Edmonton Journal
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Page: D6
Section: Ed
Byline: Olivia Cheng
Dateline: EDMONTON
Source: The Edmonton Journal

WANNA TEACH? BETTER DO YOUR HOMEWORK

EDMONTON - "TEACH ENGLISH OVERSEAS!! MAKE LOTS OF MONEY & TRAVEL!!!" exclaims the pink flyer pasted to a Jasper Avenue street lamp.

It's a small sign of a booming industry that lures thousands of young Albertans overseas every year with the promise of paid adventure in a foreign land. Exciting, to be sure. Risky? Well, that depends on your stomach for the unknown.

Sheri Kowalchuk stumbled into "tons of opportunities" two years ago while visiting friends in Seoul. With no guidance from a placement agency and no education degree, diploma or certificate to speak of, the 26-year-old landed a lucrative $40-an-hour gig.

"It just kind of fell into my lap," she recalls. "I think it's almost better to go there and feel it out for yourself -- even though it's almost scarier at first."

A number of companies that help clients kickstart their overseas careers say it's crucial to do your homework beforehand. At the top of their list is taking a Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) course which can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 depending on the institution.

"It makes you more employable," says Savannah Durkee of Canadian Global TESOL. "It's an investment that is going to come back tenfold almost right away for you, in the sense that you're going

to make your money back in your first month teaching."

Generally, the courses cover classroom management and lesson planning, cross-cultural communication, dealing with culture shock and conducting job research. "Imagine if I dropped you in the middle of Beijing today and I put you in a school in front of a class of 30 children who don't know what you're saying when you go, 'Hi! My name is ...' " says Durkee. "What would you do?"

That's the situation Kowalchuk faced the first time she stepped in front of her curious kindergarten class. "They don't see many white people. They'd all giggle and talk about me in Korean because they knew I couldn't understand them." Despite the cultural divide, she soon found her footing in the classroom with the help of teaching material her employers provided. Notes Kowalchuk: "I don't see how taking an ESL course before I left would've helped. You just taught from lesson books."

But Emily Lee of Oxford Seminars argues that taking a TESL course can protect people from the contractual "traps you can potentially get yourself into." Durkee says she helps clients steer clear of questionable contracts, while encouraging them to negotiate perks like airfare and accommodation.

"Are they going to provide medical (benefits)? Are they going to provide you with time off? Is it paid time off? And are they going to provide you with a completion bonus?"

Every last detail needs to be clarified, Durkee says, including the kind of hours you work and where you work them.

"For instance they could say, 'Oh, we want you to work 40 hours,' " explains Lee. "But if they don't stipulate, when you get there it could be like, 'Work 20 hours here, and then we want you to work another 20 at another school.' " She adds that "once you've signed that contract, we have nothing to do with the contract itself. So if there are problems, the individual should be contacting the recruiter."

Nightmarish placements were all too common while Kowalchuk was in Korea. "I heard about lots of bad experiences from people who went there with an agency and didn't know what they were getting into," she recalls. "The conditions they lived in or the areas they lived in (weren't) what they expected and they ended up quitting those jobs and just going and finding their own positions."

Avoiding such shady situations can start with picking the right company to guide you on your way. But Lee concedes it's a buyer beware market because "anybody can actually open a TESL

company in Canada and it's not regulated by the government."

The bottom line? Research, research, research! "What you really want to look for is a company that's reputable, who's been in business for quite some time," Lee advises. "And I think people should be wary of companies that offer online courses because online courses are not reputable."

Durkee agrees placements can go terribly wrong. She once had a husband and wife couple who flew to Thailand and ended up sleeping on the beach when their employers neglected to pick them up from the airport. But she says TESL training can go a long way in preparing people for worst-case scenarios.

"Let's say someone ends up in Taiwan and it

doesn't work out for them. They're already there, they've got their working visa or they've got a tourist visa. What they can do is actually look for another school while they're there," she explains.

"At minimum, they should at least know where the consulate or Canadian embassy is, possibly there may be a course of action they can take against the school. If you are in a desperate situation and need a place to stay they may be able to provide you with some sort of assistance."

ocheng@thejournal.canwest.com
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