Recommendation I'm a failed-normie public school teacher on the verge of roping. Should I do TEFL?

Mr.FailedChad

Active Member
Mar 6, 2023
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Welcome to my blog post. Consider this my introduction to the board.

Five years ago I started teaching in a Title 1 school in Southern California. I'll spare you all the details since I'm sure most of you are familiar with just how dismal the American public education system is, but it's worth noting that over that time I went from being a fit, bright-eyed, optimistic, open-minded young teacher to a fat, alcoholic, depressed (and much more prejudiced) person. Worst of all, I've developed hypertension so I can't even drink anymore (God knows it was one of my favorite copes).

I want out and TEFL seems like a good way to do it. A lot of people would tell me to do international school but, truth be told, I really don't want to have that responsibility. I just want to work in a fly-by-night English center, go to the gym, meet a nice girl, and relax).

I'm going to put my stats below:
30 years old
White
Green/Hazel eyes
5'11 (6' in shoes)
245 pounds (I was 50 pounds lighter and muscular when I started teaching.)
5 years public school teaching experience
(Worthless) M.A. in Education

Where should I go? Thailand is the top of my list because, obvious reasons. Not to mention, I've been looking around on Ajarn and they have a really strong TEFL industry and some pretty not-too-stressful looking bilingual schools there.

My other option is to go move to some nice (i.e. mostly White and Asian) town somewhere in like Oregon or something but that wouldn't cure my loneliness. Frankly, I just want to kiss the West goodbye. The West is done and California has long been the canary in the coalmine.
 
You have experience teaching so definitely go TEFL, looksmax and go Thailand/Phillipines.
What is your body count OP?
 
You have experience teaching so definitely go TEFL, looksmax and go Thailand/Phillipines.
What is your body count OP?

I had two committed relationships while in college. The first lasted two years. The second only lasted one year. After that I tried dating a little bit but I've been mostly escortcel. I used to make regularly runs to Tijuana. Probably fucked over a dozen professionals there. It was nice but it's not something I'm interested in anymore. I want a committed relationship.
 
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TEFL i hear is fun, also can do volunteer farming on the side to have a place to sleep at eat. i thinks if WWOOF... good luck man i would do it too
 
TEFL i hear is fun, also can do volunteer farming on the side to have a place to sleep at eat. i thinks if WWOOF... good luck man i would do it too

Thanks man, I don't know about working on a farm but I do want to see the world and, at this point, I think I'll do whatever it takes to do it. Truth be told, this was probably where I was always going to end up. I would have done this a few years ago if it weren't for fucking COVID shutting down the whole world.
 
What age range did you teach?

I've mostly taught high school freshmen and sophomores (i.e. 14-16 for non North Americans). It's a good-enough age group to teach but I'm just burnt out. I'm burnt out by all the politics, equity ideology, bending-over-backward for IEPs/504s, obnoxious parents, and repressed sadness. Teaching is a very emotional job. You are dealing with very emotional people who don't have shit figured out yet. There are many good and rewarding moments, but there is also a lot of sadness, desperation, and stress. I think this generation of kids is more stressed and detached than any before. I really feel for the Zoomers.

And God forbid you ever try to leave. Other teachers will pull you back in. They don't want anyone escaping the plantation.

That said, I think I just want to find something authentic and something new. I don't think I ever really fit into North American culture. I was a whiteboy born not too far from the Mexican border and I went to school with a lot of Mexicans (For the record, I speak Mexican really well). As a teenager I started learning French, Latin, and Japanese. I got pretty advanced in the first and only mediocre in the latter two.

I think it was always going to end this way. When I started teaching, I knew I couldn't put up with it until retirement. I was honestly surprised to even get tenure (although I shouldn't have considering the turn-over at my school). Truth be told, I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it 30 years in this system. No way. No way. I'm off to greener pastures and, even if it all goes to shit, at least I'll have had an adventure and maybe even found someone to share it with along the way.
 
