Unemployed American? Teach English Overseas!

English is the International language of the world and if you know it you can travel and do business all over the world. Because of this, it's desired by many and native English speaking teachers -- especially Americans -- are highly prized for their accents and conversational skills.

Many schools recruit native speakers of English to work in private schools and public universities all over the world. Many times locals will teach basic English skills, vocabulary and pronunciation, but accents and conversational skills are left up to native speaking "experts."

What does it pay?

If you are looking for good pay, South Korea and China are top locations. But before we get into pay, lets talk about expenses. If you work as a manager at McDonalds (MCD) or Walmart (WMT) for a year, you may make $40K, but most people will end up spending $36K or more. Your annual savings, what you really made, $4K in this case is very low.

The better paid programs in China and South Korea pay up to $1,000 to $2,000 a month, but living expense come in extremely low at a few hundred dollars a month because of cost of living there is so low. Many of the programs include room and board, and when you want to go out, it only costs the equivalent of a dollar or two in the local currency. If you are able to make $12K a year and spend only $2K, you are much further ahead of earning $40K and spending $36K. That is $10,000 versus $4,000 in savings!

Quality varies ...

If you are interested in doing something like this, it pays to do your homework, as western standards, laws, and traditions do not apply. In some of the better programs you may be at a university with a beautiful apartment full of western amenities, talking to upper level college students who know basic grammar better than you for a 10 hours a week with assistant teachers aiding you. In some of the poorer programs, you may land in a poor, unsanitary apartment, work 40+ hours a week teaching spoiled one-child brats with bad curriculum at a private school, and have your pay docked when you attempt to discipline or complain to local school administrators.

Traveling to and living in a foreign country requires a level of patience as food, language, working conditions, culture, laws and customs all vary. Any job can be good or bad, depending on what a person makes of it, but this is one job opportunity open to every native speaker. With high unemployment rates at home, those with an adventurous spirit and interested in other cultures might find a unique opportunity half a world away.