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Not Luxe ☼ Travel
  • ABOUT NICK & RAYCHEL
  • WHY “NOT LUXE”
  • Cambodia
  • Australia
  • Travel
  • Teaching ESL
  • Move Abroad
  • Travel Insurance

teach english abroad no degree

    Teaching English Online Vs. Teaching English Abroad

    Teaching English Online vs. Teaching Abroad

    by Nick & Raychel August 30, 2019

    You know you want to you know you want to travel and you’re thinking about teaching English. Amazing! That’s where I was in December of 2017 when I decided to blindly take a TEFL course in hopes of creating a new life for myself. Now, nearly two years later, I’ve lived in 3 different countries teaching English abroad, both in person and online.

    After receiving my TEFL certification, I had two options: teach English online, or move abroad to teach English. Regardless, I knew I wasn’t going to do it in the same old city I had been living in for the past five years. So that’s when I made the call: I moved to Cambodia to teach English.

    I fell in love with teaching ESL to children, and that’s why I’m still here today teaching English online. 

    In this blog, I will tell you about what I’ve experienced on both ends in terms of job security, income, personal connection and preference. Hopefully it will help you decide whether you want to travel abroad to teach English in-class, or rather, set up on an online platform and bring your classroom around the world with you.


    Prefer to listen / not read? Same. Find the topic on our YouTube channel here.

    So here we go: the pros and cons of teaching in-class abroad vs. teaching online. 


    Pros: Teaching abroad in-class | Connecting with the students 

    • In a classroom, you really get to know the students. You get to spend more time with them. It’s just the truth.
    • I spent roughly 10 hours a day with the same 25 students. Now, we all know that if you spend 10 hours a day with anyone, you really get to understand who they are.
    • You get the chance to learn all of their quirks, little signals, emotions, how they started their day, what they ate that day, and other contributing factors that make it easier to teach them properly and effectively.
    • You get to sit down and speak with their parents. I had the opportunity to talk to the parents in-depth about the children’s goals, dreams, and things we had to work on. I built a trusting relationship with the parents, which made my job a whole lot easier. 

    This is not to say you cannot connect with students online. You can certainly connect with students online, especially if they are your regulars! That said, I would be lying if I didn’t say I really miss giving students real-life high fives, not just over the screen.


    Pros: Teaching English online | Flexibility

    • Let’s go back to when I said I was working roughly 10 hours a day in Cambodia. Yep, I would get to school around 6:00am and leave around 5:45pm. 
    • You’ve heard it before. Obviously a huge benefit of teaching English online is that you get to choose your own hours.
    • On the platform I’m on, I get to pick my own schedule – so I have the opportunity to get what I put into it. Sometimes I spent 8+ hours a day, tweaking my profile, creating live videos, and trying to attract new students. That’s my choice. If I wanted to work just two hours a day, however, I could.
    • You can just close your hours if you need some time off or if you’re planning on travelling to a place that you know will have weak WiFi.

    The downside of this is that if you’re booking regular students, you might lose them if you have an inconsistent schedule. The most successful teachers on online ESL platforms have their schedules open during consistent hours, so it’s clear to the students when that teacher could be booked.

    That said, you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to! If you want to have close your time slots, you can do that at any time. This would be a huge perk while traveling, especially if you were planning to travel to a place that has weak WiFi.


    Cons: Online | Waking up for peak hours

    • If you really want to succeed as an online teacher, you need to be available when the students want to learn – easy, right? 
    • Since I live in Canada, I wake up at 3am to be online at the peak hours for students in Beijing. I stay awake for 4 hours then I sleep during the early afternoon and I’m back online from 5pm-9pm which is the other batch of peak hours.

    If I were to be living in China, or even Australia, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Since I’m on the other side of the pond, I’ve really had to adjust my sleep schedule and lifestyle around the job. 


    Pros: Online | Location flexibility

    • You can work from anywhere you want as long as you have a good Wifi connection. Enough said.

    Pros: In-class | Culture experience

    • Teaching abroad in Cambodia really gave us a good insight on the Khmer culture and what it was like to work abroad. 
    • We were able to really immerse ourselves, learn some of the language, get to know family dynamics, meet local friends and travel outside the country when we had our specified time off.
    • We built a community and were able to feel like we were really contributing to the country we were living in.

    I think if I had taught English online the first time I was living in Cambodia, I would’ve felt like I was missing the experience of getting to know the country and would’ve felt like less of a “local”. 