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Welcome to my blog post. Consider this my introduction to the board.

Five years ago I started teaching in a Title 1 school in Southern California. I'll spare you all the details since I'm sure most of you are familiar with just how dismal the American public education system is, but it's worth noting that over that time I went from being a fit, bright-eyed, optimistic, open-minded young teacher to a fat, alcoholic, depressed (and much more prejudiced) person. Worst of all, I've developed hypertension so I can't even drink anymore (God knows it was one of my favorite copes).

I want out and TEFL seems like a good way to do it. A lot of people would tell me to do international school but, truth be told, I really don't want to have that responsibility. I just want to work in a fly-by-night English center, go to the gym, meet a nice girl, and relax).

I'm going to put my stats below:
30 years old
White
Green/Hazel eyes
5'11 (6' in shoes)
245 pounds (I was 50 pounds lighter and muscular when I started teaching.)
5 years public school teaching experience
(Worthless) M.A. in Education

Where should I go? Thailand is the top of my list because, obvious reasons. Not to mention, I've been looking around on Ajarn and they have a really strong TEFL industry and some pretty not-too-stressful looking bilingual schools there.

My other option is to go move to some nice (i.e. mostly White and Asian) town somewhere in like Oregon or something but that wouldn't cure my loneliness. Frankly, I just want to kiss the West goodbye. The West is done and California has long been the canary in the coalmine.
Go to China
 
or you could just lose weight js
I'm currently working on that. Honestly, a big reason I want to go to Thailand is that I currently have enough saved to last about 6 months there. I'd like to spend that time working out and cutting weight. After that, I think I'll be able to make a much clearer decision about my career and life goals.
 
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I'm currently working on that. Honestly, a big reason I want to go to Thailand is that I currently have enough saved to last about 6 months there. I'd like to spend that time working out and cutting weight. After that, I think I'll be able to make a much clearer decision about my career and life goals.
It'll be harder to cut when you're surrounded by tons of yuumy street food just a heads up. And while sure it might be healthier asian food still has tons of salt and msg and other bad shit in their food
 
:ROFLMAO:
Pero en serio, porque quieres ir a tailandia en vez de ir al latam? Estoy convencido de que seria mas facil geomaxxear ahi cuando ya conoces la cultura y sabes el idioma.
Es verdad eso pero también siempre he querido ir a Asia (era bien weeb cuando estaba chiquito). Además, la industria TEFL está mucho más fuerte en Tailandia. Conozco a maestros de inglés en México que ni ganan suificiente pa vivir mientras en Tailandia (y otras partes de Asia) te pagan bien. Te cobras un buen estándar de vida. SI quisiera ir a América Latina tendría que encontrarme un trabajo en una escuela internacional pero no hay tantas y para las escuelas de allá es mucho más difícil contratar a profes del extranjero. Por un lado sé que tienes razón pero por otro lado quiero tener una aventura y conocer una parte del mundo que siempre me ha interesado.
 
You want to go to Vietnam for the TEFLing. It's the highest paid market outside of China, of which the TEFL industry has basically imploded, and since you have an actual degree, and a degree in education at that, you should be able to land a very good job with benefits at a prestigious institution instead of the shitty merry go round language centers and public schools.

Normally I try to steer young guys away from TEFLing because it is an awful waste of your life and its not actually a real industry and the jobs arent real either, but in your case you are an *actual* teacher, and stand to be able to make a decent living and build a life overseas if you so choose. That being said, some of the same advice applies: try to build a secondary skill before you go. Marketing, programming - something, in case the industry collapses, or you get sick of teaching.

Yes Thailand has awesome whoremongering, but the TEFL scene is abusive precisely because every phaggot on the planet wants to be there and fund the beer and ladyboys lifestyle. The thais are well aware and know there is no shortage of white man anytime soon, so they will treat you accordingly. OTOH: again, you having an actual education degree changes the landscape considerably. Most people in TEFL are either high school dropouts or they have some irrelevant mickey mouse degree like marketing or gender studies. I can't speak to what the job opportunities look like for serious teachers in Thailand.
 
