseas Viet teachers but you will have to go to Vietnam to do it.  If you can, try to get a VEC (Visa Exemption Certificate) which will allow you six month stays without departing the country.   You can find more information on the VEC on this forum and on the Viet Consulate websites.   Let me recommend the San Francisco Consulate unless you live very close to one of the others.   That should give you plenty of time to get oriented and employed.

@THIGV

thank you THIGV. very informative information on the lucrative english teaching business in viet nam and asia in general.  it's jarring to hear that vietnamese folks are bias against teacher whose ancestry is vietnamese, despite these teachers are every bit like native speaker other than skin tone.  well, like you suggest, i plan to go there and meet them in person. but first i would need to know where to start as in prospective school,  location and contact person. i heard western private school like newton in ha noi, or the MPU school chain in Da nang, and HCMC. besides these, are there other you might recommend. thanks again for very informative reply.

Do you have relatives still in Vietnam?  While of course you don't want relatives taking advantage of you, or the opposite for that matter, going to your parents' former home town could give you a good jumping off point, unless it is exceptionally rural.   Hanoi, DaNang, and HCMC are quite different with respect to both the weather and the people so it's like apples, oranges, and avocados.   I think you are soon approaching the Nike point.   That is where you have to "Just Do It."

    @OceanBeach92107
Gee, grammar police. cut me some slack. i am on my mobile phone tiny keyboard,  where my finger straddle over 3 key strokes. btw, oceanbeach, HAVE not has ( that's for 3rd person singular pronoun) proper grammar, native speaker, you 😏
   

    -@brianAFSER73

You obviously don't recognize sarcasm.

Normally we cut almost everyone slack.

But when the subject is your difficulty getting responses to professional employment inquiries, cutting you slack only reinforces the behavior which may be a key cause of your problem.

Treat us with the same respect you should be affording prospective employers.

Otherwise, you and other job seekers will almost certainly continue to receive constructive (and sometimes sarcastic) criticism of the way you present yourself here.

I truly do hope you have success.

@THIGV

THIGV, i got folks still in DN, and QT province, but i am not expecting much help from them. you had mentioned about a couple of teachers at your center 1 was a michigan state grad. sound like the owner is more open minded, what is your center called? do they have branch in DN or HN. HCMC is a bit too cosmopolitant, too urban for my peasant root. tks for the tip