    Hey, that’s just me.


    Pros: In-class | Job security

    • One of the reasons we chose Cambodia to teach English is because we were qualified to teach there without a 4-year bachelor degree.
    • We both have college educations and TEFL certificates, but Nick went to trade school and I went to art school, so we have diplomas and tickets rather than bachelors degrees.
    • The requirements are changing in China all of the time. There are constantly rumours about the Chinese government cracking down. If the rumours prove true, and a 4-year bachelors degree is ever required for the platform I teach on, I will lose my job.

      I think you can understand why that would be unsettling.
    • The rules are also very specific and strict on online platforms and they vary. There’s little empathy for when you need to cancel a class during an emergency. You may even get put on the bad list if your wifi keeps dropping out. This would not be ideal whilst travelling, especially if you’re going to new places where you’re unsure about the WiFi.

    Generally speaking, when you’re teaching in-class, you will sign a standard contract. As long as you abide by the contract, you will not have to worry about losing your job. Online teaching platforms do not always provide that type of security for you. 


    Pros: In-class | Income security

    • If we’re comparing my wage in Cambodia vs. my wage online, I put in many less hours for my pay now (teaching online) than I was putting in in-class (teaching abroad).
    • You get what you put in when it comes to online teaching, but I always knew what my paycheck was going to be in Cambodia.
    • Since I’m new at online teaching, I don’t have a regular clientele, so my wages will vary each month. They will likely vary forever.

      Especially being a new teacher, I frankly worry I will lose students and one day wake up with no bookings. It is a possibility, especially with the online market becoming more saturated.

      Although this won’t necessarily happen, it was nice to know what my monthly salary would be each month so I knew I could make rent.

    Pros: Online | Income 

    • The income can really be a pro or a con, depending on where you live.

    For example: In Cambodia, I was making 1,200 USD/month and working 10 hour days. To make the same amount now, I would only need to work about 19 hours a week.

    That said, 1,200 USD a month isn’t enough to live in Vancouver, so I do need to get full-time online teaching hours, which is easier said than done.

    Remember, we’re talking about SE Asia vs. Canada here which is a huge jump in cost of living. 

    This would be a whole different ballpark if you’re considering teaching in-class English in a country like South Korea or Japan.


    So what wins?

    I don’t regret teaching in-class. Teaching in-class is what made me fall in love with teaching English. If you’ve never taught before, and you’re seriously considering teaching ESL for a while, I would really recommend teaching English abroad.

    That said, I’m working on building a consistent clientele online so I can work from anywhere in the world, and have time to work on other things like this blog and our YouTube Channel.


    Right now, I’m teaching English online on Palfish and it has been wonderful so far.  I’ll be doing a write-up on the Palfish requirements and how I got accepted onto the platform very soon. 

    If you’re interested in teaching in Palfish, you can apply using my referral code: 02851747 or by clicking this link. 

    Disclaimer: If you use this referral code, I will receive a bonus at no cost to you.


    As always, you can reach out to us on Instagram @notluxxe. We take pride in responding to every single DM. 

     

    Want to move abroad but you’re broke AF? Read this article to find out how we did it. Trust me – we were in the same boat.

    Does teaching in Cambodia appeal to you? It did to us! Find our blog: How to move to Cambodia and teach English

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Nick & Raychel
Nick & Raychel

In 2018, we sold everything we owned and moved to Cambodia to teach English.

Let’s make this clear: this journey didn’t start with money. This journey started with a desire to see the world and to do something different for a change.

We’re not going to fool you with photos of floating breakfasts and private jets. We know what it’s like to be on a budget. Although we like to take pretty pictures, we aren’t going to wake up at an ungodly hour to give you unachievable travel jealousy. We aren’t going to censor ourselves or lie to you.

What we are going to do is stay in cheap hostels, find ways to make money, give the advice that we would want to hear, and share our experiences with you honestly.

Are you in?

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ABOUT NICK & RAYCHEL

About Us Hi! We’re Nick & Raychel, the Canadian travel couple behind the brand ‘Not Luxe’. Far before we were married (and on a mission to see the world), we were working…

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  • This summer has been filled with a lot of hard work so we can continue the adventure.

Working odd jobs and picking up work that we aren’t necessarily *passionate* about (sorry to break it to you, Santa, I didn’t love being a Christmas elf at the mall during the holidays) isn’t always easy.

