Sorry, if this question gets asked a lot. But I’m just curious. How many people ever considered becoming a language teacher to travel the world. As someone who is interested in languages. I can see how this could be an ideal career if you want to travel the world.
Assuming you have a degree you can pretty much teach English all over the globe. Ofc, you might have to do it in person. But you can also tutor online and whatnot. Your not restricted to just an office space or whatever. Do people consider this career or are there major flaws in my thinking?
I was a language teacher for seven years and now work remotely in an applied linguistics related tech career. There are pros and cons to teaching abroad. Teaching can also be hard work if you take it seriously.
Teaching in person can lead to some well-paid opportunities depending on the country. Professional training gigs in corporate environments take some credibility to get but are usually much better than language schools. To work in a higher paid position in a private school or the like you’ll likely need an education degree or background. Demand and pay will depend a lot on the country ranging from very low to pretty solid for the local economy. You will get paid in local currency as well. Places that pay well will expect you to be pretty serious and are very wary of traveling backpacker teachers who stick around for a few weeks or months. They’ll want you to commit from 6 months to a year and in some cases will withhold pay if you break a contract. You also get an easy in to integrate into a local scene as you’ll have coworkers and places to go. You can also often get a longterm visa for places. It’s more of an expat lifestyle than a digital nomad lifestyle though.
In general, pay is best in East Asia and some parts of Southeast Asia. Eastern Europe can be good too though be wary of visa requirements and how likely jobs will be to sponsor you for a visa. Latin America is generally very low paid and not a great option unless you have an in for a better position.
Teaching online is more of a grind but also more flexible. Pay is often quite low and it can take some time to build up enough students to make a living. You’ll likely be paid by teaching hours online, you also need to be online and talking a lot to earn significant cash so you need a fair amount of space and reliable internet, etc., so in the end you’re pretty restricted to needing space. Some people I know have used online teaching as a supplemental side hustle so they don’t need to do so many hours. Editing and writing coaching can also be a more lucrative and less labor intensive way to earn money with your English skills.
My husband and I paid our way around the world for a year by teaching English online for a Chinese company. It had its pros and cons, but it worked out well in the end. This was before the pandemic though, and some policies have changed that would make it harder to do nowadays, but I think it can still be quite viable as a digital nomad job.
On my first year of remote working, I taught English online but eventually branched out because of the low-pay for non-natives
Yes, millions of people have done this.
It’s certainly a career. I wouldn’t call it ideal.