You want to go to Vietnam for the TEFLing. It's the highest paid market outside of China, of which the TEFL industry has basically imploded, and since you have an actual degree, and a degree in education at that, you should be able to land a very good job with benefits at a prestigious institution instead of the shitty merry go round language centers and public schools.

Normally I try to steer young guys away from TEFLing because it is an awful waste of your life and its not actually a real industry and the jobs arent real either, but in your case you are an *actual* teacher, and stand to be able to make a decent living and build a life overseas if you so choose. That being said, some of the same advice applies: try to build a secondary skill before you go. Marketing, programming - something, in case the industry collapses, or you get sick of teaching.

Yes Thailand has awesome whoremongering, but the TEFL scene is abusive precisely because every phaggot on the planet wants to be there and fund the beer and ladyboys lifestyle. The thais are well aware and know there is no shortage of white man anytime soon, so they will treat you accordingly. OTOH: again, you having an actual education degree changes the landscape considerably. Most people in TEFL are either high school dropouts or they have some irrelevant mickey mouse degree like marketing or gender studies. I can't speak to what the job opportunities look like for serious teachers in Thailand.
I've heard that Vietnam is very good (all of SE Asia seems to be the best right now as far as pay is concerned). That said, other than Apollo English I'm not too familiar with the EFL/ESL chains they have there. You seem quite familiar on the topic so are there any you recommend? In particular, what are the best sites to find jobs in Vietnam (other than Dave's ESL)?
 
I've heard that Vietnam is very good (all of SE Asia seems to be the best right now as far as pay is concerned). That said, other than Apollo English I'm not too familiar with the EFL/ESL chains they have there. You seem quite familiar on the topic so are there any you recommend? In particular, what are the best sites to find jobs in Vietnam (other than Dave's ESL)?

Bro 99% of the teaching jobs in vietnam are on facebook. Viets fucking love facebook.

At the end of the day most of them are the same. If you end up posted at a good school where the teachers enforce standards and the kids are well behaved, its cruisy. If you end up at one where the teachers dont care and the kids are all retarded, which is a lot of them, you will want to commit genocide (in minecraft)

I would recommend getting in contact with this guy/buying his service. https://www.youtube.com/@rebornabroad/featured
Unfortunately he nuked his previous youtube channel which is a crying shame since it was the most abundant, no bullshit, ubiquitous vlog resource of everything about working in vietnam. However he still runs the service where he hooks you up with everyone you would ever need - visa agents (most important), rental people, employers and so on.
 
Bro 99% of the teaching jobs in vietnam are on facebook. Viets fucking love facebook.

At the end of the day most of them are the same. If you end up posted at a good school where the teachers enforce standards and the kids are well behaved, its cruisy. If you end up at one where the teachers dont care and the kids are all retarded, which is a lot of them, you will want to commit genocide (in minecraft)

I would recommend getting in contact with this guy/buying his service. https://www.youtube.com/@rebornabroad/featured
Unfortunately he nuked his previous youtube channel which is a crying shame since it was the most abundant, no bullshit, ubiquitous vlog resource of everything about working in vietnam. However he still runs the service where he hooks you up with everyone you would ever need - visa agents (most important), rental people, employers and so on.
i want to go to one where i can fuck vietnamese girls
 
i want to go to one where i can fuck vietnamese girls

If you're white thats literally everywhere in vietnam. Even average looking white guys have it easy there. If you're actually making any effort towards your appearance at all and are in good shape, holy shit.
 
If you're white thats literally everywhere in vietnam. Even average looking white guys have it easy there. If you're actually making any effort towards your appearance at all and are in good shape, holy shit.
have you been there? i get zero attention from vietnanese girls in the us and i live in asian capital of california. this counts fobs.
 