Working hours at the office, doing data entry, reception, and cleaning out the fridge every Friday isn’t exactly my idea of fun. Nick doesn’t love driving a truck for 11 hours a day, or getting home at 1am. 

But we are committed to the cycle, we are passionate about alternative living, and we want to see the world.

We don’t work hard so that we can have a margarita at the beach (although that’s fun too), we work hard so that we can experience different cultures, try different cuisines, learn about different climates, connect, and grow as people.

Travel to us is more than bright blue waters and aesthetic IG photos, it’s about the experience, and we can’t wait to see more.

__

➟ follow @nickandraychel // full-time van life & budget travel 

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  • Yeah, the first ever “odd job” I took in order to afford travel was as a Christmas Elf at the mall.

I worked this job on top of my regular 9-5 so that I could afford to pay off my existing credit card debt and move to Cambodia. It was my first step away from the ‘big girl jobs’ I was used to working, but I had a dream to live abroad and a bank account that didn’t match, so I had to do something about it.

The next few jobs I’ve done either part or full time over the years.

💻 REV: I’ve worked as a transcriber on Rev for a few years now. The pay isn’t great, but I’m a super fast typist (80 wpm who!?) so I figured it could be a way to pass the time & earn extra income.

🐶 Rover: This summer, we’ve ventured into caring for dogs on Rover. While we can’t do this in our van, we are currently staying with my brother and between all of us, there’s always a dog here. If I had learned about Rover prior to moving out of our apartment, I would have definitely offered my services years ago.

👩‍🏫 Teaching English online: Many people know that we taught English overseas - but only long-time followers of the YouTube channel would know that teaching ESL was my job beyond that. Unfortunately there were major pay cuts within the company that I worked for (PalFish) so I quit, but I still teach on Cambly and Outschool (more on that in part 2).

We don’t have a lot of money but we have expensive dreams, so we’ll do anything to make it work. What odd jobs have you done to earn some extra cash?

➟ follow @nickandraychel // full-time van life & budget travel 

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  • Anyone who knows our story knows that we have been working throughout our entire travels. Seasonal / temporary work has afforded us a lifestyle filled with travel and adventure. ✈️

We have explored temp agencies, Craigslist ads, used websites like Airtasker (Australia) and Kijiji to find our temporary/seasonal jobs. But in the US specifically, there are some websites designed specifically for this type of work. 🌲

Here are 3 websites designed for seasonal work (mostly U.S. based):
1. Vagajobs: a resource for seasonal & year-round work with a heavy focus on travel/adventure jobs. Some jobs posted on Vagajobs include staff housing.
2. CoolWorks: job opportunities in great places - from national parks to ski resorts, summer camps, to national parks. Some jobs posted on CoolWorks include staff housing.
3. Occupation Wild: job board for the outdoor / adventure and travel industry. Hiring all sorts of positions at ranches, camps, resorts, conservation areas and national parks. 

Outside of the U.S.? Same (kinda). Our main go-to in Canada is Indeed (search by job type & select contract / seasonal)

Do you have any seasonal job boards to add to the list?
Drop ‘em here. ⬇️

➟ follow @nickandraychel // full-time van life & budget travel 

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  • If you’re in Ontario, you don’t want to miss this next year ✨ 

This was our first time visit the Hamilton night market and it was so worth the visit. Come along with us! @hhnightmarket 

Have you tried stinky tofu? ⬇️ 

—

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  • Shoutout to anyone who does these tiny (or big) builds on your own 🤦🏼‍♀️

We all have different strengths, right?… 

What’s your most dreaded part of DIY? ⬇️ 
_

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  • Saying goodbye is the hardest part about travelling.

We have said dozens and dozens of goodbyes throughout our 20s. We have met countless new faces, made a ton of connections, and have shed a lot of goodbye tears.

Even a visit ‘home’ comes with the looming feeling of saying goodbye again.

We wish we could take everyone we love and put them in our pocket.
But we know that everybody has a different dream, a different life. 

When we take our next flight or fill up the gas tank to our next stop on the road, they go off on to see the world for themselves, to raise their families, to chase their career goals, love lives, or whatever else.

And we are so stoked to be able to stay in touch online.
But it’s definitely the hardest part of living nomadically.

➟ follow @nickandraychel // full-time van life & budget travel 
__

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