Warning to potential teachers: DaNang has stricter requirements than anywhere else in Vietnam

It is quite popular for people to relocate to Vietnam for a few years or more and teach English. The jobs are plentiful and for the most part the requirements to get these jobs are only that you have a degree in almost anything and the ability to not completely suck at teaching English to Vietnamese children or adults. With kids it is more of a question of being able to play games, with adults it is a question of being able to not be patronizing but also make the lessons fun but not in a childish way. I found that I kind of picked up the skills as far as this is concerned along the way rather than preparing for them and I believe this is kind of expected.

There is an exception to how easy it can be to get these jobs though and not that long ago Da Nang decided to up the ante as far as the entry requirements are to teach at schools in this province. These rules do not exist in any other province that I am aware of.

src

I only teach for the sake of getting a resident card and I only do it on a very part-time basis. Some would say (and be correct) that my involvement with this language center is a workaround as far as visa laws are concerned because the school has an agreement with me that they do not pay me, even though they report that they do. Therefore they are not at all concerned about how many hours a month I do. It sounds dodgy, and it is.

There are other people here that actually do need to make money though and in the rest of Vietnam these jobs can be quite lucrative especially when you consider the very low cost of living that exists in this country. I know people all over Vietnam that teach in schools, language centers, and even universities that do not have the qualifications that would be necessary to have these jobs in their own countries. Almost all of these people would prefer to be living and working in Da Nang but they never have the chance to do so because Da Nang decided that they were going to go against the national policy and require that everyone teaching at a "real" school here in Da Nang would need to be a qualified teacher in their own country. Also, these schools mostly are only interested in you if you come from a native-English speaking country such as USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. I have heard stories that people from Ireland and especially South Africa have a difficult time landing these jobs because their accents are seen as "undesirable." This seems unfair to me because I know several Scottish people that I, a native-English speaker, have a very difficult time understanding.

src

The seriously competitive schools such as Singapore International School DaNang have such stringent requirements that only the best of the best need bother applying. Not only do you need to have the qualifications to teach in your own country, but you need references, years of experience, and sometimes even other qualifications such as having minored in a science or math as well. Very few people qualify for this job that are interested in living overseas from their own countries and if you don't have a degree in Education as well as many years of experience doing exactly that, you are wasting your time by even applying. These jobs have great salaries and the people who accept the jobs tend to stick around for a long time.

So for anyone out there that is considering coming to Da Nang in order to become a teacher and hang out for a while let this be your warning: The good jobs are something you are almost certainly not going to be eligible for. You can still probably get a job at a language center for something like $15 an hour but then your hours are going to be very variable and you won't have any sort of paid summer break either.

Da Nang is a wonderful place to live but for all of the ESL teachers out there thinking they can just drop by and land a job, this is true in other parts of Vietnam, but not here! You would be far better off seeking a job anywhere else in Vietnam because you are going to get substantially more "yeses" than you will ever find here in Da Nang.