In the end, what was it that compelled you to leave? Was it the coof?

The coof was the nail in the coffin, but I had my fill well before that. It's very easy for the fly by night types who are more or less living as illegal immigrants, to see VN as just a chill party place but when you actually try to build a real life there and interact with the system in a meaningful way, you quickly get reminded that it is indeed a socialist shithole.

I also never felt comfortable being an English teacher there, like the bottom might fall out any second (as it did in China). Its why I bang on to the young fellas so much about having a location-independent skillset BEFORE you go.
 
The coof was the nail in the coffin, but I had my fill well before that. It's very easy for the fly by night types who are more or less living as illegal immigrants, to see VN as just a chill party place but when you actually try to build a real life there and interact with the system in a meaningful way, you quickly get reminded that it is indeed a socialist shithole.

I also never felt comfortable being an English teacher there, like the bottom might fall out any second (as it did in China). Its why I bang on to the young fellas so much about having a location-independent skillset BEFORE you go.
This makes sense. Thanks for replying.
 
The coof was the nail in the coffin, but I had my fill well before that. It's very easy for the fly by night types who are more or less living as illegal immigrants, to see VN as just a chill party place but when you actually try to build a real life there and interact with the system in a meaningful way, you quickly get reminded that it is indeed a socialist shithole.

I also never felt comfortable being an English teacher there, like the bottom might fall out any second (as it did in China). Its why I bang on to the young fellas so much about having a location-independent skillset BEFORE you go.
What are you doing now? Just working 9 to 5 office job in the west? @Mark_Rippetoe
 
What are you doing now? Just working 9 to 5 office job in the west? @Mark_Rippetoe
Pretty much, yep. I'm contemplating getting a trade under my belt, welding perhaps. I honestly believe there is a titanic level iceberg coming for this economy and it is going to brutally wipe out anyone who doesn't have a highly essential skill. We've already seen the beginning of massive layoffs of the high paid but fake make work positions in tech, there will be blood.
 
:ROFLMAO:
Pero en serio, porque quieres ir a tailandia en vez de ir al latam? Estoy convencido de que seria mas facil geomaxxear ahi cuando ya conoces la cultura y sabes el idioma.
Pudiera ascender facilmente en Argentina o Uruguay.
 
Pudiera ascender facilmente en Argentina o Uruguay.
mido 190cm pero soy medio asiatico, piensas que puedo hacerlo? tmb he leido q argentina no es tan facil para slayear (jfl) y en realidad tiene un nivel de dificultad igual a los eeuu (incluso puede q sea mas dificil)
 
mido 190cm pero soy medio asiatico, piensas que puedo hacerlo? tmb he leido q argentina no es tan facil para slayear (jfl) y en realidad tiene un nivel de dificultad igual a los eeuu (incluso puede q sea mas dificil)
No creo que Argentina sea más difícil que los EEUU. EEUU en las partes homogéneas blancas como en la región sur y el medio oeste JFL, es modo infierno para ligar como Latino. Los países latinos, no tanto ya que no están en competencia con Gigachads rubios y altos con buena structures en la cara. Respectivamente, Toronto en Canadá y el Reino Unido son los lugares más difíciles para cualquier hombre poder ligar y esto incluye a los Chads
 
Where are u bhai? I guess teachermaxxxing keeps u busy jfl @Mr.FailedChad

At this point I find myself pulled between two options.

On one hand, I could make myself part of the international school circuit. For those not in the know, there are several big-name recruiting agencies for international schools (Schrole, Search Associates, AMISA, etc). However, it's a very bureaucratic system and you have to apply a year out. As it stands, I've been actively reviewing job opportunities with each one.

That said, another part of me is looking at domestic relocation. Teacher salaries in California are high, but the cost of living is even higher. I want to own a house in a not-too-big town. I'm actively looking at New Mexico and Texas but I've also considered the Midwest. One of my goals for this year is to travel more within the USA so I can get a better picture of what I want.
 
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