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The best places to live as a Teacher

Anna Allgaier

13.02.23 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 2 minutes

Now as an adult-ish, I know that teaching is one of the most rewarding and important jobs out there. As a child, however, I was nothing short of satanic in the classroom. There are amends to be made.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Teacher, who has to deal with a lot. Don’t get me wrong, there are perks to the job - changing lives, showing off to your office worker friends when you have all summer off, etc etc. While that’s all good and dandy, let’s throw another perk in the mix…

Travelling the world.

I’ve put together a list of the best places to live as a teacher in the world, how to move abroad to teach English, paid teaching programmes abroad, and schools that sponsor international teachers.

Now, please, enjoy.

🤓Teach me how to get wise with my money 🤓

The best places for teachers to live in the world

Before we get into the how's, let's get into the why’s. Go Overseas put together a lovely list of the best countries to move to as a teacher for the people of the www. They’ve taken salary expectations, life quality, cost of living, cultural integration and career opportunities into consideration.
*P.S when looking at the monthly salaries, take living costs into consideration too.
** P.P.S probs still cheaper than London
*** P.P.P.S maybe it’s time for me to move
**** P.P.P.P.S 🥲

Best for finding a job - China

Turns out China’s one of the most popular places to move for English speaking teachers with an average monthly salary of 8,500-25,000 RMB (7,545.75 - 3,046.31 GBP) and a big pool of teaching opportunities that offer benefits such as paid flights and accommodation. Omg wow.

Best job benefits - South Korea

As an English speaking teacher in South Korea you could be taking home a monthly salary OF 1.5 million l-6.2 million KRW (985.65 - 4,074.02 GBP). The demand for English speaking teachers continues to go up up and away and the country is famous for going compensation crazy. Plus, Korean BBQ is a thing there, obviously. Plus plus K-beauty. So, yeah.

Best development opportunities - Japan

Food’s great, people are polite, nature’s gorgeous and the expat communities are humungo. You can expect a salary between 200,000- 600,000 JPY (1,261.28 - 3,783.84 GBP) and a big emphasis on growing within your career.

Best for multitasking as a traveller and a teacher - Vietnam

Vietnam is well known for being like mega, mega beautiful. They’re also big fans of work-life balance and with a low cost of living and decent salary you’ll have lots of time to soak up the country and channel your inner “gap year” traveller. Be ready to pocket 28,000,000-52,000,000 VND (981.80 - 1,823.39 GBP) a month.

Best for embracing the work-life balance - Spain

Ok so the 700-1,800 EUR a month (621.74 - 1,598.48 GBP) salary isn’t as banging but Spain is. Like a lot of sunny Europe, Spain appreciates working and relaxing in equal measure, especially over the summer months.

Best for a wow worthy salary - United Arab Emirates

All I’ll say is - 12,000-20,500 AED (2,704.68 - 4,620.49 GBP).

Moving abroad to teach English

Now that I’ve titillatet your travel tastebuds (why does that sound so gross), it’s time to look at things to think about before you dramatically hand in your notice and sassy walk out of that classroom. Here’s a snappy checklist for you:

Look at the options and speak to people who’ve made the move before you.
Do you need new qualifications? A lot of the time a TEFL certificate that qualifies you as someone who can teach English abroad, is required.
Check out average salaries, cost of living, how easy it is to find a flat, what bureaucracy you'll be faced with when you move
VISAS BABY
Get set up with an international debit card (hint hint Wise)

Schools that sponsor international Teachers

Finally, if like me, you’re a bit of a maverick and you want to go against the grain, kiss goodbye to the average job search and consider this….

You’ve done the TEFL test? Go you. Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that the trauma of sitting an exam again was all worth it. Why, you ask? Because government TEFL programmes offer English as a Second Language teachers placements around the world.

The programme stretches to countries like

Hungary
France
Spain
South Korea
Georgia
Japan

Such variety, such spice, we love it. YAS.

Some links to make the move easier

Your go-to checklist for travelling abroad
The easiest languages to learn vs the hardest
Teach English abroad - your full guide
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